Redemption Song (Daniel Faust #2)(94)
“I’ve never actually been caught before. It’s surprisingly refreshing to unburden myself. I suppose this is what giving confession feels like.”
“I hope you’re not expecting me to assign you ten Hail Marys and let you go.”
“I’m expecting you’ll see reason,” Pinfeather said. He stepped closer to her, showing her his open hands. “Think of what I could accomplish as a double agent. I could feed information to you, disinformation to the Flowers—”
“You could lie, sabotage us, or simply vanish, too,” she said.
“Come on,” he said with a sly smile. “This is Las Vegas, right? So gamble a little. What have you got to lose? Let me go, and I’ll make things right.”
Caitlin studied him, deep in thought.
“You made one mistake,” she said.
“What’s that?”
Caitlin shook her head. “Gambling. This is my territory. My city. Your entire plan depended on betting against the house.”
A sharp crunching sound echoed across the cramped office. Pinfeather’s eyes went wide, his body rigid as a steel pole. He looked down. Caitlin’s hand was buried in his chest up to the wrist. A rivulet of blood guttered from his mouth as he tried to speak. Caitlin put her lips to his ear as her fingers curled around his pounding heart.
“Like you said, this is Vegas,” Caitlin whispered. “And in Vegas, the house always wins.”
She yanked her hand free. Pinfeather crumpled to the carpet, a look of surprise frozen on his face. She dropped his dead heart onto the ruins of his chest and went to find a bathroom where she could scrub her hands.
Caitlin hummed as she strolled away from the empty church, thinking about what to buy for dinner. Daniel was coming over, and for at least one night, they could relax together in peace.
She supposed things had worked out just fine.
<<<<>>>>
Afterword
And here we are at the end of another adventure. I hope you enjoyed the ride! If you want to be the first to know what happens next, head over to craigschaeferbooks.com and hop onto my mailing list for announcements about new releases. You can also catch me on Facebook , Twitter , or just drop me an email at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you.
Grateful thanks to Kira Rubenthaler (Editor Above All Other Editors) and James T. Egan (Cover Design Maestro) at Bookfly Designs. I couldn’t do what I do without ’em. Also thanks to the incredibly helpful and friendly staff at Battlefield Vegas, where I got some hands on experience with the less-magical weapons of Faust’s world. It was a super-fun afternoon of research and I can’t recommend the experience highly enough.
And for the record, yes, a Taurus Judge probably WILL blow a demon’s face off at close range.
As always, names of certain hotels and establishments have been changed for legal purposes, but fans of Las Vegas will probably be able to tell what’s what pretty easily. Winter, of course, is a purely fictional establishment.
That said, if the pulse of the music moves your feet down a certain back corridor in a certain Vegas nightclub, and you find yourself eye-to-eye with a silent man in a gas mask? I take no responsibilty for what happens if you go downstairs.