Web of Lies
Page 34
was something else I’d been thinking about a lot these oh, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. That I could die past few weeks. For the first time, I think I realized why in the process. That I probably would die. But Mab MonFletcher Lane had left it for me. He’d regretted his past roe had murdered my family, made me think I’d killed my with Warren T. Fox, for not making amends with his old baby sister for seventeen years. I’d lived on the streets and Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 398-399
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400 JENNIFER ESTEP
eaten garbage because of her. Hidden from junkies and vampire pimps and all the other Southtown trash. Been scared and weak and frightened because of her. But not anymore. And mine wasn’t the only family she’d ruined over the years. The Snow family was hardly a footnote compared to all the horrid things Mab Monroe had done. And then there was Bria. My eyes traced over the picture of my baby sister. Blond hair, cornflower blue eyes, Turn the page for a sneak peek
the primrose rune around her neck. She was out there at the next Elemental Assassin book,
somewhere, waiting for me.
“I’m going to find you, baby sister,” I whispered. “one way or another.”
My eyes flicked up to the rune drawings propped on the mantel. I stared at the image of the Pork Pit that I’d Venom
drawn, of the sign over the front door. Fletcher’s rune, as I thought of it. I raised my glass in another toast.
“Here’s to you, Fletcher Lane,” I said. “I hope I’ll make Jennifer Estep
you proud.”
only the ticking of the grandfather clock in the hall broke the silence. I tossed back the gin and set my glass aside. Then I picked up the folder, ready to go through all the information again. And again and again if necessary. Until I found all the answers I was looking for. Coming Soon from Pocket Books
Donovan Caine had been right about one thing. Part of me would always be the Spider—and it was time to put my skills to good use. To do the things that needed to be done. Find Bria.
Figure out why Mab Monroe had murdered my family. Kill Mab.
“The good ole days are back again,” I said. Then I got to work.
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sinking back into my bed and not getting out of it for a week.
Just after seven on a cold, clear December night. This 1
was the last day of finals for the semester, and the campus was largely deserted. only a few lights burned in the windows of the kudzu-covered brick buildings that rose above my head. The stones whispered of formulas and theories and knowledge. An old, sonorous, slightly pretentious sound that was decidedly at odds with the sinister shadows that blackened most of the quad. No one else was within sight. Which is probably why the bastards decided to jump me here. Well, that and the fact that kidnapping me would be such a fucking bother. one second I had my face buried in a tissue blowing The bastards never would even have gotten close to me if my sore, drippy nose for the hundredth time today. The I hadn’t had the flu.
next, I looked up to find myself surrounded by three giCoughing, sneezing, aching, wheezing. That was me. ants.
Gin Blanco. Restaurant owner. Stone and Ice elemental. oh, fuck.
Former assassin. And all-around badass. Laid low by a I stopped, and they immediately closed ranks, forming microbe. Ugh.
a loose triangle of trouble around me. The giants were all It had started as a small, ominous tickle in my throat around seven feet tall, with oversize, buglike eyes and fists three days ago. And now, well, it wasn’t pretty. Watery almost as big as my head. one of them grinned at me and eyes. Pale face. And a nose so red and bright even Rucracked his knuckles. Someone was anxious to get down dolph would have been jealous. Ugh.
to the business of beating the shit out of me. The only reason I’d even crawled out of bed this eveMy gray eyes flicked to the leader of the group, who ning was to come down to Ashland Community Colhad taken up a position in front of me—Elliot Slater. lege and take the final for the Great Literature class I Slater was the tallest of the three giants, his seven foot was auditing. I’d finished my essay on symbolism in figure making even his flunkies seem petite in compari The Odyssey ten minutes ago. Now I plodded across one son. He was almost as wide as he was tall, with a solid, of the grassy campus quads and feverishly dreamed of muscled frame. Granite would be easier to break than his Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 402-403
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ribs. Slater’s complexion was pale, bordering on albino, Elliot Slater looked over his broad shoulder. “Is this and almost seemed to glow in the faint light. His hazel her?”
