The slap of his hands on his thighs made her jump. “Is this going to be the paranormal edition of Animal Planet again? You’re trusting two cats who hack up hairballs just to give me a reason to buy paper towels and who play in the toilet for amusement, Delaney. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Don’t call me ridiculous, smart-ass. I know the supernatural and I know animals. My dogs love him, Kellen. They know an evil entity, and as crazy as this all sounds, I don’t think Clyde is one, and neither do they. He’s almost too much of a dork to be one, in my opinion. But that’s neither here nor there. He’s here and I’m dealing with him. Live with it.”
A sigh of defeat, meaning she’d won this round, blew from between Kellen’s lips. “Fine. Like I could talk you out of anything anyway. You can be so damned single-minded. Someday, it may be your ass you hand over. So what’s the plan now? We wait until Lucifer sends in reinforcements? I’m supposed to wait around until something or someone hurts you? And what the fuck are you going to do with Clyde?”
She’d finally resigned herself to giving Clyde’s problem her all. It wasn’t like she could get away from him, anyway. There was a reason Clyde was here. Whatever it was, it was karmic, cosmic—something-ic—and she’d always been a firm believer in the universe’s plan. “Help him. It’s kinda what I do. I’m going to figure out how he ended up in Hell and try to cross him over—if he’s been truthful, that is. If Clyde’s the man he claims he was in life, then he should be in the biggest, baddest chem lab ever with endless resources and supplies—upstairs, not down.
“The rest”—she shrugged her shoulders—“what else can we do but wait it out? This is the devil we’re talking about, Kell. It’s not like we can anticipate what he’s up to, or what he’ll do when he finds out Clyde’s one-upped him in the smarts department. He’s got shit going for him we don’t. Like flaming fingertips and those freaky snakes he’s so fond of. I just want you to promise you’ll be really careful. He’ll do whatever he has to to hurt me, and if he hurt you, it would kill me. We only have each other now. Whatever’s going to happen, I need to know you’re safe. So watch your ass.”
“And wait around,” was Kellen’s dull response.
Delaney rose from the bed and pinched his cheek with a fond tweak. “Yep. That’s all we can do. We can’t control what we don’t know. When and if I figure out what’s up with Clyde, I’ll let you know. I doubt it’s related to us, but having an in, in Hell can’t hurt. And keep your mouth shut about Vincent. No one—not Marcella, not Clyde—can have that information, especially Clyde. If this turns out to be some big hoax on his part, I don’t want him taking the kind of intermittent fear I’ve experienced since that night back to Hell. I won’t give Lucifer the satisfaction. He’d definitely hurt Marcella to hurt me, and that’s not something I think I could take. That’s why I shipped her off—because if she tries to interfere, she won’t be a nobody to him anymore.”
Kellen leaned back on the bed on his elbows. His attempt was for clearly casual, but he only achieved it partially. “Is she okay?”
Her eyebrow rose and her lips blossomed into a knowing smile. “And you care why?”
His expression fought to remain impassive and nonchalant. “Because she’s your friend. I know it would upset you if anything happened to her.”
“Right. Which has absolutely nothing to do with her ass. Which you watch. Often. Every time she leaves a room, in fact. This is all just concern for me.”
“I’m a man. Demon or not, she has a sweet ass. So what?”
Delaney chuckled at him. His attraction for Marcella was so blatantly obvious, but knowing her brother and his hatred of anything smacking of Hell, he’d never act on it. On a rational level, she knew Marcella would long outlive Kellen. To become involved would be mostly insane. Her heart said something much less rational. “So nothing. I have to go. I need to get moving on this thing if I hope to help Clyde cross.”
Kellen snatched her hand in his once more, gripping it tight. “Do you really believe crossing is what he wants? Really?”
She glanced at Clyde once more. Now Vern and Shirley were in his lap, rubbing their faces against his arm and vying for his attention. “I think I do.” Without warning, she definitely did think just that. Why, when, how, was a mystery. Yet she was convinced in that moment that Clyde was for real. Though she still wasn’t ready to tell him the details of her run-in with Satan.
“Okay. I’ll shut up. I won’t like it, but I’ll do it if you think it’s the right thing to do. But call me. Call me often so I know you’re okay.”
She planted a kiss on his cheek and followed up with a quick squeeze of a hug around his wide shoulders. “Will do. Oh, and one more little favor?”
“What?”
“Can I borrow some clothes and a pair of shoes? I can’t keep dragging him around in my bathrobe. People stare, ya know?”