Web of Lies

17

There was no further argument about my services or murky intentions, so we got to work.

Finn retrieved his laptop from his SUV and set it up on the counter inside Country Daze. Violet rustled around and found an extension cord so he could save his battery. Finn gave her a saucy wink and a sly, charming grin, working his magic. Violet smiled, ducked her head, and leaned down to get something else for him.

Behind Violet, Warren T. Fox narrowed his dark eyes, crossed his arms over his thin chest, and cast a significant glance at the shotgun on top of the counter. Finn cleared his throat and turned his attention to his laptop.

He might be able to charm women, but Finn always had considerably less luck with their male relatives. Especially ones as protective and suspicious as Warren.

Donovan Caine stalked back and forth down the store’s aisles, his cell phone stuck to his ear. The detective had begrudgingly offered to help Finn get background info on Tobias Dawson, although he’d made it clear he still wasn’t on board with my plan to assassinate the dwarf.

Still, it was a baby step in the right direction. Because I was killing the dwarf whether Donovan Caine liked it or not.

While the others worked, I stared out the store’s front windows and kept an eye on the crossroads outside. Tobias Dawson might have said he wasn’t returning for a couple of days, but I didn’t put it past him to double back — with even more men. Which is why I also took the precaution of pulling out my cell phone and calling Sophia Deveraux at the Pork Pit. The phone only rang twice before she picked it up. Despite my instructions to the contrary, the Goth dwarf was still at the barbecue restaurant.

“Hmph?” Sophia answered with her usual, monotone grunt.

“It’s Gin. This is going to be a bit more difficult than I’d originally thought. I need you to close the restaurant for the day and come up here. Might as well put a sign on the door saying we’re closed the rest of the week, while you’re at it.”

“Problems?” Sophia rasped.

I glanced at Violet, who was now handing Finn a cold bottle of Dr. Enuf, and Warren, who was still glowering at him. “Not so much a problem as a concern. I need to go do some recon work on Tobias Dawson, and I don’t want to leave Violet and her grandfather alone in the store while I go do it. I don’t want Dawson and his men coming around behind me and doing something stupid, like burning down the store with the Foxes inside. So you’ll be on bodyguard duty, along with Finn. Think you can handle it?”

“Numbers?”

“He brought two giants with him and two other guys who looked like half giants. I don’t know exactly how many men Dawson has at his disposal, but I imagine he could strongarm his whole payroll, if he really wanted to.”

Sophia thought about the odds for a few seconds.

“So are you coming?” I asked, although I already knew what the answer would be. Sophia liked a challenge just as much as I did.

“Um-mmm.” Yes, in not-so-many words.

“Good,” I said. “We’ll be waiting.”

We hung up, and I slipped the phone back in my pocket. The wooden floorboards creaked, and Warren T.

Fox came to stand beside me. He too stared out the front windows of the store. Two cars zoomed by, barely slowing long enough to make the left turn at the crossroads before heading toward the interstate.

We didn’t speak. Silence was one thing that had never bothered me. Didn’t appear to bother Warren much either.

But we needed to get on with things. Because the Foxes couldn’t hide here in the store forever, and I wanted to make sure they were someplace safe when I left them to go snooping over at the mine.

“Where’s your house?” I asked. “Does Violet still live at home with you?”

Warren nodded. “She does. The house sits on the back edge of the lot, behind a stand of trees, next to a small creek. You can’t see it from the road.”

So not only did Tobias Dawson want the land where Warren’s store sat, he also wanted the old man’s house.

In the South, taking someone’s ancestral home was even worse than merely wanting their land. Even more reason for me to kill the dwarf.

“I’ll need to see the house in a bit. Make sure it’s as secure as it can be.”

Not that some wood, nails, and a door would keep out a giant, but every little bit helped. Even a few seconds’delay could mean the difference between the Foxes escaping or not, living or dying.

Warren nodded, and we lapsed into silence again.

“I suppose I should thank you,” Warren finally said in a gruff voice. “For wanting to help me.”

“You don’t have to thank me. Just do what I say, and everything will be fine.”

Warren stared at me. “You’re a lot like him, you know. Like Fletcher.”

