Burn Me Deadly: An Eddie LaCrosse Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

people the king assigns to do this sort of thing?”
    I shrugged. “It’s your job, not mine. I don’t have a client.”
    He nodded again. His eerie, steady quality made me nervous, especially since it emanated from such a boyish face. I could imagine what it would do to someone who really did have a guilty conscience. Finally he said, “I don’t believe you, Mr. LaCrosse, but I do believe that your injuries will slow you down considerably and keep you from getting in my way. So I’ll leave you with this. A crime has been committed, and as far as we know, you are one of the victims. It wouldn’t require much traveling to look at things from the other side and see you as a suspect. Do you understand?”
    I nodded, very slightly this time.
    A slow, knowing smile spread across his face. It was not reassuring. “Right.” Argoset stood, nodded respectfully to Liz and left. Muscles fell in behind him. Liz followed, watched them descend the stairs, then closed the outer door behind them. She crossed her arms and said, “That was all kinds of strange, wasn’t it?”
    I sighed and sagged in my chair. Even sitting up straight was exhausting. “Yeah. A sword jockey and some farm girl get ambushed, and suddenly the king’s security forces are all over the place.”
    “What do you think it means?”
    Before I could answer there was a soft, furtive knock at the door. Liz palmed a knife from her belt and stood flat against the wall beside it. “Yeah?” she said.
    “It’s me,” Gary Bunson said. Liz let him in. “Did you talk to Argoset?” he asked at once.
    “And his charming gorilla,” Liz said.
    “Of course we talked to him,” I said, annoyed. “After you told him all about us, how could we not? Thanks for being such a pal.”
    Bunson waved his hands in front of his face as if warding off bees. “Hey, Eddie, we’re friends, but when it comes down to a choice of asses to watch, my own comes first. I don’t know whose toes you stepped on, but this has to be serious. I didn’t think King Archibald even knew Neceda existed, and I’d just as soon he forgets that it does. So you better lay low for a while.”
    “I’m getting that advice a lot.”
    “I’m serious, Eddie. Argoset is the golden boy up in Sevlow, and he has the king’s ear. He whispers, and people go away permanently. And he didn’t look happy when he came downstairs.” He looked from me to Liz and back, trying to impress us with his urgency.
    “So why is he interested in this?” Liz asked.
    Bunson shook his head. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. We all have good things going here in Neceda. I don’t want to see any of us not around to enjoy them anymore.”
    “Well, I’m too tired to do much about it right now,” I said honestly. “I’m going home and back to bed.”
    Bunson looked at Liz. “You make sure of that?”
    She smiled. “Absolutely.”

    LIZ lay asleep beside me, naked, one leg draped over mine. A single candle on the table lit her skin in flickering waves of amber. Distant music from Angelina’s tavern mingled with the street sounds into a rolling, tinkling buzz. Inside we were warm, safe and sated.
    Liz shifted a little, and clutched me tighter. I grunted as my ribs protested, but Liz didn’t wake and I wasn’t going to disturb her. Nothing like nearly dying to make you appreciate things like sex with your girlfriend. I was too weak to participate much in the physical part of our reunion, but my enjoyment seemed reward enough for her. If the situation was reversed I’d feel the same way, so I accepted it. Luxuriated in it, in fact. It was a feeling I never expected to have in my life, and I tried very hard not to second-guess it.
    Our place was on the second floor of a rooming house three buildings down from the tavern. The old lady who owned the building dealt in small-time tariff-free liquor on the side, which everyone knew about but no one minded; Neceda collected shady entrepreneurs like manure drew