Free The Devil and Danielle Webster by Cynthia Cross Page A

with her most pointed stiletto heels.  I
wondered how that would work on the Devil.
    Freshening up took no time at all, mainly because I had
almost nothing with me.  After all, I hadn’t intended to stay.  Oh,
if only I’d left town at 4 PM and driven through.  No air
conditioning?   Pfft .  No sweat. 
Or at least, less sweat than I’d been sweating these past three nights.
     I left the bathroom and re-entered the hotel
bedroom.  A slender woman was holding Doug and saying, “There, there. 
We can fix this.”  She pulled away from Doug as she saw me, and looked at
me accusingly. 
    “You must be Danielle.”
    “Hi, Tina.”   I started to
extend a hand, but Tina backed away.
    “I understand this is all your fault,” she said conversationally.
    I blinked.  “I don’t suppose that approach is very
helpful.”      
    “I’m here to help, and I will help.  But don’t forget
that you put Doug’s soul in danger.  I certainly won’t.”
    “Doug put his own soul in danger by being stupid and signing
a contract without reading it.  I had nothing to do with it.”
    “Oh?  I understood that you had called Doug away in the
middle of the night to renew an old affair.  He had nothing to do with
that.”  She looked at me with her eyebrows raised. 
    “All I wanted was to relive a night from my past.  I
didn’t want him here at all.”  I couldn’t entirely keep the loathing from
my voice. 
    At my words, Tina seemed unsure whether to act the outraged
spouse to my homewrecker , or to take offense at my
disparaging her husband.  “I’ve heard about you for years,” she settled on
informing me.  “You’re the one who would stoop to anything to hang on to
my husband.”
    “Yeah, maybe twenty or twenty-five years ago, and he wasn’t
anyone’s husband then.  Believe me, I have no
such intentions now.  You have nothing to worry about.”
    She looked me over from head to foot.  “I can see that
I don’t,” she drawled.
    If Patty had been here, I’m pretty sure she would have
kicked Tina in her waxed little shins for me.  But Patty wasn’t
there.  I looked Tina up and down and decided to do some drawling of my
own.  “Twenty-five years ago I just know you were having a hair-pulling
fight in the girls’ restroom with the school slut.  Are you really still
into that kind of high school drama?”
    Doug looked horrified, but Daemon Lucifer smiled
happily. 
    “I’ve never stooped to that level, and I’m not going to
now.  Especially before this creature,” she indicated Daemon Lucifer, “we
need to recall that we are ladies and Christians.”
    “So what exactly are you here for, other than to soothe
Doug?  He IS frightened,” I said with spurious sympathy.
    “I’ve brought holy water and my prayer book.  We are
going to conduct a lay exorcism.  Only those with a pure heart may
remain.”  She looked pointedly at me, and I looked back at her. 
    “This is my motel room,” I informed her.  “I’m not
going anywhere.  I think my heart’s pure enough.  I certainly don’t
have to deal with issues of arrogance and pride, like some in the room.” 
I looked pointedly at her, and she looked back at me. 
    The Devil looked thoroughly entertained.  “This is
fabulous!” he said.  “To think I could have missed this, if you hadn’t let
me out of the hot sauce bottle.  I really owe you,” he said, nodding to
me.  He could see me start to open my mouth, and hastened to add, “In a
manner of speaking, that is.”
    Tina looked at me, horrified.  “Is this true?  He
was contained, and you loosed him on the world?”
    “You’re being overly dramatic.  All I did was open a
hot sauce bottle to put some on my fries—“
    “See, honey?   I’m not the only
one who puts hot sauce on fries!”  Doug sounded so triumphant that I knew
this had been a sore spot for years.
    “It’s disgusting, and just look what happened.  If
Danielle had used ketchup, none of