Widow's Web

14

Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. We were all frozen in place by the ugly, ugly thing Owen had given voice to.

Finn let out another low whistle. “And I thought Gin and I had skeletons in our closets.”

I shot him a warning look, but Finn just grinned at me.

The reaction that surprised me the most was Eva’s. Her blue eyes flashed in her face, angry splotches stained her pale cheeks, and her features pinched together in disgust. She opened her mouth like she wanted to argue with Owen but clamped her lips shut at the last second. I could see her struggling with something, although I had no idea what it could be. Eva noticed me staring at her, and she grew very still, as if a new thought had just occurred to her.

“Not again,” she finally muttered and surged to her feet.

Not the reaction I expected from her—not at all. It made me wonder exactly what Eva knew about Salina—and what she was hiding.

Owen sighed. “Eva, don’t do this. I know you never liked Salina, but you know what Phillip tried to do.”

Once more, Eva pressed her lips into a thin line, as if she was biting her tongue to keep from saying what was really on her mind. Owen started to go over to her, but she backed away from him and shook her head.

“All these years later, and you still have on blinders when it comes to Salina,” Eva snapped. “Well, I’m old enough now that at least I don’t have to listen to it anymore. I’m going to take a shower and go to bed. Is that okay, Gin?”

I nodded. “You do whatever you need to, sweetheart. You know where everything is. Go help yourself to whatever you want, and curl up in whichever guest bed you like.”

Eva nodded, left the den, and stomped up a flight of stairs to the second floor. A minute later, a door slammed, and I heard the water coming on in one of the showers.

Owen sighed and scrubbed his hands over his face, as though the motion could slough all the old, painful memories out of his mind. “I’m sorry about that. Eva might be right about me when it comes to Salina, but she’s the same way about Phillip. She was always tagging after him back then, asking him to play with her. She was only about four when it happened, too young to understand what was really going on.”

“What do you think happened?” I asked, careful to keep my voice calm and neutral.

His whole body tensed, and his hands clenched into fists as though he wanted to lash out and punch someone—Kincaid. “I know what happened. The bastard tried to rape Salina, and when she fought back, he decided to beat her to death.”

Finn let out another whistle, but I remained quiet. I’d been an assassin for a long time, and I’d dealt with a lot of bad people. With most, it was easy to tell what their predilections were—gambling, drinking, beating their wives and husbands, abusing kids, hurting people just because they could. I didn’t really know Kincaid, and the tense conversations we’d had these past few days was all the interaction I’d ever had with him, but the casino boss didn’t strike me as a rapist.

Then again, a restaurant owner didn’t strike most people as being the kind of woman who’d moonlight as an assassin either.

But I’d been fooled by people in the past. Maybe Kincaid was just better at hiding his true nature than most folks were.

“Tell me about it,” I said, determined to keep an open mind.

“It was a typical night,” he began. “Phillip and I had scouted a mansion in Northtown. The owners were supposed to be gone, so we figured it would be easy pickings. We left Salina behind to watch Eva, but Phillip said he was feeling sick and went back. I went on to the mansion, but when I got there, the whole place was lit up, and the owners were there. So I turned around and headed home.”

Rage darkened his rugged features. “I heard the screams and shouts as soon as I went inside. I thought that maybe someone we’d robbed had decided to get some payback, but instead I found the three of them in the bathroom. Salina had been giving Eva her bath for the night, and Eva was still in the tub, dripping wet. But Phillip was on the floor, on top of Salina. Her face was cut and bloody from where he’d been hitting her. He was . . . he was still hitting her when I pulled him off.”

Owen drew in another breath. “Salina started screaming about what Phillip had tried to do to her, about how he’d tried to rape her. Phillip said it wasn’t what it looked like, but I didn’t believe him. We fought. I was older and bigger and stronger, but Phillip was tough, even back then. He shoved me into the bathroom mirror so hard it broke my nose. The glass shattered on impact, cutting up my face.”

Owen reached up and subconsciously touched his nose. I’d always wondered how it had gotten to be just a bit crooked. He’d probably gotten the scar on his chin that same night.

“And then?” Finn asked.

“Then I got hold of Phillip, and I beat the hell out of him,” Owen said in a cold, flat voice. “I should have beaten him to death. I would have, if Eva hadn’t kept tugging on my arms, crying and screaming at me to stop. I didn’t want her to see me kill Phillip, so I dragged him to the front door and threw him out of the house. That was the end of our friendship. Although he goes out of his way to speak to me whenever our paths cross, like it’s some great joke to needle me as often as he can.”

