Spider's Revenge

14

Bria slept in late the next morning. Not surprising. Being magically healed by Jo-Jo had left her feeling drained, as her mind tried to catch up to the fact that her body was suddenly well again, despite the beating she’d taken from the dwarven bounty hunter last night.

I’d been injured and healed as well, so I felt a little sluggish myself. But I didn’t have the luxury of staying in bed, since I still had appearances to keep up and a barbecue restaurant to run. I woke Bria up long enough to get her to promise me that she’d stay put in the house today, then left to go to work.

The day passed by like any other at the Pork Pit. Sophia and I served up hot, steaming barbecue beef and pork sandwiches, along with thick, juicy cheeseburgers, sweet-and-sour coleslaw, baked beans, and more. All the while, a vat of Fletcher’s secret barbecue sauce simmered on the back of the stove, flavoring the air with its spicy cumin kick.

People packed into the restaurant, standing three and four deep at the counter during the lunch rush. Everyone wanted a warm meal on such a cold, blustery day, and Catalina Vasquez and the rest of the waitresses who’d made it to work today swiped the plates of food as fast as Sophia and I could dish them up.

Still, despite the crush of bodies, I kept an eye on everyone who came and left the restaurant. Now that I knew exactly who and what I was looking for, I spotted more than a few of the bounty hunters. Men and women with hard, flat features and even harder eyes who watched everyone and everything around them, even while they were stuffing their faces with barbecue. Real rough types, who’d turn on you in a heartbeat if they thought there was any money to be made from the effort. In some ways, bounty hunters were worse than assassins. Assassins only wanted you dead, but bounty hunters were more than happy to deliver you into the hands of your worst enemy — alive — and all the implied tortures that went along with that, as long as they got paid in the end.

I kept a close eye on the bounty hunters who came into the Pork Pit, but none of them paid me any attention that they shouldn’t. They were here for the food and nothing else.

I didn’t know whether to be flattered or worried.

Finally, around three o’clock, after the daily lunch rush had come and gone, and the crowd had dwindled to only a few diners, the bell over the front door chimed, and Owen stepped inside.

He wore a tailored, navy suit that could be found in the closet of any wealthy Ashland businessman, topped by a long, matching coat. But on Owen, the layers of fabric went from being merely expensive to exquisite, draping over his shoulders just so and highlighting his tall, broad frame. Still, all the worsted wool in the world couldn’t hide the strength of his body, the inherent toughness that radiated off him like the faintest flicker of heat from a burning candle. The dark blue color brought out the paleness of his skin, although his cheeks were red and ruddy from the cold. My gaze lingered on his chiseled features — the scar that slashed across his chin, the crooked quirk of his nose, the intense violet of his eyes. All things that made Owen go from merely sexy to heart-stoppingly devastating.

Owen stared at me, and I looked back at him. Emotions sparked and shimmered in the air between us. Heat. Desire. Need. Longing.

After a moment, his lips lifted into a sly, playful grin, and an answering rush of warmth flooded my heart. Owen had forgiven me for going after Mab by myself. He wouldn’t have looked at me like that otherwise — not with such heat, not with such hope. The knowledge loosened a thick knot of tension in my stomach that I hadn’t even been aware of until right now.

Looked like Finn wasn’t the only one around here who had it bad for someone.

I’d called Owen last night while Bria was in the shower and had told him everything that had happened — the meeting at Northern Aggression, Lincoln Jenkins setting up Bria, the bounty hunters. Once again, Owen had been completely understanding of my situation, the way that he always was. I’d never had much in the way of luck, but I knew that I’d used up every single scrap of good that I had in finding him, a guy who was so at ease with my alternative career and lifestyle.

I just wished that I had the courage to tell him that, to tell him — everything.

But every time I tried to let Owen know exactly how crazy I was about him, something got in the way. Like a bounty being put on Bria’s head. My being the Spider and coming home covered in blood. Or simply my own twisted emotions and the fact that while I excelled at killing people, I wasn’t so good at letting them get close to me in any way that didn’t involve my silverstone knives.

