“One of the officers punched me when I didn’t let them inside fast enough,” the preacher said ruefully.“I’m fine,” he added.“My little sister used to hit me harder than that when we were kids.”
GG snickered, then turned serious again.“Dalt and I need to move on, Pastor,” she said.“We were thinking of heading to Brooklyn.I need to meet a friend there soon anyway.”
He nodded thoughtfully.“You’ll leave after dark?”he figured, not bothering to argue with them.They all knew he would be safer once they were gone.Larry had a flock to look after and he also had a job to do.
“That’s the plan, sir,” Dalton agreed.It was late afternoon now, so they didn’t have long to wait.
“I’ll make us some coffee and you can take a thermos with you,” the pastor offered.
“That would be great, thanks,” GG said in acceptance.
He had food stashed in secret places the cops hadn’t found yet.Packing a backpack with some supplies, he handed it to Dalt once the coffee was ready.“That should last you for a few days,” he said.
“Don’t you need this?”the cowboy asked.
“My congregation make sure I have enough,” Pastor Hogan said, waving away his concern.They sat down in the living room and GG resumed her vigil at the window.She was constantly on edge, waiting for Rahab to find her and make her pay for deserting him.
Chapter Eighteen
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ARKAS WAS STILL UNSETTLEDabout being shackled by the coffee table.He’d watched it warily during his conversation with Oaklie.Finding out she was a cambion had been a shock.His overwhelming attraction to her was even more of a surprise.They’d agreed on a truce, but he kept expecting the wooden sculptures to come to life at any second.
“So, you have no idea where Fate would have sent your brothers?”Oaklie asked.Thunder boomed again, then lightning lit up the sky.Rain began to pour down, spattering against the windowpanes like tiny bullets.
“Nope,” Arkas replied.“I wish Fate would give us some kind of sign.”He waited expectantly, but nothing happened.“It was worth a shot,” he said sheepishly.
Oaklie snorted out an adorable laugh, then sipped her tea.Her face lit up and he became entranced once again.“I just remember hearing something strange a few weeks ago,” she said in budding excitement.
“What was it, female?”he asked.He couldn’t shake the notion that the cambion was supposed to be his.It had to be a byproduct of the strange link they shared.It was muted again now that she’d raised her internal shield once more.
“I heard someone ranting about aliens in New York on a ham radio,” she told him.“I thought he was just nuts, but maybe he really is an oracle.”
The hairs on the back of the warrior’s neck rose.“Some humans have been known to possess mystical sight,” he said.“What else did you hear?”
“That was it,” Oaklie said, holding her mug with both hands.A few long black strands of hair had escaped from her bun.He traced them down her lovely face to where they pooled in her lap.An image of him lying on the couch with his head on her thighs popped into his mind.Sudden longing welled inside him and he squelched it down.He still wasn’t convinced that the cambion wasn’t using mind tricks on him.
