This is the End 2(5)

“Two months’ worth of foliage for my property size,” I said. “That’s my price.”

He frowned. “I live in a condo, Sergeant Avalon. I don’t have a roof, just a little garden on my porch, and some kudzu in the bathroom. I could pay you the equivalent amount in credits.”

“No deal. If you can’t get the foliage, you can come up here once a week and work my roof.”

A fair compromise. He came here to get a little trim. Why not give a little trim back?

“Done. When can we do this?”

“Now is good.”

“Now. Excellent. I’ll go get dressed.” He turned to leave, then turned right back around. “Thank you, Sergeant.”

I shrugged. “Meet you out in front in ten.”

Neil disappeared. I gave my little pot thief one more glance. “If you feel like dropping dead, please go next door to Chomsky’s roof.”

The raccoon’s mouth was full, his cheeks puffed out with weed, but he probably wouldn’t have replied anyway.





TWO



Victoria was in a red silk kimono one shade lighter than her hair, and even though we’d been married for three years and had known each other for five, the sight of her still took my breath away. She was beautiful, sure. And it was natural beauty, not surgically enhanced. But the thing that drew me and countless others to her was how she radiated life. Vicki had something beneath her superficial looks, something she exuded that made you want to be near her. Charisma times ten. And it had nothing to do with her being one of the last real redheads in the country.

I walked to her in the kitchen, where she was at the sink, peeling the potatoes I’d dug up earlier, setting the skins aside. I came up from behind and wrapped my arms around her.

“You’re going to help him?” she asked, dropping the spud and squeezing my forearms.

“Yeah. He agreed to do our foliage for two months.”

“You’re the last of the nice guys, Talon.”

I considered nuzzling her neck, but figured it had been nuzzled only a few minutes prior. The thought made my arms tense up.

“I didn’t mean to bring him over while you were home.” Victoria must have sensed my mood swing. She was good at reading people. “But the reason he wanted to see me is because he wanted to see you. He tried your office first. You weren’t there, so he made an appointment.”

“So you guys didn’t…”

“Of course we did. He’s a regular client, obviously very upset. I did my best to relax him.”

I kept the jealousy down. I had no right to judge her. Victoria kept her relationship with her clients businesslike and professional. No kissing. Always protection. And since she married me, she drastically reduced her schedule. Women of her attributes could have been making four times the amount she did, but she worked only two days a week, and picked days when I was at work so I wouldn’t have to see or hear anything that might make me go on a Tasing expedition.

Besides, the only reason I knew Victoria in the first place was because I was a former client.

“Kiss me,” I said.

She turned, my arms still around her. Her green eyes were wide, her pupils huge.

“Sometimes I think that’s the only reason you married me, Talon. Because you knew how much I wanted to kiss you.”

“That, and it was cheaper to marry you than keep hiring you.”

We kissed, and it tasted just as fresh and new as it did that very first time, at our wedding ceremony. Victoria had been extremely rigid on that no-kissing policy.

I nibbled her lower lip, dropping my mouth to her neck, and she leaned slightly back.

“I’ve got another client coming in twenty minutes. I doubled up today so I could have tomorrow off. I got us space elevator tickets. How does a day in low-earth orbit sound?”

Unfortunately, my alpha-male mind didn’t zero in on the extra day I’d have her to myself.

“Who’s the client?”

“Barney. The dentist.”

“I hate that guy.”

“He’s a harmless old man.”

I knew I shouldn’t go there, but there I went. “Quit,” I told her.

She pushed me away. “Don’t start. We have bills, Talon.”

“We can move someplace cheaper.”

“I like Chicago. I like our big house.”

“You’re not the one who does the gardening for a property this big.”

“I thought Neil was doing it.”

“For two months. Then it’s back to me.”

Her eyes flashed challenge. “If you hate it so much, we can hire someone. I’ll take on an extra client to pay for it.”

“Boise, Idaho, is nice,” I managed to say through clenched teeth. “Let’s move to Boise. We could each get normal jobs. Maybe we could farm. There’s still affordable land out there. Buy four acres and raise blue-green algae. There’s a new strain that’s almost sixty-five percent lipid.”