A Dirty Job (Grim Reaper 1)

Minty helped him get his tweed jacket on over the shoulder holster.

"You know, you might be heavily armed, but you still look like an English professor - don't you have some clothes more appropriate for fighting?"

>

"James Bond always wears a tux," Charlie said.

"Yeah, I understand the line between reality and fiction seems a little blurred here lately - "

"I'm kidding," Charlie said. "There are some motocross leathers and pads in the shop that will fit me if I can find them. "

"Good. " Minty patted Charlie's shoulders, like he was trying to make them bigger. "You see that bitch with the poison claws, you light her up for me, okay?"

"I'll buss a cap in da hoe's ass," Charlie said.

"Don't do that. "

"Sorry. "

The hardest part came a few minutes later.

"Honey, Daddy has to go do something. "

"Are you going to get Mommy?"

Charlie was crouched in front of his daughter, and he nearly rolled over backward at the question. She hadn't mentioned her mommy a dozen times in the last two years.

"Why would you say that, honey?"

"I don't know. I was thinking about her. "

"Well, you know that she loved you very much. "

"Yeah. "

"And you know that no matter what, I love you very much. "

"Yeah, you said that yesterday. "

"And I meant it yesterday. But this time, I really do have to go. I have to fight some bad guys, and I might not win. "

Sophie's lower lip pushed out like a big wet shelf.

Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, Charlie chanted in his head. I can't handle it if you cry.

"Don't cry, honey. Everything will be okay. "

"Nooooooooooo," Sophie wailed. "I want to go with you. I want to go with you. Don't go, Daddy, I want to go with you. "

Charlie held her and looked across the room to his sister, pleading. She came and took Sophie from his arms. "Noooooo. I want to go with you. "

"You can't go with me, honey. " And Charlie ducked out of the apartment before his heart broke again.

Audrey was waiting in the hall with fifty-three squirrel people. "I'm driving you to the entrance," she said. "Don't argue. "

"No," Charlie said. "I'm not losing you after just finding you. You stay here. "

"You creep! What gives you the right to be that way. I just found you, too. "