eyes provided a bit of color in his chalky skin, although Slater slid to one side so another man, a much shorter his thin, tousled thatch of blond hair did little to cover human, could join the circle of giants surrounding me. his large skull. A diamond in his pinkie ring sparked like Underneath his classic trench coat, the man wore a pera star in the dark night. fect black suit, and his polished wingtips gleamed like wet Up until my retirement a few months ago, I’d moonink in the semidarkness. His thick mane of gunmetal gray lighted as an assassin known as the Spider. over the past hair resembled a heavy mantle of silver that had somehow seventeen years, I’d had plenty of dealings in the shady been swirled and sculpted around his head. Too bad hate side of life, so I knew Slater by sight and reputation. on made his brown eyes look like congealed lumps of blood paper, Elliot Slater was a highly respected security consulin his smooth, tight face. tant with his own platoon of giant bodyguards. In reality, I recognized him too. Jonah McAllister. on paper, Slater was the number-one enforcer for Mab Monroe, the McAllister was the city’s top lawyer, a charming, bellicose Fire elemental who ran the Southern metropolis of Ashdefense attorney capable of getting the most vicious killer land like it was her own personal fiefdom. Slater stepped off scot-free—for the right price. In reality, the slick lawin and either cut off, took care of, or permanently disyer was another one of Mab Monroe’s top goons, just like posed of any pesky problems Mab didn’t feel like dealing Elliot Slater was. Jonah McAllister was Mab’s personal with herself.
lawyer, responsible for burying her enemies in legal red And tonight, it looked like that problem was me. tape instead of in the ground like Slater did. Not surprising. A couple of weeks ago, I’d stiffed someMcAllister’s son, Jake, was the one I’d killed at Mab’s one during a party at Mab Monroe’s mansion. Needless party. The beefy frat boy had threatened to rape and murto say, the Fire elemental hadn’t been too thrilled about der me, among other things. I’d considered it pest exterone of her guests being murdered in her own home when mination more than anything else.
she’d been entertaining five hundred of her closest busiElliot Slater and Jonah McAllister tag-teaming me. ness associates. I’d gotten away with it so far, but I knew This night just kept getting better and better. I sniffled Mab was doing everything in her power to find the killer. again. Really should have stayed home in bed. To find me.
Jonah McAllister regarded me with cold eyes. “oh, I sniffled into my tissue. I wondered if Mab had figyes. That’s her. The lovely Ms. Gin Blanco. The bitch ured out who I really was. If that was why Slater was here who was giving my boy a hard time.”
tonight—
A hard time? I supposed so, if you thought turning Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 404-405
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him into the cops for attempted robbery, breaking a attractive moment. He jerked his head at Elliot Slater, plate full of food in his face, and ultimately stabbing Jake who nodded back.
McAllister to death was a hard time. But I noticed that
“Now, Ms. Blanco,” Slater drawled. “The reason for Jonah McAllister didn’t say anything about me actually this meeting is that Mr. McAllister thought you might killing his son. Hmm. Looked like this was some sort of have some information about his son’s death. Jake did fishing expedition. I decided to play along—for now. have a bit of
a heart condition, but there were also some
“What is this meeting all about?” My voice came out suspicious circumstances surrounding his death. Hapsomewhere between a whiny wheeze and a phlegmy rasp. pened a couple of weeks ago.”
“Are you taking up Jake’s bad habit of assaulting innocent Suspicious circumstances? I assumed that was polite people?”
talk for a sucking stab wound to the chest. But I kept my Jonah McAllister’s face hardened at my insult. As face blank and ignorant.
much as it could, anyway. Despite his sixty-some years,
“Why the fuck would I know anything about Jake’s McAllister’s features were as smooth as polished marble, death?” I asked. “The last time I saw the little punk was thanks to a vigorous regimen of expensive Air elemental the day he brought his old man there down to the Pork Pit facial treatments. “I would hardly consider you innocent, to threaten me into dropping the charges against him.”
