me, went straight to her grandfather, leaned across the here. And from Warren’s use of his first name, it sounded wooden counter, and hugged his neck tight. like the two of them knew each other. The detective saw The old man’s face softened for a moment, and the me looking and shrugged his lean shoulders. sheen of moisture dampened his eyes. Then he scowled Violet cringed again, and Warren opened his mouth to and pulled away from the younger woman.
tear into his granddaughter some more for worrying him.
“Where have you been?” he snapped. “I’ve been worBut I cut him off. ried sick about you.”
“Enough. Violet didn’t come home last night because Violet sighed. “I called you last night, Grandpa, resomeone tried to kill her.”
member? I told you I was staying with Eva.”
That shut him up. Warren’s mouth fell open, and he The old man’s brown eyes narrowed. “Yes, you called, just stared at me. So did Donovan Caine. Violet shifted and you sounded peculiar. But I wasn’t really worried on her feet. Finn leaned against one of the coolers. until Eva called here this morning. She said you two were Amusement filled his bright green eyes.
supposed to have breakfast, and you didn’t show.”
“Now that I have your attention,” I said. “Let me tell Violet’s face pinched up into an oh-shit-I’ve-just-beenyou exactly what happened last night.”
caught look.
“I tried your cell phone to clarify the matter,” Warren The five of us ended up on the store’s wide front porch. I continued. “No answer.”
sat on the porch railing and leaned against one of the col“The battery died,” Violet said in a soft, desperate voice. umns that supported the sloping tin roof. Finn was in a I didn’t know why she was still trying to stick to her similar position across from me. Donovan Caine slouched story. The truth was going to come out in the next minon the steps between us, while Warren T. Fox and Violet ute, two tops. I supposed Violet just wanted to spare her rocked back and forth in two of the old-fashioned chairs. grandfather the ugly details about what had been done
“And there you have it,” I said, wrapping up my tale. to her last night. Most people tended to block out things
“That’s why Violet didn’t come home last night. Because like that. Sometimes I wished I could do the same, inshe was a little busy getting her face put back together by stead of dwelling on the past the way I always did. an Air elemental. Her name’s Jo-Jo Deveraux. You might
“I called the college, Eva again, and all your other know her.”
friends I could remember. Nobody had seen you since last Warren stared at me, his dark eyes narrowed and night,” Warren replied in a curt tone. “Do you know how thoughtful. His gaze cut to Finn, then back to me. Thinkworried I was about you? With everything that’s been ing about something—or rather someone. Fletcher Lane. going on? So I called Donovan to report you missing.”
“Let me get this straight, Gin,” Donovan Caine said. I eyed Caine. So that’s what the detective was doing
“Violet went to the restaurant looking for some guy who Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 166-167
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called himself the Tin Man. Then someone shot up the I frowned. “Yeah, I am. How do you know about Pork Pit, but you backtracked the shooter and realized that?”
he was aiming at Violet. So you used her credit card reWarren shrugged his stooped shoulders. “Fletcher and ceipt to hack into her personal information and find her I might have had a falling out, but I kept tabs on him.”
at Ashland Community College.
Nobody said anything. But Donovan Caine looked at
“Actually, that was me, detective,” Finn said. “The me, questions in his golden eyes. Despite our having slept only thing Gin knows how to hack into is warm bodies.”
together, the detective didn’t know about my time living on I shot him a dirty look. I hadn’t exactly told Warren the streets—or that my family had been brutally murdered and Violet what I used to do, but I was sure the old coot by a Fire elemental when I was thirteen. That I’d been torhad guessed. After all, he’d known Fletcher. tured by the sadistic bitch and barely escaped with my life. Donovan shook his head, ignoring Finn’s remark. “You I wasn’t sure I wanted him to know. Pity was the last thing guys go to the college and see a dwarf attack Violet. Gin I wanted from the detective—or from anyone else. intervenes, and the two of you cart her off to some healer Violet reached over, put her young, smooth hand on you know. Did I get it right?”
top of Warren’s brown, speckled one, and stopped his
“More or less,” Finn replied. “Although you left out rocking. “Gin came here to help us, Grandfather.”
the part where I helped Gin subdue the assailant.”
