Caleb’s first instinct was to say that yes, of course she should cancel the whole thing. However, he thought that might be overstepping a bit.
Besides, if Aaron let his guard down around her, then maybe she’d be able to pick up a few things he might unintentionally let slip.
“No,” he said. “I mean, that’s your decision. It’s not my place to tell you what to do. And it could be that I’m imagining things.”
“I doubt it,” Delia said at once. “You’re not the sort of person to conjure this kind of stuff out of thin air. If something’s got your spidey-sense tingling, then I believe you when you say there might be something kind of dodgy about Aaron Sanchez.”
“Maybe all you need to do is find out a little more about him before you go on the date,” Caleb suggested. “Have your friend Pru check him out.”
The suggestion seemed to make sense to her, because Delia nodded. “That’s easy enough. I doubt she’ll find much, though — Aaron is working for a pretty solid agency, and I know they wouldn’t have hired him without a thorough background check.”
Possibly not. On the other hand, a standard check like that wouldn’t pull up the sorts of things Caleb was looking for.
“Still, it’s worth a try,” he said. “Ask Pru to check and see if he’s moved around a lot, or if his employment history has holes in it. That’s not the sort of thing the agency might care about, as long as his real estate license is up to date and he doesn’t have any kind of criminal background. But if something about his residences and his work feels flimsy, then there’s a good chance he’s manufactured the whole thing to make it look as if he’s been living on this plane for a while.”
“As opposed to popping up here straight out of Hell,” Delia commented. She shifted once again so she could look at him directly. “You don’t really think he’s a demon, do you?”
Right then, Caleb didn’t know what to think. The only thing he did know was that something about the situation didn’t feel right.
“I don’t know,” he said. “It could be that Paul is the demon, and he has Aaron under his control.”
Delia’s brows drew together. “But for what reason? Why would a demon be controlling a real estate agent?”
The answer was right there in front of them, even if she didn’t want to acknowledge it. “To get closer to you, of course,” Caleb replied. “They know we’ve been working together, even if they’ve been leaving you alone lately. That’s the thing with demons — they’re playing the long game, so it’s not too hard for them to sit back and wait for a situation to resolve itself in one way or another.”
“Well, that’s reassuring,” she remarked, and he couldn’t help chuckling.
“No, in a way, it’s good, because they’ve already found out what happens when they try to confront us directly. Calach wasn’t some minor-level demon, so the simple fact that we were able to banish him is enough to give any of them pause.”
All right, maybe he was being a little optimistic. But Delia was looking worried, and he didn’t want her to think the situation was utterly dire. The two of them had managed to send Calach back to Hell, after all, and she kept so much holy water on hand that even a powerful demon might think twice about confronting her directly…especially since she’d already used it once in combat and knew just how effective it was.
“So you’re not worried.”
“No, I’m not worried,” Caleb lied. “All the same, it couldn’t hurt to have Pru look into the guy.”
Just in case.
Their conversation on the way to the restaurant hadn’t been the most reassuring thing in the world, but Delia told herself they needed to celebrate Caleb’s big win. He was going on to the quarterfinals, and he’d managed that accomplishment with only his brains and skill, and absolutely no demonic powers at all.
He needed to be rewarded for that accomplishment.
How he’d even gotten a reservation for this place on a Saturday night, she had no idea. Primal Steakhouse was one of the hottest tickets in town, and when she and Pru had investigated the possibility of going there on a weeknight when it wouldn’t be so crowded, she’d been told there wasn’t an opening for over a month.
In her humble opinion, no place was that good.
Maybe Caleb hadn’t used his demonic powers to get ahead in the poker tournament and instead had brought them all to bear on making sure there’d be a timely cancellation at Primal just when they needed one.
She waited as their server pulled out a chair for her, then sat down, wishing Caleb had warned her about where they were going. Her silky top and heeled sandals and dark jeans were probably all right for most dining destinations around town, but if she’d known they were coming here, she would have put on a dress.
Then again, it was Las Vegas, and even the fanciest restaurants didn’t have much of a dress code beyond banning baseball caps and flip-flops and pants that slipped down far enough to reveal your underwear. With that in mind, her pretty teal sleeveless blouse and Caleb’s rust-colored camp shirt were probably just fine.
No prices on the menu, but she already had a pretty good idea of what things cost, thanks to the way she’d researched the place when she’d thought she and Pru would have a girls’ night out here. Depending on what kind of wine Caleb selected, Delia was pretty sure the meal would set him back at least five hundred bucks, maybe more.
Somehow, she doubted he would care much too much about that.
Since neither of them knew what they were ordering yet, they both agreed on a bottle of merlot, figuring that would go with a lot of different things. Once their waiter went off to fetch the wine, Caleb settled against the back of his chair, although he was still looking down at the menu, eyes narrowed slightly as he absorbed the various offerings.
“Excited about making it to the quarterfinals?” she asked, and he set the menu on the table next to his place setting.