BooksBarbecue
Back The Deal Goes Down
Chapters (55)
  1. Cover
  2. Other Titles
  3. Dedication
  4. CHAPTER ONE
  5. CHAPTER TWO
  6. CHAPTER THREE
  7. CHAPTER FOUR
  8. CHAPTER FIVE
  9. CHAPTER SIX
  10. CHAPTER SEVEN
  11. CHAPTER EIGHT
  12. CHAPTER NINE
  13. CHAPTER TEN
  14. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  15. CHAPTER TWELVE
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  43. CHAPTER FORTY
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  53. CHAPTER FIFTY
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  55. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The raving madness had left me. I expect it was because I had made the decision not to commit murder. I felt good. Even cleansed. The way you do after a fever has passed through you, the sweat pulling the poisons out, and you’ve woken up the next morning and showered them away.

I wasn’t going to walk away either.

Microchips are binary. People aren’t. There’s lots of room between yes and no, either and or. There had to be ways to divert a significant portion of Mick’s mega-millions to Madelaine even if he stayed alive, and there had to be some point at which Madelaine and Elizabeth would be satisfied short of his demise. I had several ideas circling round as the drops splashed on the car’s roof and windows. It was a chilly night out there. The leaves were coming down. Over on my side of the river and up in the hills they were almost all gone, the trees gone stark and bare. The weather report was warning of freezing rain at higher elevations.

—

Allison came back in about the time she’d promised, holding a jacket over her head to shield herself from the rain. She’d changed from her jeans, hoodie, and cross-trainers. She had a short skirt. Not sluttishly short, but one that looked short because her legs were so long. She had a nice white blouse. It wasn’t tight, but whatever the fabric it was made from, it draped to her shape. It, too, was short. Not so short that there was a gap between it and the top of her skirt, but just short enough that you’d be certain that if she moved a certain way, stretched, reached for something on a high shelf, twisted, then, yes, there would a gap and flesh would be revealed. I had to give her credit. She was very good, so far, at what she did. She could tell that I thought so.

“Do you want to be an actor?” I asked her.

“No,” she said, quite definitively.

“You seem to like being a character, the details, the costumes.” I pointed at her girlish backpack. “Even the props.”

“I love acting,” she said. “But not as a made-up character in a movie. In reality. Not like reality TV, which is bullshit. In real reality. Isn’t it weird that we have to say that now? In a life. Like whatever it is I’m doing tonight.”