“No, thanks.”
He led the way out, holding the two doors open for her, one after the other. The night was still clear and coolish, and she could smell dirt, the sure sign that winter was over.
Small stones under their soles crackled as they made their way across the parking lot to her car.
Keys. She should take out her—no, wait, she had a smart key now, thanks to Lexus.
At her driver’s-side door, she gripped the handle, and automatically the lock popped open.
Oh, God, she didn’t want things to end this way. The awkward silence now, the stilted conversation back in the diner.
Abruptly, she thought of G.B.—things had been so easy with him—
“I’m bad at this,” Duke said roughly. “Really bad.”
As she looked up, a car pulling out highlighted his face in the darkness. Behind his shadowed eyes, she could sense pain, the deep, abiding kind.
“You can trust me,” she whispered, reaching up and touching his face. “You really can.”
He turned in and kissed her palm. “Thank you.” Except then he cursed. “The problem is, I don’t know what this is between you and me. And I have a feeling I’m no more comfortable with dating than you are with a string of one-night stands.”
“Do we have to make choices tonight?”
“You’ll see me again?”
Something about the way he asked touched her. Maybe it was because he seemed so unsure of the answer. “Yes. I will.”
His mouth came down on hers, brushing lightly once. Twice. And again. “Good. Tomorrow night. Can I pick you up?”
“Yes.” She wrapped her arms around him and eased against his body. “I live at two fifteen Greenly Drive. Do you need to write that down?”
“No more than I did your number.” As one of his hands threaded into her hair, his lids lowered. “Give me a little more before I go.”
They were still kissing ten minutes later. And it took her another five to actually get into the car.
“I’m going to think about you all night,” he said just before he shut her door.
Oh, God, and what would he do to pass all those empty hours, she wondered with a flare of heat.
“Don’t keep your hands to yourself,” she heard herself say.
“Don’t worry, I won’t.” He shut her door. “Drive safe.”
Stepping back, he gave her a wave and then walked off to one of the motorcycles that was parked by the side of the diner. Thanks to the neon glow from the signage, she got to watch him throw a leg over, jump the engine, and skid out, tearing off into the night with a roar.
She didn’t remember the ride home.
Because in spite of the uncertainty of things, she was floating.
Chapter
Thirty-five
As Adrian looked at Sissy across the kitchen table, he wasn’t thinking about the question she’d just asked about innocents in Hell. But his brain was, in fact, far, far south, down below, back with Devina.
Talk about a truly bizarre way of wasting a day. He’d done a lot of things on the sliding scale of sex, but watching a demon desperately try to give him a hard-on? New territory. And considering how flustered Devina had become? Shit, he should have volunteered for impotence decades ago.
Denial was that demon’s self-destruct button.
And then she’d followed him around Target, and gone to a fucking restaurant that had had screaming kids in it.
He was practically glowing from the satisfaction.
“So is it possible?” Sissy prompted.
“I’m sorry?”
“Well, assuming there are more like me down there, can we get them out?”
“Oh, shit, I don’t know.” He pushed a hand through his hair. “To be honest, I’ve never given it any thought. Maybe Eddie would know.”
“Who’s Eddie?”
Okay, yup, that still hurt like a bitch. “A friend. He knows everything about the game.”
“Would he talk to you about it? Or maybe me?”
“Probably not.” Eddie wasn’t talking to anybody anytime soon. “Listen, if I were in your shoes, I’d just hang here. Everything’s going to be over one way or the other very soon.”
The hard expression that came over the girl’s face made him realize that “woman” covered her description much better. “That’s kind of pointless, though, isn’t it. What if the only way to save them is to get them out now?”
“But why? So they can watch the destruction of the world? Besides, if we do win, I imagine they’ll be free anyway.”
“Do you know that for certain?”
“No. But there are other issues. Devina doesn’t let go of things easily.” For fuck’s sake, he would still be down there if she had her way. “You have to pry her possessions away from her.”
“That’s not my problem. It’s hers.”
Adrian felt his brows go up. “Let me get this straight. You’ve been in her wall, you know what it’s like—and you’d risk ending up there forever for a bunch of people you don’t know.” He leaned in. “Because don’t kid yourself. Devina released you, but you’re the only one I’ve ever seen who’s gotten out. If she gets a chance, she’ll chain you again in a heartbeat—and it’s hard to imagine a better way of guaranteeing that than to fuck around with her shit.”
As he resettled into his chair, he couldn’t believe what had just come out of his mouth. If he wanted Jim’s head back in the game? Maybe having Sissy self-destruct would be the perfect way to do it—that angel would blame the demon, not this woman with the noble ideas, and would undoubtedly go on a rampage.
He should have kept his piehole closed.
“It’s not like I’ve got anything here,” she said. “And I’d rather go out doing something than sitting around like a piece of furniture, waiting for my fate to be delivered on my head.”
“I thought you and Jim were together.”
“What?”
Adrian hadn’t expected to be off on that one. Clearly he was. “Guess I was wrong.”
Sissy shook her head. “No, yeah, totally wrong. He’s just … he took care of me, that’s all.”
And apparently “took care of” did not mean “banged all night long while we were in his bedroom alone.”
Adrian found himself rubbing his face again. “Sorry. I read things wrong.”
“Jim would never do anything like that … with me … um … ever. Me, neither. I’m not … um, yeah.”
From the blush that hit her puss to the way she fidgeted in her chair, she was obviously not comfortable with the subject, but it wasn’t like he was inclined to push it anyway.
Adrian got to his feet. “Listen, my advice to you is to stay out of as much of this as you can. You’ve already been compromised, and you’ve got a measure of freedom now—that’s as much restitution as anyone can expect in this fucked-up world.” He looked at the clock over the stove, not really expecting it to be operational—but hey, check it. The thing was working for once. “I gotta crash. Tomorrow the focus needs to be back on the war.”
Limping out, he paused in the doorway and glanced over his shoulder. Sissy was sitting still as an inanimate object, surrounded by the messy surplus he and Devina had chosen for her. Except for that long blond hair, she seemed ancient, the old-fashioned appliances and worn floor new and fresh compared to her aura.
Adrian kept going, pulling himself up the stairs by the balustrade, rounding the half landing by the grandfather clock slowly, taking a breather before tackling the last dozen steps up to the second-story foyer.
He didn’t go to his bedroom.
As he made his way to the attic door and flipped the light switch at the bottom of the steep rise, his left leg was really lagging, and the scent of flowers depressed him to the point that he nearly decided to sleep on the stairwell.