Owen wasn’t alone. Finn strolled in behind him, wearing a similar suit and coat, although Finn looked far more at ease and far smarmier in the expensive fabric.

They walked over to the counter and took the two seats closest to the cash register. Owen leaned over, and our lips met. It was a brief, chaste kiss, the casual kind that lovers exchange all the time. But just the faintest touch of his lips on mine filled me with all sorts of wicked, wanton ideas, like telling the waitresses to go home early and letting Sophia mind the restaurant for half an hour or so while Owen and I went into the back and explored the sturdiness of various appliances. Mmm.

Owen must have known what I was thinking because his grin widened, and he gave me a sly, slow wink.

Finn arched an eyebrow. “Do I need to leave you two alone?”

“Maybe,” I murmured, surprised at the depth of feeling that Owen stirred in me just by walking into my gin joint. “But since I know that you won’t, there’s no point in asking.”

Finn huffed out his indignation, and I rolled my eyes. Owen just laughed. So did Sophia, who stood behind the counter shredding lettuce for the rest of the day’s sandwiches.

“So what are the two of you doing out and about together?” I asked. “Or do I even want to know?”

Finn gave me a smug smile. “Owen’s decided to move some of his business interests over to my bank and let me handle them personally.”

I looked at Owen. “You know that Finn will do everything in his power to rob you blind, right?”

“Of course,” Owen rumbled. “I also happen to know that he’ll do everything in his power to do the same to the tax men on my behalf.”

Finn pouted, an exaggerated, wounded look on his face, but I just shook my head and chuckled right along with Owen. The two of them ordered, and Sophia and I worked to dish up their food, along with that for the few other people still lingering in the restaurant during this off hour.

Finn requested a burger, piled high with tomato, lettuce, red onion, and thick slabs of Colby-jack cheese, along with steak-cut fries and a triple chocolate milkshake. Owen opted for a barbecue beef sandwich with coleslaw, baked beans, and a side of creamy macaroni salad.

While the two of them ate, I saw to the other customers, fetching food, refilling drinks, bringing over extra napkins. When I was sure that everyone had everything they needed, I nodded my head at Sophia, telling her that she could take off for a while. The dwarf disappeared through the swinging doors that led into the back of the restaurant to join the waitresses who were already in the break room eating their own lunches.

I assumed my usual spot on the stool behind the cash register. Across from me, Owen and Finn continued munching on their food.

“So,” I said in a casual voice, leaning my elbows on the counter. “What’s the real reason that the two of you came here? Because I know that it just wasn’t for the food, no matter how good it is.”

They both froze, sandwiches halfway to their mouths, and exchanged a quick, guilty look that confirmed my suspicions. Finn sighed and lowered his half-eaten cheeseburger to his plate.

“Well,” he said in a careful tone, not quite looking at me. “There have been some new developments concerning Mab.”

“And what would those be, exactly?”

Finn sighed again. “She’s actually going to be leaving her estate tonight.”

I frowned. “Why the hell would she do that? She should be tucked away in the deepest, darkest part of her mansion and looking for someplace lower to go, given how close I got to her the other night, how close I came to killing her.”

Finn shrugged. “Yes, but Ashland society waits for no woman, not even Mab. There’s a big shindig tonight, and apparently the party is being held in Mab’s honor. Kind of hard to skip out on it, even if everyone knows that you’re being hunted by an assassin. And at this point, not showing her face would hurt Mab more than the chance that you could get to her tonight.”

I nodded. Mab might have a stranglehold on the crime in the city, but Ashland had plenty of other underworld sharks who were hungry to knock the Fire elemental off her throne — folks like Phillip Kincaid, who owned the Delta Queen riverboat casino. Kincaid and various others had started circling around Mab and her organization ever since I’d helped Roslyn kill Elliot Slater, the Fire elemental’s giant enforcer, and they’d only grown bolder since then. Finn had even heard reports about Kincaid cutting into Mab’s extortion racket, something that he wouldn’t have dared to do if she hadn’t been distracted by the Spider.

“Besides,” Finn continued, “the event has been on her schedule for weeks now, even since before Christmas when you took out LaFleur.”

