Dragonfly Bones by David Cole Read Free Book Online Page B

scratched her left ear, slowly, languidly, gave a big yawn showing her yellowed teeth, and settled into rest mode.
    â€œSee a vet,” Don said. “Get your dog’s teeth scraped.”
    A tail whacked at his leg. He reached down to rub Sunset’s muzzle. She let him, but I wasn’t giving off the right vibes, so she didn’t give her affection yet.
    â€œHere’s the deal,” Don said.
    â€œI haven’t accepted any deal.”
    â€œIf you do, no coming to the office.”
    â€œGet this over, Don. What’s the hook? What’s the real hook?”
    He scratched Sunset’s nose, rubbed the back of his hand gently back and forth across her nose, and scratched under her jaw until Sunset dropped her head next to the metal platforms holding Don’s feet.
    â€œYou know who the client is,” I said. “Don’t you.”
    â€œCan’t tell you that.”
    â€œIt’s somebody I’ve worked with before?”
    â€œIn a way.”
    â€œWhat if I don’t want the contract?”
    â€œYou just don’t.”
    â€œBut I’m going to lose out on something, right?” He shrugged. “What?”
    Don folded his hands in his lap. Looked me in the eye. Said nothing more. Knew that was the only way to really bait the hook, to get me back. I had no reason at all to want to go back to hacking, other than occasional, small-time jobs where I had absolutely no contact with the client.
    I had bank accounts totaling in the high six figures. All cash. I got steady, monthly, large payments from the company, wired electronically and randomly to one of those bank accounts. I didn’t need money. I didn’t even think I needed to be juiced by the game. A good part of me never wanted to be juiced again. In four years, four contracts had ended with at least one person dead. Several of them right in front of my eyes. I’d shot people. Although I now owned several handguns, I never wanted to shoot anybody again unless my life depended on it.
    â€œShe asked for you, Laura.”
    â€œOh, you bastard,” I said.
    But he’d set the hook. I thought about all those packed cardboard boxes, stacked haphazardly, waiting to be taped up or flung into a dumpster. I went inside the house, got a plate of green grapes, brought them out. Don shook his head.I ate fifteen grapes. I got up again, went inside again, went from room to room, looking at all I possessed, all I wanted to throw away, all I wanted to change.
    â€œI’d be working only with you?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œPass.”
    â€œNot working in the office,” he said. “That’s what I meant. I’m in the office. I’m too tired to get out, you know that.”
    â€œSo. By myself, then.”
    â€œDidn’t say that, either.”
    â€œYou know I don’t like working with strangers.”
    â€œI vouch for him.”
    â€œOh, gee, Don.”
    â€œHe’s been working with me for three months. He’s part of the package.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œUsed to work for the Arizona Prison CIU. Investigator. He knows the different complexes. He knows Florence. Use to work up there.”
    â€œPass.”
    â€œHe’s also a U.S. Marshal. Nathan Brittles.”
    â€œYou gotta be kidding me,” I said.
    â€œYou know him?”
    â€œJohn Wayne. Played somebody named Brittles. Cavalry officer. I can’t remember which film.”
    â€œWell, this guy’s legit. I checked him out.”
    â€œBrittles,” I said to myself.
    â€œGood man. He just doesn’t know computers.”
    â€œWhy does he work for you?”
    â€œHe knows security.”
    Rich came through the front door just at that moment, stopped dead still when he saw me. I’d never talked about Don, never talked about computers or the Internet or hacking or my friend Meg’s kidnapping or all those people I’dwatched die. He smiled his gentle smile, came