“And that’s just what an angel has a craving for,” Adrian shot back.

Eddie nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

Jim stepped to the side and opened the door farther. “Are you alive?”

Adrian shrugged as they came inside. “Hard to answer that. But I know I like beer and sex, how ’bout that.”

“What is Dog?”

Eddie answered that one: “Consider him a friend. A very good friend.”

The animal…or whatever he was…gave a shy wag like he understood every word, and was worried he’d offended, and Jim felt compelled to lean in and give his chin a little scratch. “Guess I don’t need to get him vaccinated, do I?”

“Nope.”

“What’s with the limp?”

“It’s the way he is.” Eddie’s big palm smoothed over the dog’s rough fur. “It just is.”

As he and Dog sat on the bed and Adrian wandered around, Jim took his headfuck over to the refrigerator, grabbed three Buds, and dealt the cans out like cards. A trio of cracks and hisses cut through the room and then there was a collective ahhhh.

“How much do you know about me?” Jim asked.

“Everything.” Adrian looked around and focused on Jim’s twin piles of clean and dirty. “Guess you don’t believe in dresser drawers, do you.”

Jim glanced down at his clothes. “Nope.”

“Ironic, really.”

“Why?”

“You’ll see.” Adrian went over and sat down at the table. Tipping the shoe box full of chess pieces toward him, he glanced inside. “So what do you want to know. About her, us, anything.”

Jim took another drag on his Bud and thought it all over.

“Only one thing matters to me,” he said. “Can she be killed?”

Both of the angels went still. And slowly shook their heads.

CHAPTER
30

Considering what he’d been arrested for and the way things were going, Vin couldn’t believe what was showing on the screen of his cell phone as the ringer went off.

As he accepted the call, he muted the local news and held on hard. “Marie-Terese?”

There was a pause. “Hi.”

Swiveling around in his desk chair, he looked out over Caldwell and found it hard to comprehend that mere nights ago, he’d stared at the view with such a sense of domination. Now he felt like his life was totally out of control and he was fighting to stay where he was instead of being king of the mountain.

Never one to beat around the bush, he said, “Have you heard the news? About me?”

“Yes. But you were with me late last night, when it happened. I know you didn’t do it.”

Relief rolled through him—although only about that particular part of the shit storm. “And the other attack, in the alley?”

“I’m on the way to the Iron Mask now. The police want to talk to me.”