“Remember those phantom kangaroos that smashed Nero’s face?”
“Not really.”
“Doesn’t matter. Captain M told me they’re back… with reinforcements. They’re being ridden by Haunchies.”
“By what?”
“Some Wisconsin thing. They’re little people whose goal is to cut everyone down to their size. So they’re smashing equipment and slicing up people’s legs.”
Bruce frowned as he looked out the window. “They’ll need paramedics.”
“Not you. You have to build your light bulb.”
“I don’t know how to build a freaking light bulb.” He sighed, and Laddin could see the frustration that chewed away at his confidence. Bruce wanted to help. Hell, the man wanted to save the world, but he hadn’t the foggiest idea how.
“One step at a time. How do you usually figure things out?”
“YouTube video.”
“This isn’t going to be on the internet.”
“Yeah, I figured.” He blew out a breath. “I’m a hands-on kind of guy. I usually work things out by doing them.”
“So do something. Anything.”
Bruce stared at him, his hands lax by his side. As the seconds ticked by, his forehead furrowed, his breath shortened, and his hands slowly tightened into fists.
Laddin waited until he couldn’t take it anymore. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to see the demon.”
Laddin could already tell it wasn’t working. A moment later Bruce flopped backward on the bed with a groan. “We are so totally screwed.”
“You’ve barely started,” Laddin countered. “You can’t give up now.”
“I’ve shot my one wad. I’ve got no other ideas. And if we can’t go snooping around Lake Wacka Wacka right now, then I’ve only got my fallback position, so to speak.”
There was a wryness in his tone that Laddin didn’t understand. He crawled up on the bed to lie next to Bruce. “What position is that?”
Bruce rolled his head to look straight at Laddin. “Whenever I get stuck, whenever I can’t see my way through a problem….”
“Yes? You do what?”
“I find the nearest willing girl and do her. Any way I can. It clears my head and I figure things out.”
“You can’t possibly have been that studly in school.”
Bruce’s mouth curved up into a devastatingly handsome smile.
“Okay, you probably were.”
“A gentleman never tells.”
Laddin snorted. “Something tells me you told everyone in the firehouse.”
Bruce’s expression sobered. “No, I didn’t,” he said softly. “It was bad enough I was using the girls for my own ends. I didn’t need to humiliate them in the process.”
So even in his sexcapade years, Bruce had been a gentleman. “My mistake.”
