“Is your jaw broken?”
“I don’t think so. Help me up.”
“Maybe you should wait a few minutes…take it easy.”
I sat up. This time I was less dizzy. Kim pulled me wobbly-legged standing.
“Where’s my soda?”
“Here, right here.”
I grabbed the bottles and took short steps to keep upright. I walked down the hall, found the toilet, and rained vomit on floating cigarette butts. I made my way back to vice, got to my desk, and dug around for aspirin. I cracked open a soda and washed down the pills. I felt my teeth with my tongue-all there, one a little loose. How the fuck did Josephs get so fast?
Maggie came in wielding a fresh loaf, a chunk of cheese, and a hell-bent attitude. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
“You heard?”
“I just ran into Kim. He told me what happened.” She launched into a string of rants. “I can take care of myself…I don’t need you to protect me…I can fight my own battles…You’re not my father.” That last one hurt.
I hung my knotting head and took it all. Why did I go after Josephs like that? It was the way that asshole treated Maggie. It just set me off. You don’t treat women like that.
THIRTEEN
I walked through the alley entrance to the Lotus. Perfume and incense-scented aircon tickled my nose. I turned down the houseboy’s offer of a clean shirt and sent him off to get Rose. I needed to ask permission to see if our peeper witness was back. I’d be surprised if he was back so soon, but it was worth a check.
Rose sauntered out with gaudy makeup and a dress slit on one side, exposing some thigh. “My word, Juno. What happened to you?”
The bruise on the side of my face had already developed-purple on my brown skin. I’d gone home after the fight. The aspirin wasn’t strong enough. Niki went through her stash, picking out the best painkillers for me. She gave me an ice pack and left me napping on the sofa after some appreciated babying. I slept the afternoon and early evening away in a drugged euphoria.
I told Rose I got into a little scuffle.
She said, “You have to take it easy, Juno. Would you like to lie down?”
“No thanks, Rose. I’m fine.” My face didn’t hurt. I was still looped. “It okay if I head on up?”
“Sure.” She checked her watch. “They should be done in room two any minute now. Do you mind waiting a bit for them to come out?”
“No problem. Is it okay if I wait upstairs?”
“You go right ahead.”
I climbed up the back stairs and waited at the end of the hall. I sat on a frilly bench and watched the door to room two. The sounds of somebody’s good time came through the walls at high decibels. I probed my jaw, finding the tender spots. What the hell was I thinking attacking Josephs like that? I knew he might kick my ass. And now that he had, the whole police force knew he could kick my ass. What the hell good was an enforcer nobody was afraid of?
The door opened. Out came an offworlder-genetically engineered perfection. Every one of them an Adonis. He buttoned his last button, and his hair self-straightened-never seen that before. Lagartans were starving to death while these narcissistic bastards thought up ways to obsolete combs. Attached to his elbow was one of Rose’s hookers, wearing yellow satin with lacy edges. They giggled their way to the opposite stairs.
I went into fuck-chamber two and surprised a couple on the floor, he on his knees, she on all fours getting her throat checked by his Doctor Johnson. The scene reflected off the mirrored walls with hundredfold intensity. She startled at my entrance, then grinned and went back to work with renewed relish. My face burned red. She pulled her mouth free and said, “It’s okay, honey. You can watch.” Both of them had offworld-white skin, not Lagartan brown. Holograms-used to get the johns in the mood. Rose forgot to shut down the system.
My embarrassment turned to anger at being fooled. The holograms adjusted to my frame of mind. Leather, spikes, and chains faded in. He had a hold of her hair now, yanking her head back and forth with rough jerks. These weren’t the cheap holos we got with the phone system. These auto-adjusted to your emotions. The Orbital must have been charging Rose a hefty fee to have these images beamed down.
They sensed my lack of arousal and shifted into two women. The system was searching for that perfect image, the one that sent my blood gushing south. I walked through the scene, my legs momentarily disappearing under their sweaty flesh. I approached the window, pulled my piece, and climbed out onto the roof.
I beelined across the roof, heading straight for the peeper’s hideout-couldn’t see shit. Somebody dashed out of the shadows and vaulted over the wall, landing on the fire escape with a loud clang. The peeper’s feet clomped down the metal stairs.
I jogged to the fire escape and looked over the wall. He clunked his way to the bottom and sputtered down the alley. He chanced a look back to see if I was in pursuit. He was going to run right into Maggie who had stationed herself at the end of the alley. She held her weapon firm and called “Freeze!” He tried to stop, skidded, and fell on his ass with his hands up. “I got him, Juno! Come on down.”
I put one hand on the rusted fire escape rail, thought better of it, crossed the roof, and crawled back through the window. Houseboys were giving the room a makeover-fresh sheets, replacement candles. By the time I made it into the alley, Maggie had him on his knees, hands cuffed behind his back. He was just a kid.
I stood over him. “How old are you?”
He had to crane his neck back to look at me. He had a smirk on his pudgy face. Clean clothes stretched over his chunky body-kid had a home. “Fifteen,” he mumbled.
“What did you say?”
“Fifteen.” He said it louder this time.
“What’s your name?”
“Pedro Vargas.”
“Did you say Pervo Vargas? Who do you live with, Pervo?”
“My mother.”
“Where’s your father?”
“I don’t have a father.”
“Why’s that?”
“I just don’t. Okay?”
“What does your mother do?”
“She’s a waitress.”
“Is she working tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Does she know you’re a pervert?”
No answer.
“What’s she gonna think when she finds out her little piggy boy has grown up into a sexual deviant?”
“Fuck you.”
I slapped him across the face.
“You can’t do that! I’ll-” I slapped him again. He was 100 percent smirkless now. My heart kicked into high gear.
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“No.”
“That’s right, girls don’t go for pervs.” Another slap for good measure. “You have a boyfriend?”
“NO!” That struck a nerve. Remember that.
“Pedro the Homo.”
“NO! I like girls.”
