“You think he’s that smart?” Callie had met Nate enough times to know the guy was a slimy, straight-forward kind of sleaze. He wanted in on soul magic. He’d been reading up on old religious texts not long before she’d yanked out his soul. He carried that shit around with him. No shame. He made plain plays for women and drugs and power. No stealth. He demanded his soul back and then fucking disappeared. No smarts.
Derek shook his head. “He ain’t dumb. If he really has taken Ford’s guys on as his own, someone else would have done that. Maybe even Adam.”
Callie finished her beer. She set the empty on the coffee table. “I’ve got three other markers to hit for souls today.”
“Not counting Johnny Rocks?” Derek put his empty beer next to hers.
“Kind of pointless now.” Callie couldn’t hold back the defeat. She’d finally heard from Nate, but it hadn’t been on the right terms. Hadn’t been on terms at all. It wasn’t that Callie was unfamiliar with being beholden to the whims of assholes, it was that the consequences now were bigger than her. It’s one thing to fuck up your own life. It’s another when it screws with family.
Derek didn’t miss a beat. She wasn’t alone. “Who are we after?”
“One in the Railyard, one near the plaza, and one more pickup in The Greens.”
Derek groaned, and Callie smiled in turn. “I wish I could have swapped that one out with Beck, too, but it’ll be easy.”
The Greens was a neighborhood backing up to a golf course. It had gated entrances, full-time security guards, and grass in the desert. It was fucking obnoxious. The people who lived there never returned their rentals, as if part of the cost was her hauling her ass out to their homes. Soul renting was pitched as sidestepping sin, but it shouldn’t be so damn convenient.
“We’ll start out there.” If she didn’t know him better, she’d have thought Derek was whining about it. Instead she knew he was running scenarios. The quiet ones had a lot going on inside. Callie should have known that the day she met him.
“If we work our way in,” Callie said following his logic, “we’ll have the plaza pickup as a last-ditch option if Sharon or Casey aren’t home.”
They shrugged back on their coats. Callie tucked her flask into her side pocket, and then pulled the jar containing Nate’s soul from the closet hiding spot. She didn’t know if it was having a plan or drinking a beer in a handful of minutes, but the sharp bite of her nerves had dulled.
Now all she had to do was collect some souls and save her mom.
Sharon Wilson’s house had enough rooms to sleep everyone in Callie’s apartment complex, but a lone SUV sat in the winding driveway. A plump, petite woman with white hair opened the door. Callie stumbled back a half step as icy shards prickled beneath her skin. This woman wasn’t Sharon, but she sure as shit was a soul user. A long-time user based on the powerful reaction Callie had. Derek angled himself between her and the woman at the door. Callie used the reprieve to get her hand on the flask. The device purred against her palm and pulled some of the cold from her arms.
The woman turned to lead them into the home.
Derek leaned close to Callie’s ear and whispered, “You solid?”
She tried not to bristle. There was no judgment, just worry. “Wasn’t expecting that.”
He arced a brow.
“Heavy user.”
The rough scrape of an “oh” comforted her.
They passed four ornate and never-touched rooms before a well-dressed woman in navy blue stepped into the hallway. Her auburn hair was in a perfect twist. The chill skating across Callie’s skin met the heated rush of magic. Her fingertips tingled with an urge for action.
“Now is not a great time,” Sharon cooed with the confidence of someone who is used to being obeyed.
Derek’s stony visage exuded more fuck you than usual. “We’re here already.”
“We were just sitting down to dinner. If you could return in a couple hours, I’d be happy to return the item.” Sharon’s conspiratorial whisper dug into Callie’s skin in a way the magic didn’t.
“You’re already late on returning. I’ll take it now,” Callie said. She let vehemence simmer plainly. She might be angry and scared because of Nate, but she had no shame at leveraging it with this woman who thought her life, her time was more important than everyone else’s.
Sharon gave Callie more attention then. The temptation to call the magic to her hands, to see if she could force some flames, rallied in her chest. That fire was for someone else, and she was really trying to be less of an asshole.
“I said—”
Callie pulled the flask from her pocket, popped the cap, and powered it against Sharon’s chest in a fluid movement. The woman gaped and squealed. Callie knew the act wasn’t hurting her. The soul leaped into the container. Frost began to nudge its way back over her palms. Callie tightened her grip on the flask.
“The Soul Charmer appreciates your patronage.” The saccharine response her own middle finger to Sharon, this house, her boss, her magic, and her goddamn situation.
One soul down, one to go.
CHAPTER TEN
Derek’s car idled quietly on El Paseo. He and Callie were parked only a few feet from where they’d watched the drug dealers shop their wares the night before. Dougie’s corner was empty, but Adam stood tall in the same place they’d met him yesterday. Callie saw him more clearly now. There was no slouching, gangly frame. He didn’t curl his chin into his coat—a new one in shiny black. Smugness seeped with each languid step he took. Even from a block and a half away the cockiness was overpowering.
He had the right to be. He’d escaped last night. His boss had backed him. Hell, now he got to be the one handling Nate’s very soul. Whether
