Thread: Cheap Paperbacks (KittenxSeven)

It was December but California had decided to forego common courtesy and stay hot as hell it would be the second Christmas in a row that Harry Lockhart hadn't seen a snowfall but he still wasn't used to it. After all, what was the Christmas season without having to dig your car out of four feet of the white stuff, or without slush and sleet and hail pellets so big that they shatter your sideview mirror twice in one month and force you to rob a corner store so you can pay for the repairs? Actually, fuck snow. Harry lifted his chin from where it had been settled on his fist and squinted through the windshield Perry had left him in the car again. Sometimes he felt like a dog, and a bad one at that, because at the very least he could have cracked a window instead of leaving him in a BMW hotbox. He shifted in the seat again, slumping down so his knees touched the dashboard. The holiday season always made him twitchy as a rule, Christmas sucked, and maybe it was a universal thing, maybe everyone's Christmas was tra-la-la-la-fucked every year - but in his experience, the holidays inevitably ended with hospitalization and the previous year had been no exception. Harry glanced at his hand, eyeing the stump where his left ring finger used to be, then leaned his head against the side window, frowning at his own reflection. It would be the first time in four years that he hadn't spent long, cold evenings breaking into stores to do his holiday shopping - in fact, it would be the first time he would be able to legitimately buy a gift for his neice back in New York. The urge was still there, though some habits were hard to break, and apparently theft was one of them - and so was smoking, but Perry had already told him to stop stealing and he would be damned if his nicotine got taken too. In fact, he had half a mind to light up right then - - but Perry wouldn't like that. As gay as Perry was, he was also a lot bigger than him, and smoking in his car meant running the risk of getting a nasty look, to be quickly followed-up by one of those slaps to the back of the head. Harry fingered the half-pack of cigarettes in his pocket but didn't pursue the thought any further instead, he twisted in the leather seat and miserably pressed his face into the edge of it, sighing. It had only been ten minutes, but given that Harry had the patience and attention span of a cocker spaniel on crack-cocaine, it felt like hours. Perry had gone in for a follow-up with a client, wrapping up a case he'd been working on for the past two weeks - infidelity, missing trust funds, and some sort of Taiwanese hooker were all involved, but that was really just par for the course in California - and was probably sorting out any final details. Apparently somewhere along the line, Perry had decided that he was utterly incapable of anything that involved business or polite conversation, thus he got left in the car. Harry had been prepared to roll around the seat again, up until the point his ass vibrated, which was cause for him to briefly attempt to escape the car without actually opening the door - it was only when he was outside of the BMW and several feet away from it that he realized the thing bouncing around on his seat was Perry's cell phone. And people were staring at him. Possibly because he had screamed. Grimacing, Harry begrudgingly got back into the car, plucking up the phone and tossing it onto the driver's side seat, where the thing continued to bounce around and play Gloria Gaynor. In his lifetime, Harry Lockhart had done some stupid things, but he knew better than to do something like answer Van Shrike's phone. He sure as fuck knew better than that. But that didn't explain why he ended up with the thing to his ear anyways, Yeah, hello. Harry said. The voice on the other end was female, kind of sexy in a I-Smoke-Four-Packs-A-Day way, Van Shrike? Um. Yeah. This - yeah. This would be - him. His phone. My phone. Harry replied articulately, glancing at the windshield again, then back at his own knees, Who's this? Bensen Elaine Bensen. There was a long, expectant pause when Harry said nothing, she continued on, I got your number from a friend, but I need to talk to you in person, I can't discuss it over the phone. Can you meet me at the fountain in Inglewood Park tomorrow, at three? Well, I'm gonna have to check my schedule - Harry began, only to find himself cut off. Please this is important. I need your help . Harry scrunched his face up something about those four words got him every time. Yeah. Yeah, sure. I'll be there. He guiltily put the phone back on Perry's seat and slouched back into his own he told himself it wasn't a big deal or anything, it was probably just a missing dog, or a cheating husband. Perry didn't have to know.