Part 26 (1/2)
”Come from your boss, Chester Bane. He order. He pay.” She shoved the box into his hands and grinned as his stomach growled. ”He say I give you message, too. He say you should answer your d.a.m.ned e-mail.”
”Pepperoni, sausage, olives, tomatoes, mushrooms, green pepper, and double cheese; your boss knows how to order a pizza.”
Jack pulled a slice from the box and bit off the tip with obvious enjoyment. ”None of this good-for-you broccoli c.r.a.p.”
”Personally, I could have done without the olives,” Leah muttered, flicking a piece off her slice.
There was always someone who b.i.t.c.hed about the toppings, Tony reflected as he chewed. It was practically a requirement of pizza eating. Three people in the group, one person b.i.t.c.hed. Five to seven people, two b.i.t.c.hing. Unless there were anchovies, and then everyone but one person b.i.t.c.hed, regardless of numbers. Of course, in this particular group, the stats were kind of skewed...
”You not having any, Fitzroy?”
”No, thanks. I ate before I came.”
Jack shrugged and took another piece. ”Great. More for me. Where are you going?”
Barely two steps away from the chaise, Henry turned and smiled at Jack. ”Why?”
”Because, I think, given all the weird s.h.i.+t going down...” Jack paused to wipe a bit of grease off his chin. ”... that if we're going to work together, we shouldn't leave each other in the dark about what's going on.”
”Fair enough. I'm going out to the office.”
”Why? There's no one there.”
Henry's smile grew a little edged. Tony shuffled back just far enough to be out of the line of fire-just in case. Better Jack caught that look than him. ”Television people,” Henry explained pointedly, ”don't keep the same hours as mere mortals. There's probably a few people still working on post-production...”
Post? Tony stiffened.
”... and Chester Bane never leaves his office before midnight.”
”You and Mr. Bane friends?”
”We've dined together a few times.”
”Son of a b.i.t.c.h!” Tony tossed aside his crust and clawed at the hot cheese and pizza sauce that had slid off it and onto his crotch. By the time he finished sc.r.a.ping and swearing, Henry was gone.
Just as well. Not like I was going to call him on making stupid vampire double entendres in front of Jack. He took another handful of napkins from Leah-who had almost stopped laughing-and scrubbed at the denim.
”You guys have some issues,” Jack snorted.
Tony s.n.a.t.c.hed the last piece of pizza out from under his hand. ”Do not.” Great. Even straight Mounties were noticing.
”Uh-huh. So why here?”
”Why not here?” Leah wondered. ”They have issues everywhere else.” ”No, why are we waiting here?” Jack's gesture took in the immediate area, empty but for two folding chairs, food debris, and the chaise he shared with Leah. ”There's a lot more comfortable places to wait in this soundstage, so why specifically here?”
”I did a spell here,” Tony told him, gesturing with the pizza crust. ”A big one. It left a mark.”
”What kind of spell?”
”I'm not sure.” Teeth slightly clenched, half a shrug-Tony was a very good liar. ”I screwed it up.”
”It had something to do with the ceiling?”
Had he looked up? He didn't remember looking up. ”Yeah. It had something to do with the ceiling. But the rest is cla.s.sified. If I told you, I'd have to turn you into a frog.”
”You can do that?”
He swallowed and smiled. ”I could try.”
Jack shook his head, but what exactly he was denying wasn't clear. ”Like I said to your friend Fitzroy, I don't think we should be keeping secrets.”
”Is this a police thing; asking so many questions?” Leah leaned in. Tony figured she'd suddenly remembered she had a few secrets of her own. ”Or are you naturally so curious?”
No sign of Ryne Cyratane, so at least Jack had a fighting chance, but Leah on her own, being intense and interested and brus.h.i.+ng b.r.e.a.s.t.s against bicep, was enough to attract male attention.
She attracted Jack's. He probably wasn't even aware he'd straightened his shoulders. ”It's what cops do, ask questions.”
And spout bad cop show dialogue.
Tony cleaned up while they flirted and tried not to think about what was happening in the boss' office. Figures. The one time I could use a little e-mail distraction from a psychotic eight-year-old, I'd never get an uplink. Even if he had a cable, there wasn't a phone jack on this side of the soundstage.
”I was thinking.”
Since he'd gotten used to Henry suddenly appearing by his side years ago, Tony enjoyed Jack and Leah's reaction.
”Wasn't your original plan to find the weak points between this world and the h.e.l.ls...” Four-hundred-and-sixty-odd years of Catholicism gave him a little trouble with the plural. ”... and have Tony close them before they open and expel a demon?”
”Where the h.e.l.l did you come from?”
”The original plan?” Henry repeated pointedly to Leah, ignoring Jack's question.
”Yes, that was the original plan. So?”
”So I'm not sure we shouldn't return to it.”
”h.e.l.lo!” The eye roll was dramatic. ”What happened to hunker down, protect Leah, and save the world? I'm not going on walkabout across the lower mainland if demons are coming after me personally.”
”Hang on,” Jack interrupted. ”Why are the demons coming after you?” Tony reviewed various meetings in CB's office and realized that only he and Henry knew Leah was anything more than a stuntwoman who did demonology as a sideline. CB and Kevin Groves knew demons were coming after her, but Jack, his partner, Amy, Zev, and Lee knew only the basics of the Demonic Convergence. f.u.c.k this; I need a scorecard!
”Maybe they want my recipe for goat cheese pizza,” Leah snapped. ”Duh! They're trying to kill me!”
”Why are they trying to kill you?” Jack was using his ”don't even try to bulls.h.i.+t me” voice now. Interestingly enough, it worked.
”Because I know things and that makes me a threat.”
”How do they know you know things?”
”What difference does it make?”
Jack sighed, ran a hand up through his hair, and took a moment to get comfortable on his end of the chaise. ”Until you jokers listen, I'm going to keep repeating that, under the circ.u.mstances, I don't think we should keep secrets from each other.”