If one wanted to point fingers, they could point at him. He was the reason that Callie even knew who Nate was. It was Josh’s meth addiction that had pulled Callie into this world. She’d been blackmailed by Nate’s boss Ford. She’d entered the soul magic world because of them. She’d done it because she loved her brother, because he’d bailed her out when she was kid. It’s what Delgados do. Family first. Always.
Only these days Callie was beginning to feel like it was family first for the others when it was convenient. Yes, it was her fault Nate was after them. It was Callie who ripped Nate’s soul from his body. She’d done it because he’d gotten a kid murdered. She’d been wrapped up in the need for justice or vengeance or something. She hadn’t thought about Zara. Her mom wasn’t great, but she was hers, and she sure as shit didn’t deserve to be kidnapped or to have her fingers cut off and sent to her daughter. Literally no one deserves that.
Josh, though, was happy to keep telling Callie how it was all her fault the few times he texted back. He’d avoided all twenty-seven of her calls and was never home when she went by their mom’s place. He hadn’t said he blamed her, but he hinted fucking hard. Josh messaged back, “No. You find Nate?”
“Not yet. Have a lead.” She didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he needed to know she was trying.
“K.”
“Has anyone you know seen Nate?” She hated to ask. She wasn’t tossing blame, but the fact was Josh knew these dealers. He knew Nate. He knew where they used to be holed up. He knew their faces, their names, which pockets they hid the good stuff in. He also was several weeks sober and she wasn’t trying to wreck that for him. A kidnapped mom already put him on edge, and Callie wasn’t sure he hadn’t hit the needle again.
“I’m working more now. Lots of construction jobs. They need me. Pays good.” He hadn’t answered her question.
“I’m glad the job is working out.” Callie didn’t trust anyone who would hire her brother for manual labor, and the last time she’d talked with Josh about the gig he’d said he was supervising. Junkies don’t make the most reliable employees, and you don’t put someone with zero experience in charge. Something was up with the job, but now wasn’t the time to bring it up.
“Almost have enough cash for a P.I. to find her.”
“You don’t need to do that. I’m on it,” she messaged back.
“P.I. is better than the cops.”
She was better, too. Derek even more so. She didn’t bother telling him so. At least he was focused. At this point, she’d take the wins when she could get them.
“Keep me posted. Love you.” She didn’t use to text her family love, but when one’s mom gets kidnapped, you start making sure the loved ones know how you feel.
Derek slid back into the booth. His movements were lithe, but that muscle in his jaw was ticking again.
“You okay?” She so rarely was the person asking that question these days.
He parted his lips, and then closed them again. Flummoxed Derek was a special sight. He filled more than half of the seat across from her. His elbows rested on the table, and if he’d leaned his weight into it he could have tilted the thing. Unease, though, permeated his hesitant motions. He pulled his phone from the inside pocket of his leather jacket, and looked at the small device in his hand. “My brother just called.”
“Father Henry?” Callie had met the priest only recently, and he’d been mostly kind to her. Less so to his brother. While he and Derek got along better than she and some of her family, the dynamic of priest and enforcer for a soul magician was, well, complicated.
Derek rolled his eyes. “Can we drop the Father stuff?”
She wouldn’t much care for hearing Josh get an honorific title either. “Sure. What did Henry want? Is everyone in your family okay?”
Derek’s smile was slow to form, but genuine.
“What?”
“Just thinking about whether he’d asked about family. I suppose he did.”
It was Callie’s turn to look confused.
“He asked about you.”
“Oh.”
“Oh?” His smile widened. “Calm down, doll.”
She shook off the warm fuzzies attempting to rise in her tummy. “So what did he want to know about me?”
“He was worried.”
“What?”
“He’s concerned.” The way Derek teased the word suggested he didn’t need his little brother worrying over his girlfriend. “He said he wanted to make sure you were okay after your last visit to the cathedral.”
Callie resisted the urge to ask what for a third time. “That’s…weird.”
“My brother is weird. Who wants to sign up for a lifetime of rules, rituals, and zero quality time with hot women like you?”
Derek started to chuckle before Callie felt the heat rise in her cheeks.
“I meant why does he want to know?” It was a safer question than ‘how much does he know?’
The last time Callie had been to the Cortean Catholic cathedral she’d been with the Soul Charmer. She’d been to the basement. She’d learned how much the church knew about the soul rental gig, and that they were key in keeping the Charmer in business. Souls needed redemption, needed back into our world, and the Charmer had to free them from the well to do so. She’d done it that night. The Charmer had not taken her back to the church again. She was fine with that. The less she had to see that well, to hear those souls, to be a part of the bargain with purgatory the better.
“My brother knows something. He thinks he’s too honorable to tell, but the fact he called means something is up and it’s probably tied to the Soul Charmer.” Derek was almost successful in keeping the apprehension from rattling his voice.
Cops asking about Ford’s death. Zara kidnapped and injured. Nate was missing. Josh
