Web of Lies

2

A couple of uniformed patrol officers showed up twenty minutes later. Late, as usual. If we’d really needed them, our bodies would have been getting cold and sticky on the floor. The cops barreled through the front door and stopped, surprised by the calm scene.

Eva and Cassidy sat in their original booth. Cassidy munched on her fourth cookie and took a swig of the milk I’d given her. Eva leaned one elbow on the tabletop, holding her head up with her hand. With her free hand, she methodically broke apart a cookie and slowly ate it, piece by piece. Looked like the shock had finally caught up with her.

At the stove, Sophia ladled baked beans into glass Mason jars to take home to her older sister, Jo-Jo. I perched on my usual stool behind the cash register, eating my third cookie and reading about Odysseus blinding a cyclops.

The first cop was about my height, five seven or so, a wiry Hispanic guy with nut-brown skin and a mop of matching curls that escaped the toboggan he’d stuffed them under. Dark freckles dotted his cheeks like walnuts.

He had his gun out and held down against his leg.

In contrast, the other officer was around seven feet tall, with a shaved head as big as a cantaloupe and matching, ham-size fists. His skin was so black it was glossy, like polished jet. So were his eyes. His name was Xavier. I’d seen him working as a bouncer out at Northern Aggression, a trendy nightclub I’d had occasion to visit recently.

I hadn’t realized he was a member of the police force as well.

Xavier recognized me too and tipped his head in my direction. I returned the gesture.

Xavier didn’t have his gun out. Didn’t need to. Giants could take a couple bullets in the chest before they went down, and one well-placed punch from his fists would snap just about anyone’s neck. Strange that he’d be working as a cop, though. Most of the giants in Ashland hired themselves out as private security. Paid better, even if it was just as dangerous.

“We had a call about a robbery,” the first cop spoke.

His voice was high and whiny, like a power saw.

“Yeah. Those two guys busted in and tried to rob me. That one,” I pointed to Jake, “came into the store and told everybody to freeze. When I started to open the cash register for him, he grabbed one of the girls and held a knife to her throat. He’s a Fire elemental. Put flames on his knife and almost burned the girl with it. But luckily, my cook and I were able to subdue them both.”

The cops looked at the two men, then at me, then Sophia, and finally the girls.

“Is that how it happened?” the short cop asked.

Eva and Cassidy nodded their heads. Sophia grunted her agreement.

“That’s exactly how it happened,” I said.

The short cop focused on Lance. “And the other guy there?”

“His buddy. Tried to calm him down. Didn’t work.”

The cop looked at the two men a moment more, then back at me. “And you did this to them? With what? A baseball bat?”

“No,” I replied. “I just handled the first guy, the big one. My cook took care of the other man. Neither one of us had a weapon.”

With her great strength, Sophia didn’t need a weapon anymore than a giant did. And I didn’t think it was necessary to mention the five silverstone knives currently hidden on my body. Or the others placed in strategic locations throughout the restaurant. Or the fact that I could have just formed a jagged icicle with my Ice magic and cut Jake’s throat with it. Or even used my other elemental Stone power to collapse the whole restaurant on top of his head.

The short cop let out a low whistle. “Picked the wrong place to rob, didn’t they?”

I didn’t respond. He could see exactly how wrong they’d been from the blood spatters on the floor.

The two men were starting to come around. Lance rocked back and forth on the floor, holding his stomach, as if that would lessen the ache from where Sophia had punched him. Jake lay on his back and blinked up at the ceiling as though he wasn’t really seeing it.

The giant cop, Xavier, reached down, picked up Lance by the scruff of his neck with one hand, and slapped a set of silverstone cuffs on him with the other. “You. Stand still.”

Lance was too busy trying not to puke to do something stupid, like run. Xavier got down on one knee and started to repeat the handcuff process on Jake. He stared into his face. Xavier frowned, then looked up at me with his black eyes.

“You know who this is?” he rumbled.

“No. Should I?”

The giant nodded his head. “Yeah, Jake McAllister.”

My gray eyes narrowed. “McAllister? As in Jonah McAllister? The lawyer?”

“The one and only,” Xavier rumbled. “Jake here is his son. Third time he’s been in trouble since Halloween.”

The beginnings of a headache throbbed behind my eyes. Jonah McAllister was Ashland’s highest priced and most successful lawyer. A charismatic showman who could make the most violent, irredeemable, sociopathic criminal seem like an innocent schoolgirl — and make the jury weep with compassion while he did it. McAllister didn’t care whether people were guilty or not, as long as they could pay his astronomical fees.

