Because Pru had told her she’d taken one over to Caleb’s place, figuring it would probably be better not to leave her car parked on the street there for a period of unknown duration. None of them had known how long the rescue operation was going to take.
Hard to believe she’d driven down to Laughlin only yesterday afternoon. It felt as if she’d been away for a hundred years.
They got out of the Hyundai and headed inside. Delia had left on one of the can lights in the kitchen, figuring she didn’t want the place to be pitch dark when she got home, although she flicked on some others as they headed into the living room.
Everything looked utterly the same, but the house still didn’t feel quite right, as if something fundamental about it had changed.
She knew that wasn’t the problem, though. It wasn’t the house that had suffered a shift at its very core.
No, that would be her.
Pru pulled out her phone and checked the app. “Only two minutes away.”
She’d had Delia make the reservation as they were driving in so she wouldn’t have to wait too long for the car to arrive. The timing seemed to be working out just perfectly.
“Thank you for, well” — Delia waved a hand in a direction she hoped was southward — “everything.”
Pru’s shoulders lifted a fraction. Not because she wasn’t unmoved by Delia’s gratitude, but more because she’d never been all that good at accepting thanks or praise.
“It’s what friends do. I know you would have done the same for me.”
Yes, she would have, without hesitation.
“Still — ”
Pru’s cell phone pinged right then, and she looked down at the screen. “Ride’s here. I’ll text you tomorrow after I get up, just to check in.”
“Sounds good. I’m pretty sure the most exciting thing I’ll do tomorrow is head out to TJ’s at some point.”
Pru grinned, surprised Delia a little by giving her a quick, fierce hug, and then picked up her satchel and her Kohl’s bag of clothing and headed for the door. One final wave, and then she was gone.
The house felt strangely empty after she left, even though Delia was certainly used to being here by herself. She pulled in a breath, then went over and sprinkled some fish food into the tank. They all swam to the surface, mouths hungrily open, and a pang of guilt went through her.
No, it wasn’t her fault that she hadn’t been here to feed them, but the fish didn’t know that.
Luckily, it didn’t seem as if they’d suffered any irreparable harm by missing their feedings over the past day and a half, and once that was taken care of, she went into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water. Thanks to the way Caleb and the gang had retrieved her purse from the room where she’d been imprisoned, she still had her phone and everything else, thank God.
At least she wouldn’t have to go to the trouble of replacing the iPhone and her ID as she’d feared.
Her phone rang then, and she frowned. She doubted that Pru would be calling again so soon…and would have texted anyway unless it was a dire emergency…and as far as Delia knew, her mother had no idea that anything had gone wrong and wasn’t expecting her in the office until Friday morning.
When she lifted the iPhone out of her purse, she saw it was Caleb calling.
“Just wanted to make sure you got home okay,” he said.
Was it crazy to be so relieved to hear the sound of his voice? Of course, she’d had no reason to believe he wouldn’t have also reached his house safely, but still, a wave of warmth went through her.
“Oh, sure,” she replied, doing her best to sound utterly unconcerned. “Pru just left in her Uber. I was going to get some water and go to sleep. It’s been kind of a day.”
He chuckled. “That’s for sure.” A pause, and then he asked, “No sign of anything funky at your place?”
“None at all,” Delia said. “I doubt anyone even noticed I was gone.”
Except maybe nosy Mrs. Gallina, her next-door neighbor. But even if she’d butted in enough to reach out to Delia’s mother to see what was going on with her daughter, she would have only learned that Delia was away on business in Laughlin, and that would have been the end of that.
Business. She supposed that was one way to look at reining in a crazed demon who wanted to open a portal to the underworld.
“Good,” Caleb replied. “Same here.” Another pause, and when he spoke again, something in his tone sounded subtly different, even if Delia couldn’t have said exactly how. “You’re not going to work tomorrow, right?”