Ms. Blanco. And you’re the one who assaulted my preLies, of course. I’d run into Jake McAllister one more cious boy first.”
time after that—at Mab Monroe’s party. Even though I’d
“Your precious boy came into my restaurant, tried to been gussied up as a hooker, the bastard had still recogrob me, and almost killed two of my customers with his nized me. Since I’d been there to kill someone else, I’d Fire elemental magic.” I spat out the words, along with lured sweet little Jakie into a bathroom, stabbed him to some phlegm. “All I did was defend myself. What does death, left his body in the bathtub, and washed the blood it matter now anyway? Your boy is dead because of some off my dress before going back out to the party. Nothing weird heart condition. At least, that’s what was in the I hadn’t done a hundred times before as the assassin the newspaper.”
Spider. I certainly hadn’t lost any sleep over it. Jonah McAllister stared at me, trying to see if I knew But right now, it looked like I might lose a whole lot more than I was letting on about his son’s untimely demore. mise. I used the lull to blow my nose—again. Fucking
“See, that’s the problem. My good friend Jonah doesn’t microbes.
believe you. So he asked me and some of my boys to come McAllister’s mouth twisted with disgust at the sight down here and see if perhaps we could jog something free and sound of my sniffles. Admittedly, it wasn’t my most from your memory.” Slater smiled. His lips drew back, Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 406-407
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giving me a glimpse of his pale pink gums. The giant’s could do practically anything I wanted to with the elegrin reminded me of a jack-o’-lantern’s gaping maw—
ment. Like make bricks fly out of the wall of one of the completely hollow. “We’re going to pay these sorts of vissurrounding buildings and use them to brain the giants its to anyone Jake might have had a problem with. And in their watermelon-size heads. Splat, splat, splat. It’d be your name was at the top of the list.”
easier than using an Uzi. Hell, if I really wanted to show of course it was. I was probably the only person in off, I could just crumble all four of the buildings that Ashland who’d ever dared to stand up to Jake McAllister. ringed the quad down on top of them.
Now his daddy was going to make me pay for it—and I was also one of the rare elementals who could conthere wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. trol more than one element. Stone and Ice, in my case. Slater took off his suit jacket, handed it to Jonah Until recently, my Ice magic had been far weaker than my McAllister, and started rolling up his shirtsleeves. Stone power. But thanks to a series of traumatic events, I sniffled, blew my nose again, and considered the I could do a little more with it now. Like create a wall situation. Four-on-one odds were never terrific, especially of Ice knives to fling at the bastards. I’d sliced through since three of the four men were giants. The oversize a dwarf’s skin doing just that. Giants weren’t quite as goons were hard to bring down, even for a former assassin tough as dwarves, at least when it came to cutting into like me. None of the giants showed any obvious elemental them. Even if they did have more blood to spare that their abilities, like letting flames flicker on their clenched fists shorter compatriots.
or forming ice daggers with their bare hands. But that But the odds or how to go about killing the giants didn’t mean that they didn’t have magic. Which would wasn’t what was holding me back. Not really. It was the make them doubly hard to get rid of.
consequences; what would happen afterward when their Still, if I hadn’t had the flu, I might have considered boss, Mab Monroe, got involved.
killing them—or at least cutting down a couple so I could Seventeen years ago, Mab Monroe had used her Fire run away. Although I’d dragged myself out of bed this elemental magic to kill my mother and older sister, a fact evening, I’d grabbed my silverstone knives on the way out I’d only recently learned. She’d also tortured me, using the door. Five of them. Two tucked up my sleeves. one her magic to superheat and burn a spider rune into my nestled in the small of my back. Two more in the sides of palms. I was planning to deal with Mab myself after I figmy boots. Never left home without them. ured out a few things, like why she’d murdered my family of course, being an elemental myself I didn’t really in the first place and where the hell my long-lost baby need my knives to kill. I could just use my magic to take sister, Bria, was now.
down the bastards. My Stone power was so strong that I Taking care of Jonah McAllister and the rest of his Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 408-409
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hired help tonight would definitely tip my hand and And that’s when the fun really started.
