Redemption Song (Daniel Faust #2)(36)

Instead, he rapped his knuckles on the table and got down to business. “Right. First thing in the morning, we’re going shopping for the essentials. Clothes, toiletries, everything you need to get back on your feet. You can stay here until you find a new place.”

I shook my head. “You know I can’t take your money. The bookstore’s struggling as it is.”

“Call it a loan,” Bentley said, though I knew they’d never expect to be repaid. “I think you need to ask yourself something, though, and I hope you give it due thought. It seems to me like you and Caitlin are finished. She gave you three days, and tomorrow the clock runs out. Whatever this rogue demon’s up to, it’s all hell’s business. Not something people like us need to get mixed up in. Nothing good can ever come of it.”

“You’re forgetting Lauren,” I said.

Bentley shook his head. “All you have is a wild guess, Daniel. You can’t prove Lauren has anything to do with the Redemption Choir. And even if she does, what of it? We’ll settle up with her, in our own way and on our own terms.”

I didn’t have an answer to that. I sacked out on the couch not long after, groping for a few hours’ peaceful sleep in the dying night. I found the sleep, but I didn’t find the peace.

? ? ?

I woke to the smell of eggs, bacon, and strong black coffee. Sunlight touched the fabric window shades, turning them a warm golden orange.

“Grab some plates,” Corman told me, flipping a fried egg on his spatula. “OJ’s in the fridge.”

“Funny how things look better in the morning light.”

“Yeah?” he said. “You make up your mind?”

I nodded. “Caitlin gave me three days to find a solution to this mess. I’ve got one left. I don’t walk from the table until the game’s over.”

Corman looked back over his shoulder. Up the hall, I could hear the shower running and the faint sounds of NPR on a tinny radio.

“Can’t say this in front of Bentley,” he said, “but I think you’re making the right call. You’ve gotta go with your heart. Only true compass we’ve got in this life. If you think the girl is worth the risk, if you really believe that, then the girl is worth the risk. We’ve got your back. No matter what.”

I took down some mismatched glasses from a cluttered cupboard.

“Thanks,” I said. “That means a lot.”

“Yeah, yeah, just don’t f*ck up and get killed. We didn’t spend all that time teaching you sorcery just so you could pick a fight and lose. What do I always tell you about good, clean, fair fights?”

I grinned. “No such thing. Fair fights are for suckers. Always fight dirty.”

Corman slapped me on the back. “Damn right, kiddo. Damn right.”

After breakfast, Corman went downstairs to open the store while Bentley bundled me into his car, and we set off to get my life back in order. Or at least fake it. With a new pair of slacks and a mint-colored dress shirt, I could look at myself in the mirror and see what looked like a reasonably put-together guy. I picked up a cheap prepaid Nokia and made quick calls to everyone whose numbers I knew by heart, letting them know not to call the old number. Caitlin’s phone went straight to voicemail. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I wanted to talk to her, but not until I had some good news to share.

Bentley needed groceries, so I rode with him to the Vons on East Tropicana. I wandered off as he roved the supermarket’s aisles with an envelope of coupons. On a whim, I dialed my old phone number.

“Hello,” Sullivan purred.

“I want my phone back, *.”

“Daniel,” he said. “May I call you Daniel? I think we should be on a first-name basis, given how much we have in common. You know, when I was your age, the world was a very different place. A man might live his entire life never traveling more than thirty, forty miles from where he was born. The people around him were his community. They depended on one another to survive. Nowadays, who even knows their next-door neighbors’ names? All this technology hasn’t made the world smaller, it’s made it bigger. More faceless.”

“Doesn’t change the fact,” I said, “that I paid four hundred dollars for that phone.”

“You aren’t calling about the phone. You’re calling to goad me into revealing details about my plans or where we’ve relocated our operations. I’ve been warned about your little tricks.”

“And yet you just admitted you relocated,” I said.

“As if we’d stay at the mission, now that you’ve told Sitri’s minions where to find us. That clue was free. Here’s another one: walk away. This has nothing to do with you.”

“You made it about me, last night.”

“You were a lucky bonus,” Sullivan said. “Would I love to punish Caitlin? Unquestionably. Would I like to orchestrate your violent and painful death, for the morale of my followers? If time permits. But none of this is about you, or her. My goals won’t affect you in the slightest. So I’ll offer you a truce: don’t pursue us, and we won’t pursue you. It’s a big desert.”

I strolled down the baking aisle. A harried-looking mother pushing a cart with twin babies rolled past me, and I kept my voice low until she was out of earshot.

“Here’s my counteroffer,” I said. “Leave Nevada. Go back east, out of Caitlin’s jurisdiction.”