Chapter 9 #2
“She’s right. Everyone at IA knows I’m the son of the devil. They’d be too afraid to screw me over like this and risk my finding out they did it. Especially given the fact that I don’t react well to betrayal. It tends to bring out my father in me.”
She could only imagine that horror.
“Okay,” Sorcha said. “So it’s an outsider. What else did they take?”
Elana sighed. “I’ll let Bernadette know. Right now, I have a meeting at school with my wife about our son peeing on a bush during recess. I don’t dare miss another parent-teacher conference or she’ll have my head. You two…be careful.”
Sorcha sucked her breath in sharply. “Good luck with that.”
“Tell me about it. I’m the one who told him a tree was a perfectly good substitution for the bathroom. I’m sure my wife will never let me live this one down.”
Laughing at Elana’s dire tone, Sorcha watched the captain get in her car and drive off.
Once they were alone, a new thought occurred to her. “You wanted them to arrest you, didn’t you? That’s why you didn’t fight them.”
Luke scoffed. “I seldom fight humans. Not worth the busted knuckles…or the headache. But yeah. I was hoping to pick a few details out of the detective while I was here.”
“So, did you learn anything?”
“No. I’m stumped. This feels like a total ‘Fuck you, Ken’ situation.”
Sorcha scowled at those unexpected words. “A what?”
Helly let out an evil laugh. “Something we say in Hell when we really want to fuck someone up.”
“Yeah. It means you’re being royally screwed with for no purpose whatsoever, and the asshole messing with your life has no reason to. They won’t profit from it. They’re simply enjoying the torment… ’Cause. Fuck. You. Ken.” He spat out each word as if it were its own insult.
And given the growl in his voice, she could only imagine what he’d do to whoever was dumb enough to mess with him.
He let out a heavy sigh, then spoke to his car. “Thanks for not harming Sorcha, D.”
“You were in a bad enough mood. I wasn’t about to make it worse. While you like this car, in one of your moods, I have no doubt you’d torch me in it. ’Cause fuck you, Delilah.”
He actually patted his door affectionately before he got in. “Not today. You bought yourself some good will where I’m concerned.”
Sorcha opened her door and let Helly in first. The imp flounced to the backseat. Picking up her ball cap, Sorcha closed the door. “I think I need to get an IA cap for our convertible days.”
Before she could put it on, it changed in her hands from the UGA red cap to a black hat bearing the IA shield—a five-pointed white star inside a gold circle that held the words Infernal Affairs. The center of the star bore the official Georgia seal.
More powers he’d never explain.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He started Delilah and backed out of the parking lot.
As they headed for the office, Sorcha kept running everything through her mind. “What are the odds that there’s a Dire running loose in Peachtree City, and another canine shifter in Savannah?”
“Slim. Or not. It really could be a coincidence. I have no idea what the Dire is doing, but at least no one died in Peachtree City.”
“And if it’s not a coincidence?”
Luke considered it. “I need to get my hands on the hair the ME found.” He glanced in the rearview mirror. “Helly?”
“On it, boss.” She laid down in the backseat, then vanished.
Sorcha gaped. “Uh…what if she gets caught?”
“She won’t.”
“But isn’t this tampering with evidence?”
“Useless evidence for the humans. They can’t identify it and never will. Besides, she’ll return it to them as soon as we’re done. They’ll never know it’s gone.”
Sorcha didn’t know what part of that was the most disturbing. The fact that he thought nothing of breaking their rules or that they could take whatever they wanted without fear of being caught. “Done this a lot, have you?”
“Few times.”
My ulcer just had a baby…
And that baby was hungry. As they stopped at a light, Sorcha saw a Chick-Fil-A half a block away. “Can we stop for food?”
“Sure. Just tell me where.”
She pointed to the restaurant. “Chick-Fil-A.”
He started laughing, until he realized she was serious. “Are you shitting me?”
“No. I love their food.”
Screwing his face up, he winced. “I’ll stop in the lot next to it and you can walk over.”
What in the world was wrong with him?
It was the strangest thing to say. “Why?”
He jerked his chin toward the restaurant. “That is true holy ground. I’m not stepping one foot on that property. I can’t.”
Now she laughed. Until she realized he was equally as serious. “For real?”
“Yes,” he said in unison with Delilah as he started forward.
And then he did just what he’d told her he would do. He pulled into the lot next to it.
Bemused, she stared at him. “Okay…are you really telling me you would burst into flames if you ate there?”
“I wish. That would at least warm me up for a bit.”
