“Well, you can go wait in the hallway first of all,” she said.
“You tell him, Jo,” one of the women yelled and they all laughed.
Yeah. So how was I going to do this? I thought back to how I’d dealt with Garm’s tattletales, because that’s how I didn’t want to do it.
“I’m here from Two Clem—,” I started.
Then the women erupted in boos and catcalls.
“Get out of here,” Tejj-jo said angrily. “Tell him to grow up.”
I thought for a moment as the women celebrated and Tejj-jo rejoined her friends. I walked to the door, closed it, locked it. Then turned around and faced them.
“I’m sorry, but I need to ask you other ladies to leave. I need to speak to Tejj-jo alone, please.”
The joviality stopped abruptly. Tejj-jo walked over to a table and picked up her tele.
“I don’t know who the hell you are or how you got in here, but you’re about to get thrown out on your head by my security.”
“They know I’m here and they can’t do anything about it. So put down your tele and just talk to me. If I wanted to hurt you, you’d have already been hurt. I’m just here to talk.”
“Then why did you lock the door?” she asked, skeptical.
“Well, because I didn’t want you all to run out,” I said. Which was true, because I couldn’t catch them—they had some damn long legs.
Several of the women laughed, they didn’t seem to be especially concerned.
“You picked the wrong party to crash, mister. Do you have any idea who each of us is dating?”
“Who?” I asked, at least thankful to be moving forward.
They paused. I suppose that was confidential. Clearly these were not wives, but mistresses. Still, I couldn’t go around bashing their noses without a lot of blowback.
“Well, let me tell you who I am. My name is Hank.” I waited for a response, but didn’t see one. “I’m not sure if you heard about those Dredel Led that came here. The robots. And how some guy destroyed them? I’m that guy.”
I walked up to the couches and saw they had lost a lot of their cool.
“I’ve worked for almost every boss on Belvaille, shot more people than I care to count, and I’m best pals with the Adjunct Overwatch. I’m bulletproof and I’ve withstood knives, bombs, fires, fists, lightning, and the angry attention of a Therezian—twice. Right now, I’m just here to talk to her,” I said, pointing at Tejj-jo.
The room was quiet.
“If you’re bulletproof, then you won’t mind being shot, right?” A woman took a couple steps towards me and held out the tiniest pistol in the galaxy. She might have concealed it inside her ear it was so small.
“Nat,” one of her friends warned.
“No, I do mind being shot. But if that’s what it will take to get this meeting…” I leaned towards the woman, putting my face mere inches from the weapon.
That little gun was more likely to hurt her hand than even hit me. It’s almost unconscionable to sell junk like that.
“Jo?” one of the women asked.
“Again, I’m not here to harm anyone,” I said, my face still near the gun.
The women were tense and you could almost see their minds flitting through an appropriate response. If these were truly gang molls, they had to know violence. A lovely face won’t protect you forever if you don’t have a survival instinct and an ability to adjust to new situations.
“It’s okay, guys,” Tejj-jo finally said.
The women slowly began to get up and move towards the door. The woman with the pistol, however, remained. I think she was uncertain how to get out of the situation.
I stood up straight and smiled.
“No hard feelings, miss.”
On shaky legs, the woman joined her companions at the door.
“Call us, Jo,” one of them said. “Let us know if you need anything.”
Then they warily left the apartment.
Tejj-jo sat on the couch, looking unperturbed. She really was quite a catch. She reminded me of Garm, just more glamorous, less twitchy, and considerably friendlier.
“Okay, what’s this about?” she asked.
I felt pretty silly about proceeding after all the theatrics.
“Um. Are you seeing anyone?”
“No, why?” she asked, eager to get on with it.
“No one? Like, it was just you and Two Clem?”
“Wait. Is that what this is about? He wants to know if I’m dating someone?”
“Or if you ever did. When you were going out.”
I couldn’t even look at her as I said it. It was just so ridiculous. He could have sent her a tele.
“He hired you to come over here in the middle of the night, the goon that punches Dredel Led, and ask me if I’m dating?”