Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology (16 page)

“
A pseudonym,
just one name: Dallas.”

“
But your real
name is Dallas?”

“
Actually, it's
Debbie.”

Gordy raised an
eyebrow. “Your last name isn't Jackson, is it?”

“
Nope. Oh,
right. That made me laugh.”

“
I apologize for
using it that way.”

“
Oh, no problem.
She's like a lot of characters in my books.”

“
Skanky?”

“
Not that so
much, just sexual and a bit trampy.”

“
Oh, wait; I just
remembered something else, and I think I owe you another apology.”

“
For what?”

“
For my joke
about the batteries.”

“
Oh,” she
said, laughing her deep belly laugh, “not a problem at all. I
use them all the time.”

“
You mean in your
books?”

“
Oh, there, too,”
she said, smiling.

“
Oh,” was
all Gordy could come up with.

“
Really, no prob-
– oh, am I embarrassing you?”

“
No, no, no –
well, maybe a little bit.”

“
You haven't met
too many women who are so open about sex, have you?”

“
Uh, I –
not really.”

“
Well, I have to
be to write about it. And I could tell from your sex scenes that you
were a little embarrassed about writing them.”

“
I – well,
I was thinking about my target audience.”

“
For the
political stuff?”

“
Sort of, but
also the older folks down here. Average age, average temperature,
same number.”

“
You did tone the
sex down a lot more than I would have.”

“
I did?”

“
Yeah, like in
the shower scene, after Jake joined Pam in the shower, you just
wrote, 'A minute later, he joined her in the shower.'”

“
Well, it was
sorta obvious what was going on, wasn't it?”

“
Yeah, shower
sex.”

“
So the reader
could fill in the blanks … at least the ones with some
imagination, right?”

“
Yeah. But if I
were writing that, I'd have written something like this: 'She looked
deeply into his eyes and saw his intense desire. Then, glancing
down, she gently but firmly grasped his swollen, throbbing member and
guided it into her quivering, quavering moistness, thrilling to the
electric ecstasy that convulsed her entire body. Pulling him deeper
and deeper into the very depths of her being, she'” --

“
Wait, wait,
Dallas. Where'd you come up with that?”

“
Ah, it's just
boilerplate. It's in our writer's guide.”

“
You have a
writer's guide?”

“
Of course.
That's why all romance novels sound the same. In fact, if an author
deviates too far from the guide, the Board punishes her severely.
They usually demote the deviators to writing clopfic.”

“
To writing –
wait, what? You have a board?”

“
Of course, and
with a capital B, Board, the Board Of Romance Novelists. You've
never heard of it?”

“
No, never.”

“
Ever heard the
phrase 'born writer'?”

“
Of course.”

“
Well, that's
actually 'BORN writer.'”

“
What's the
difference?”

“
Oh, right; ears.
It's all caps.”

“
Uh – um –
oh; got it.”

“
Don't you guys
have a board?”

“
I have no idea.
I just started writing and kept at it until it was done.”

“
Wow. No Board.
Hard to believe,” Dallas muttered, shaking her head and rolling
her eyes. Then, apparently talking more to herself than to Gordy,
she whispered, “Oh, what freedom! How I wish I – sorry,
Gordy; never mind.”

“
Hmm. Wonder if”
– he paused.

“
Wonder if what?”

“
Just thinking
out loud. Maybe later.”

“
Okay. But I
have a question about your plot.”

“
Sure. Shoot.”

“
Did Pam and JJ
and Jake actually have their three-way?”

Gordy smiled
enigmatically. “Writer to writer, I deliberately left that
open.”

“
Kind of a
tease?”

“
Sorta, yeah.
But mainly it was because I wasn't sure I could even write a scene
like that, and I wasn't sure if my target audience could handle it.
Maybe I could put one in the sequel.”

“
Oh, it's a piece
of cake to write those kinds of scenes; I've done hundreds of 'em.
And just between you and me, a lot of those don't use the BORN
boilerplates, so I can't even publish them.”

“
Oh, too bad.”

“
Yeah. Some of
'em are so good, anybody reading 'em should go into an almost
immediate orgasm – well, any woman, at least.”

“
Really?”

“
Really. Wanna
read one?”

“
Sure. When?”

“
Now, if you want
to. I always carry a few with me, just to do some editing when I
can.”

“
I'd love to, and
now is fine; I'm here for the day, got some people coming by about
3:30, but other than that, I'm clear.”