“Explain this. How can you listen to Christian rock and not be able to step foot on Chick-Fil-A property?”
“The music is holy and I can even sing along to it. But there are rules about where I can and can’t go, and I’ll leave it at that.”
Sorcha’s breath caught as she realized that she’d just found his Achilles’ heel. Something he couldn’t do…
She wasn’t sure why he wasn’t allowed there, but his fear was real. There was no denying it, and she was sure it wasn’t something he showed lightly.
Or showed to others as a rule.
“I can eat somewhere else.”
That actually lightened the air between them. “You sure?” he asked.
“Absolutely. There has to be a Wendy’s or McDonald’s nearby.”
His relief was tangible.
How absolutely weird. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of this.
What a peculiar weakness.
As Luke started to leave, Helly leaned over the seat and shoved her fist in Luke’s face.
“Got it, boss!”
“So I see.” He put Delilah back in park before he moved her hand out of his face and offered his palm to Helly.
Smiling, she dropped the fur in his hand and sat back. “Did I miss anything while I was gone?”
“We almost stopped at a Chick-Fil-A.”
Helly’s eyes widened at Sorcha’s words, then she hissed like a cat. “Oh, we don’t go there. Ever.”
So, Luke wasn’t the only one with that ban. Just what other weaknesses did they have?
Sorcha scowled as Luke sniffed at the fur Helly had given him. “Where’s Timmy, Lassie? I have a Scooby snack if you can find the well.”
He slid a murderous glare toward her. Without commenting on her bad humor, he turned in the seat to look at Helly. “Did you smell this?”
She nodded.
Something strange passed between them.
“What is it?” Sorcha asked.
He held it out to her. “Take a whiff.”
She screwed her face up in distaste. “Um…no. Rather not.”
Scoffing at her reaction, he moved it closer to her nose. “Seriously. It won’t bite.”
“No, but it might stink.” That was her biggest fear. Choking on who knew what.
“Smell it.”
Sorcha curled her lip. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“I am not.” No missing the determination in that gravelly voice.
Irritated, she took his hand and led it closer.
Not sure what to expect, she leaned toward his palm and did as he asked. “I don’t smell anything.”
“Exactly.” He handed the fur back to Helly.
His tone annoyed her. “Okay…what does that mean?”
“It’s not a hellhound. If it was, it’d smell like brimstone.”
Oh. That was why they were being so strange. “There’s a word you don’t hear every day. How very archaic of you.”
Smirking, he ignored her comment. “Get it back to the lab, Helly. Thanks.”
The imp dove out of sight again, then vanished.
Sorcha wasn’t sure what to make of the imp’s casual teleporting. “Ever wonder if that gives her a complex?”
Luke scowled. “What?”
“Making her dive out of sight in public like a married girlfriend. It can’t be pleasant for her.”
He snorted. “She’s fine. Hiding is what she prefers. It’s weird that she’s been hanging around you so much. Normally, she avoids humans as much as I do.”
“Really?” That made her feel better about all this.
“Yeah. She’s not really fond of y’all. She definitely couldn’t stand my last partner.”
There was no missing that wistful note in his deep voice as he spoke. It made her feel awful for him. “You must get homesick.”
“Every minute I’m stuck here. Hate this place.”
At first, she was aghast. Until she thought about it more. In a weird way, it made sense. The human plane wasn’t exactly the paradise she’d wanted, either. Living was hard, and some days it felt impossible.
Being away from friends and family made it worse. There was only so much Facetime could do to alleviate the loneliness.
Which made her wonder if he could Facetime with the inhabitants of Hell.
That was a truly scary thought. Could demons use it to escape?
Or possess someone?
Before she could ask, both of their phones rang.
This can’t be good. “Hello,” she said at the same time he answered his. “Teivel.”
She wasn’t sure who called Luke, but her call was from Bernadette.
“We have another body. Is the Sexy Wonder with you?”
Sorcha laughed at Bernadette’s term for her partner. “He is.”
“Good, then he’ll know where to take you. See you there.”
She hung up at the same time Luke turned his phone off. “Did you get any details about the new body?” she asked him.
Nodding, he put the car in drive. “Another student. Factors Walk.”
“Where’s that?”
“Near the river.”
She was glad he knew his way around the city. Especially since her relationship with GPS was seldom harmonious. In fact, the damn thing had almost driven her into the river on her arrival in Savannah.
Real evil was modern technology.
She slid her gaze toward Luke, then again, maybe not. Real evil was sitting beside her in the form of a luscious piece of cheese, and yet he didn’t seem evil.
That’s exactly what your granddaddy would say.