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“I told him about what happened in Seattle. About the kids.” My gaze darted to Sawyer, and I hoped Leo would know better than to say anything that might spook her.
“What about the kids?” she asked.
Oh, right. Teenagers could still hear.
“It’s nothing,” I lied.
Cade watched the girl with curious, open interest. “Who is she?” He didn’t even try to pretend like she belonged here, which was both infuriating and so very Cade I couldn’t fault him for it. “Did you adopt a street urchin?”
“Does anyone under the age of sixty still say street urchin?” Sawyer retorted.
She flopped down on the end of the couch and kicked off her Doc Martens. Sure, make yourself at home, kid.
“No, seriously, who is this? Did she follow you up from the casino? I can have security remove her.” Cade looked as if he was trying his damnedest not to laugh. Sawyer, meanwhile, was acting like she didn’t care, but her gaze kept moving from me to Leo as if she thought one of us might jump in to help her.
“I have no idea who she is,” Leo said. “Are you here to rob us?”
“Is she your illegitimate child?” I asked Leo.
He clucked his tongue at me. “While there is a family precedence for those, no, this tiny blonde thing doesn’t belong to me.”
“This isn’t funny,” Sawyer countered. “Tallulah, stop.” She pouted dramatically, and I realized the last thing I wanted to deal with for the rest of the night was a surly teenager, so I mimed zipping my lips.
“Sawyer is a stowaway,” I told Cade honestly. “She’s also an initiate, but we have no idea who to. We brought her with us so she could maybe figure it out.”
He gave her an assessing look. “Mystery cleric? That’s one I’ve never heard before. She’s in good hands, at least.”
Truth was, I didn’t think Sawyer was safe with us anymore. When we’d arrived, I was absolutely sure this was the best place for her and we could look out for her no problem. Now I wasn’t sure we could guard her against the dangerous wheels I’d set in motion. I’d never forgive myself if I let something bad happen to her. She might be annoying, but she was only a kid, and I’d sworn to Yvonne I would protect her.
And yet, if this nutjob had been watching me—which he must have if he knew I’d been investigating the girl’s death in Seattle—there was a chance he knew about Sawyer now too.
Could I just put her on a bus alone and hope for the best?
It seemed like there was no right answer. At least if she was with us I could keep an eye on her. I was seriously regretting the decision to bring her along, and was more than a little angry with her for climbing into the back of my car in the first place.
She’d been safer back in Lovelock when the whole town was at risk of burning down.
I chewed the inside of my cheek to keep myself from saying anything else.
“And who are you?” Sawyer replied. “Some sort of pit boss?”
“How do you even know what a pit boss is?” Leo asked.
“I’ve watched Ocean’s Eleven.”
I snorted at this. “Well, Cade does help keep money in the casino, I’ll give him that.”
“What does that mean?” Sawyer gave me a dubious look, clearly not liking that she wasn’t in on the joke. Maybe I should try being nicer to her.
Too bad being nice wasn’t one of my skill sets.
“I’m the Luckless One. I’m Ardra’s priest,” Cade told her.
“Ardra…” She seemed to be going through her memory banks, matching a goddess’s name to her power. There were a lot of gods. It was sort of like state capitals. You were supposed to know them all, but sometimes your brain was like Who the fuck cares about Delaware?
“Goddess of bad luck,” I offered.
Sawyer’s eyes widened, and she stared at Cade with a new kind of appreciation that hadn’t been there before. “So you can…?”
