Page 99 of Deliver us from Evil

But he brought her here.

To her old house.

A house that was in his name.

That same day, Apollo told us everything Gabriel had said to him in the storm drain. But it had taken weeks of cajoling before Trinity told us her side of the story.

She believed Gabriel was lying. He’d become unstable, not sure if he wanted her as a daughter or a lover or a friend. And she decided she couldn’t trust anything that came out of his mouth.

But what if Trinity was right? Maybe Gabrielhadbecome unhinged. He’d realized he’d made a mistake taking her home. So he decided to try again. And this time, he would make her vanish without a trace.

“…think? Hey, Rube? Are you listening?”

I come back to the present with a big inhale, and then shake my head. “What?”

Apollo’s eyes dim a little. “I said we should find an Internet cafe or something. I can download some of my code off the cloud and do some digging around. I mean, we’ve got the van.”

I take a last pull of the cigarette before crushing it out under my foot. Then I head back to the SUV without answering him.

Cass and Zach are already inside. Zach is in the driver’s seat now, and Cass is working his way through a ginger beer after deciding he’d rather sit in my seat than Zach’s. I move around to the other side of the car and climb in, kicking shit over to his footwell to make room for my feet.

One of those things catches my eye.

Trinity’s purse.

Cass and I both see it at the same time, but he gets to it first. Grabs it. Flicks it open.

His hand is shaking when he takes out the envelope, and I’m about to snatch it from him and tear it open how he’s struggling to get the paper.

“It’s a letter from Gabriel,” he says.

His pupils shift left to right as he scans the page.

“Fuck.” He looks up and locks eyes with me. “Guys…fuck.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Trinity

I’m about halfway through my search of the basement when my foot hits something in the dark. With a metallic gong I’m sure could be heard a mile away, a dog bowl flies away with aclang, clang, clangbefore finally coming to rest.

My foot’s wet.

I think there was water or something in there.

Now the smell’s stronger. I gag and shake my leg, trying to get the water off.

Hell, Ihopeit’s water. I’m not so sure anymore.

I hold my breath for a moment, wondering if anyone upstairs heard the ruckus. Then I start moving forward again, trying to remember which direction I was headed.

The smell is so much stronger now.

Stagnant water, is all.

My foot touches another mattress. Unless my imagined dimensions of this place are wrong, I’m close to another wall. I’m guessing this mattress is pushed up against it.

I lean forward, but I don’t feel a wall where I should. So step onto the mattress and stretch—

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