Page 29 of The Devil Went Down to Laughlin
That makes two of us, Caleb thought. However, since he didn’t want Delia to sound like she’d been a complete sucker, he replied, “She saw Aaron’s thoughts, or at least enough of them to convince her that no ulterior motives were involved.”
“‘Aaron’?” Pru echoed. “Aaron Sanchez, that guy she had me look up before she went on a date with him?”
Even now, Caleb didn’t like thinking about that date, although he knew it had come to nothing. “Yeah, that guy. He’s fallen on hard times since then, and his family wants to sell the supposedly haunted house and give him a cut. That was why he came to Delia for help.”
“And of course she said yes, because she can’t resist helping any sad sacks who come across her path.”
Caleb wondered if that was how Delia had seen him when they first met. Had she thought he was a sad sack who needed her assistance because otherwise he’d flounder on his own?
He didn’t want to believe that. Sure, he’d been more lost than he wanted to admit when he’d come to Las Vegas, and crossing paths with Delia Dunne had felt almost like divine intervention, but….
He set those uncomfortable thoughts aside to be revisited at a later time, well after he knew Delia was safe and he would have the leisure to explore them…if he even wanted to.
“Something like that,” he said. “When Aegis Holdings fell apart, Aaron lost his condo, and I guess he lost his job, too, because it sounds like he was pretty much a basket case for almost a week after the Desert Paradise tournament. So of course Delia wanted to help him out.”
Prudence tapped her fingers against the knees of her skinny jeans, which were just as black as her tank top and the pointy flats she wore. Unlike Delia, who never seemed to bother with polish, Pru’s nails were painted a deep metallic green to match her hair.
“And now she’s missing.”
“Yes,” Caleb replied. It seemed as if Pru was willing to move past the whole part-demon thing and focus on the facts of the matter, and he was damn glad of that. They needed to put all their energies into finding Delia rather than worrying about who was a quarter demon and who was an angel, or whatever.
Prudence looked past him to the spot where Ty sat in the back seat. “And you’re just helping out of the goodness of your heart?”
“Delia has certain unique abilities,” he said, still with the same utter calmness of voice and expression that made the tennis pro look like some sort of modern-day Buddha.
Well, if the Buddha reincarnated with a ponytail and faded jeans and the face of a GQ model.
“Like talking to ghosts,” Pru supplied, and Ty nodded.
“That, and a good deal more. She’s already begun to hear people’s thoughts, but soon she will also be able to catch glimpses of the future, among other things. Gifts like hers will be invaluable in the fight ahead.”
Caleb wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that. While he’d already guessed there might be some kind of confrontation involved in rescuing Delia, he got the feeling that Ty had been talking about something entirely different, something much bigger than that.
Well, he’d worry about it later. The guy did have a tendency toward pronouncements that might or might not even be provable.
Once again, Pru was silent as she appeared to absorb what Ty had just said. Despite her crazy hair, she seemed like a pretty down-to-earth person, which was probably part of the reason why she and Delia got along so well. However, that kind of temperament also made it a lot harder for her to accept that the universe was much stranger than she could have ever imagined.
“If you’re both a couple of supernatural beings, I’m not sure how much help I can be,” she said at length.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Ty replied at once. “You have very useful skills. Just because Caleb has demon blood, that doesn’t mean he’s omnipotent. We can use all the help we can get.”
Noticeably, Ty hadn’t made a single comment about his own blood, or whether he himself was also a supernatural being. Just the guy being cagey again, although Caleb couldn’t help being a little irritated.
This would have been a lot easier if he’d stopped playing games and fessed up to who he really was.
“Especially because of where we’re going,” Ty continued, and now it was Caleb’s turn to send a questioning glance over one shoulder.
“What about it?” he asked. “I thought Laughlin was just another gambling town, sort of a mini-Vegas on the river.”
“The town isn’t our concern,” Ty replied. “No, it’s the river itself. The Colorado River has its own power, a kind of power you may find difficult to deal with. Laughlin does sit at the intersection of two ley lines — ”
“Those again,” Pru interjected, tone wry.
“ — but the river itself has an energy that is diametrically opposed to all things demonic.”
Well, that was just great. Here they were, basically flying blind, and now he was supposed to rescue Delia while being handicapped by the Colorado River’s energy, whatever that was?
“This just keeps getting better and better,” he muttered.