But even more problematic was the fact Jonah McAllister was also the personal counsel to Mab Monroe. Ashland might have all the municipal trappings of any other city. Police and fire departments, a city council, a mayor.

But Mab Monroe was the one who really ran the town, in addition to her own lucrative, Mob-like empire. To most folks, Mab was the richest businesswoman in the city, who generously, selflessly, used her wealth to help the less fortunate. But those of us who moved in the shady side of life knew Mab did everything from ordering kidnappings, to bribing government officials, to murdering anyone who got in her way.

Mab had money, but her real power came from the fact she was a Fire elemental, just like Jake McAllister.

Being an elemental meant Mab could create, control, and manipulate fire just about any way she wanted to. But Mab Monroe had far more power than Jake McAllister had ever dreamed of. Rumor had it that Mab had more magic, more raw power, than any elemental born in the last five hundred years. Given her stranglehold on the city and queenlike position in the Ashland underworld, it wasn’t so much a rumor as a commonly known fact.

Anyone who went up against Mab Monroe got dead in a hurry.

Jonah McAllister was more than just Mab’s lawyer — he was one of her top lieutenants, along with Elliot Slater, the giant who handled Mab’s security and brutally enforced her wishes. McAllister’s job was to deal with anyone who challenged Mab through legal means. To bury them in enough paperwork and red tape to drown an elephant so that they either gave up outright or were forced to when they went bankrupt trying to pay their own attorneys.

No, Jonah McAllister wouldn’t be pleased about my beating down his son. He, and by extension Mab Monroe, could make problems for me — problems that weren’t as easily solvable now that I was just Gin Blanco and not moonlighting as the assassin the Spider anymore.

“You sure you want to press charges?” Xavier asked.

“Most people don’t, after they find out who his daddy is.”

I stared at Jake, who kept blinking up at the ceiling.

My gaze slid over to Cassidy, who was busy looking at her shoes. She’d heard Xavier’s question, and she knew what the McAllister name meant as well as I did. Cassidy thought I was going to fold, and she didn’t want to see me tell the cops to let Jake go.

The image of the orange-red flames licking at Cassidy’s slender throat flashed before my eyes, along with her tearstreaked face. Reminding me of another place, another time, another girl desperate for me to save her, to convince her everything was going to be okay, even if I knew it wasn’t. That it would never be all right again.

The memories of my baby sister, Bria, and the horrible night our mother and older sister, Annabella, had been murdered, swam up in the back of my mind, a dark shark rising to surface. The memory sank its cold, jagged teeth into my heart. Fire, torture, destruction, death. All that and more had happened that one, fateful night seventeen years ago. My hands curled into loose fists, hiding the spider rune scars that had been burned into my palms — scars that were a constant reminder of my lost family.

After a few seconds, I uncurled my palms and flexed my fingers, working the tension out of them.

I focused on Jake McAllister again, remembering the sharp, sly way he’d stared at me. Two hundred dollars or not, he’d been ready to kill me and everyone else in the restaurant for nothing more than a thrill. I’d be damned if I was letting him get away with it — any of it.

“Fuck who his daddy is,” I said. “He almost slit that girl’s throat. I’m pressing charges.”

Xavier shrugged. “Your choice. Just don’t expect much to come of it.”

He clinked the silverstone handcuffs around Jake’s wrists and yanked the Fire elemental up to his feet. The abrupt motion snapped Jake out of his blinking trance, and he looked over his shoulder at the cop, then back at me. It took a few seconds for the reality of the situation to penetrate his thick skull.

“You called the cops? You’re going to pay for this, bitch!” Jake screamed.

He surged forward, trying to break free of Xavier and get at me. But Xavier easily restrained him with one hand.

Hard to break a giant’s grip.

But instead of staying where I was, I stepped around the counter and walked over to Jake. This time, I let him see just how cold and flat and hard my gray eyes really were. “You’re the one who’s going to pay when Daddy finds out you’re knocking over restaurants — or trying to. Piss poor job you did, all the way around.”

“Bitch!” he screamed again. “You’re gonna die for this! Do you hear me? You’re dead!”

Jake lunged forward again, but the giant cop jerked him back by the scruff of his neck — none too gently.

Xavier winked at me, and I smiled. I was starting to like Xavier. I’d have to slip him an extra C-note or two the next time I saw him working the door at Northern Aggression.

“Come on, Jake,” Xavier rumbled. “Let’s get you in the squad car so you can call your old man to come bail you out.”

