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Mateo grinned.
“And Prax can take over when I leave the house to go to work.”
His grin faltered.
“That way, you can do whatever needs to be done with your investigation without having to drag me around, and I stay safe. It’s a win-win situation.” Both for them and for me. Knowing that I’d be at work when it was Prax’s turn made me feel a little better, too.
Neither of them was particularly enthused about this arrangement, but they agreed to it anyway.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I need to go feed my cat.”
Chapter 12
Mateo
Sriracha had been in a huff when we’d returned because his dinner was later than usual. But now that he had been fed and was satisfied, Eva flopped down on the opposite end of the couch. “So, what is our next step?”
Next step? I knew Eva meant the next step of the investigation, but I feigned ignorance.
“Dinner,” I said. “I was thinking we could order in today. Any preferences?” I could just go straight to eating her, but she might be hungry for real food.
She looked amused. “No…I mean, yes, dinner sounds great. I am hungry. But I meant with the investigation.”
I winked at her, reached under the coffee table, and handed her a stack of menus I kept for the days I didn’t want to cook. I did cook, a bit, and I planned on cooking for her another time, but there was just too much to do today, like checking the collectors forums again now that I had better information.
“Well, now that I know Tony has had the other half of the locket for almost two years, I’ll want to go back and see if there were any relevant postings in the collectors forums back then. I’ve only checked back about a year or so.”
As she ran through our meal options, I checked my phone. I was getting alerts about movement outside my house. It was Prax. When we first arrived home, the confounded incubus had attempted to come in, but my place was warded against any intrusions of the supernatural variety, which included pesky demons. Incubi were a type of demon, after all.
I’d happily slammed the door shut in his face. Inside my home, Eva wasn’t just safe from the mystery wizard; she was safe from Prax and his damned incubus sex magic. He’d used it on Eva back at Desmon’s place, and he hadn’t even tried to hide it. Fucker.
It wasn’t that I had anything personal against the incubus. I just didn’t want him anywhere near Eva. Especially not if he got her alone. Who knew what depraved things he would convince her to do? Worse, what if she liked it?
Eva narrowed it down to three options and laid the menus out on the table. “These are my finalists; you pick.”
I didn’t even need to look at the second or third options. A giant mountain of chili con carne piled on top of a bed of rice and smothered with crumbled tortilla chips and enough cheese to feed an army sounded perfect right about now. “We’ll do Tex-Mex.” I grabbed my phone and dialed the number. “What do you want, Little Thief?”
She frowned, then pressed her lips into a thin line before pointing silently to the steak fajitas.
Eva was quiet while I was on the phone, but the moment I hung up, she laid into me. “Why the hell are you still calling me that?”
Shit.
“Umm, habit?” I ran my hand through my hair. “I honestly don’t know. I’ll stop.”
“You owe me, you know. You owe me for calling me a thief and doubting my story.”
“You’re right,” I agreed, “I do owe you. I’m sorry. And I don’t apologize much or lightly. What can I do to make it up to you?”
She wrinkled her nose as she thought about it, then her eyes landed on the pile of menus still on the coffee table. “I think you owe me more dinners.”
I raised my eyebrows. That wasn’t what I was expecting.
“Multiple dinners,” she continued. “And not takeout. Dinner at restaurants.”
She wanted me to take her out? That wouldn’t be a hardship at all.
“Dinners out, then. All right. What about homemade?”
