Page 20 of Sinner's End

I shake off the melancholy threatening to overcome me. “Where are we going?”

“Sweetness, anywhere you want,” he says and chuckles. “I don’t actually have a plan, I just want to spend time with you.”

I grin at his words. Never has anyone said anything like this to me. It’s flattering and overwhelming at the same time.Damn, there goes that blush again.

“What’s your favorite food?” Kaleb asks. “And for all that’s holy please don’t say tofu.”

“And if I do?” I ask with a straight face.

The look of horror on his face has me bursting into giggles.

“Then we’ll eat tofu and rabbit food for dinner,” he replies with a grimace as he tries his best to hide his smile.

“Dear God, just not that,” I say smiling in return. “I’m a red meat girl. Steak and burgers make me happy.”

“Is that what it takes to make you truly happy?” he asks, suddenly serious.

“No. Bacon and coffee make me truly happy. But you can start with a decent burger.”

****

The date is going better than I expected. Kaleb stopped at a little burger shack I’ve never seen before and got us each a big bacon and cheeseburger, fries, and a milkshake. Then he drove to the bank of the Willamette River where we’ve been sitting for the better part of an hour, eating our burgers and not talking about any damn thing in particular.

I have learned a few things about Kaleb, though.

He is rich, like stupid rich. His mother died when he was three and left him a mega trust fund, but he doesn’t like people to know. He has been taken advantage of many times before and doesn’t want it to happen again. So, he works as a bartender and lives in a modest apartment. Just like any other normal guy in Portland.

I know he prefers quality over quantity. Food, drink, friends. He would rather have one great thing than ten mediocre things.

And lastly, he loves dogs. Which would have been a deal-breaker for me if he didn’t. I thought he was lying, but he showed me some photos on his phone of his previous pooch.

“I haven’t felt right getting a new dog,” he explained. “Not just because I still miss my buddy, Marshall. But because I spend more time at Harken than at home. It just wouldn’t have been fair.”

“I understand that,” I reply with a smile. “But I don’t know what I would do without Daisy.”

He laughs at the videos I have on my phone. Daisy chasing butterflies, Daisy stealing apples from the tree in the yard. Daisy just being a regular, hyperactive pittie.

A cold wind blows over us, and a shiver works its way down my spine.

“Mana wants to see you.”

“Fuck!” I yell, falling off the hood of Kaleb’s muscle car. Glaring up, I see the man who saved me from being assaulted last night.

Kaleb’s anger radiates off him in waves. “I told Mana I was done. We had an agreement.”

“Not you,” the muscular blond replies, nodding in my direction.

Kaleb helps me up as I glare. “I don’t have a damn thing to do with Mana, and certainly nothing to say to him.”

“Why are you here, Lethe?” Kaleb asks.

Lethe? What a strange fucking name. Actually, it suits the strange man.

“Mana sent me,” he replies, sounding robotic. I wonder if he is also sampling the drug supply at Harken. “Be glad I’m being decent. Well, I think I am.” He frowns in confusion, flexing his hands at his sides. “He wanted me to fuck with your date.”

“What?” I demand.

“But you looked so happy, smiling with Kaleb,” he says softly. “I didn’t want that to end.”

---