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arousing.
    "Lojacked and owned. Come on." He grabbed my arm and steered me toward the door. "Let's go eat. We can talk more at home."
    "You can test out my new device." I walked my fingers up his chest, then raised my eyes to stare at his mouth.
    Studying the light reddish stubble of five o'clock shadow on his cheeks and chin. "You can find me and when you do, you can take advantage of me. Then maybe we can try out that new butt plug."
    "You bet I will." His grip tightened on my arm. "After you do your homework."
    I made a face, which he ignored. Then I brightened again.
    "Are we really going on vacation?"
    "Only if you get all As."
    "Oh I will, professor. Trust me, I will."
    "Good, then there's no problem, is there?"
    Funny, he still didn't sound convinced. I leaned against his broad chest and smiled. I knew my Alex would only do this 37

    A Forest of Corpses
    by P. A. Brown
    because he wanted to, not because I asked. But it was nice of him to let me think he was doing it for my own good.
    He took my chin in his hand and tilted my head up. His intense gaze probed mine and I found myself a little breathless. He held my eyes prisoner, then with his thumb, brushed my open mouth.
    "Come on," he whispered. "Let's get out of here."
    "Yes, Sir."

    * * * *
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    38

    A Forest of Corpses
    by P. A. Brown

Spider
    The next day, I dropped Jason off at the University on my way into town. We'd meet up later in the day. Again, I beat both Miguel and Nancy in. While I waited for them, I listened to the 911 tape again. My first stop this morning would be another visit to the pay phone where the call had originated.
    The first two times we had swung by had yielded nothing. It remained a long shot, but maybe somebody had seen something and sooner or later we'd find them. And persuade them to talk.
    The market employee we had talked to told us the manager would be in this morning, so we were heading back.
    Meanwhile, I needed to catch Nancy and put in my vacation request. I rarely took holidays, had never seen a need. But then I'd never had anyone I wanted to go away with.
    I spent the wait time fielding phone calls and going over old case books.
    Miguel came in right on Nancy's heels. I opted to tackle Nancy first. I caught her as she was booting up her PC, ready to check her overnight messages in her Inbox. She looked up at my knock.
    "Yes, Detective?"
    "Dominguez and I are heading back to the market to talk to the manager. Maybe he saw something no one else did."
    "We can hope, right?" She saw me hesitate and cocked her head. For the first time I noticed her hair was silvering. Had it always been there, or had she stopped coloring it? Whatever 39

    A Forest of Corpses
    by P. A. Brown
    the reason, it gave her a distinguished look. Maybe that was the point. "Something else?" she prompted.
    "I'd like to put in for some vacation time."
    She stared at me for several heartbeats. "Vacation?"
    "Yeah, you know, days off. Ten days to be exact."
    "Since when do you take vacations?"
    "Jay wants us to go camping." I knew what was coming next. She didn't disappoint.
    She crowed with laughter. "Camping? You?"
    "Yes." I ground my teeth. "Me."
    "My God, what that man does to you. Alexander Spider, mister-I-don't-care-about-anybody. A domesticated Spiderman. I never thought I'd see the day."
    "Are you going to go on, or are you going to approve my holidays?"
    "Sure. Consider them yours. Send me the forms with the dates, I'll okay them. Give my best to Jason, will you?
    Haven't seen the guy since, well, you know..."
    I frowned. I didn't like remembering the circumstances she was referring to. Jason had nearly died at the hands of a grieving father who had carried his revenge too far. I had also nearly lost him to another set of unfortunate events that were entirely my fault. We managed to get past those days, but they still hung over me like an uneasy cloud. Maybe a vacation was just what we needed to get all the way past that, and back