Xavier pushed Jake McAllister and his friend Lance through the front door and into the back of a waiting cruiser. The other cop, the short guy, took statements from Cassidy and Eva. He’d just finished talking with the girls when the front door of the Pork Pit opened and another cop stepped inside. A tall Hispanic man with short black hair, bronze skin, and eyes the color of smoky whiskey.

Detective Donovan Caine.

The majority of cops in Ashland might be known for their apathy and avarice, but Donovan Caine was a rare exception to the rule. He fought against the rampant corruption, bribes, and payoffs most of the police force took to look the other way and actually tried to catch criminals. And the detective really did believe in all that protect and serve, touchy-feely stuff.

My path had first crossed Caine’s several months ago when I’d assassinated Cliff Ingles, his corrupt partner. In addition to forcing money and sexual freebies out of vampire hookers while he was on duty, Ingles had viciously raped and beaten one of the prostitutes’ teenage daughters.

Even among the scum in Ashland, Cliff Ingles had been a real prince, and I’d done him pro bono. My own sort of public service.

Donovan Caine hadn’t known how dirty his partner was and became obsessed with catching Cliff Ingles’s killer — me. Of course, the trail had gone cold, since I was nothing if not professional, but that hadn’t kept Caine from keeping the case alive and digging for information every few weeks.

Then our paths had crossed again — and in person — two months ago when I’d been framed for the murder of a corporate whistle-blower named Gordon Giles.

Some nasty people thought the detective had information that could implicate them in the subsequent scheme and cover-up, and they’d been beating it out of him when I’d shown up and taken them out. After that, Donovan Caine had reluctantly joined forces with me to find the real killer.

During the course of our investigation, we’d had a hot one-night stand — well, more like a hot one-hour stand — a couple months ago, but nothing since. The detective’s Boy Scout mentality was a sticking point between us. I found his morals admirable, if impractical, in a city as dirty, violent, and corrupt as Ashland. He found my lack of said morals and zero remorse for all the bloody things I’d done in my former profession disturbing, to say the least.

Still, the attraction between us had been intense, and the hurried sex we’d had in a supply closet had been fantastic.

I’d only seen the detective once since then, at my mentor, Fletcher Lane’s, funeral. Caine had come to offer his condolences and check up on me. I’d kissed him right there in the cemetery. Afterward, he’d bounded away from me like a scared rabbit.

I hadn’t seen or spoken to the detective since then. I thought about him a lot, though. More than I wanted to.

And now here he was in my gin joint, in my little corner of the city.

Donovan Caine sensed my gaze and raised his head.

Our eyes locked, gold on gray. My chest tightened, and the familiar heat flooded my veins, pooling in my stomach before sinking lower. I eyed the detective’s navy coat.

The wool fabric draped over his shoulders and hinted at his lean, hard body beneath. I remembered the feel of that hard body. His mouth pressed against mine, our tongues crashing together. Hands clawing at each other’s clothes.

The crisp, clean scent of him filling my nose. The way he’d murmured my name over and over like a curse — or the answer to a prayer — as he’d thrust into me, quick and hard and deep. Mmm.

The short cop saw me staring at the detective. He walked over, murmured something to Caine, and jerked his head in my direction. Probably pointing me out as the owner and prime witness. Most women, most left-behind lovers, would have stalked forward and demanded to know what Donovan Caine was doing here.

Why he hadn’t so much as called. Instead, I leaned one elbow against the counter and remained nonchalant, even though my stomach clenched at the sight of him.

Patience was one of my virtues. Always had been. The detective would come to me soon enough.

Less than a minute later, Caine finished his quiet conversation with the other cop and walked in my direction.

He stopped about a foot away, his golden eyes taking in my grease-stained blue apron, worn jeans, and longsleeved T-shirt. Two scarlet tomatoes decorated the top of the black cotton.

“Gin.”

“Detective.”

We stood there staring at each other. An invisible electric current hummed between us, firing off sparks of hot desire in every direction. I breathed in. The detective’s clean, soapy scent filled my nose, overpowering the cumin, red pepper, and other spices in the air. Donovan looked away and cleared his throat.

He jerked his head, and I followed him to the far side of the restaurant, out of earshot of everyone else.

“You want to tell me what happened?” he asked in a low voice.

“You want to tell me why you’re here?” I countered.

“Detectives don’t usually come out for Southtown robberies, especially those that are thwarted.”

Donovan stared at me. “All right. I asked dispatch to let me know if there were any incidents at the Pork Pit.”

