Page 24

Chapter Ten

While they were walking back to the car, Caleb’s thoughts roiled. Should he say something to Delia, let her know that her friend…fellow realtor…whatever…might be connected to some bad guys?

Or had he totally misinterpreted what he’d seen pass between Aaron Sanchez and Paul Reeves, and they weren’t working together at all?

Even if they were, maybe it had everything to do with real estate and nothing else. For all he knew, Paul had been counting on a big win in the tournament to help him put a down payment on a property or something.

That didn’t make much sense, though. The tournament wouldn’t even be over until a week from today, so it wasn’t as if Paul Reeves would have gotten a payout on the spot or anything close to it.

Also, he had a feeling that if he made a negative comment, Delia might think he was jealous.

Okay, he kind of was, even if she’d said she and Aaron were only meeting for drinks.

Nothing in her tone or her expression seemed to suggest she was all that into Aaron Sanchez, and maybe she’d accepted his offer as a way of being polite.

Downgrading from a dinner date to go see “O” or whichever show he had tickets for to merely having drinks did send kind of a message.

The car looked fine when they got to it.

Okay, nothing about his Porsche’s outward appearance had indicated it had been tampered with, either, but Caleb got the feeling the Mercedes was just fine, that either the forces that had messed with the Cabriolet’s brake lines hadn’t been able to track his new vehicle, or they’d just decided they needed to go after him in a different way now that he was on the alert.

Delia might have hesitated for just a second before she got in the passenger seat, but now she was calmly fastening her seatbelt as if she had absolutely nothing to worry about.

Still, Caleb made sure to drive slowly, keeping his speed right at the limit or even a couple of miles per hour under. That behavior irritated the drivers behind him to no end, and multiple people pulled out and passed them, with a couple making rude gestures as they went by.

“Is there some reason you’re driving like my grandmother?” Delia asked with a grin, and he found himself smiling in return.

“Just being careful, I guess,” he said. “Even if the brakes fail, I’ll be able to recover in time if I’m not driving like a maniac.”

She nodded. “Do you think they’re going to fail?”

All his instincts told him they’d be just fine…but his instincts had lied to him before.

“I doubt it,” he replied. “For whatever reason, I don’t think they’ve messed with this car.” He paused there, wondering how much he should say, if anything.

After all, sometimes it was just better to keep your mouth shut.

“I’m sensing a big ‘but’ there,” she remarked, and now he found himself grinning.

“No, the car is fine.” He turned left onto Paradise Avenue, and the vehicle performed flawlessly, no sign of the brakes not cooperating, no reason to think he should have anything but supreme confidence in its ability to keep him safe.

Then again, he’d thought pretty much the same thing about the Porsche.

“But…?”

“That guy you were talking to. Aaron Sanchez.”

Her expression was now almost amused. “What about him?”

“I’m not sure he’s on the up and up.”

She shifted in her seat so she was more or less facing him. The faint smile that had touched her lips was now gone, so at least it didn’t seem as if any thoughts of jealousy were dancing in her mind. “What makes you say that?”

“Just a feeling.” Briefly, he explained how he’d sensed that Paul was using some kind of supernatural powers to try to influence the game — a gambit that hadn’t worked out so well for him, thank God or whoever else might have been watching.

“And I saw him making the kind of eye contact with Aaron Sanchez that you just wouldn’t make unless you knew the other person pretty well. ”

Delia looked thoughtful. “Real estate agents tend to know a lot of people.”

Caleb supposed he couldn’t really argue with that assertion. All the same, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something much more than a client/agent relationship was going on here.

“True,” he allowed. “What do you know about him?”

She played with the strap of her purse, which now rested in her lap.

“Aaron? Not a whole lot. I think he came on the Las Vegas real estate scene about three or four months ago. He’s sold a few properties.

I wouldn’t describe him as a barn-burner or anything, but he’s definitely doing enough to make a decent living. ”

Something about that timeframe made alarm bells go off in Caleb’s mind.

On the surface, he supposed there was nothing too strange about someone relocating to Las Vegas in the winter, when the weather would be positively mild compared to most of the country, but the way he’d shown up here not too long after Caleb had decided to make the desert town his home base?

