Why was Aaron Sanchez living in a condo owned by the Aegis Group? A mere accident of fate, or something more?

While it seemed like the company tended to focus on vacation homes, they also had a smattering of long-term rentals. She supposed it was possible that they’d just started branching out into that section of the market and Aaron had merely lucked into one of their early offerings.

Or maybe the condo was partial payment for services rendered, although she had no idea what those services might be.

And exactly why had he been at the Desert Paradise poker tournament, anyway? His explanation that he’d been providing moral support for a friend now sounded pretty weak, even if that had been Delia’s sole reason for attending.

Well, whatever was going on, she needed to talk to Caleb again. Having him over at her house two nights in a row didn’t feel exactly kosher, for reasons she probably couldn’t have defined even to herself, but she also didn’t want to angle for an invitation to his place.

However, he solved that problem for her by calling a little after five, right before she was about to head out of the office.

“I found out some more stuff,” he said, sounding cheerful. Then again, he tended to generally be upbeat, not the kind of disposition she would have expected from someone who had demon blood running through their veins.

“So did I,” she replied.

“Perfect. Then why don’t you come over and we’ll talk about it? I’ll order pizza.”

She could work with that. Because her day had been so busy, she hadn’t even eaten lunch, only wolfed down a protein bar and drank some water during a brief lull between clients. Making up the calorie deficit with a couple of slices of pepperoni sounded like a great idea.

“Okay,” she said. “I just need to finish closing up shop over here, so I can be at your place in about twenty minutes.”

“See you then.”

Delia finished locking up the office and then headed out to her car. Traffic was awful, of course, but eventually she pulled into the driveway of the Pueblo Street house. The whole way over, she’d kept checking her rearview mirrors and being as vigilant as possible, and yet she didn’t think anyone had followed her.

Of course, she’d taken extra precautions. Maybe it was crazy, but she’d carefully daubed all the door handles of her SUV with holy water, figuring if any of the demons lurking out there tried to mess with her car, they’d be in for a rude shock. For all she knew, that application of holy water had also allowed her to fly under the radar, so to speak.

There was so much about how all this worked that she just didn’t know.

But there was Caleb, smiling and inviting her in, and an open bottle of chianti already waited on the kitchen counter.

“I went ahead and ordered the pizza,” he told her as he handed over a glass. “From the way you sounded on the phone, I figured you wouldn’t want to wait. Pepperoni and black olives and bell peppers, right?”

They’d hung out together enough that he knew just what she liked. Sending him a grateful smile, she said, “Absolutely right. And thanks for ordering the pizza. I didn’t have a chance to eat lunch, so I’m starving.”

“Well, it’ll be here in a couple of minutes.” Caleb paused there, warm brown eyes carefully surveying her. “Do you want to talk about it now, or wait for the pizza to get here?”

“Let’s wait,” she replied. “It won’t be too much longer, right?”

“Probably not. I called them ten minutes ago.”

They used up the remaining time by getting the table set and putting some neutral, almost New Age music on in the background. Delia would have thought Caleb was more of a head-banger, but it seemed she was wrong about that…or he’d simply decided it would be better to play something that wasn’t quite so intrusive.

The food arrived right on time, which meant they were sitting at the dining room table soon enough. Caleb topped off their glasses of chianti and waited while she put a slice of pizza on her plate.

“So,” he said, and gave her an expectant look.

“Maybe this is all nothing,” she began, and his eyebrow lifted.

“If it was ‘nothing,’ then you wouldn’t be so worried about it.”

Had she really been so obvious? Yes, she’d been keyed up ever since she’d gotten Pru’s text, but she didn’t think her agitation had been that plain.

Caleb was more perceptive than he let on, though. And since he’d already known something was up, he’d probably been looking at her with a more critical eye than usual.

“Aaron Sanchez,” she said, then allowed herself a fortifying sip of chianti. “Pru discovered that he paid off all his student loans around six months ago. He also bought a brand-new BMW for cash right around the same time…and he moved into a fancy condo, one that’s apparently owned by Aegis Holdings, if the information on the county recorder’s site is to be believed.”

“That’s a whole lot of coincidences,” Caleb remarked before biting off a piece of loaded pizza.