Page 73 of Devil in the Details

However, even though he’d been shot down twice, Caleb didn’t appear ready to give up. “What do they plan to do with all the energy they’re collecting?”

“I don’t know.” Sweat had begun to drip off the man’s face and onto his already blotched T-shirt. In that moment, Delia almost felt sorry for him. She had no idea how he’d gotten tangled up with Aegis or why they’d targeted him, but it sure seemed as if he was an unwitting pawn more than anything else.

Caleb appeared to have come to the same conclusion, because he shook his head, saying, “Then I guess we’ll let you get back to work.”

Once again, he looked over at her, and she got the signal right away.

Time to get out of there.

They both turned and walked away. Even as they exited the house, Delia couldn’t help tensing a little as she wondered if Paul Reeves was going to do something to stop them.

But either the holy water was exerting enough influence that the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind, or he’d decided getting into a physical altercation wasn’t a very good idea, not when Caleb was at least ten or fifteen years younger than he and in much better shape.

And the man might also have been wondering exactly how many vials of the blessed liquid Delia still had stashed in her purse.

Whatever his reasons for not going after them, she could only be glad that he’d decided discretion was the better part of valor.

“Now what?” she asked after Caleb had fastened his seatbelt and she’d begun to pull away from the curb.

He glanced over at the clock on the dashboard, then grinned.

“Now I’ve got a semifinal to win.”

Caleb knew his outward nonchalance about the tournament was all show. As Delia pulled into the casino’s parking lot, his mind was already racing through everything they’d just learned. Aegis Holdings had its fingers in way more pies than he’d initially thought, and if Paul Reeves had been telling the truth — which he suspected was the case, thanks to the holy water temporarily breaking the sigil’s hold — the plan somehow involved the poker tournament itself.

“You sure you want to go through with this?” Delia asked as she guided her little white Kona into a spot someone had just vacated. “If those Aegis creeps are watching you….”

“That’s exactly why I need to be there,” Caleb replied, his tone firm, then glanced at the dashboard clock again. “The semifinal starts in thirty minutes. If what Paul told us is true, then the final round is when they’re really planning something big. I need to make it to the finals to see what they’re up to.”

Delia didn’t look convinced by this argument. “And put yourself right in the middle of whatever supernatural energy collection scheme they’re running? That seems risky.”

“I’ve always been a gambling man,” he said with a grin. “Besides, I’m not exactly what you can call your run-of-the-mill poker player. Maybe that’s why they’re not sure what to do about me.”

Thanks to the way she didn’t respond right away to that comment, Caleb was pretty sure he’d scored a point.

They got out of her SUV, and as they were walking toward the casino entrance, Delia’s phone buzzed.

“I’d better get it, just in case it’s a client,” she said. But when she pulled out her iPhone and stared down at the screen, her expression grew troubled. “It’s Pru.”

“Then put it on speaker so we can both hear,” Caleb said at once. He had a feeling that Prudence wouldn’t be calling if she didn’t have something important to share.

“Go ahead,” Delia said as they paused by a couple of palm trees just outside the casino entrance. No one was hanging around there, making the spot private enough.

Hopefully.

“I’ve got you on speaker,” she added. “I’m here with Caleb.”

That clarification didn’t seem to bother Pru very much, since she immediately launched into the reason for her call. “I’ve found something weird,” she said. “Those Aegis properties? It looks like they’re all sitting on some kind of grid, but I can’t figure out what it is. The pattern doesn’t line up with anything I recognize.”

“There’s no rhyme or reason to it at all?” Caleb asked.

“Not that I can tell,” Pru replied. “That doesn’t mean I’m not going to keep hacking at it, trying to figure out what it means.”

“But it’s not random,” Delia said.

“Definitely not. But whatever’s going on with it, I did notice that a bunch of pieces of the grid seem to converge here in Las Vegas. And guess what’s at the very center?”

“The casino where the tournament is being held,” Delia said, which was exactly what Caleb had been thinking as well.

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