Dick by Law (10 page)

Chapter 2
2

130 Million Years Ago

China

The sun was at its highest, and so was the heat of the day. Grip was
still
racing along on the trail of the six killer dinosaurs
. He hadn't rested since leaving home, and he had no plan to do so. All he could think about was revenge.

Panting, he chased the killers' trail through a clearing in the forest,
pushing harder to get out of the direct sunlight as fast as he could. The sun's heat sizzled down from above, baking the
mottled brown and white
fur on his back, making him pant harder and feel more tired.

T
hen, suddenly, the heat stopped. So did the light.

All at once,
the
forest
around him went dark.
Without warning, day became night
.

Grip froze in his tracks. His red-tipped ears perked and swiveled, listening for signs of danger, but he found only silence. The screeching, howling, yelping, chattering creatures around him had stopped making noise just as suddenly as the sun had stopped making light. It was as if, like Grip, they were all standing still, listening for danger. Listening for whatever had killed the sun to come and kill them, too.

Was
it coming? If it was, Grip couldn't hear or smell it. His eyes adjusted quickly to the dark, but all they showed him were tree trunks, weeds, and
dirt
.

He turned his eyes skyward, looking for the sun. All he saw was a thin ring of dim light, as if the sun had been cut out of the sky, leaving only this last trace behind.

Grip looked back down to earth, watching the trees and undergrowth for any sign of further disaster.
He saw
no movement, not even leaves stirring in a breeze.

A
new thought entered his mind
then
. Everything had gone still and silent like his dead mate and pups; what if everything, then, was dead like they were?

And what if Grip
himself
was dead, too?

As
he
waited, crouching in the
forest
, the darkness and silence lingered. He sniffed the air, testing for anything strange, anything dangerous.

Nothing
.

Then, all of a sudden, Grip caught a whiff of something familiar. Something faint and sweet, something with fur.

Grip's head jerked to one side, then the other, trying to follow the scent to the source. It smelled near, so very near, but he saw nothing. Heard nothing.

There it was again, right next to him, right
there
...but no. Nothing there when he looked.

Grip turned in a circle, staring all around him, but all he saw was
forest
. He was completely alone in the darkness.

Except he wasn't. Suddenly, he felt something brush against him, and the familiar scent flared up stronger than ever.
H
e breathed the scent deeply...and realization washed over him.

All at once, Grip recognized the scent. He knew whom it belonged to, and his heart quickened.

Hopping in rapid circles, he looked everywhere but saw nothing. Where
was
she? The one so familiar, the one who'd brushed against him.

Where was his
mate
?

The scent surged all around him then, and he thought he felt her presence.
She pressed against his flank, and he knew it was her. Everything was familiar...except for the cold. There was no heat in her body.

In spite of the cold, Grip pressed himself against her
in return
, longing to feel the familiar contours of her body. Without wondering how she'd come to be there or why, he reveled in her
presence
. He forgot all about the six killer dinosaurs and his hunger for vengeance.

Then, the world brighten
ed
once more.

Light filtered through the branches
of the pines and fir trees
, dim gray at first but steadily intensifying. The gray light brightened, shifting to pale yellow and then blazing gold.
Sunbeams pierced the
forest
scape, flashing to life around Grip, projecting glowing spots on the mucky ground.

And she was gone.
Just like that, his mate was no longer with him. He couldn
'
t feel or smell her anywhere.

Frantically, Grip nosed through the undergrowth, rummaging for a fresh trace of her...finding nothing. Whining, he prodded and probed the leaf litter and muck, straining to pick up her trail. But no.

She was gone.

And the world, just like that, was back to normal. The
forest
creatures resumed screeching and howling as if nothing unusual had happened. The heat of the day
shot
back toward its roasting peak. Bodies thrashed and scampered through the brush, chasing or being chased.

And all of the bodies were warm.

Perhaps, if Grip were a different kind of animal with a different kind of mind, he might have wondered at the significance of what he'd just witnessed. The sudden darkness in the middle of the day and the visitation of the dead might have given him pause. Might have made him question the road he was on.

But Grip wasn
'
t that kind of animal.
When he'd given up scouring the brush for a trace of his mate, he sat for a moment and rested
at the edge of the clearing
.
Panting, he squinte
d up at the sun, mysteriously restored to life after its seeming death.

T
hen, he caught the scent of the six killers, wafting on the gently rolling breeze. With a growl, he got back on his feet and set out after them again.