“Did she now?” Warren muttered.
“You and a monster truck,” I sniped. “I did all the Donovan frowned. “Help you with what, Warren?”
hard, dirty work, if you’ll remember.”
The old man resumed his rocking. “It’s nothing. Just Finn grinned at me.
that bastard Tobias Dawson.”
At the sight, Warren Fox made a deep sound in his The detective’s frown deepened. “Tobias Dawson? The throat, almost like a choking cough. He stared at Finn. dwarven mine owner?”
“You’re the spitting image of your father when you smile
“He wants the land the store sits on,” Violet explained like that.”
in a quiet voice. “He’s always wanted it, but he’s become Some of the cheer drained out Finn’s green eyes. more and more insistent in the last two months.”
“That’s what people tell me. He’s dead, you know. Two
“It’s nothing,” Warren muttered again. “Just his usual months now.”
threats and bluster. He knows he’ll never get the store or Warren rocked back in his chair and nodded. “I know. the land until I’m spinning in my grave.”
Saw the obit in the newspaper.” The old man stared at
“or until your granddaughter’s untimely rape and Finn a moment longer, then turned to me. “And you’re death puts you there,” Finn pointed out. “Whatever ToFletcher’s girl, aren’t you? The one he took in off the bias Dawson’s done in the past, he’s decided to play hardstreets all those years ago?”
ball now—starting with Violet.”
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The college girl’s fingers crept up to her face, and her Donovan turned his golden eyes to me. Disappointnose twitched, as if she was reliving the pain she’d suffered ment shimmered in his gaze. “To offer your services to last night. She shivered.
Warren, right? To take care of Tobias Dawson in your Donovan noticed Violet’s reaction, and a sad, sick look own special way?”
filled his eyes. As a detective, Donovan had seen his share
“Something like that.”
of victims. He knew how badly Violet had been hurt, Disgust filled the detective’s rugged face. “once an ashow an innocent piece of her had been stripped away sassin, always an assassin.”
that she’d never get back. Anger and helplessness tightViolet let out a soft gasp. ened Donovan’s rough features. Because he also knew Warren stared at me. “So you do what Fletcher Lane, how hard it could be to get justice for victims like Violet. what the Tin Man did.”
Especially in Ashland.
“I used to. I’m retired now.”
Warren noticed Violet’s shiver as well. His wrinkled face Warren peered at me with his shiny brown eyes. “And tightened, and rage flashed like black lightning in his eyes. what did he call you?”
He reached over and patted his granddaughter’s hand. I met his gaze with a flat stare. “The Spider.” The rune
“Don’t think about it, honey,” Warren said. “Don’t scars on my hand itched at the sound o
f my former assasyou ever think about what happened last night again. Besin moniker. My mouth twisted. “Perhaps you’ve heard cause Tobias Dawson and his men will never lay another of me.”
hand on you. I promise. No matter what I have to do to Warren gave a curt nod of his head. “I have.”
stop them.” He muttered the last few words. Nobody said anything. A bit of wind gusted down
“You should have told me,” Donovan Caine cut in. “I off the mountaintop overhead and stirred up dust in the could help you with Dawson. Get him to back off.”
gravel parking lot. The breeze swept on, and the tiny Finn snorted his disbelief. The detective glared at him. whirlwinds died down.
“Please,” Finn scoffed. “Most of the Ashland po-po
“I want to thank you for saving my granddaughter’s couldn’t get a puppy to give up a chew toy, much less life,” Warren said. “But why did you really come here?
manage someone like Tobias Dawson. You know he’s Why do you want to stick your neck out for two people friends with Mab Monroe, right? You giving Dawson the you don’t even know? Why do you want to tangle with hard cop stare isn’t going to cause him indigestion, much somebody like Tobias Dawson? Like your friend said, he’s less get him to back off.”
not someone whose bad side you want to get on.”
