True to her word, Leigh met me at the airport with a big sign that said: “Welcome Home,” with glitter liberally applied to every letter.

“Welcome back!” she shouted as she wrapped her arms around me. “You smell terrible, but I don’t even care.”

She held my hand the whole way to the car, gripping it so tightly, she must have feared letting go and having me run off again. She had nothing to worry about, though. We didn’t live a flashy life, but I couldn’t wait to get back to it.

“Tacos?” she asked as we drove onto the 105 toward home.

I never thought much about mortality before this mission. The missions Ollie usually sent me on were snatch-and-grab jobs. Complicated, but relatively harmless. This experience put the whole of my life into stark perspective and what was important. Leigh was important, and these stupid missions weren’t. It wasn’t even close.

“What?” I said, half lost in my own thoughts.

“For lunch,” she replied when I turned my head to her. “I assume you haven’t had tacos in like a week, so I thought that would be your first stop. That or a burger.”

“I don’t care, really,” I replied. “I am just happy to see you.”

“That’s nice,” she said with a smile. “I thought maybe you realized I was no good for you on your travels.”

“Are you kidding?” I chuckled. “You’re the only good thing in my life.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Then why are you looking through me right now instead of at me?”

I sighed. “’Cuz I didn’t get the dagger, Leigh. It’s somewhere in Los Angeles, but I haven’t got it in my hands, which means this isn’t done yet.”

She laughed. “You went all around the world only to return to Los Angeles? That must piss you off something fierce. I know it pisses me off something fierce.”

“Oh, it definitely pisses me off, honey, but it also means we have to put off retirement for another night…assuming it hasn’t been moved yet. Knowing this mission from Hell, that would be my luck.”

She stopped as the brake lights from dozens of cars shone brightly. Traffic. “Are you sure it’s worth it?”

“I mean, it’s the difference of a half-million dollars. It’s the difference between having enough money to make it to next year and never having to worry about money again.”

She bit her lip. “That is a compelling case. Fine, then. Let’s go finish this, and then we’ll get tacos.”

“That’s not—” Leigh had never been part of my work before. “It’s too much of a risk.”

“Oh, so you can take a risk, but I can’t? Listen, if this is really enough money to retire on, then I want to help. I’ll just sit in the car, okay? It’ll be easy.”

“This is a bad idea, but I am too tired to argue. Just pull over so I can make a call and eat. I just realized I’m famished.”

She pulled off the road and into a small shack that sold some of the best tacos in Los Angeles. We sometimes drove from Burbank just to eat at Tito’s, and they had a phone booth out front, which allowed me to call Ollie and ask her to track down Blezor.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Why do you need that jerk?” she asked.

“Why?” I replied. “Do you know him?”

“Know him? He’s a bit obsessed with me, so you could say that. Please don’t tell me he has our dagger.”

“As far as I know, he does. Does that mean you have his address, then?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I went to a party at his house once and barely escaped with my sanity.” I heard the shuffling of papers for a few seconds. “He’s up in the hills. You got a pen?”

She gave me the address, and we pulled up to it a little over an hour later. There was a chance the sheik tipped off Blezor about us coming, but something told me they wouldn’t risk their safety to save an art dealer from getting robbed of something as insignificant as a dagger.

Blezor’s house was high in the Hollywood Hills, with floor-to-ceiling windows on each of the three levels. The front of the house looked like a museum, and with a pair of binoculars, I could see inside a gallery with different weapons from around the world.

There in the back, behind a glass case, was the dagger. “There it is!”

“Great, then go get it, and let’s get out of here.”

“Wait,” I replied, looking at the security sigils scratched into the walls. “Something is wrong. There are about a dozen wards and other hexes around the door. I’m never going to be able to get inside looking like this, and even if I did, I would be toast before I could get the dagger.”

“Then what?” Leigh asked. “You need me to do it?”

Bile filled my throat at the thought of it. I couldn’t have Leigh join me in this life. It was too much to think about.

“No!” I shouted. “Absolutely not. I’m not putting you in that position.”

The thought of losing Leigh caused my heart to race. I couldn’t risk her for something as trivial as money. Was this how she felt as well?

I reached into the back seat and grabbed a camera I kept for stakeouts. I zoomed in as much as I could and snapped a few pictures of the dagger and then told Leigh to drive. We processed the photos at a one-hour photo and brought them back to Venice.

I knocked on Ollie’s door a few hours after we staked out the place. Leigh waited in the car for me. Seeing her again made me think about my life and the risks I was willing to take. Maybe I could get inside the house, and possibly I could steal the dagger, even with a hundred wards working against me, but it wasn’t worth it. What good was money if I was dead?

“Do you have it?” Ollie asked as she slid open the glass door. Her brow furrowed. “I don’t like that look.”

I pulled the pictures out of my pocket. “I found it, but I can’t get inside the place. He has the place warded up the ass.”

“How is that my problem?” she asked. “We had a deal.”

“It’s your problem because I’m not going to risk myself going in there, Ollie. It’s too dangerous.”

“That’s rich.” She laughed. “You traveled across the world, killed a demon, infiltrated the KGB, and threatened a sheik. This is where you draw the line?”

“Yeah, I already risked my life too many times for this stupid dagger. I’m out.”

When I spoke the words, the stress on my shoulders vanished, and I knew they were the truth and the right call.

“I need that dagger by tomorrow night,” Ollie said.

“Then you’re going to have to get it. You already said he’s obsessed with you, and you’ve already been in his house, so it shouldn’t be a problem to seduce him and get inside.”

“That sounds terrible.”

I shrugged. “How much do you want this dagger? Must be a pretty big payday if you’re willing to pay me so much for it.”

She smiled. “And now I have half a million dollars more.”

“That’s dirty.” I bit my lip. “But if that’s what you think it’s worth, traveling all across the world and tracking down this stupid thing, then I won’t argue. We had a deal, and I’m not honoring it. It’s really dirty, though.”

Ollie laughed. “Easy, killer. It was a joke.”

She walked into the bedroom and came out with a wad of cash. “I’m not paying you the whole thing, especially since I had to pay for your flight from Moscow, but I think this is fair, given what you’ve done.”

Ollie handed me the wad, and I counted it this time. $350,000.

“I think that’s more than fair,” I replied.

“Does this mean you’re retired?” Ollie asked.

I shrugged. “For a while at least, but you know this stuff runs in my blood. I want to enjoy a quiet life with Leigh, but the quiet life doesn’t really agree with me, you know?”

Ollie nodded. “Oh, I know. I’ve tried to retire a bunch of times, but, well, if you ever need a job, give me a call.”

“Will do.”

And with that, I walked out of the back door and slid it closed behind me. I walked up the stairs to the road and hopped into the car. Leigh kissed me, and I kissed her back. For a moment, everything was right in the world.

“Where to now?” she asked.

“I don’t know, babe,” I replied. “Anywhere you want. Just drive.”