All that mattered was the trail before him, fading but still true in the curling steam rising from the broiling
forest
floor.

 

*****

Chapter 2
3

130 Million Years Later

The
Empire State Building

New York City

Hours after their meeting with the book editor
, Simon and Ishi
went straight to the top, just as Ishi had said
they would
--the top of the Empire State Building.

Wrapped in each other's arms, they
gazed at the twinkling lights of Manhattan from th
e building's
observation deck.
Other visitors stood and wandered all around them, talking and laughing and snapping photos...but Simon and Ishi might as well have been alone. Simon felt like they were in their own
private
little world, looking down at the distant
city far below.

He held her close, breathing in the sweet scent of perfume from her hair and the back of her neck.
Ishi turned and kissed him softly on the lips.
H
er expression
was
so full of tenderness,
he felt a wave of loving warmth roll through him.

As she turned back to the view, he held her more tightly than ever.
It was a perfect moment, maybe the
most perfect
moment in
Simon's
life
. A full moon hung against the sky's velvet blackness, bathing him and Ishi in its silver glow. A slow
, cool
breeze ribboned through the cage around the deck, toying with Ishi's
dark, silky bangs.
Lights glowed in all directions like a sea of flickering stars folded over the Earth
, intercut with ever-flowing rivers of
dancing
headlight beams.

All was right with the world. Simon and Ishi had just made a book deal in the high six figures. A day ago, they'd appeared on the top-rated morning
T.V.
show in America.
Last night,
they'd made love for the first time.

And now here they were, in each other's arms on the deck of the Empire State Building, far above Manhattan.
It felt magical. It felt like a new beginning.

For a long moment, the two of them watched the twinkling nighttime cityscape
and didn't say a word. Simon slid around to stand beside her, drawing her tight against him with an arm around her shoulders.

"This is incredible," said Simon. "Everything...all of it. If it turns out to be a dream, I swear I'm
gonna
be so
pissed
."

"As long as we don't wake up, what's the difference?" Ishi shrugged.

"That's true," said Simon.
"Some people think reality's
just a dream anyway."

Ishi took a deep breath and slowly released it. "I could stay up here forever, Simon. With you holding me, and kissing me, and talking."

"Me, too." Simon
watched the blinking lights on a distant helicopter flitting over the inky skyline.
He thought about the strange turns of events that had led him here, free of gravity, spinning through the unknown
,
and he wondered where life would lead him next.

"So here we are,
"
said
Ishi.

Simon kissed her hand. "This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship."

"I vote we see where it leads us," said Ishi.

Simon kissed her on the lips.
The kiss intensified, and
he
closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he saw that things were changing.

The sea of lights was going out.

"What the hell?" As Simon watched, a wave of darkness flowed over the city,
snuffing out one great swath of lights after another.

Ishi looked, too. "Must be a rolling blackout
."

The wave of darkness continued to flow, claiming more of the city. When it
passed the Empire State Building, the lights on the observation deck flickered out around Simon and Ishi.
Fortunately, the moon
and stars
w
ere
bright enough
that they could still see
.

"The power ought to come back on soon," said Ishi.

"That would be nice," said Simon. "Otherwise, it'll be a long walk down."

Ishi laughed. "
At least the walk will be
down
, not
up
."

Simon smiled and kissed her again. "In the meantime, I'm not really in
that
much of a hurry."

She looped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. "It
is
romantic, isn't it?"

"Here we are in the middle of Manhattan," said Simon. "In the middle of a blackout. And we're trapped up here on the Empire State Building...together." He ran a fingertip
over her rosebud lips. "It doesn't get much more romantic than that."

The two of them kissed for a long time after that, neither paying much attention to anything but each other.
It was as if they were the only two people in the world.

Simon pushed everything out of his mind but Ishi. He
didn't care when the power was
coming
back, and he didn't care when they
were
get
ting
back
down
to street level. As far as he was concerned, the blackout was the best thing that could have happened that night.

It never occurred to him that
the sudden darkness, like an eclipse, might be considered an omen
of dark times to come.

 

*****

Chapter 2
4

The Next Day

Melville, Pennsylvania

A day later, after returning from New York City, Simon walked in the door of his house
to find a
pissed-off
Quinn waiting for him.

"You're a dead man!"
Quinn
, in his black pinstriped suit,
carrying a briefcase in one hand,
looked like he'd just come from court
. Marching up to Simon with a furious look on his face, he
jabbed
him
hard
in the chest
with a forefinger
. "Dead man walking!"