“Like at Mab’s funeral,” I said.

Owen nodded. He was looking at the framed drawings on the mantel, but I knew he wasn’t really seeing them. No, right now, my lover was remembering the fury he’d felt that long-ago night and how he’d almost killed a man because of it.

It was a horrible story all the way around. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder whether or not it was entirely true—especially since it seemed like Eva remembered things far differently than her brother did. But if she did, why hadn’t she spoken up tonight? Why hadn’t she told me and Finn her side of the story? And why hadn’t she tried to get Owen to listen to her back then? There was something going on with Eva, something that was making her keep her mouth shut about Salina. I had no idea what it could be—but I was determined to get to the truth one way or another.

I looked at Finn. He nodded, telling me he had the same questions I did. I had no doubt Owen believed what he was saying, but I had a funny feeling it didn’t quite mesh with what had actually gone down.

Owen sighed. “That was the beginning of the end. Two nights later, I came home, and Salina was gone. Just—gone. So were all of her things. All her clothes, all her makeup, all the jewelry I’d bought her, all the money I kept stashed at the house for emergencies, everything. Just—gone. She left me a note saying she needed some time to herself, some time to get over what Phillip had done. Of course, I looked for her for months afterward, but I didn’t find her. Eventually, I just figured that she didn’t want to be found. I never heard from her again, and she never came back to Ashland.”

“Until now,” I said.

Owen nodded, but he didn’t say anything else.

I got up, walked over, and put a hand on his arm. “It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault. Not what happened then, and not what happened on the riverboat tonight either.”

He gave me a grim smile. “That’s where you’re wrong. It is my fault that Salina was beaten and almost raped, that she left Ashland, all because I couldn’t see the kind of person Phillip really was. I failed to protect Salina from the person I thought was my best friend—my brother, even. I’ll never forgive myself for that, Gin. Never.”

Nobody said anything. Owen was thinking about old memories, old hurts, old anger. Finn and I were digesting everything that had been said.

Mostly, though, I thought of how Salina had so easily killed Antonio, and how she’d almost done the same thing to Kincaid. If Kincaid had tried to rape her, I could understand Salina wanting to murder him. Hell, I’d happily let her borrow one of my knives if that was the case.

But why kill the giant? Sure, Antonio had been Kincaid’s friend, but what had murdering him really gotten her, other than a few minutes of shock value? If she’d wanted to, Salina could have simply used her magic to force all the water out of Kincaid’s body in the first place before anyone had been the wiser. So why waste her time and magic on Antonio?

The more people you tried to take out at a site, the riskier it was, and the less chance you had of making sure all your targets got dead. There was always a possibility that things could go wrong, that one of your intended victims could get away from you, or that someone entirely unexpected—like me—could fuck up your plans.

Even more curious was the fact that Kincaid had said he’d heard rumors that Salina was coming back to town, rumors that would have been confirmed as soon as he’d learned how Katarina Arkadi had died. If she wanted to kill Kincaid for trying to rape her, why would Salina murder the other woman first? Why tip her hand like that? Why give Kincaid any clue that she was back in Ashland at all? It just didn’t make sense—unless she’d wanted to make Kincaid suffer by watching his friends die before she killed the casino boss himself. Even then, it was still a lot of trouble to go to when she could have just murdered Kincaid first and been done with things.

Settling an old score was all well and good, but Salina Dubois didn’t strike me as the kind of person to come back to Ashland just for that. If such simple revenge was all she wanted, she could have blown into town at any time, killed Kincaid, and been on her merry way. Instead, she’d married man after man, making their fortunes her own, and then returned. She had to have some sort of plan in mind to have gone to such lengths. So why was she really here? Why now, after all these years?

Then there was her meeting with Jonah McAllister at Underwood’s. I supposed he could have been her lawyer for all these years, handling her finances, perhaps even helping her marry and murder for money. That was just the sort of thing McAllister reveled in. The obituary photos of all her dead husbands flashed through my mind, each of them seemingly a substitute for Owen, and it took some effort to push the disturbing images away.

Maybe McAllister had helped her with her husbands, or maybe not, but one thing was for sure—he needed a new boss. And I was willing to bet Salina would fit that bill nicely. If Salina had cooked up some other scheme with McAllister, it could only mean trouble. No, something else was going on here besides an old feud, something bigger, something I needed to figure out before Salina hurt anyone else, especially Owen.

But there was nothing I could do about any of that right now, especially since midnight had already come and gone.

