“I’m sorry. I just haven’t had anything to say,” I said. I barely recognized my voice. I sounded like someone talking to a growling dog. “I missed your name.”

“Oh, no, you didn’t.” The smile had changed. I was not going to be able to bluff my way through this. “I didn’t tell it to you. But you know what it is, don’t you? These folks have been calling me Fred, but I want you to call me by the name my momma gave me.” He still had hold of my hand. He squeezed it. “Go ahead. You call me by my name.” He squeezed it ’til the bones pinched together.

“I really don’t—” Harder. A little catch of sound came out of my throat. I saw a movement from Dana, that might have been her fingers going to her mouth.

“Say it,” said the monster, his face close to mine.

“Tom Worecski,” I said. He let my hand drop. I was afraid to flex it, for fear that he’d notice he’d left it attached to my wrist.

“Good for you! Now, you go sit on the sofa there. Babe, come over here and give us a kiss.”

As she passed me on the other side of the table, Dana’s eyes cut away from mine. She went to Tom and put her arms around him. He didn’t turn his face to her, but she kissed his jaw and his neck and the hollow of his collarbone while he smiled at me. It wasn’t Albrecht’s seduction. It was Tom’s. I wondered whether anybody would care if I was sick on the rug.

Albrecht set his glass down on the cabinet. “God damn it, Krueger, she’s not—”

“A. A., if you keep your mouth shut, not only will I let you live, I’ll think about not walkin’ you through Nicollet Market buck naked with your dick in your fist. You got that?”

Tom had raised his voice. Albrecht’s face, innocent of sun, flushed to magenta, then went bloodless. “You need me. My staff won’t listen to you.”

“We been through this before. I need you like a goddamn dog needs shoes, A.A. I figured if I let you run all the little shit, it would keep you out of my way. But if that’s not workin’ anymore, I can find some other asshole to run the little shit. So you just sit behind your big desk and buy movies that you think’ll help you get rid of me, and stay the fuck out of my way.”

He was stroking Dana absently, as if she were a cat on his lap. She had her face turned into his shoulder; whatever expression was there, none of us could see it. Albrecht watched Tom and Dana with a look that reminded me a little of Cassidy. I was glad I had my back to Cassidy.

“It’s not Hellriders,” I said to Albrecht.

“Nobody ever thought it was,” said Tom. “But we didn’t want to discourage you right off, if you thought you needed an excuse to come up.” He frowned over Dana’s head, and gazed around the room as if he missed something. “So where’s Her Highness?”