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The conference was how we’d been able to establish things like the iTithe app for digital prayer and automatic tithing machines that could sell the most basic of charms.
While initiates were sometimes welcome, it was typically a cleric-and-priest-only event. I wasn’t sure how a demigod with no actual temple affiliation would be welcomed at the convention.
“I’m pretty sure that’s exactly why she sent me now.” He gave me a knowing look that took me a second to decipher.
“Wait. Wait. She’s sending you as my fucking chaperone?”
He shrugged, which was all the confirmation I needed.
Sido must have been hearing the same rumors as Deedee about the time I’d spent with Cade on the road in August. Sido knew I wasn’t temple pure, but she had to help me keep up the appearance, and no one was going to believe I was chaste if I was making out with a bad-luck priest.
Suddenly my coffee didn’t taste good anymore. Instead it was as bitter as I felt.
“Nothing happened,” I told him rather pointlessly.
“Look, I know you guys didn’t have a heck of a lot of opportunity, but I’d have to be blind, deaf, and dumb as hell to not know there’s something there. And if we’re going to be in Vegas, you’re going to see him.”
Yeah. I knew all too well. In fact I’d been counting on it.
When we’d parted ways in Louisiana two months earlier, I had somehow believed that things between Cade and me were different. I knew our lives weren’t conducive to a typical romance, but I had literally climbed out of a grave to fight my way back to him. I had believed then, and foolishly still did, that we might have a shot at being something.
Yet here we were, him in Nevada, me in Washington, and with the exception of a few tame text messages and one very not-tame phone conversation, I had no idea where things stood between me and the bad-luck priest.
Things could have been different if he was just a normal man and not bound to the same stupid temple rules as me. Dating was never going to be an option, but still…we had had something, didn’t we?
I tried not to think of the moment we’d shared in a motel bathroom, when we’d almost torn each other apart in our desperation for more physical connection. I had known in that instant that he was going to be bad luck for me in more ways than one, and I simply hadn’t cared.
Guess now I was paying the price for it.
Leo was watching me work through all this, his blue eyes the same soothing color as the paint on my walls. He was too kind to be Seth’s offspring.
I growled and pulled my coffee cup back towards me, taking a long swallow that burned my tongue.
“Just so you know, I’m not going to take it easy on you because you’re the boss’s kid.”
Leo snorted. “Have you taken it easy on anyone a single day in your life?”
Chapter Six
I parked my Charger across the street from Conor Byrne, a small pub on Ballard Ave, and cut the engine. Through sheets of hard-falling rain the place looked dismal, but I knew once we were inside, the warm interior would brighten my spirits.
“A bit early for a drink, don’t you think?” Leo smirked, letting me know he didn’t care one way or the other if I drank before noon.
“The way my day has been going I’m amazed I’m not already sloshed,” I countered.
“I’m sure that’ll solve everything.”
“There are no solutions for the problems I have, Leo, only temporary distractions.” That was a bit more honest than I should have been with him this early into our partnership, so I got out of the car and jogged across the street, hoping there wouldn’t be any follow-up questions.
Conor Byrne was the kind of quaint, charming Irish pub that existed in every city across America, with its Irish flag out front and plentiful whisky options within.
I wasn’t here for the booze, unfortunately.
There was another reason Irish pubs were so popular across the country, and it had nothing to do with a nostalgic love of the old homeland.
I came through the door and was greeted by a wall of warm air that smelled faintly of stale beer and hard liquor, but beneath that was the aroma of something heartier, like beef stew and fresh bread. My stomach gurgled.
A man with dark-auburn hair and a thick, matching beard emerged from the back room as Leo entered behind me. He took a look at the two of us and nodded in silent greeting.
