Lassiter’s eyes popped open, and his frown was not a good sign.
“Oh, shit,” Balz muttered as he—
“I can’t sense her. At all.”
Balz jerked in surprise. “What?”
“I can’t…” The angel’s eyes pulled a head-to-toe on Balz, and still, he didn’t look happy. “I’m not picking up anything.”
“Nothing? Wait, that’s good, right? That’s what we want?” Balz patted himself, feeling like he was knocking on doors and hoping nobody answered. “What’s wrong? I don’t get why you’re not psyched.”
He had so many questions, but the lilt to his voice was more the unexpected good news giving his mood a hot-air balloon ride.
Fuck, he’d end everything with a question mark for the rest of his life if Devina was gone.
“And you’re saying she didn’t come to you?” Lassiter asked.
“No, and I really was asleep. Erika and I had—well, anyway, we were sleeping.” Balz sat even farther forward on the sofa, so far he was almost off the cushions. “But listen, you were right. You told me that true love would save me. You told me the Book was not the answer. Erika is… she’s the savior I needed.”
He was talking faster and faster, and he had to pull back a little before he Tom Cruise’d on the couch and turned the angel into Oprah. But the pieces were fitting together. Everything was becoming clear, and it was good.
It was right.
“I know she’s human.” He splayed out his hands, all whoa-Nelly-I-know. “And I realize I haven’t known her for long. But when true love shows up on your doorstep, you don’t make it wait a calendar year just to be sure it doesn’t belong to somebody else.”
Lassiter smiled a little. “I’m glad I was right.”
“Me, too. I know there are things to be worked out.” He left the integration between worlds part deliberately vague. “But I’m just… well, I’m really grateful to you.”
“I didn’t do anything.” The angel put his palms up in impotence. “The Creator is as the Creator does.”
“But you gave Erika the power to keep me alive.”
Lassiter got to his feet in a sharp surge. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Like I said, I’m glad everything is working out for you—and for her. She’s a fine female. Worthy of all the good things, especially with what she’s been through.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
In the pause that followed, Balz prepared his see-ya-laters. But instead of leaving, the angel stalled out. And just stood there.
“What,” Balz demanded.
The angel opened his mouth. Closed it. “Nothing. You enjoy your female, ’kay?”
And then justlikethat, Lassiter was gone, ghosting himself into thin air in the blink of an eye.
Left to his little lonesome, Balz sat back on the cushions—and wondered what exactly that male was keeping to himself.
* * *
As Erika reached across the Honda’s parking brake for her bag, the irony that she was a homicide detective about to call in a missing, possibly stolen, unmarked police car was not lost on her. But as soon as she checked her cell’s screen, the issue of where her service vehicle was became a second-in-line candidate on her problem list.
Her phone had blown up. Per usual, she’d had the thing silenced—with no vibrating—so she’d missed calls from Trey. A lot of calls. As well as at least ten texts from him.
Hitting him back, she put the phone to her ear and waited for him to—
Her call was answered after the first ring. “Erika?”
“Hey, Trey. What’s going on—”
“Jesus Christ, where have you been!”
“At home—”
“No, not at home. I checked on your house twice last night and then again just—”
“Wait, when—” Her partner was talking so fast and so loudly, she had to raise her voice to cut in. “When did you come by my house?”
“Around ten last night. And then at just past midnight. And finally about ten minutes ago, I used the key you gave me and walked around—”
“You did what?”
“You gave me a key, remember? ‘In case something happens,’ to quote you—”
“Oh, God. I forgot that. And Trey, you shouldn’t have gone in there.”
“—as well as ‘in the event you went radio silent’—”
“Being out of touch for twelve hours is not radio silent—”
“Are you kidding me?” Trey cursed. “Erika, what am I supposed to think after you’d been to that scene on Primrose, and looked like holy hell in the Bull Pen yesterday—and then I find your car down by the river when I was working a scene that came in overnight—”
“Excuse me?”
Her partner took a deep breath. “All that’s not really important. What I care about—”
“You found my car?”
“Yeah, down two streets in from the bridge where people go to jump off because the fencing is low and still hasn’t been replaced by the city.” Trey’s voice broke. “I know the kind of stress you’re under. You take your job really seriously and we’re understaffed. I’m down to the bone, too. But you add on top of that stress what you saw at Primrose. I just… maybe I overreacted, and I’m sorry I went through your house. But I didn’t know what the hell else to do. You’re always available. I’ve never not been able to get a call or a text back. I was shitting myself that something really bad happened to you.”