The Erection Set (30 page)

“Why is Tod looking at me like that?” she asked me.

“You're a walking orgasm, doll,” I said.

“To him or you?”

“Skin isn't new to me, sugar.” I told Tod and he looked back at his customers. “You're sure kicking him around.”

“Legs or tits?”

“All one big package, and he can only take a little bit at a time.”

“Which one first?”

“You mess with Tod and you'll get your face splashed up.”

“So I'll mess with you.”

“I can do worse.”

“Talk.”

“Look at me,” I said.

“I am.”

“Don't you know yet?”

“You must be kidding.”

“Sorry, baby. It's real. Watch it.”

Her smile came on so slowly it was like the sun rising. I watched her lift her drink and sip at it deliberately, with eyes so deeply blue it was incredible washing over me like a gentle, laughing waterfall.

“Tiger?”

“Of a sort. Just be careful. Even tigers can purr.”

“You're a mean one.”

“Don't go to too much trouble finding out,” I said.

“Somebody's been telling you lies, Dog.”

“Don't you think they'd waste their time trying that?”

“Would they?”

I nodded.

“How did Cross really get that crease on his head?”

“He probably told you the truth. I hit him with a rock. I was too young to do anything else. My baser instincts took over at the moment.”

“Oh, how he hates you.”

“Nuts. He hates the Barrins.”

“Only you're not a Barrin.”

“But I'm the one with the rock, remember?”

Sheila held her glass up and looked at the sunlight coming through the ice and the liquid. A spectrum of color danced across her face for a moment, then she put the glass down. “You know what he's going to do to you?”

“He's going to try,” I said.

“All the way.”

“That won't be enough,” I told her. I finished my drink and waved for Tod to bring me another. “Are you as pretty all the way naked as you are now?”

I watched her eyes change shape, then go back to their original oblongs and heard her laugh. “Prettier.”

“Hair color the same?”

“Identical.”

“Leggy?”

“All beautiful thighs right up to my whoosis, then down again.”

“Nipples sensitive?”

“See them pointing at you?” she smiled.

“Come fast?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Often?”

“Certainly.”

“Only when you're doing it to yourself?”

She twisted the glass in her hand and held it up again. The sun had gone down and there weren't any multicolored spectrums showing on her face now. “You really
are
a tiger, aren't you?”

“Want to find out?”

“No.”

“Better to just talk about it?”

“By far,” she said.

“We have a lot of talking to do, haven't we?”

Sheila finished her drink and set the glass down gently. Her eyes came up and smiled at me. “I think so,” she said.

“You know women pretty well, don't you?”

“I think so,” I said.

“Can we go someplace and talk?”

I put a bill on the bar and helped her into her jacket. Tod was looking at me as if I were in a cage and shook his head, then threw a wave as if he were giving up all hope and took the curse off with the kind of grin only one man can give to another. I grinned back and Sheila walked out ahead of me. When we reached the car she got in, sat there looking straight ahead a second, then said, “Somebody's got to lose.”

“Always,” I told her

She opened the buttons on my shirt down to my belt buckle and let the edges of her nails trace little lines of fire down my chest. “Like?” she asked me.

“Nice,” I said. Overhead, the moon was a thin crescent in the black of night, fuzzing out occasionally behind the cloud barrier. The dim glow of Linton outlined the turrets and the Moorish-looking left wing of the old beach house and when I looked back over my head I could see the corner of the widow's walk I had fallen from when I was six years old.

“You're not paying attention,” Sheila told me.

“I'm enjoying myself,” I said.

“Men are supposed to be aggressive.”

“When the need arises.”

“I felt you. You have arisen.”

“Sheila, I think you have penis envy.”

“Weren't we going to talk?”

I reached over and ran my hand down her leg. I could feel the muscles tighten under my fingers, then relax as if somebody had pulled down the handle on a rheostat. Her fingers on my chest stopped a minute, then started the tracing action again and ran under my belt, but it was still mechanical and forced, an actress on stage doing her part the way the script called for.

“What's Cross doing?” I asked.

The tips of her nails dug in just a little bit before they softened. She didn't even know what had happened. “Working. He's a very dedicated person when it comes to business.”

I took my hand away and put it back under my head. Her fingers started teasing again and she rolled onto her stomach to look down at my face. “He should be home dedicating himself to you,” I said.

“We've been married quite a long time.” Her fingers tugged at my belt buckle and opened it. “I was seventeen on my wedding day.”

“What difference does that make? You should improve with age.”

“Perhaps if there were a difference, I could explain it. Indifference is the trouble. I told you he was a dedicated man.”

“You love him?”

“By all means.”

“And he loves you?”

“Yes. Certainly. But there are things other than love, aren't there?”

She was propped on one elbow, her chin in her hand. I eased my arm down and ran my fingers in the naked valley between her breasts. I felt the muscular tic run across her shoulders and the fingers at my belt twitched slightly and become motionless. I patted her cheek gently and put my hand back under my head. The fingers started in again. This time the snap popped loose and she pulled the zipper down halfway, then started rubbing soft circles into my belly.

“What things?” I asked her.

Now the soft circles widened and deepened and the fingertips were delicate feathers searching, finding and barely touching. “Understanding, for one thing.” She squeezed gently and her breath caught in her throat. “You understand,” she stated.

“Sometimes you have to tell them, Sheila.”

Her hand paused and her eyes lifted to stare into the darkness. “I ... can't.”