I didn’t respond. At one time, I would have enjoyed the comparison. Now, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be like Fletcher Lane, with his secrets and hidden agendas. I still couldn’t believe he’d known who I really was all these years, that he’d compiled that file about the murder of my family, that he’d known Bria was alive and where she was — and that he hadn’t told me about any of it.

Why had Fletcher kept it from me? What had been the point of hiding it from me? I thought I’d known Fletcher better than anyone. I was his apprentice, after all. The one he’d taught all his secrets to. Now I wondered if I’d really known anything about him — other than what he’d wanted me to know.

“You’re hard like he was,” Warren continued. “Able to put his feelings aside and do what needed to be done no matter what. I always admired that about him. Fletcher was always stronger than me. Even when Stella left us both, I never saw him break. He never wavered, not once, not even for a second. You would have never known anything was even wrong with him.”

Stella, the woman they’d both loved. The one who’d ruined their friendship, then run off with another man.

Warren lapsed into silence again, and his glossy eyes dulled with old memories. After a minute, he shook his head and came back to himself. “Anyway, I know I don’t deserve it, but I appreciate your help, especially for Violet’s sake. She would have died last night if not for you.”

I shrugged. “I would have done the same for anyone else.”

Warren shook his head. “No, I don’t think you would have. You know there are some people who just deserve killing. Something Donovan hasn’t realized yet. Something he won’t ever be able to admit to himself. His father was the same way. He tried to help me out with Dawson some years back, but it didn’t take.”

“So that’s how you know Donovan. You knew his father.”

Warren nodded. “Daniel Caine, a fine man. Donovan is too. But he’s not the one for you.”

He was more observant than I’d given him credit for. I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

Warren glanced over his shoulder, but Donovan Caine was still talking on his cell phone, so he turned back to me. “I mean you and Donovan are on opposite sides. Always have been, always will be. He’s not going to change, and he’ll never accept what you are, what you’ve done. It’s just not in his nature, no matter how much he might want to.”

“And you’re telling me this because…”

“Because Donovan’s a good man, and you’re good too, in your own way. At least you should be if Fletcher raised you right,” Warren said. “At the very least, you’re good at what you do.”

“The best. I was the best at what I used to do,” I corrected him. “But I’m retired now.”

Warren snorted. “Right. Just remember what I said. Don’t get too attached to Donovan Caine. Because it’s not going to end the way you want it to.”

His eyes didn’t glow with power, and I didn’t sense any magic trickling off him, which meant Warren T.

Fox didn’t have an Air elemental’s sense of precognition.

Whether Warren had any magic or not, he was still observant enough to recognize the conflict between me and Donovan Caine.

Finn murmured something, which made Violet giggle.

Warren’s head snapped around at the sound. He shuffled off to glower at Finn and put an end to the younger man’s flirting with his granddaughter. This time, I could have offered him the advice of not bothering. Short of shooting Finn with the shotgun, there was nothing Warren could do. Flirting with the opposite sex was as natural and necessary as breathing to Finn.

I looked past the trio to where Donovan Caine paced back and forth on the floorboards. The detective saw me watching him, frowned, and turned his back to me. Shutting me out once again.

I sighed. Warren T. Fox was definitely sharper than he looked. Even worse, I had a sinking suspicion he was right about me and Donovan. The detective wasn’t going to let it work between us, no matter how hot the sex had been, no matter how bright the attraction still flared. My gray eyes traced over the detective’s lean body.

A shame, really.

——

By the time I followed Warren over to his house, made everything as secure as I could, and walked back to the store, it was well into the afternoon. My stomach growled, reminding me that the half of the barbecue sandwich I’d eaten for lunch was long gone. So I perused the coolers in the front of the country store. I picked up a cellophanewrapped bologna and Swiss cheese sandwich from one of the coolers, along with a bottle of lemonade. Some chips and a candy bar from the display rack near the counter completed my gourmet meal. I took my items to the cash register.

“You don’t have to pay for that,” Violet Fox protested.

I slapped a ten-spot down on the counter. “Sure I do. Keep the change.”

I took my dinner out onto the front porch and settled into a rocking chair. One of the barrels made an excellent table for my food, and I dug in. The lemonade was far too weak and watered down for my tastes, and the bread was getting hard and stale, but smothering it with mayo made it palatable enough. Not the best meal I’d ever had, but it would do. I’d hate to go to the trouble of breaking into Tobias Dawson’s office only to have my stomach growl and give me away to whatever guards he might have stationed there.

