"Well, the next time you talk to her, ask. I have a second suggestion." Laird crossed his arms and leaned back. "I think it's time for my little brother to stop hiding this online romance he's been having. I mean, I know it's kinda embarrassing to admit you met the girl in Silk Online, but it's starting to get serious."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Maybe he shouldn't have trusted his brother. The guy had a screw loose.
"I'm talking about a reason for you to move out of Addison, dipshit. I'm giving you a very plausible excuse for why you asked to talk to me tonight." Laird shrugged. "I'm also making it very easy for you to keep in touch with me, dorkface."
He'd just pulled out the dorkface? That was the closest Laird ever came to a term of endearment. "Ok, nunu-head, and then what?" If he wanted pet names, Thane could do that.
"I'll laugh about my stupid brother finally finding a girl he actually likes, being all torn up about whether or not screwing a succubus counts as cheating, and having met her in an online game, of all places. In a few days, when you take a vacation - or however long it takes for your little demon to get her shit together - no one will think a thing, but I have one stipulation."
"What?"
Laird's eyes were completely serious. "Whatever you and she are planning? Don't cut me out. I'll keep your secrets, but I want to know what to expect."
"She's going to make the Church pay for killing her lover. I want to make them pay for what they did to my family. The plan is to end the Inquisition once and for all, but I'm betting I won't live through it. She probably won't either, but it's the only chance she has."
Laird grabbed his arm hard enough to bruise. "I want to help."
"I was honestly hoping that's what you'd say. So help me figure out how to plan this out. I've got all fuckin' night."
Chapter Thirty-Nine
DAHLIA
She made it all the way into Kansas before her emotions caught up with her again. When the lines in the road got blurry, Dahlia pulled over at a quaint little diner off the highway. The waitress who seated her was an older lady with a thick Southern accent and a sweet matronly smile. Dahlia ordered a coffee and a slice of pie, just so she'd have something to make her look busy.
Then she pulled out the pre-paid phone she'd picked up in Oklahoma City. The GPS tracking was off, but she had a feeling that if Thane really wanted to fuck her over, the charges on his card could be tied to the phone number, and that to the data pinging off the cell towers around her. In other words, this was a risk, but she was trusting him.
Unfortunately, Google wasn't as helpful as she'd hoped. Searching for a blog on the gods of ancient Africa brought back a lot more hits than she'd expected. She opened a few, finding scholarly articles and teenagers trying to reclaim their history. Over and over again, it wasn't at all what she was looking for.
When the waitress set a cup down beside her, Dahlia sucked in a breath and looked up quickly. "Sorry," she breathed, aware she'd just flinched a little too hard.
"Not from around here, huh?" the woman asked.
"No, I'm really not," she agreed.
"Well, where's a cute thing like you going all alone?" She placed a small pitcher of cream beside the cup next.
Dahlia smiled her thanks, then reached for the sugar, just so her hands would have something to do. "In all honesty, I'm not really sure. Kinda starting over."
"And just driving off into the sunset, huh?" the woman asked. Her name tag called her Brenda.
Dahlia just chuckled. "I guess I kind of am." Because the sun was actually setting outside. "Tell me something? If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?"
"I woulda followed my dreams when I was young enough for it to matter," Brenda replied without hesitation. "I wanted to be a lawyer. Got married instead, and by the time I had three kids and too many bills, I didn't know how to afford college. What about you? I get the feeling you're looking for an excuse to do something."
"I'm coming out of a relationship that ended suddenly," Dahlia admitted. "Kinda blindsided me. I'm still reeling, but I met someone. I just don't know if I'm moving too fast."
"So, are you running away from him or to him?" Brenda asked.
"I'm running to me," Dahlia assured her. "I just haven't decided if I'm going to allow him to tag along."
"Well, the way I see it is that you should get where you're going, start what you're thinking, and see if you still miss the guy. Who knows, maybe you'll meet someone else once you reach your destination. Maybe you'll realize that he doesn't deserve to be pushed away because the timing's bad. All I know for sure is that being true to yourself is a lot more important than worrying about what others think."
"Thank you, Brenda," Dahlia said. "That's exactly what I needed to hear today."
"Well, let me go get your pie, and maybe I'll come up with some more words of wisdom for ya."
As soon as the woman walked away, Dahlia picked up her phone again. The world had changed so much, and yet in many ways it had stayed completely the same. A smile touched her lips as she opened the next blog on her list, but it faded when she got a white supremacist rant site instead.