It didn’t smell right.

“So, you don’t know the guy very well, but you agreed to have drinks with him.”

The words came out much harsher than he’d intended. Too bad there was no way to take them back.

However, Delia didn’t look offended. Tone mild, she said, “Well, going out for drinks is a good way to get to know someone a little better.” She stopped there and sent him a sideways glance. “Do you think I should cancel?”

For some reason, the question made an unexpected warmth go through him. He’d expected her to accuse him of being jealous, of intruding where he had no right to, and instead she was asking him seriously whether she should back out of her date with Aaron Sanchez.

Caleb’s first instinct was to say that yes, of course she should cancel the whole thing. However, he thought that might be overstepping a bit.

Besides, if Aaron let his guard down around her, then maybe she’d be able to pick up a few things he might unintentionally let slip.

“No,” he said. “I mean, that’s your decision. It’s not my place to tell you what to do. And it could be that I’m imagining things.”

“I doubt it,” Delia said at once. “You’re not the sort of person to conjure this kind of stuff out of thin air. If something’s got your spidey-sense tingling, then I believe you when you say there might be something kind of dodgy about Aaron Sanchez.”

“Maybe all you need to do is find out a little more about him before you go on the date,” Caleb suggested. “Have your friend Pru check him out.”

The suggestion seemed to make sense to her, because Delia nodded. “That’s easy enough. I doubt she’ll find much, though — Aaron is working for a pretty solid agency, and I know they wouldn’t have hired him without a thorough background check.”

Possibly not. On the other hand, a standard check like that wouldn’t pull up the sorts of things Caleb was looking for.

“Still, it’s worth a try,” he said. “Ask Pru to check and see if he’s moved around a lot, or if his employment history has holes in it.

That’s not the sort of thing the agency might care about, as long as his real estate license is up to date and he doesn’t have any kind of criminal background.

But if something about his residences and his work feels flimsy, then there’s a good chance he’s manufactured the whole thing to make it look as if he’s been living on this plane for a while. ”

“As opposed to popping up here straight out of Hell,” Delia commented. She shifted once again so she could look at him directly. “You don’t really think he’s a demon, do you?”

Right then, Caleb didn’t know what to think. The only thing he did know was that something about the situation didn’t feel right.

“I don’t know,” he said. “It could be that Paul is the demon, and he has Aaron under his control.”

Delia’s brows drew together. “But for what reason? Why would a demon be controlling a real estate agent?”

The answer was right there in front of them, even if she didn’t want to acknowledge it.

“To get closer to you, of course,” Caleb replied.

“They know we’ve been working together, even if they’ve been leaving you alone lately.

That’s the thing with demons — they’re playing the long game, so it’s not too hard for them to sit back and wait for a situation to resolve itself in one way or another. ”

“Well, that’s reassuring,” she remarked, and he couldn’t help chuckling.

“No, in a way, it’s good, because they’ve already found out what happens when they try to confront us directly. Calach wasn’t some minor-level demon, so the simple fact that we were able to banish him is enough to give any of them pause.”

All right, maybe he was being a little optimistic.

But Delia was looking worried, and he didn’t want her to think the situation was utterly dire.

The two of them had managed to send Calach back to Hell, after all, and she kept so much holy water on hand that even a powerful demon might think twice about confronting her directly…

especially since she’d already used it once in combat and knew just how effective it was.

“So you’re not worried.”

“No, I’m not worried,” Caleb lied. “All the same, it couldn’t hurt to have Pru look into the guy.”

Just in case.

Their conversation on the way to the restaurant hadn’t been the most reassuring thing in the world, but Delia told herself they needed to celebrate Caleb’s big win.

He was going on to the quarterfinals, and he’d managed that accomplishment with only his brains and skill, and absolutely no demonic powers at all.

He needed to be rewarded for that accomplishment.

How he’d even gotten a reservation for this place on a Saturday night, she had no idea.

Primal Steakhouse was one of the hottest tickets in town, and when she and Pru had investigated the possibility of going there on a weeknight when it wouldn’t be so crowded, she’d been told there wasn’t an opening for over a month.

In her humble opinion, no place was that good.