“Well,” I finally said, “I think that’s enough secret spilling for one evening.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Finn said. “Personally, I’d love to hear more about Owen’s little larceny scheme. Got any of that loot left? I’m sure it’s only appreciated in value over the years.”

Owen winced.

“Finn?”

He gave me a friendly smile. “Yes, Gin?”

“Do yourself a favor and leave before I throw you out.”

He stuck out his lips in an exaggerated pout. “Fine. But I still want to know all about the Grayson Gang. Or was it the Kincaid Crew? Tell me you guys at least had a catchy nickname.”

I glared at him, but Finn just pouted a little more when Owen didn’t answer him.

I shut and locked the front door behind Finn, then went back into the den, where Owen was. I turned off the lights, and we walked up the stairs to the second floor.

I headed for my bedroom door, but Owen didn’t follow me. I looked over my shoulder at him.

“Maybe I should sleep in a different room tonight,” he said. “Since Eva’s right down the hall.”

It wasn’t an unreasonable request, but his words pricked my heart like tiny thorns. Eva was nineteen. She knew exactly what Owen and I did when we were alone together. Still, maybe it was for the best. We’d all been put through the wringer in some way tonight. Eva had witnessed a murder; Owen had dredged up memories of how he’d loved and lost his fiancée; and I’d realized that my lover had more of a past and more secrets than I’d ever dreamed of.

“Sure,” I said.

I could hear Eva moving around in the bedroom next to mine, so I led Owen to the one at the end of the hall. I flipped the light on and showed him where the extra blankets and pillows were stacked up in the closet. When that was done, we stood beside the bed, neither one of us knowing quite what to say to the other about everything that had come out into the open tonight.

“I’m sorry, Gin,” Owen finally said in a soft voice, “for blindsiding you with all this. I never thought Salina would come back to Ashland, or that Phillip would drag you into the middle.”

I shrugged. “It’s my fault too for not telling you about Kincaid’s so-called catering job in the first place. I would have, if I’d known you had any kind of connection to him. So let’s just forgive and forget, okay?”

He nodded. “And what about Salina?”

“What about Salina?” I asked, careful to keep my voice neutral once more.

He hesitated again. “I’d like to talk to her—about a lot of things. I need to talk to her. At the very least, I need to apologize for not finishing off Kincaid when I had the chance. I owed her that much, but I failed her.”

I suspected Owen hadn’t failed Salina so much as she’d outright lied to him, but that was neither here nor there. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t say no. Not too long ago, Owen had given me the time and space I’d needed to come to terms with my lingering feelings for Donovan. The least I could do was let him speak to Salina—even if I thought she was far more devious and dangerous than she appeared to be.

“Of course,” I murmured. “We’ll talk more about that and everything else tomorrow. Right now, we both need to get some rest. It’s been a long day.”

“Thank you, Gin,” Owen said in a soft voice. “For believing me. For trusting me.”

I looked at him, at his black hair, his violet eyes, his rough, rugged features that were so appealing to me. All these emotions roared up in my chest. All my love for him, all my caring, all my worry—and all my fear of losing him.

It was that horrible thought, that terrible fear, that spurred me forward. I pressed my body flush again Owen’s, drew his lips down to mine, and kissed him for all I was worth, trying to put everything I was thinking, everything I was feeling, into that one single kiss. Trying to make it perfect, trying to make it everything he’d had with Salina—and more.

The fierceness of my kiss seemed to startle him, but Owen’s arms snaked around me, pulling me even closer. I kept right on kissing him, trying to tell him I understood the things he’d done and the decisions he’d made, even if I didn’t like everything I’d learned tonight about how much he’d once loved Salina.

Sometime later, we broke apart, both of us breathless and aching—for each other and for answers we weren’t quite sure of.

“I love you, Gin,” Owen whispered in my ear, still holding me in his arms.

For the first time since he’d said those words to me, I doubted them—and him—but I kept my troubling thoughts to myself.

“I know,” I whispered back. “And I love you too. We’ll figure this out, just like we always do—together.”

He nodded, dropped his arms from around me, and stepped back. I walked over and paused in the doorway.

“If you need anything tonight, I’m just right down the hall.”

“I know. Sleep well.”

Try as I might, I couldn’t quite make myself smile. “You too.”

I shut the door behind me, but I didn’t go to my room. Instead, I stood there, my hand still on the knob, brooding. I knew Owen loved me, that he loved me just as much as I did him.

But I couldn’t help but wonder if he still loved Salina as well—and if she’d always had more of a hold on his heart than I could ever hope to have.