Dresden 5 by Death Masks Read Free Book Online Page A

the gun I kept at home, a great big old Dirty Harry Callahan number that weighed about seventy-five thousand pounds. I also took out a length of silk rope about a yard long, and draped it over my neck so that I could get it off in a hurry if need be.
    I took the gun in both hands, pointed it at the floor, drew back the hammer, and asked the door, "Who is it?"
    There was a moment's silence and then a calm, male voice asked, "Is Susan Rodriguez there?"
    I glanced at Susan. She straightened more, her eyes flashing with anger, but she put the poker back in its stand beside the fireplace. Then she motioned to me and said, "Put it away. I know him."
    I uncocked the revolver, but I didn't put it away as Susan crossed to the door and opened it.
    The most bland-looking human being I had ever seen stood on the other side. He was maybe five nine, maybe one seventy-five. He had hair of medium brown, and eyes of the same ambiguous shade. He wore jeans, a medium-weight brown jacket, and worn tennis shoes. His face was unmemorable, neither appealing nor ugly. He didn't look particularly strong, or craven, or smart, or particularly anything else.
    "What are you doing here?" he asked Susan without preamble. His voice was like the rest of him-about as exciting as a W-2.
    Susan said, "I told you I was going to talk to him."
    "You could have used the phone," the man pointed out. "There's no point to this."
    "Hi," I said in a loud voice, and stepped up to my door. I towered over Blandman. And I had a great big gun in my hand, even if I did keep it pointed down at the floor. "I'm Harry Dresden."
    He looked me up and down and then looked at Susan.
    Susan sighed. "Harry, this is Martin."
    "Hi, Martin," I said. I switched my sidearm to my other hand and thrust mine at him. "Nice to meet you."
    Martin regarded my hand and then said, "I don't shake hands." That was evidently all the verbal interaction I merited, because he looked back at Susan and said, "We have to be up early."
    We? We?
    I looked at Susan, who flushed with embarrassment. She glared at Martin and then said to me, "I need to go, Harry. I wish I could have stayed longer."
    "Wait," I said.
    "I wish I could," she said. "I'll try to call you before we go."
    There was that we again. "Go? Susan-"
    "I'm sorry." She stood up on tiptoe and kissed my cheek, her too-warm lips soft. Then she left, brushing past Martin just hard enough to jostle him into taking a little step to keep his balance.
    Martin nodded to me and walked out too. After a minute I followed them, long enough to see them getting into a cab on the street outside.
    We.
    "Hell's bells," I muttered, and stalked back inside my house. I slammed the door behind me, lit a candle, stomped into my little bathroom, and turned on the shower. The water was only a couple degrees short of becoming sleet, but I stripped and got in anyway, simmering with several varieties of frustration.
    We.
    We, we, we. Which implied she and someone else together. Someone who was not me. Was she? Susan, with the Pedantic Avenger there? That didn't track. I mean, hell's bells, the guy was just so dull. Boring. Blase.
    And maybe stable.
    Face it, Harry. Interesting you might be. Exciting you might be. Stable you ain't.
    I pushed my head under the freezing water and left it there. Susan hadn't said they were together. Neither had he. I mean, that wouldn't be why she had broken off the kiss. She had a really good reason to do that, after all.
    But then again, it wasn't like we were together. She'd been gone for better than a year.
    A lot can change in a year.
    Her mouth hadn't. Or her hands. Or the curve of her body. Or the smoldering sensuality of her eyes. Or the soft sounds she made as she arched against me, her body begging me to-
    I looked down at myself, sighed, and turned the water to its coldest setting.
    I came out of the shower shriveled and turning blue, dried off, and got into bed.
    I had just managed to get the covers warm so that I could stop shivering