“
And I'm good for
half an hour; got an appointment at noon.”

“
Oh, geez; I'm
sorry. You want to sit down? I should have asked you sooner.”

“
Sure, and no
problem.”

She flipped her beach
chair open and set it down beside his lounge, near his feet, facing
him. “Is here okay?”

“
Perfect.”

“
Okay. Lemme
see.” She pulled a thick folder out of her bag and thumbed
through the papers inside.

“
Ah, here's one.
It's a three-way, one guy, two girls. Try that.” She handed
it to Gordy with a sly smile, and he lay back and started reading.

- 41 -

November
18, 2012
1:06
p.m. local time
Auckland,
New Zealand

She picked up the
satphone and heard an electronically distorted voice on the other
end.

“
Congratulations,
Kim Li. Amber tells me you and Derek did an exceptional job in
Malaysia.”

“
Thank you, sir.”

“
And I heard it
was your knowledge of the culture that helped in pointing the
investigators, press and all the triads just where the client wanted
them looking.”

“
I guess so,
sir.”

“
You guess so?”

“
No, I – I
mean yes, sir, it was.”

“
Using the I
Ching was a brilliant stroke. Was that your idea?”

“
Yes, sir, but
only after Derek messed up and broke one of the chopsticks while he
was poking it into his ear. I suggested that he break one of the
four in the eyes and nostrils, too. So instead of just six possible
hexagrams, that multiplied it to fifteen. I'll bet that'll keep
everybody over there confused for a long time.”

“
And you and
Derek got away clean, of course.”

“
Of course. The
guns and silencers we used on the bodyguards will tie back to gang
executions by another triad when they're found. We dropped them near
the bodies right after we hit the target and dragged his body into
the van for the chopsticks and the carving and the final dropoff.
Took the van back to the parking lot of the restaurant; I don't think
they'll even know it was gone for two hours.

“
And the
documents Lolli produced got us out of the country with no problems,
so Derek and I are having a quick holiday here before he goes back to
his husband in Charlotte and I go on to Perth. And I'd like it if
you'd give half my fee to Lolli; she did a super rush job.”

“
Ah, you don't
need to do that, Kim Li; she's well compensated.”

“
Everybody can
use an extra five mil. And I certainly don't need it.”

“
Tell you what.
I'll ask her if she's okay with that, and if she is, which I doubt,
we'll do that for you. But if not, you could give it to some
charity, like maybe a micro-loan program somewhere.”

“
Okay. But let
me know when you've got another job for me, maybe something trickier,
more challenging?”

“
I'll keep you in
mind. But keep checking the web site, too.”

“
Roger that,
sir.”

“
And enjoy your
holiday in Perth.”

“
Right-oh, mate.”

“
And you'd best
work on that accent.”

“
That was
pathetic, wasn't it?”

“
God, yeah. Have
fun and stay in touch.”

- 42 -

November
18, 2012
11:27
a.m. local time

Bonita Beach, Florida

“
Oh, my god,
Dallas, that's incredible. But I gotta get in the water before I
read any more.”

“
I noticed,”
she said with a knowing smile. “Maybe you just need a looser
swim suit.”

“
You may be
right.”

He climbed out of his
lounge and headed quickly into the chilly Gulf water. Dallas
followed, smiling to herself.

“
Ohhh, that's
cold!”

“
Just what the
doctor ordered,” she replied, still smiling behind Gordy's
back. As he turned around, waist-deep in the water, she hid the
smile and let her face go blank.

“
Now, this is
what I call religious water,” he said.

“
Religious
water?”

“
Yup. When
people get in, a lot of of 'em holler 'Jesus Christ!'”

Dallas laughed.

“
And when it gets
colder, it's snowbird water, then tourist water, Canadian water and
finally German water; they'll go in no matter how cold it is.”

Dallas kept laughing.

A few minutes later,
Gordy said, “Okay; now I'm getting really cold.”

“
Ready to get
outa the water?” Dallas asked, arching an eyebrow and smiling.

“
I think so, but
I think I'll put on my overshorts before I read any more of that.”

Dallas frowned
slightly, but then smiled and said, “Good idea.”

Moments later, Gordy
settled back onto his lounge, overshorts in place, papers in hand,
and dug back into his reading. Occasionally chuckling, occasionally
pursing his lips, occasionally glancing at Dallas, occasionally
wrinkling his brow and often squirming on his lounge, he finally
finished, sat up, squirmed once more and handed the papers back to
Dallas.