“Why? Afraid I might take to killing people in my own place of business? You must not have gotten the memo, but I’ve retired, detective.”

His black eyebrows drew together in surprise. “Retired?”

I nodded. “Retired. Now I spend my days here at the Pork Pit serving up the best barbecue, cole slaw, and blackberry iced tea in Ashland.”

Some emotion flared in his amber eyes. It might have been relief or even hope, but it was gone before I could decipher it. “Well, good for you, I suppose.”

I shrugged. My quitting the assassin business wasn’t good or bad. Fletcher Lane had been after me to retire for months before his murder. After his death, I’d decided to honor the old man’s final wish. Nothing more, nothing less. But as my eyes slid down Donovan Caine’s body, I couldn’t help but wonder if my revelation would be enough to get the detective back into my bed. Certainly couldn’t hurt.

Donovan dug a pen and notepad out of his hip pocket.

“So tell me about it.”

I recapped the events of the last hour. After I finished, Caine stilled, his pen frozen on his notepad, turning over something in his mind. Then he raised his golden eyes to me.

“Why didn’t you kill them?” he asked in a soft voice.

“We both know you could have.”

“Easily,” I agreed. “But one of the girls was on the floor next to me.”

“And you didn’t want her to see you do it?”

I shrugged. “Witnesses are bad, detective. I’ve told you that before.”

He snorted. “And here I thought you were developing a heart.”

Disappointment tinged his words. I ignored the longing the sound stirred in me.

“Oh, I’ve always had a heart, detective,” I replied in a breezy tone. “I just don’t let it keep me from doing what needs to be done. That would be weak, and I’m not weak. Haven’t been in a long time.”

“No, weak is one thing you’re definitely not.” Donovan eyed me. “You may be retired, but you really haven’t changed at all, have you, Gin?”

“That depends on your definition of change. Am I suddenly going to morph into a soccer mom or a bleeding heart who lets people walk all over her? No, and I don’t want to. But I’ve reevaluated my life, my priorities, and I’ve decided to change them accordingly. That being said, if somebody pushes me, comes at me like those two clowns did, I’m going to push back — three times as hard. Being an assassin has been my way of life since I was thirteen, detective. I’m not going to forget what I did for the last seventeen years just because I’m not doing it anymore.”

“I see.”

This time, the disappointment was as sharp as one of the silverstone knives hidden up my sleeves. Donovan Caine still wanted me, but he wanted his conscience to be clear about it too. I wasn’t the only one who needed to change.

Caine cleared his throat. “You know who the blond kid is?”

“Jake McAllister. Jonah McAllister’s nearest and dearest. The giant cop told me — then asked if I still wanted to press charges.”

Donovan looked at the cop, who could be seen standing on the sidewalk through the storefront windows.

“Xavier? He’s a good guy. Probably thought he was doing you a favor, letting you know about the kid and his connections. Because Jonah McAllister isn’t going to like this. He could cause a lot of trouble for you.”

“If he does, I’ll handle it the way I always do. Quickly. Efficiently. Permanently.”

“The way you always do? I thought you were trying to change.”

“I am,” I replied. “But white trash is still white trash, detective. Nobody comes into my restaurant, tries to hold up the place, and threatens my customers. I don’t care who his daddy is.”

We stared at each other. Not for the first time, I longed to draw the detective close, to pull his lips down to mine and see if the sex would be as hot and hard and good as it had been before. We’d certainly have more room to maneuver on one of the tables than we’d had in the supply closet. Mmm.

But I wasn’t going to make the first move. I’d done that before. If the detective wanted me, he could let me know.

But he didn’t.

Instead, Donovan Caine stared at me, his eyes tracing over my features, as if he was memorizing them. As if he was never planning on seeing me again. Maybe he wasn’t.

The idea made my stomach twist, but I kept my face smooth and expressionless. I hadn’t survived this long by wearing my heart on my sleeve. I didn’t plan on doing it now. Not even for him.

Finally, Donovan held out his hand. I took it. His fingers felt hard, strong, capable against my own, and the heat from him warmed my whole body. Donovan dropped my hand like it burned him. Maybe it did, to want me so much, the woman who’d killed his partner.

I’d heard the detective say once that you didn’t fuck your partner’s murderer. But he’d done it — twice — and enjoyed it. And he still hated himself for it.

“Take care, Gin.”

“You too, detective. You too.”

Donovan Caine nodded at me a final time. Then the detective turned on his heel and walked out the door, leaving my gin joint and heart a little emptier and colder than they had been before.