“So what do you suggest?” the detective snapped.
“Yeah,” Donovan chimed in. “I thought you’d retired.”
“Well,” I drawled. “There was a reason I drove up here I stared at the detective. our eyes met and held, and today.”
the familiar heat warmed the pit of my stomach. AnswerEstep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 170-171
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ing warmth sparked in Donovan’s eyes, although he tried your land so badly he’d be willing to kill for it. I don’t care to smother it with cool indifference.
much for bullies like that.”
I held the detective’s gaze a moment longer, then
“A curious sort, huh?” Warren asked.
turned my attention to Warren T. Fox, who’d stopped his I smiled. “It’s a trait I got from Fletcher. So what do rocking. His wrinkled face was blank and free of emotion, you say? Shall I poke around and see what I can come up as though he couldn’t care less about my answer, but his with? or should Finn and I get in his car and go back to fingers dug into the arms of his chair. Warren needed me, the Pork Pit? It’s your choice, Warren.”
and he knew it—even if Donovan Caine didn’t. The old man stared at me, that thoughtful look in his
“You’re right,” I said in a quiet voice. “I don’t know you eyes once again. As though he knew something about me and your granddaughter, don’t care about you. Why am I that I didn’t even know myself. But Warren didn’t get a here? Because you once told your granddaughter a story chance to answer.
about the Tin Man, about how he helped people with on the highway, a black SUV slowed. Instead of passproblems. You and Fletcher Lane might not have spoken ing by like all the other cars and trucks, it pulled into the in decades, but you still cared enough, thought enough, gravel lot. For a moment, I thought the Foxes were going about him to tell Violet that story. So I’m here because of to get their first customer of the day. Then I saw the white Fletcher. Because the two of you were like brothers once banner on the car door. The one that read Dawson Minupon a time. Because if Fletcher were still alive, he’d be ing Company. The two is in Mining had been changed to sitting right here, whether you wanted him to or not.”
resemble a rune—a lit stick of dynamite. The same rune There was more to it than that, of course. Much more. the dwarf who’d attacked Violet had had tattooed on his Like the fact that I felt this peculiar kinship with the bicep.
Foxes. That in a weird way, seeing Violet and Warren toFinn noticed the writing and rune as well and glanced gether was like looking at a sweeter, more innocent verat me. “Trouble,” he said in a low voice. sion of Fletcher Lane and myself. What we might have
“You think?” I asked, already reaching for one of my been, if circumstances had been different. Maybe it was knives.
crazy, but I wanted the Foxes to stay just the way they were. To keep on loving and fighting. To keep what was left of their innocence, especially Violet. My mouth twisted again. “Besides, my retirement’s been pretty boring. Last night was the most excitement I’ve had in ages. And I find myself interested in why somebody like Tobias Dawson wants to get his hands on Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 172-173
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seated in their rocking chairs. Violet’s face paled, and she crossed her arms over her stomach, like she was trying not to vomit. A scowl deepened the lines around Warren’s 16
mouth.
The dwarf stopped at the base of the stairs that led up to the wooden porch. He hitched his thumbs in the belt loops on his jeans and put a foot up on one of the stairs. Black snakeskin boots covered his feet. orange-red flames spread over the tops, while silverstone tipped the pointed ends. A black ten-gallon hat rested on the dwarf’s head, making him seem taller than his five feet, and the lariat tie around his neck featured a piece of turquoise almost as big as my fist. Somebody liked playing cowboy. The dwarf’s hair was a curly, sandy blond mane that The SUV stopped, the doors opened, and several men fell to his shoulders. His nose was a bulbous piece of flesh poured out. one after another, they kept coming, like that puckered out from his face like a boil, and a wide, they were clowns crammed into a circus car and this was fuzzy mustache drooped over his lips. His eyes were a their only chance of escape. Five men total: two giants, pale, piercing blue in his tan face.
two shorter, burly guys, and a dwarf. The giants and other
“Warren,” the dwarf rumbled.
men wore work clothes—grimy coveralls, sturdy boots,
“Tobias,” the old man replied.
thick gloves. The dwarf was dressed a little nicer—clean The two men looked each other square in the eye the jeans, boots, a black T-shirt, and a tight black blazer that way old enemies do. Squinting, staring hard, neither one looked like it would do a Hulk rip down the sleeves if he willing to back down, look away, or even fucking blink breathed too hard.
first.
