Free Smoke and Ashes by Tanya Huff Page B

getting whammied yet again. Tony managed a near approximation of a smutty grin and flashed it in the actor’s general direction. “Hate to admit it, but Groves was right. I was with Constable Elson because we were having hot Mountie sex in the cab of his truck.”
    Long pause.
    Lee stared.
    Tony kept grinning.
    Finally, Lee sighed again, the exhalation a type of surrender. “CB let you off work for that?”
    â€œYeah, the boss is all about keeping the cops happy.” He started walking again. Once in the soundstage, Peter’d have them both back at work and this conversation would be over. “Just be thankful Jack’s not interested in your ass, or he’d pimp you out, too.”
    â€œYou call him Jack?”
    â€œWhen I call him other things, he reminds me he’s armed.”
    â€œTony…”
    Tony sped up just enough to keep Lee’s hand from landing on his shoulder. Goddamn it! The red light was on, and they were stuck together at the end of the hall, waiting for the camera to stop rolling in a space barely a meter square. They were not going to talk about the Demonic Convergence. He was not going to give Lee the chance to talk him into changing his mind, then somehow put himself in danger, and confuse the hell out of both of them when Tony had to ride to the rescue. Again. “So, how’s the blonde?”
    Lee frowned. “Which blonde?”
    â€œYou can’t keep track?”
    â€œSure, but…”
    â€œThe one you took to the latest premiere.” Hands curved out in front of his chest indicated her dominant features. “Nice picture of the two of you in TV Week .”
    â€œAh, yeah…Judith. She’s fine. Great.”
    â€œRented?”
    â€œJesus, Tony.” Lee rolled his eyes. “No, she was not fucking rented.”
    â€œBorrowed?”
    â€œWhere do you go to borrow a blonde?”
    Tony snorted. “Probably not the same place you do. So how was the movie?”
    â€œWhat movie?”
    â€œThe one you went to with the borrowed blonde.”
    â€œObviously, not great; I don’t remember it. How was the morgue?”
    Nice try. “What morgue?”
    â€œThe one you went to with your borrowed blond.”
    â€œBefore or after the hot Mountie sex?”
    â€œLook, Tony, if you don’t want me to have any part of this—whatever this is—all you have to do is say so.”
    A long moment passed, and it was as if all that guy banter hadn’t happened. They were back at the Demonic Convergence part of the conversation.
    Tony’d never noticed before that the red light made a noise when it went off. Sort of a faint plock. “I don’t want you to have any part of this,” he said, yanked open the door, and stepped out onto the soundstage.
    Â 
    He hadn’t expected to be done with work by sunset let alone have time to get from the studio to VanTerm before Leah finished her stunt. But at 5:50, almost an hour before the sun actually went down, he was in his car and heading west on Hastings, squinting behind the shield of his dark glasses.
    VanTerm was a container terminal up on Burrard Inlet. Eventually, everyone shooting any kind of shipping scene in the Vancouver area ended up there because its layout made it easy to crop the shot. For the short time Tony’d been paying attention, it had stood in for San Francisco, New York, New Jersey, Singapore, Gotham City, and at least two alien planets, not to mention the half-dozen times it had actually played itself. It was the UBC of shipping locations.
    He turned right on Victoria Drive, drove more or less the speed limit to Stewart Street, turned left and then right onto the terminal grounds.
    â€œI’m here for the CBC shoot.” He fumbled out his Director’s Guild Card, but the middle-aged security guard in the box barely looked up from his laptop before waving him through.
    Berth three was past the reefer yard, past