Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies (20 page)

This was not going to end well.

But before the dwarf could tell his men to charge and take care of Warren T. Fox once and for all, Donovan Caine stepped down off the porch and pulled open his coat. The noontime sun made the gold badge on his belt glisten next to the dark shadow of his gun.

Tobias took in the badge and weapon. The dwarf ’s pale blue eyes flicked to the sedan sitting in front of the store. He knew a cop car when he saw one too. “Who are you?”

“Detective Donovan Caine. I’m an old family friend of the Foxes.”

Finn flashed another grin and pointed his finger at the detective. “Maybe you’ve heard of him. He was the one who killed Alexis James, that loopy Air elemental who was stealing from Halo Industries, her own company. Happened about two months ago. It was all over the news. Mayor even gave him a medal for his stellar investigative work.”

Donovan grimaced at Finn’s sly, mocking praise. The detective knew what had really happened. That I’d been the one who’d killed Alexis James and her flunkies in the Ashland Rock Quarry. And that he’d accepted the credit and accolades for something he didn’t even do.

Tobias Dawson knew who the detective was, all right.

The knowledge flashed in his icy eyes. But Caine’s status as a member of the Ashland police force made the dwarf reconsider his options. Ashland might be a dangerous city, and the cops might be as crooked as the surrounding mountain roads, but folks still stopped to think before they took out a member of the po-po. There were payoffs to consider, bribes, chains of command. Not to mention the fact Donovan Caine was something of a folk hero in the city—an honest cop among a sea of corrupt ones. Caine’s death would raise a lot of questions, even for somebody as well connected as Tobias Dawson.

The dwarf ’s eyes went to Donovan, then Finn, then Warren. He didn’t glance at me or Violet. Evidently us mere womenfolk weren’t much of a threat. Sexist bastard.

Still, Tobias could count as well as the next person.

Five of us, six of him and his men. Not great odds, even if we were saddled with an old man and two women.

But Donovan Caine’s badge was the tipping point—for now.

Tobias stared at Warren again. “You have three days to think about my last offer. And it is my
last
offer. I suggest you think real hard on it. Before I have to come back and ask you to reconsider it.”

The dwarf spit out another stream of dirty tobacco juice, turned on his snakeskin boot heel, and stalked back to the SUV. He made a circle gesture with his hands.

Round up and move out. One by one, his four goons turned and fell in step behind him.

Donovan Caine stayed where he was, face hard, hazel eyes cold and flat, until the vehicle pulled out of the parking lot. The driver took a right at the crossroads and zoomed out of sight. Once it was gone, the detective blew out a breath and rubbed a hand through his black hair.

“Well, that certainly was fun,” Finn said in a cheery voice.

———

The five of us stayed on the porch a few more minutes, but Dawson and his men didn’t turn around and come back. When I was sure they were gone, I tucked my silverstone knives back up my sleeves. Then I stepped off the porch and walked over to the spot where Tobias Dawson had stood so I could get a better sense of his magic.

The gravel underneath my feet hummed with so much power it made my skin tingle and the spider rune scars on my palms itch. So the dwarf was a Stone elemental then.

Someone who could control and manipulate the element.

Strong in his magic, just like me.

I wondered if the dwarf had any other magical or special talents I needed to know about—before I killed him. Either way, Tobias Dawson had just morphed from a challenging kill into an exceptionally difficult one. I’d have to take him out hard and fast before he even realized what was happening. Otherwise, I’d be the one who ended up six feet under.

“What are you doing?” Donovan Caine asked, watching me turn around in a circle in the spot where the dwarf had stood.

“Nothing.”

The detective knew that I had magic, that I was an Ice elemental, but I’d never told him about my greater, Stone power. My magic wasn’t something I advertised, and I still wasn’t quite sure what my relationship with Donovan Caine was—or what it would ever be.

Violet Fox hugged her chest with her arms. The brave front she’d put on for Tobias Dawson’s sake had vanished, leaving her round face ashen and sweaty, despite the fall chill. “You didn’t do anything, Gin. Why didn’t you do something? Why didn’t you tell Dawson to back off and leave us alone?”

“Because I didn’t want him to notice me,” I said. “Not here, not now. That would make getting close to him later more difficult. The dwarf barely looked at me. He won’t remember what I look like later, when I approach him again.”