“Maybe it’s been on her schedule,” I said, “but don’t you think it’s rather convenient that she’s sticking her head out of the sand right now? At this exact moment? Especially since her bounty hunters have come up with nothing so far?”

Finn shrugged again. “I thought of all that myself, but you said you wanted to know what Mab was up to. I’m just the messenger.”

I looked back and forth between him and Owen. “And you told Owen first, didn’t you?”

Finn had the good grace to wince. “Sorry, Gin. But neither one of us wants to see you get killed. So Owen and I made an agreement to save you from yourself.”

“Is that so?”

My words were colder and harder than the two-inch-thick icicles hanging off the neon sign outside the Pork Pit, but they had no effect on Owen and Finn. Instead, my lover and my foster brother stared right back at me, determination burning in their eyes just as much as it did in mine.

I didn’t know whether to be pissed or touched. As much as I wanted to take on Mab by myself, as much as I needed to in order to keep everyone else safe, it was still nice to know that there were folks looking out for me. Just as Fletcher would have done if the old man had still been alive.

So I sighed and nodded, telling Finn and Owen that their concern was appreciated, even if I didn’t think it was warranted. They both nodded back, and the tension among the three of us eased.

“So give me the details,” I asked Finn. “Where is this party going to be and how do I crash it?”

Finn finished his last bite of sandwich, pushed his plate aside, and wiped his hands on a napkin. “That’s the weird thing. It actually looks fairly doable. Mab and a couple hundred of her fawning sycophants are going to be at the ballroom at the Five Oaks Country Club, celebrating the season with a winter costume ball. The party starts at eight. I’m told that Mab will make her appearance around nine. And you’ll love this, Gin. Guess what she’s going as? What her costume is?”

“I have no idea. Satan’s mistress, perhaps?”

Finn stared at me. “The Spider.”

I blinked, wondering if I’d heard him right, or if he was just joking around, but his green gaze stayed steady and level with my gray one.

“You’re telling me,” I said in a slow voice, “that Mab is going to this costume party dressed like an assassin?”

Finn nodded. “That’s the rumor I’ve heard.”

“And what, do tell, will this particular assassin costume look like?”

He shrugged. “From what I hear, Mab’s interpretation will involve lots of skin-tight red leather and knives. Of course, we both know that you prefer to wear black to hide the bloodstains, but Mab’s putting her own spin on things.”

Cold anger filled me at the Fire elemental’s audacity; that she had the nerve to openly mock me in such a fashion, especially after I’d killed so many of her men, especially after the other night, when I’d almost killed her. But Mab wasn’t doing anything to me that I hadn’t already done to her. The Fire elemental was trying to get under my skin just like I’d already wormed my way under hers.

So I put my anger aside, sat there, and thought about things. First, Mab had hired bounty hunters to come to Ashland to flush me out. Then she’d upped the ante and put a bounty on Bria’s head. And now, after I’d been a second away from killing her, from ending her miserable existence, she was going to dress up and be seen in public as, well, me.

“It’s got to be a trap,” I murmured. “There’s just no other explanation for it.”

Owen frowned. “What do you mean?”

I looked at him. “I mean that there’s no other reason for Mab to leave the safety of her estate right now, not with her bounty hunters doing her dirty work. And why would she ever want to dress up like me? There’s just no reason for it, unless she specifically wants me to know she’ll be out in the open. The costume is just her way of mocking me that much more, of making sure I put in an appearance at the ball. She probably put the word out about that herself.”

Worry tightened Finn’s face. “That’s what I’m afraid of too — that it’s all just an elaborate trap. But you said you wanted to know what Mab was doing, so there it is.”

The three of us fell silent. Owen pushed away his plate as though he’d lost his appetite, even though he hadn’t finished his sandwich. Couldn’t blame him for that. This whole thing made me sick too, but in a different sort of way.

“Well,” I finally said. “If Mab’s going to mock me with her little costume, then I should be there in person to see it, don’t you think?”

Finn sighed. “Don’t even think about it, Gin. The country club will be crawling with Mab’s giants and probably some of the bounty hunters too. Slipping onto her estate was bad enough. They didn’t know you were coming then. But the country club? They know you’ll be tempted to make another run at Mab there tonight.”