“Why not?”

“Because there's nothing to say.” She looked back at me again and I knew she was smiling. “I'd like to hit you with a big stick,” she said. “You know too damn much.” Her fingers squeezed again, deliberately hard and my breath hissed in between my teeth. “You're awfully ready, aren't you?”

“Obvious, isn't it?”

“Really ready?”

“Really,” I told her.

“Let's find out,” she said, and I lost her in the darkness. only the outline of her hair moving with the fluid motion of the waves that were breaking in the background, each roller seeming to come in with greater force until the tidal inundation swept up and over me in a thunderous crescendo and then the crescent moon fell back into place among the clouds and she was smiling down at me again.

“Nice?”

“Beautiful,” I said. “Nice?”

“Lovely,” she told me. She did all the little things and finished with the buttons on my shirt, then stood up, reached out her hand and pulled me to my feet. “Can I ask you something now?”

“Go ahead.”

“Why did you want to see me?”

“You invited me to, remember?”

“Don't hedge.”

I dug cigarettes out, gave her one and lit them. “I was going to see if I could get anything out of you about your husband's plot to grab Barrin.”

“Change your mind?”

“Nope. Just my approach. I should have simply asked, right?”

“The answer would be the same,” she said. “He wants Barrin. It's not just a toy like the other organizations he controls, it's a project.” She took my hand and we started down toward the water to skirt the edge back to the path. “It's a hangover from when your grandfather was alive. Cross was determined to be the biggest and Cameron Barrin was the only obstacle he had to hurdle. Poor Cross, he never could make it. That old man tripped him up every time he tried to move.”

“Now he thinks he has it made?”

“Well, he's gloating. I've seen him do it before and when he gloats it means he's won.”

For a minute we just walked, kicking at the sand. We reached the path and turned up toward the dunes. I said, “What's he going to do with it if he gets it?”

“Have you ever seen a company raided, Dog?”

I nodded and helped her over a grassy mound of sand.

“He says it won't matter because there's nothing left to salvage anyway. He's looking to the future when everything here can be his to do with as he likes.”

“Then he can't be very happy,” I said.

She stopped and looked up at me. “You know about the beach being sold?”

“Somebody in the family bought it, I understand.”

“That somebody could be in trouble if there's any way at all to do it. He'll spend everything he has to get his hands on the Barrin property.”

“Hasn't he got enough now?”

“Until he has it all, he'll never have enough. I told you, Cross is dedicated.”

“Too bad.”

“Why?”

“Guys like that ache pretty bad when they can't get the things they want.”

She caught the inflection in my voice and I felt that shudder run up her arm again. “Some things are just impossible,” she said.

“Not if you think about it. Now suppose I ask you something.”

“I'm all ears.”

“Why did you bother seeing me?”

“There was something I wanted to find out about you.”

“Did you?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry?”

“No guilt complex, Mr. Kelly. My curiosity has always led me into odd situations.”

“It can get you into trouble.”

“That I found out a long time ago.”

I was going to say something, decided not to and steered her toward the end of the path. When we reached the car I held the door open and she got in. She had a pixie tilt to her eyes and she was smiling again. I got behind the wheel and turned the key.

“Are you taking me back to my car?”

“You've had your curiosity satisfied for one night, doll. Besides, I have a conference to attend.” I looked at my watch and it was a little after nine. “My cousins are finishing their meeting in thirty minutes. Then it's my turn.”

“Dog...”

“Uh-huh?”

“We had a very interesting evening. Will you ever see me again?”

“Indubitably, kitten.”

“Even if Cross wants to kill you?”

“He'll have to stand in line,” I said.

 

Hobis and The Chopper hadn't had any trouble since they took up the stakeout. Three hours ago Hobis had reported that he thought there was a surveillance on Lee's apartment but didn't want to expose the setup by checking it out. I passed the word for him to get in somebody else if he wanted to assign a tail to be sure of it, but for him to hold his position.

My man at the other end said it would be done, coughed and lapsed back into French again. “I've had a call from the Continent.”

“So?”

“Pierre Dumont was shot just outside Marseilles.”

“Bad?”

“Superficial wound in the leg, but O'Keefe is sending him back. That shipment apparently was bigger than anyone realized. Every possibility is being covered and the city is a focal point for every assassin that can be bought.”

“Don't write me a story. Just tell me what the scoop is.”

“Pardon?”

“Just tell it.”

“I see. Yes. Le Fleur has posted a ... a ... how do you say it?”

“Reward?”

“Exactly. The shipment is worth approximately seventy million in street money. The loss cannot be tolerated. The government has confiscated the last two and this one was to make up the deficit. There are some stories circulating that it has already gone out.”

“To whom?” I asked him.

He coughed again and was hesitant with his answer. “To you,” was all he said.

“Somebody's got their wires crossed.”

“I have been advised that we should sever all connections.”

“You've been advised wrong, my friend. Just don't cross any of my wires.”

“It isn't like ... before, Mr. Kelly.”

“Nothing has changed at all, old buddy. You're getting your fat deposits in the bank and let it stand just like that. I don't like this shit any more than you do, but when the heat's on, don't try ducking out or you're the one who's liable to be caught in the middle.”

“Mr. Kelly ... it isn't just me.”

“Take your pick then ... which one are you afraid of the most?”

“Sir?”

“You got the picture,” I said. “Now I'm going to add to it. You know the Guido brothers?”