management.” She probably had her fingers crossed under the table when she made the last statement, but I wasn’t worried a bit about it.
S.C. finally found his voice someplace under his mottled chin. “Are you mad, Sharon? We haven’t even got a working script yet. The budget isn’t ...”
Sharon’s smile had a dagger in it. “You haven’t signed the contract with Walt yet, either. And since you expect me to put my virtue on the mattress for your gigantic production, the least you could do is humor me.”
“Humor you!”
“Exactly, or Walt cancels the deal. It’s as simple as that.”
Cable suppressed a choking cough and looked at Walt again. When he saw the affirmative nod he turned to me. “Are you the instigator of this... this ...”
“Don’t look at me,” I told him. “I’m only going along with the idea. Frankly, it sounds pretty realistic... if you like realism... and I’m in a position to push for that management cooperation Sharon mentioned. I read the book and as far as the Barrin factory in Linton is concerned, that place has everything you need including the historical details. In fact, some of the truths about that place would goose your story up a little.”
“This is blackmail,” Cable said. “It’s illegal.”
“So is assigning women to perform an immoral act for profitable purposes,” Sharon purred.
“You’re fired,” S. C. Cable said.
“You’re hired,” Walt Gentry told her. “The project is now in your hands.”
Cable looked at me helplessly. “See how they trap you? Business ethics mean nothing. A deal is only words. You try ...”
“Nobody called the deal off yet,” I reminded him. “Looks like your move now.”
“Shit,” Cable said, “so well look over the factory. So if it’s okay, why not? Any more problems?” He looked around and nobody said anything at all. “Can I hire this broad back? I can’t afford to let her go working for anybody else.”
“We’ll talk about my raise later,” Sharon said.
“Oh, boy. I’m broke before I start,” Cable moaned. “Now let’s eat while I still got an appetite.”
Under the table I gave Sharon’s hand a squeeze. My finger felt the funny little ring on hers. When she realized I was touching it she looked at me with a quiet smile and eased her hand away.
She had left the sleek business facade back at the restaurant. The hard maturity, the total awareness the city seems to nurture to a peak was gone now. The velvet claws that could bend the business giants with a single soft silken scratch were sheathed. She had unfastened a golden pin so that her hair could swirl around her face and had changed from the black chiffon into tight little short shorts and an even tighter halter that form-fitted into every crevice and curve of her body. The little girl was back, but the woman was still there and it made me uncomfortable to look at her.
There was that strange something about her. Purpose. Call it purpose. Then again, all females were dedicated to something or other. Sharon saw the way I was looking at her and smiled, a cute little feline smile that made me want to lay my hands on her and squeeze a little bit. But even little felines could bite back and I had just seen her nip two of them.
“What made you pull that off, kitten?”
She crossed the room and turned down the volume on the record player, then brought me my coffee. “I don’t know. Maybe I was just thinking ... well, Linton was my home too. It might be nice to see something good happen there again.”
“What do you figure the rental for the site will be?”
Her shrug was a little wistful. “Not all that much, really. What I had in mind was some of the other locations. There are people who can use the money a lot more than the Barrin clan.”
“You’re a sentimental do-gooder,” I told her. “I thought you hated that place?”
“I guess I did. Seeing the beach and my old house... well, a little nostalgia set in. Did I do wrong?”
“How much do you figure the company will drop in the town?”
“They won’t budget less than five million. At least two will go directly into the economy of Linton for housing, subsistence, rentals and all the other details.”
I let out a little laugh. “Those cousins of mine are going to be obligated to take the deal if they want to retain their public-spirited image.”
“You think there’ll be any trouble?” she asked me.
“Trouble, but no difficulty. Not from them, kitten. If there’s any roadblocks they’ll come from another angle.”
“Cross McMillan?”
“That slob won’t cooperate with the Barrins to wipe his own tail,” I said.
Sharon refilled her coffee cup and smiled. “But he’ll cooperate with Walt.”
“What makes you think so?”
“Because the handsome young bachelor prince owns a big chunk of McMillan holdings and that cute little-boy smile of his holds a mouthful of tiger teeth. No, Cross won’t buck Walt, and Walt won’t buck me.”
“Nice,” I said.
“Or you, Dog. Walt thinks you’re a real cobra.”
“Oh?”
“I think you are too.” She put her coffee down and came over and sat beside me. “You’re a snake, my friend. You don’t hiss and you don’t rattle. I haven’t decided if you’re a constrictor or venomous. I’m wondering what it would cost me to find out.”
“Some one of these days you’re going to lay your virginity on the line and I’m going to pop it, kid.” I looked at her and let her see a face full of teeth. Getting played with by a slippery, beautiful blonde wasn’t my idea of fun when there wasn’t sand around to make up some friction.
“Keep talking, Dog.”
I handed her my cup and stood up. “Screw you, little girl, I’m not all that moral. I wish I knew your fiance. I’d slam him on his ass and make him marry you just to take a walking land mine out of circulation. I heard you put down that lover boy ... what’s his name?”
“Raul?”
“Yeah. Just don’t give
“Dog,” she said softly.
“What?”
“You love me?”
“Hell no.”
“You bastard.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
I grinned at her and slipped into my coat. “You love me, kid?”
“Certainly,” she said matter-of-factly.
“A terrible affliction I infect all the women with,” I said.
“You really are a bastard, Dog.” She smiled back at me, her teeth white and shiny.
“A cobra, remember?”
Next to the Ormin Hotel, the shattered remains of a row of tenements gaped out at the street, windows smashed, the frames smoke blackened and whole areas of brickwork crumpled in a miniature landslide to the sidewalk. Somehow one building still stood between the ruins and the hotel and a lone figure curled in the shadow of the stoop.