I shrugged. “So you’ll find me a way. You always do.”

“I’m going with you,” Owen cut in.

This time, I sighed. “Owen—”

“No,” he said, staring at me with his violet eyes — eyes that were just as hard, cold, and determined as mine had been a moment ago. “I’m not letting you do this alone, Gin. You promised me that you’d take some backup along the next time you went after Mab. Well, I’m volunteering to be it, no matter how dangerous it is.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off again.

“Besides, it’ll look better anyway, the two of us at the ball. We’re a couple, remember? That’s the kind of thing couples do. You’re going to need some excuse to be at the ball. You just being Gin Blanco isn’t going to cut it. Not this time. Call me crazy, but I don’t think your name is on the guest list.”

I wanted to argue with his logic — but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. He was right. Alone, I’d be spotted sooner rather than later. With Owen, I would at least have a chance to get close to Mab, even if the whole thing was a trap.

So I tried another tactic. “You don’t have to do this, Owen,” I said in a soft voice. “You don’t have to put yourself out there on the hook with me. Think of Eva. Think of how devastated she’d be to lose you.”

Owen’s face darkened, filling up with stormy emotion. “I’m also thinking of my parents, and how Mab killed them, how she burned them to death in their own house with her Fire magic, just as she did your family, Gin. I’m thinking about all the nights that Eva and I were cold and hungry living on the streets. I’ve already talked things over with Eva, and she agrees with me. I’m going with you to the country club, and I’m watching your back whether you like it or not.”

In that moment, without a doubt, I knew that I loved Owen — loved him with every bent piece and warped shard of my heart, black, brittle, and broken though they might be. The knowledge left me dizzy and breathless, and I had to grip the counter to keep from falling off my stool.

Owen’s mouth crooked up into a grin. “Besides,” he rumbled, not noticing my reaction to his words, “it’ll give you an excuse to wear some sexy little costume, which I will be all too happy to help you slip out of later.”

The hot promise in his eyes took away what little breath I had left, and heat exploded in my stomach like fireworks streaking up into the night sky. Mmm. Sounded like a plan to me. Provided, of course, that I managed to slip through the swarm of giants sure to be at the country club. That I could corner Mab in the first place. That I could somehow survive the Fire elemental’s incendiary magic. And the dozen or so other things that could go wrong.

But Owen’s absolute, unwavering trust in me made me trust in myself. I could do this. I had to do this. I had to kill Mab. For me, for Bria, for Owen, for everyone else that I cared about.

“All right,” I said, giving in. “You can be my date for the evening. But if things go bad, you are getting the hell out of there — immediately, no matter what I’m doing or how much trouble I’m in. Understand?”

After a moment, Owen nodded.

“As for you,” I said, stabbing my finger at Finn. “You will go to Fletcher’s house and stay with Bria tonight. Just in case any of our bounty hunters decide to show up there for whatever reason.”

Owen going with me to the party would be bad enough. I didn’t want Finn in the line of fire too. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to either one of them, but I’d already failed to save Fletcher from being brutally tortured and murdered in this very restaurant. I didn’t want Finn to meet the same bad fate that his father had.

Finn grinned at me. “It will be my pleasure to keep tabs on sweet, sweet Bria.”

His lecherous tone made me sigh once more. “I do hope that the two of you can keep your hands off each other, at least until after I kill Mab.”

“It will be tough,” Finn admitted. “Given how crazy your sister is about me.”

I snorted. “You mean given how much she’d like to slap that smug smile off your face.”

“Every woman I meet wants to do that at one point or another, but most of them get over it pretty quick,” Finn said, dismissing my concern with an airy, arrogant wave of his hand.

I shook my head. Owen laughed, but there was a hollow note in his chuckle, just the way there was in mine. All three of us knew that we were about to undertake the Spider’s most dangerous mission yet — to kill Mab Monroe in a room full of people and get away with it. I didn’t know if I could do it, if I could kill Mab, but I was sure as hell going to try.

And probably die later on tonight for my trouble.