Page 61 of Speak of the Devil

No, it felt…intimate.

But it wasn’t. She was offering him a helping hand, nothing more.

Still, he knew he needed to be grateful for it.

Chapter Eighteen

Hadshe really invited Caleb Lockwood to stay the night?

Yes, she had. Temporary insanity, she supposed.

No, Delia knew it was more than that. Whatever her feelings about his demon blood, he definitely hadn’t deserved to get attacked like that. Good thing he’d held off his assailants long enough to make a getaway.

Not before he’d suffered some pretty nasty injuries, though. He seemed fine with the quickie first aid she’d provided, but she couldn’t help wondering if she should have insisted that he go to the closest urgent care and get himself patched up by a professional. Some of those gashes really looked like they needed stitches, not just a bunch of slapped-on Bandaids.

Unfortunately, she doubted he would have gone along with such a plan. After all, how would he have even explained away those wounds? An attack by someone’s pet tiger?

Siegfried and Roy had been out of the game for years.

Even though it sounded as though Caleb planned to go right to bed — which he should, after losing all that blood and drinking all that cognac — Delia knew she was way too keyed up to go to sleep. Although her days of staying out until all hours were long behind her, she still rarely went to bed before eleven,something that wasn’t too hard to manage when she hardly ever needed to be in the office before nine o’clock.

So instead of heading into her own bedroom, she went into her home office and shut the door. The hour was inching a little past ten, but she knew it wouldn’t be a problem to reach out to Prudence, not when her friend still maintained some habits from their girl band days and generally didn’t go to sleep until at least two or three in the morning.

They usually texted, but Delia went to her computer instead of using her phone, figuring that using the messaging app on her Mac would be easier than trying to handle all this on a cell phone. After opening the app, she went to the last conversation she and Prudence had exchanged, the one where they’d discussed maybe taking a girls’ trip to Cabo in May after most of the spring breakers were gone.

You up? I was hoping you could look into someone for me.

Pru’s answer came back right away, telling Delia that her friend had been camped on her computer, just as she’d expected.

I’m here. Who do you want me to check on?

This was something she probably should have done earlier, but at the time, she’d had no reason to distrust Robert Hendricks. After this latest attack on Caleb, however, she couldn’t stop the niggling thoughts rattling around in her mind, the ones that seemed to tell her the casino executive might be a bit more involved than merely as a concerned party who didn’t want his place of business ripped off.

A guy named Robert Hendricks. He’s the VP of operations at the Dunes. I suppose I wanted to know if there was anything about his bio that seemed weird, or if he has some business contacts that feel iffy to you.

On it. How long’re you going to be up?

Probably at least another hour.

Luckily, she didn’t have any early appointments tomorrow. In fact, she didn’t have much on her docket at all. Her mother had messaged her earlier, letting her know she was going to show a new listing in Summerlin and checking to see if she wanted to come along, but Delia had declined. She had enough on her plate right now, and she didn’t want to run even the slightest risk of encountering a new ghost, even though her mother hadn’t said anything about the house being haunted.

Funny how she didn’t feel the same way about Caleb’s place on Pueblo Street, considering how haunted it had been until he’d taken care of the problem.

Maybe it was just all the plans he was making for the property. She’d always loved home makeover shows, and it would be fun to watch the process as he turned the house into a modern mid-century showplace.

Especially since she’d only be there in an advisory capacity and wouldn’t have to deal with the more unpleasant aspects of a massive renovation like that one.

Pru’s reply interrupted her musings.

Okay. Let me check into it. I’ll try to have something within an hour. If not, you can always follow up in the morning.

Thanks so much!

You owe me a margarita.

I’ll buy you a whole pitcher.

Pru responded with a grinning emoji, but that appeared to be the end of the convo for now.

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