Simon winced and
flinched
. "What brought
this
on? What's the
deal
?"

"Where
were
you?" said
Quinn.
"Jim Lassiter waited half an hour for you to show up!"

"Lassiter, Lassiter..." Simon
dropped his travel bags on the floor as he struggled to
make the connection.

"
Sarsaparilla Slim
, remember?" Quinn snapped off his gold-rimmed glasses and glared. "The guy I introduced you to at the Cowboy Action shootout?
The guy who's hiring you to appraise
his mother's estate?
"

Suddenly, it all fell together. Simon went pale. "Oh, shit."

"Way to not show up, bro!" said Quinn. "I'm
this close
to losing
his business
because of you!"

Simon buried his face in his hands. "I completely forgot!"

"Jim is
pissed
," said Quinn. "He said something about filling you with
hot lead
."

Simon looked out from between his fingers. "Can we do it this afternoon?"

"That's beside the point!" Quinn
shook
his glasses
at Simon. "You keep dropping the ball! You've got too many
dick
-stractions!"

Simon
shrugged.
"
I've been busy."

"It's nothing but
dick-this
and
dick-that
with you," said Quinn. "I'm almost sorry I helped you win the lawsuit!"

"I'm just trying to make the most of it," said Simon. "Striking while the iron's
hot
. All the interest will go away if we lose on appeal."

"Which is
exactly
why you have to look after your livelihood."
Quinn
snapped
his glasses back on
with a vengeance
.
"Because when the spotlight goes away, you'll need to have your business to fall back on."

"You're right." Simon
nodded
. "I'm sorry. Ishi and I
just
got home from New York, and I have a big meeting in fifteen minutes, and..."

Just then, Chip
pushed through the front door behind him
, a
rmed with giant cups of coffee
in a pressed cardboard cup holder tray
. "Make that
five
minutes! They just pulled in the driveway!"

"Shit!" Simo
n
looked around frantically, heart pounding like crazy
.

Suddenly,
Josie
burst
through the front door. "Fire in the hole, boss! Lock and load!"

Quinn still scowled, but curiosity seemed to be getting
the better of his anger. "Who's this big meeting with
?"

"
Buck Brooklyn, t
he head of D.I.L.L." Simon
hurried
past Quinn
, aiming
for the bathroom down the hall. "The Dick Identification and Legislation League.
"

"She's coming!"
Before Simon could reach the bathroom,
Ankha
darted through the front door and headed him off
. "Ishi's walking her
in!"

As the bathroom door slammed shut in his face, Simon spun and marched into the bedroom.
Still shouting at Quinn, h
e went straight for the mirror and grabbed a brush from the dresser below it. "She wants to talk about some bill they're trying to get passed."

Quinn had followed him from the living room and appeared in the bedroom doorway.
"Buck Brooklyn's a
she
?"

"
Don't you watch
the
talk shows? She's been making the rounds.
" Simon dragged the brush through his s
andy
hair
, then fluffed his bangs with his fingers. "So
do you think
Jim Lassiter
will see me
this afternoon
?"

Quinn sighed and folded his arms over his chest.
"I already made you an appointment for three o'clock
.
And I will
drag
you there if I have to."

Simon dropped the brush on the dresser and straightened
the
collar
of his rumpled white polo shirt
. "Thanks for looking out for me, bro.
I appreciate it."

Quinn shrugged. "I can't blame you for striking while the iron's hot. Just don't burn your bridges along the way."

"
Promise
." Simon
clapped his hands and
swept out the door
with Quinn in his wake
. "Now come on! I think you'll like this!"

When Simon and Quinn bolted into the living room, Buck Brooklyn was waiting for them.
Both men froze
in their tracks
and stared.

Simon had seen her on T.V. before, never in person...but T.V. had not done her justice. She was truly breathtaking
, as mesmerizingly tall and perfectly put together as a movie star or supermodel.
As much in love as Simon was with Ishi, Buck's star
tling good looks were enough to leave him dazed.

"Hello
, Simon." Buck tossed her long
red hair and smiled radiantly. "And this must be the famous Quinn Keegan." She
smoothed the sleek
emerald
dress over her hips and
reached out a hand. "You're a hero
to our movement, Mr. Keegan."

Quinn took her hand...and
in a move that was totally unlike him, he
kissed it. "
Enchant
é
, Ms. Brooklyn. It's my pleasure."