draw even more of Mab’s attention my way. I didn’t want Elliot Slater snapped his hand up and slammed his Mab and her minions to realize that I had any elemenfist into my face. Bastard was quick, I’d give him that. I tal magic. To suspect that I was anything more than the hadn’t braced myself for the blow, and I jerked back in the simple restaurant owner Jonah McAllister wanted dead giants’ arms. The force almost tore me out of their grasp. for tattling on his son to the cops. At least, not before I Pain exploded like dynamite in my jaw.
killed the bitch for what she’d done to me. But Slater didn’t stop there. He spent the next two All that left me with only one option tonight—I was minutes beating me. one punch broke my drippy nose. going to have to let the bastards hurt me, beat me. That Another cracked two of my ribs. And I didn’t even want was the only way I could keep my cover identity as Gin to think about the internal bleeding or what my face Blanco safe, along with who I really was, Genevieve Snow. looked like at this point. Thud, thud, thud. I might as well Fuck. This was going to hurt.
have been a piece of meat the giant was tenderizing for Elliot Slater finished rolling up his sleeves. “Are you dinner. Every part of me hurt and burned and throbbed sure you don’t have anything to tell us, Miss Blanco?”
and pulsed with pain.
I sighed and shook my head. “I told you before. I don’t And the bastard laughed the whole fucking time. Low, know anything about Jake McAllister’s death except what soft, chuckling laughs that made my skin crawl. Elliot I read in the newspaper.”
Slater enjoyed hurting people. Really enjoyed it. The bas“I’m sorry to hear that,” Slater murmured. tard’s hard-on bulged against the zipper on his black pants. The giant stepped forward and flexed his fingers, ready Slater hit me again and stepped back. By this point, I to get on with things. Time for me to put on a little show. hung limp between the two giants, all pretense of being I widened my gray eyes, as though it had just sunk into tough and strong long gone. I just wanted this to be over my addled brain what Elliot Slater was planning to do with.
to me. I let out a phlegmy scream and turned to run, A hand grabbed my chin and forced my face up. I as though I’d forgotten all about the two giants standing stared into Elliot Slater’s hazel eyes. At least, I tried to. behind me. I ran right into them, of course, and the two White starbursts kept exploding over and over in my field giants i
mmediately seized my arms. Even though I had of vision, making it hard to focus. The light show was no real intention of trying to break free, I still struggled better than fireworks on the Fourth of July. to keep up appearances. Yelling, flailing, kicking out with
“Now,” Elliot rumbled. “Do you want to reconsider my legs. The bastards laughed at me and my weak blows, what you know about Jake McAllister’s death? Maybe you and turned me around to face Elliot Slater once more. have something new to add?”
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“I don’t know anything about Jake’s death,” I mumbled
“I said enough.” The voice dropped to a low hiss that through a mouthful of loose teeth. Blood spewed out of crackled with power, menace, and the promise of death. my split lips and cascaded down my navy fleece jacket. “I Elliot froze, his hand pulled halfway back to hit me swear.” I made my voice as low, weak, and whipped as I again.
could.
“Let her go. Now.”
Jonah McAllister stepped forward and peered at me. The two giants who’d had their hands clamped around Malicious glee shimmered in his brown gaze. “Keep hitmy upper arms dropped me like I had the plague. I lay ting her. I want the bitch to suffer.”
on the ground, my blood soaking into the frosty grass. Elliot Slater nodded and stepped back.
Despite the pain, I curled my beaten body into a small, The giant spent another two minutes hitting me. More defensive ball. I also palmed one of my silverstone knives. pain, more blood, more cracked ribs. As I coughed up anThe weapon felt cold and comforting against the thick other mouthful of coppery blood, it dawned on me that scar embedded in my palm.
the bastard just might beat me to death, right here in the Something rustled, and Mab Monroe stepped out of middle of the campus quad. Jonah McAllister certainly the shadows to my left.
wouldn’t have any objections to that. Damn. Looked like The Fire elemental wore a long wool coat done in a I was going to have to go for my knives, blast them with dark forest green. Her red hair gleamed like polished copmy elemental magic, and blow my cover after all, if I still per, but her eyes were even blacker than the night sky. A had the strength to do that—