Duke got to his feet and went to the door. As he turned and looked across at her, he was grave. “I’ve said my piece, and I’m really glad you heard me out. You don’t ever have to see me again—but I just want to ask you for one thing. If he shows up at your door, if he calls or texts you, if he writes you a song and wants to sing it to you, get the fuck away from him as fast as you can. Please. I beg of you, don’t have anything to do with him.”
Cait measured every single thing about Duke for the longest time. “Did you hear about the girl who died at the theater?” she murmured.
“I’m sorry?”
Cait shrugged and got down from the window’s ledge. “There was a murder—I guess it was two nights ago? Downtown at the Palace Theatre, where he’s been rehearsing. I didn’t think about it at the time, but he told me the police are on him about it. You don’t suppose…”
Duke marched over and took her shoulders gently in his hands. “Cait. Let me be perfectly clear about this. My brother is capable of absolutely anything. If you know of or saw something that leads you to believe he might have a grudge against that girl? Or some kind of beef? Call the police and tell them. Immediately. And like I said, for the love of God, don’t ever let him into your house. Promise me.”
She looked up at him. Damn, what a story. But sometimes even the implausible was true.
That was the basis of all fiction, right?
When he turned away again, she reached out and caught him.
The hug was meant to be quick, nothing but a brief, spontaneous contact. But the instant his arms went around her, she didn’t want to let go so fast. Dear Lord, he was still big, and hard, but the fact that he’d done nothing but talk to her for the last ten minutes was the best part of him.
She wasn’t just jumping back into anything, though. Too much, this had all been too much—and she was totally confused.
After a moment, she pushed herself away. “I won’t.”
“I’m sorry?” Duke said.
“Let him in. I’m not going to do that.”
Duke brushed her cheek.
This time, when he went to leave, she let him go.
The soft sound of the door shutting was the loneliest thing she’d ever heard, and as she went over and sat where he had, her orderly little house and her orderly little life pressed in on her.
She had never expected something like this to be where she ended up at the end of her year of transformation—thinner, with better hair … but still very much alone.
Then again, destiny didn’t come with an à la carte menu of options. You couldn’t pick and choose where you went—not in any meaningful sense, at least.
Listening to the mournful tick-tock of the clock on her mantel, she collapsed back into the chair and closed her eyes.
No crying, though.
This was just a broken heart. It was not something like what Sissy Barten’s family was going through—and in a time like this, she’d do well to remember that things could be much, much worse.
At least she hadn’t ended up like that poor girl at the theater…
Chapter
Fifty-five
Jim was standing in the darkness, watching from the corner of the living room as Duke unloaded big-time to the woman he’d been sleeping with. And as Jim listened, the sense that he’d been cuckolded for the second time penetrated his brain and made it hum.
Oh … fuck…
He’d gotten the wrong goddamn soul again, hadn’t he.
Ducking free of the room, he stepped through the back door, got out his phone, and hit up Adrian.
The angel answered on the first ring. “What’s up?”
Jim rubbed his aching eyes. “When you went to see Colin, back in the beginning of this—you asked him who the soul was, right?”
“Yeah. And he told me it was that Duke Phillips guy.”
Jim shook his head wearily. “I don’t think that’s it. I don’t know … what exactly did Colin say?”
“Look, Jim, seriously? All I was interested in was the intel—”
“I think we’ve been tracking the wrong guy here.”
“Impossible. Under what scenario would Colin be incented to lie?”
“Just what did he tell you?”
“I don’t remember—I asked him who it was, we went back and forth because he didn’t want to tell me. Blah, blah, blah—and then he said …” There was a long pause. “Oh, shit.”
Exactly, Jim thought, closing his lids. “What.”
“He said he couldn’t go all the way. He could only get me halfway there—I took that to mean that all he could do was ID the guy, and he couldn’t help in the field.” There was a pause. “Exactly what the hell’s going on where you are?”
Jim looked through the windows into that living room, where Duke and his lady friend were hugging it out.
“They’re brothers,” Jim said. “And I’m pretty sure Duke’s nothing but the triggering agent. The other one … the evil one’s the soul.”
“I’m coming right now—”
“No! You can’t leave Sissy alone.”
“Then I’ll bring her with me.”
“Never. She is not a part of this—are we clear? Stay the fuck home—”
“Fuck you, Jim—”
“Devina got into our house, okay? She got into my room, and not just once, but several times.”
There was a loooooooooong pause. “What the fuck? When? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I couldn’t find a moment.”
“You didn’t think it might be important enough to pull me aside? Like, for a split second?”
“I didn’t know until this morning when I almost fucked her, okay?”
“Oh, shit.”
“That just about covers it—”
Abruptly, Jim stopped talking and turned around. Sure enough, standing right behind him, the demon had made an appearance. “Ad, I got company. Stay where you are.”
As he ended the call, Devina didn’t smile. Didn’t oil on up to him and start stroking his cock. She just stood apart and stared at him—and that was the scary thing. He much preferred her unstable and flying off the handle.
“So, have you thought about my suggestion,” she asked after a moment.
“No.”
“Liar.”
Jim quickly did the math. He was willing to bet his left nut that the crossroads was happening right here, right now, whether it was here in this house or somewhere else. And if he was right, and Duke was not the soul, then he’d had no time to try to influence that other brother—and there wasn’t going to be any.
This was the consequence Nigel had been so upset about. This was the culmination of Jim’s decision to focus on Sissy. This was the payment for the distraction he’d entertained.
Damn it. He’d really fucked this round up, hadn’t he—and there was no going back.
So he had two choices. Either he tried to find Duke’s evil half somewhere in the city, and pray like hell that he could talk some sense into a guy he knew nothing about. Or…
“Let’s go,” he said.
Her perfectly arched brows rose. “Where?”
“Anywhere.”
“To do what?” Now she trailed a delicate hand along the tops of her breasts. “Are you going to fuck me?”
“No. But I’ll talk about the future.”
“We can do that here,” she muttered with a bored tone.
“No.” Because if he couldn’t influence the soul in these last few minutes, the least he could do was make sure she didn’t, either. He had no idea what she’d done in this round, but—
“You want me away from this house, don’t you,” she drawled.
“You were the one who brought up that bright idea about quitting.”
She laughed with an edge. “Jim, you know me well enough by now that I’m a lot of things—but never, ever stupid. You want me somewhere else? That’s only happening one way.”