The dwarf headed toward the front porch, and the While Tobias Dawson and Warren T. Fox played eyerest of the men fell in step behind him. Finn and I exball chicken, my gaze flicked to the men standing behind changed a quick glance, and he made a motion with his the dwarf. The two shorter guys were human, although hand. I nodded and slid left into a shadow that pooled on they probably had some giant blood mixed in them, from the porch. Finn moved off to the right. Donovan Caine the looks of their powerful muscles and fists. Easy enough stayed where he was on the porch steps, although the deto put down with my knives. The giants standing behind tective got to his feet. Warren and Violet Fox remained them would be a bit more of a challenge—especially conEstep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 174-175
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sidering the fact each of their fists was only a little smaller comforting in my hand, just like always. An old, familiar than my head. I’d have to bob and weave with them, just friend.
like I’d done with the dwarven assassin last night. Still, Donovan Caine cleared his throat. Tobias tore his gaze nothing I couldn’t handle.
away from Warren and stared at the detective. The dwarf My gray eyes rested on Tobias Dawson once more. He’d gave Donovan the once-over, dismissed him as unimportbe the real problem, the real test. Especially since I felt the ant, and turned his attention back to Warren. faintest bit of power trickling off him, like a piece of sand“Have you thought any more about my latest offer?”
paper just brushing against my skin. Magic. The blond, Tobias Dawson asked in a voice that was pure twangy mustached dwarf had some kind of elemental magic.
country.
Being an elemental myself, I could sense when others Warren’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll tell you the same thing used their magic, of course. But there were some folks I’ve been saying for two months now. I’m not interested like Dawson who, well, leaked magic, for lack of a better in selling a soda pop to you, much less my store. You word. Even when those elementals weren’t actively using coming down here and asking me every other day isn’t their power, magic still trickled out of them, like water going to change my mind. No matter how much money from a leaky faucet. Drip, drip, drip. The magical runoff you offer me.”
was easy to sense. Then there were people like me, whose Tobias leaned forward and spit. Tobacco juice stained magic was completely self-contained. No leaks, no drips, the wooden plank an ugly brown at Warren’s feet. “Now no runoff. My magic couldn’t be felt at all unless I used it that’s a damn shame, especially considering the most rein an overt, forceful manner or someone had a particular cent, more-than-generous offer I made you. Why don’t knack for sniffing out elemental power.
you do the smart thing and sell out, old man?”
Dawson’s magic felt similar to my own, although I
“Because this store, this land, has been in my family couldn’t quite tell if the dwarf was a Stone or Ice. If I had for more than three hundred years,” Warren replied in a to guess, I’d say Stone. The sensation rippling off him testy tone. “And I’m not letting someone like you come in would have felt smoother, cooler if he’d been an Ice eland strip-mine it like you have the rest of the mountain.”
emental. Either way, I felt it. If things went badly, I’d go Tobias sighed. A long, drawn-out see-what-I-have-tofor the dwarf first, then his goons. With his magic and input-up-with sigh that sounded as phony as Jonah McAllisherent dwarven strength and toughness, Tobias Dawson ter had at the Pork Pit. “Now, you know that it’s not exactly was definitely the greater threat.
strip-mining, Warren. It’s called mountaintop removal, My thumb rubbed over the hilt of the silverstone knife and there’s nothing illegal about it. We’re just getting the I’d already palmed. Even though I hadn’t gotten in much coal out of the ground the quickest way we know how.”
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