I’d just unwrapped my candy bar when Donovan Caine stepped out onto the porch. The detective hesitated, then walked over to me.

“Care if I join you?” he asked in a low voice.

“Sure.” I sank my teeth into the candy bar. Crunchy, slightly bitter almonds coated with dark chocolate. Definitely the best part of my meal.

The detective stared out at the crossroads. An empty coal truck rumbled by, stopped, and made the turn to go on up to the mine.

“I got some info on Tobias Dawson,” Donovan said.

“And it’s not good. He’s a real piece of work, from all reports. He’s got almost a complete stranglehold on the mining in the area, so he pays his employees belowaverage wages. A couple of them tried to form a union a few months back. They all met with mining accidents soon after. Roof collapses, equipment malfunctions, even a cave-in.”

“Did you expect anything else? You saw Dawson threatening the Foxes. He’s not a nice man.”

Donovan ran a hand through his black hair. “But that doesn’t mean it’s okay for you to just kill him.”

“And just because Dawson has money doesn’t make it right for him to intimidate people into getting whatever he wants,” I pointed out. “So which is worse — me assassinating Dawson for threatening the Foxes or him telling his brother to go rape and murder Violet just to send a message to her grandfather?”

Caine blew out a long breath. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. But two months ago, I would have taken you in for plotting to kill someone. Slapped my handcuffs on you and dragged you down to the station, no questions asked.”

“And now?”

Donovan looked out at the road, although I got the impression he wasn’t really seeing it. “Now, I’m thinking about helping you get to him.”

“Don’t sound so broken up about it, detective. Getting rid of Dawson is the right thing to do.”

He shook his head. “No, it’s what you want to do. I’m just going along with you.”

“Why?” I asked. “Why go along with me if it bothers your conscience so much?”

Donovan stared at me. Emotions flickered like candle flames in his eyes. Guilt. Desire. Need. Weariness. Resignation.

“I don’t know that either.”

Tires crunched on the gravel, and a classic convertible pulled into the parking lot. The vehicle was as black as black could be, with a long body and swooping fins. Despite its pristine, gleaming beauty, the convertible always reminded me of a hearse. The top was up, but I didn’t need to see inside to know who was driving. Sophia Deveraux had arrived. I got to my feet.

Donovan tensed. “Trouble?”

“Relax, detective. I called a friend to come help Finn watch the Foxes, while you and I sneak off to Dawson’s mine.”

Sophia opened the driver’s door and stepped out.

The detective frowned. “Isn’t that your cook from the Pork Pit? The one who was working when Jake McAllister tried to rob you?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “She moonlights as a badass, just like me.”

But Sophia wasn’t alone. The passenger side door opened, and a mound of bleached, white-blond curls appeared, partially covered with a sheer pink headscarf.

Sophia had brought her big sister, Jo-Jo, along with her.

Jo-Jo said something to Sophia that I couldn’t hear, and the Goth dwarf grunted back in response. Then the two women shut their car doors and headed toward us.

They stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Sophia gave Donovan a flat, uninterested look, but Jo-Jo’s eyes lit up at the sight of the rugged detective. In addition to being a social butterfly, the dwarf was also a terrible flirt, just like Finn was.

“Well, now,” Jo-Jo asked, her pale eyes landing on Donovan. “Who is this?”

I stood and made the introductions. “Jo-Jo Deveraux, this is detective Donovan Caine with the Ashland Police Department. And vice versa. The Goth chick is Sophia, Jo-Jo’s sister.”

Jo-Jo held out her hand, as though she wanted Donovan to kiss it. Disappointment flickered across the dwarf ’s face when he merely shook it instead.

“I asked Sophia to watch Warren and Violet while we check out Dawson’s mine,” I explained to the detective.

“And I’m here for moral support,” Jo-Jo chimed in.

Donovan Caine eyed the dwarf ’s rose-covered dress, pearls, high-heeled sandals, and manicured nails. No doubt he thought she wouldn’t be much good in a fight. But Jo-Jo was almost as strong as Sophia — and she had her Air elemental magic to supplement her natural strength.

Even I didn’t know if I could take Jo-Jo in a fight.

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go inside where the others are.”