Page 29 of A Wolf After My Own Heart
“I’mnot.” She withdrew body parts: legs, arm, torso. “Same family! We might have a serial killer on our hands.”
“Those are bear parts,” he said, staring down at her work table.
“Teddy bear parts,” she corrected, logging the package into her system. “But it’s all fine. The doctor is in.” She looked up at him. “At least his dad didn’t run the thing over with the lawn mower this time.Thattook forever to fix.”
“Oh, Christ. You scared the hell out of me.” Oz poked gingerly at one of the pieces. “This is what you do?”
“This is what I do.”
“Not gonna lie, I’m relieved.”
“Setting your mind at ease is what I live for.”
“This issocool.”
She had to laugh. “You’re pretty easily impressed.”
“Naw,” he replied seriously. “Not really. Hungry?”
“Starved,” she answered at once, and was surprised to discover it was true. “C’mon, expense account guy. Time to knock my socks off with some comped appetizers.”
* * *
“So you work in a brewery that doesn’t brew and you drive an ambulance that doesn’t…”
“Ambulate?”
“And you’re a surgeon for teddy bears.”
“Stop making it sound out of the ordinary.”
That’s you in a nutshell,Oz thought.If I had to pick a phrase that described you without going into your essential hotness: out of the ordinary.
“Also, you’re a snoop.”
“It’s in the job description,” he protested.
“Your job? Show me the part of your hiring package that laid out where you’d have to walk into an office that isn’t yours over to a desk that isn’t yours to read mail that isn’t yours.”
Not that she minded. There was nothing on that desk that could hurt her, nothing that could be traced to her past. She’d never shit in her own nest. But still.
The principle of the thing.
Or something.
The waitress’s timely arrival put paid to the brewing argument, and Lila briefly considered ignoring Garsea’s advice and getting the salad. But who would that punish, exactly? And the red wine–braised duck leg sounded way better than spite salad.
“So kids must really love you, huh?”
Surprised, she almost knocked over her ginger-lime rickey. “Why d’you say that?”
“Well. I mean… You fix up their toys.” Oz mimed sewing. Or picking fleas off his napkin…tough to be sure… “And then you give ’em back. You must be like a rock star to them.”
“No. I don’t meet them or anything. I don’t interact. Their folks ship me the remains, I fix ’em and send ’em back. It’s just a job.”
“Well, Sally sure took a shine to you.”
Here we go.“Sally’s options that night were limited,” she pointed out. “She would have taken a shine to anyone who could have gotten her out of that alley and stuffed her with honey and pizza.”