Simon gaped. He'd never seen his
straight-laced
foster brother kiss a woman's hand before.

Buck cocked an eyebrow and smiled.
"
I can see why you won the impossible lawsuit
, Mr. Keegan
. Your charm is most persuasive."

"
Please
." Quinn bowed his head. "
Call me Quinn
."

"Only if you call me Buck." She gave him a wink, then nodded at Simon. "You too, Simon."

Grinning,
Simon
gestured at the sofa and chairs. "
Have a seat, Buck.
Can I get you anything?"

Buck sat down on the sofa, and Quinn sat beside her. He couldn't seem to take his eyes off her.

"
Actually
, there
is
one thing you can
offer," said Buck. "W
e'd like you to support the new dick registration bill. It goes before Congress next
month
."

Simon sat on the recliner. "What's this bill all about?"
he said.

"It would create a national dick registry." Buck
leaned back and crossed her
left leg over her right. "Everyone convicted of being a dick would have to register. It would be access
ible to the public
, so no one would have to be victimized by a registered dick ever again."

"Interesting," said Quinn.

"We'd like to call it 'Simon's Law,'" said Buck. "
If
it becomes law, of course.
And with your blessing."

Simon shrugged. "I don't know what good
my
blessing would do.
I
don't have any pull in Congress."

"But you're the most visible face of the movement," said Buck.
"And getting Simon's Law passed isn't the only reason we want you lobbying on Capitol Hill."

Simon frowned and leaned forward. "What's the
other
reason?"

"We don't just want you to
lobby
on Capitol Hill," said Buck. "We want you to
run for office
."

Simon chuckled. "Good one, Buck.
Run away
from office, maybe..."

"I'm quite serious," said Buck. "How does 'Congressman Bellerophon' grab you?"

Simon laughed again. "Me? In politics? No way!"

Buck nodded serenely. "Yes
,
way."

"Hold on a minute." Quinn leaned closer to Buck. "Do you really think he's electable?"

"He has promise." Buck tipped her head back and gave Simon the once-over. "He has charisma, and he's in the public eye. He
stands for
something. He could go places, in time, if he builds on all that."

"I'm no politician. Run
him
." He pointed at Quinn.

"So you've never had any political aspirations?" Buck's tone was coy, her eyes dancing. "Never wanted to get in there and make the world a better place?"

"I don't need to run for office to do that," said Simon. "My brother Quinn, on the other hand..."

"Could run your campaign." Buck laid a hand on Quinn's shou
lder
. "You've already established
that
you make a great team."

Quinn beamed, visibly loving the physical contact. "That's true."

Simon shook his head. "I'll do what I can to support the bill, but don't expect me to
get into politics."

"Aw, come on, boss," said Josie, who was peeking around the corner from the kitchen. Chip and Ankha
popped their heads up beside her
, grinning like idiots. Simon had forgotten they were in the house at all, and here they'd
been listening to the whole conversation like kids listening in on a grown-up party.

"You'd make a great congressman," said Ankha. "With a little coaching from
us
, of course."

"Go for it, dude." Chip shook his hands in the air like a rock star, index and
pinky
fingers
extended
like devil's horns. "Think of the
power
."

"Think of the
chicks
," said Josie.

"
Think
of
what you can
accomplish
," said Buck.
"Spend some time on the Hill, see what happens with Simon's Law, and go from there. You might be surprised."

Simon thought about it, imagining the good he could do as a crusading politician. The Lone Appraiser in him couldn't resist.

"Okay." Simon nodded. "
Sign me up
."

"
Woo-hoo
, Boss!" shouted Josie.

"Next stop, the White House!" said Chip.

"What do you think the bill's chances are?" said Quinn.

"Honestly? It's a
n uphill battle
." Buck shrugged.
"But I like a good fight. And once we trot out the anti-dick crusader himself, who knows?"

"So when
do we start?" said Simon.

"Trotting you out?" Buck smiled. "
We'd like to take
you on tour. Like the Rolling Stones, but no Mick."

"And no
dicks
, either
!" said Chip.

"And it'
ll be
a lecture tour, not concerts," said Buck. "But I think it'll still rock."

"Call it Dickapalooza!" said Chip. "We'll sell t-shirts!"

"Lecture
tour
, huh?" said Simon. "How long do I have to get ready?"

Buck raised two fingers. "Two days.
Can do?
"

"Why not?" Simon laughed and spread his arms wide, giving her two thumbs up. "Can do!"