Page 38 of Devil in the Details

Also, he had a feeling that if he made a negative comment, Delia might think he was jealous. Okay, he kind of was, even if she’d said she and Aaron were only meeting for drinks. Nothing in her tone or her expression seemed to suggest she was all that into Aaron Sanchez, and maybe she’d accepted his offer as a way of being polite.

Downgrading from a dinner date to go see “O” or whichever show he had tickets for to merely having drinks did send kind of a message.

The car looked fine when they got to it. Okay, nothing about his Porsche’s outward appearance had indicated it had been tampered with, either, but Caleb got the feeling the Mercedes was just fine, that either the forces that had messed with the Cabriolet’s brake lines hadn’t been able to track his new vehicle, or they’d just decided they needed to go after him in a different way now that he was on the alert.

Delia might have hesitated for just a second before she got in the passenger seat, but now she was calmly fastening her seatbelt as if she had absolutely nothing to worry about.

Still, Caleb made sure to drive slowly, keeping his speed right at the limit or even a couple of miles per hour under. That behavior irritated the drivers behind him to no end, and multiple people pulled out and passed them, with a couple making rude gestures as they went by.

“Is there some reason you’re driving like my grandmother?” Delia asked with a grin, and he found himself smiling in return.

“Just being careful, I guess,” he said. “Even if the brakes fail, I’ll be able to recover in time if I’m not driving like a maniac.”

She nodded. “Do you think they’re going to fail?”

All his instincts told him they’d be just fine…but his instincts had lied to him before.

“I doubt it,” he replied. “For whatever reason, I don’t think they’ve messed with this car.” He paused there, wondering how much he should say, if anything.

After all, sometimes it was just better to keep your mouth shut.

“I’m sensing a big ‘but’ there,” she remarked, and now he found himself grinning.

“No, the car is fine.” He turned left onto Paradise Avenue, and the vehicle performed flawlessly, no sign of the brakes not cooperating, no reason to think he should have anything but supreme confidence in its ability to keep him safe.

Then again, he’d thought pretty much the same thing about the Porsche.

“But…?”

“That guy you were talking to. Aaron Sanchez.”

Her expression was now almost amused. “What about him?”

“I’m not sure he’s on the up and up.”

She shifted in her seat so she was more or less facing him. The faint smile that had touched her lips was now gone, so at least it didn’t seem as if any thoughts of jealousy were dancing in her mind. “What makes you say that?”

“Just a feeling.” Briefly, he explained how he’d sensed that Paul was using some kind of supernatural powers to try to influence the game — a gambit that hadn’t worked out so well for him, thank God or whoever else might have been watching. “And I saw him making the kind of eye contact with Aaron Sanchez that you just wouldn’t make unless you knew the other person pretty well.”

Delia looked thoughtful. “Real estate agents tend to know a lot of people.”

Caleb supposed he couldn’t really argue with that assertion. All the same, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something much more than a client/agent relationship was going on here.

“True,” he allowed. “What do you know about him?”

She played with the strap of her purse, which now rested in her lap. “Aaron? Not a whole lot. I think he came on the Las Vegas real estate scene about three or four months ago. He’s sold a few properties. I wouldn’t describe him as a barn-burner or anything, but he’s definitely doing enough to make a decent living.”

Something about that timeframe made alarm bells go off in Caleb’s mind. On the surface, he supposed there was nothing too strange about someone relocating to Las Vegas in the winter, when the weather would be positively mild compared to most of the country, but the way he’d shown up here not too long after Caleb had decided to make the desert town his home base?

It didn’t smell right.

“So, you don’t know the guy very well, but you agreed to have drinks with him.”

The words came out much harsher than he’d intended. Too bad there was no way to take them back.

However, Delia didn’t look offended. Tone mild, she said, “Well, going out for drinks is a good way to get to know someone a little better.” She stopped there and sent him a sideways glance. “Do you think I should cancel?”

For some reason, the question made an unexpected warmth go through him. He’d expected her to accuse him of being jealous, of intruding where he had no right to, and instead she was asking him seriously whether she should back out of her date with Aaron Sanchez.

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