“You mean when you kill him,” Donovan Caine said in a cold, flat voice.

“Yes,” I said. “When I kill him.”

Donovan stared at me. His eyes shimmered like liquid gold in his tight face. After a few seconds of scrutiny, he shook his head. “You know I can’t let you do that. I can’t let you go after Tobias Dawson.”

I sighed. Despite the fact the detective and I had worked together before, we were once again right back where we started. With him clinging to his oh-so-high, moralistic ideals and standing in the way of me doing what simply needed to be done.

“I don’t see how you have much of a choice, detective,” Finn cut in. “Because Tobias Dawson isn’t going to stop harassing the Foxes until he gets this land. Which means he’s not going to stop until they’re both dead. The bastard sent his brother to rape and murder Violet last night. A nineteen-year-old girl who’s probably never hurt anyone in her entire life. And here you are trying to protect him, when you should be worried about a young woman and her grandfather. What’s wrong with this picture?”

Donovan turned his hot glare to Finn, who stared back at the detective. Both men had their hands clenched into fists. I sighed again. Finn was on my side, of course, just like a brother would be, and his words and logic were dead-on. But there was only one way to get the detective to go along with the assassination of Tobias Dawson—one small step at a time. Which meant it was up to me to tap-dance Donovan Caine in the direction I wanted him to go.

“Finn?” I asked.

“Yeah?”

“Did you bring your laptop with you?”

He sniffed. “Do I ever leave home without it?”

Question asked and answered. Sometimes I wondered how Finn pulled himself away from his computer long enough to chase after anything that had boobs.

“Then get on it. I want you to find out everything you can about Tobias Dawson. Habits, hobbies, business interests, anything that might be useful.”

Finn nodded and headed toward his SUV.

“And what are you going to do?” Donovan Caine asked in a low voice.

I gave him a bright smile. “Not me, detective.
We
. We’re going to go check out the dwarf ’s coal mine, and see if we can figure out why Tobias Dawson suddenly has a hard-on for the land Warren’s store sits on. What do you say, detective? Up for a little breaking and entering tonight?”

Donovan grimaced and looked away.

“So you’re going to help us then?” Violet asked.

I looked at her. “I’ve been helping you for a while now, Violet. But yeah, I’m going to take care of Dawson for you.”

“Why?” Warren Fox asked. “I knew the kind of fees Fletcher Lane got for his services—and that was years ago. I certainly can’t pay you anything close to that.”

“Don’t worry about the money,” I said. “Just give me a couple of jars of honey to take back to Jo-Jo, and we’ll call it even.”

“You’re not even going to charge them?” Donovan Caine asked with suspicion. “Why? So you can take their land for yourself?”

I raised an eyebrow. “And what would I do with a store up here in coal country? I already have a barbecue restaurant to run. That’s plenty for me. So no, I don’t want their land. Believe it or not, detective, I occasionally lend out my services for free. Pro-fucking-bono, as it were, when the situation warrants it.”

“But why?” Caine persisted. “Why do you want to kill Tobias Dawson so badly?”

My gaze flicked to Violet. The image of her ruined face flashed before my eyes, and the sounds of her choked sobs rang in my ears. Despite the fact Jo-Jo Deveraux had healed her, Violet had lost some of her innocence last night. Some small, pure, happy part of her that she wasn’t ever going to get back. Just like I had the night my family had been murdered, when everything and everyone I’d loved had been burned to ash in the space of a few hours.

Maybe I wanted to make sure Violet didn’t end up like me—hard, cold, distant from all but a very few. Maybe I wanted to get her revenge for her, since I was having so much trouble getting mine. Maybe I just wanted her to be able to sleep a little easier at night, knowing that Tobias Dawson was feeding the worms.

I couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason myself, and I couldn’t tell the detective all that. I didn’t want to reveal that part of myself to him. Besides, he wouldn’t have believed me anyway. So I went for my usual flip answer.

“Because Tobias Dawson is nothing more than a rich, spoiled bully who wants to be a cowboy,” I said. “Because I’m bored. But mainly, because I’m going to thoroughly enjoy knocking his pompous ass out of that ridiculous hat and ugly boots before I slit his throat.”

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.”