making nice than I was. He stepped forward, his hands Violet Fox stared at the four of us, surprised and furheld wide. A charming smile showed off his white teeth ther startled by our presence. The girl’s eyes fell on a knife to their dazzling perfection.
on the kitchen table. She darted forward, picked it up,
“You’re somewhere safe,” Finn said in a calm tone that turned, and brandished it at us. “Who are you people?”
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hurt you. We saved you from that dwarf in the parking more foolish years. You’ll be so much more comfortable if lot at the community college, remember?”
you get out of those wet clothes. Let me help you zip up your Shadows turned Violet’s eyes an even darker brown, dress. Whoops, did I just spill coffee all over your jeans? Guess and she twitched her nose, trying to see if it was still in you’ll have to take them off. tact. She remembered, all right. The knowledge bruised And it worked. Violet Fox never stood a chance her features just like the dwarf’s fists had. Jo-Jo might against the sheer, overpowering, slightly smarmy charm have healed all the physical damage from the attack, but of Finnegan Lane. She lowered the knife and studied us Violet Fox wasn’t going to forget the emotional trauma all again, carefully this time, without fear clouding her anytime soon. If ever. Something else I was all too familgaze. She stared at Finn the longest. iar with.
“You look exactly like your dad,” she said. “or at least Violet Fox didn’t look anything like me, of course, but an old photo my grandfather has of him. Same eyes, same for a moment, staring at her was like seeing myself at thirhair, same nice smile.”
teen again, just after the Fire elemental had murdered my Finn grinned a little wider. Nothing he loved better family. I’d had the same haunted, wounded look that the than being told how handsome he was.
other girl did right now. I pushed the memory away. Violet nodded at Jo-Jo. “And I’ve seen you once or Finn crept a little closer and turned up the wattage on twice up at the store, haven’t I?”
his smile. “We don’t mean you any harm. We just want
“You sure have, darling. Your grandfather has the best to ask you some questions about your grandfather. His homemade honey in the city. I always stop and get some name is Warren, right? Warren T. Fox?”
when I’m up that way,” Jo-Jo said. “Now, why don’t you Doubt flickered in her dark, haunted eyes. “Why do put that knife to good use and help yourself to some desyou want to know about my grandfather?”
sert while we talk?”
“Because your grandfather used to be an old friend of After a moment, Violet nodded, stepped forward, and my dad’s,” Finn kept up his calming tone. “His name was put the knife back down on the table. Finn gently took Fletcher Lane. You came into the Pork Pit today asking her arm, gave her another smile, and sat her down on one about him, asking about the Tin Man, remember?”
of the stools. I made her a bowl of apricot bars and ice Some of Violet’s panic slackened, and she studied Finn cream and passed her a spoon. Violet stared at me. with a lot more interest.
“And you,” she murmured. “I talked to you at the res“C’mon,” Finn said. “If we wanted to hurt you, we taurant today. And in the parking lot, after, after—”
would have done it already. We just want to talk. Promise.”
“After I killed the man who attacked you,” I said. It was the same smooth voice he’d used to talk so many Violet gulped down a mouthful of air. Jo-Jo reached women out of their panties. Including me in my younger, over, patted the girl on the hand, and shot me a pointed Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 118-119
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look. I sighed. I was a former assassin, not a babysitJo-Jo said, cutting into my musings. “He was a wonderful ter. Wasn’t my job to sugarcoat what had happened toman that way.”
night—or skirt around the trouble the girl was in. But I stared at the dwarf, then at Sophia, who grunted I was patient enough to let Violet Fox get through with her agreement. Even Finn nodded his head in a knowher psuedocobbler before I started asking her questions. ing way. over the years, I’d done a few pro bono jobs. So Besides, there were plenty of apricot bars left. Be a shame, had Fletcher. But helping people on the sly? As a regular really, to let them go to waste.
gig? When had the old man done that? And more impor“Why did you come into the Pork Pit today looking tantly, why?
for the Tin Man?” I asked. “Who told you that name?”
“So he’s real then?” Violet asked. “The Tin Man?”
Violet fiddled with her spoon, then pushed it and her
“Sure, he’s real, darling,” Jo-Jo said. “His name was empty bowl aside. She drew in a breath. She knew it was Fletcher Lane. He was Finn’s father.”
time to get down to business. “You’re going to think it’s Violet’s face fell. “Was?”
stupid. Childish.”
Finn nodded. “He died a few months ago. But don’t
“oh, I doubt that,” I drawled.
worry about that right now. Tell us the rest of your story.”
Violet’s brows drew together in confusion at my sarViolet drew in another breath. “Anyway, I hadn’t really castic tone. Jo-Jo patted her hand again, encouraging her thought about the Tin Man in years—until this morning.”
to go on with her story. Violet shook her head and con“What happened this morning?” Finn gave Violet antinued. other encouraging smile.
“When I was a kid, my grandfather used to tell me stoViolet ducked her head and smiled back, as though ries about the Tin Man. He told me the Tin Man helped she wasn’t used to so much male attention. Probably not. people who couldn’t help themselves. That he ran a barGirls with glasses, and all that. “I’m a business major at becue restaurant called the Pork Pit and that all you had Ashland Community College. Eva Grayson’s my best to do was go in and ask for him, and he’d make all your friend. She was at the Pork Pit last night. All she could problems disappear. I thought it was the most wonderful talk about today was the robbery and how the woman story, a sort of Southern fairy tale.”
behind the cash register stopped it.”
Warren Fox might have been estranged from Fletcher, Sophia snorted.
but he’d still thought about his childhood friend, enough
“Well, I did have some help,” I said to appease the to tell his granddaughter about the old man and what he Goth dwarf. “So you talked to Eva, and you remembered did, in a roundabout way. Although I wouldn’t call assasthis story your grandfather had told you about the Tin sinating folks a real help—
Man. okay, I’ll buy that. But why do you even need the
“oh, yes. Fletcher helped lots of people over the years,”
Tin Man’s help in the first place?”
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Violet chewed on one of her fingernails. “It’s a long no matter who got dead in the process. Dawson was also story.”
deep in bed with Mab Monroe. I remembered seeing his
“Good thing we’ve got nothing but time then.”
name in the file Fletcher had compiled on the Fire elI didn’t mention to the girl that she wasn’t going anyemental queen. where until I’d determined she wasn’t a threat to me, Hearing Dawson’s name also made me recall where I’d Finn, the Deveraux sisters, or the restaurant. Jake McAlseen the symbol that had been tattooed on the bicep of lister was going to make enough problems for me. I didn’t Violet Fox’s attacker. Unless I was mistaken, a lit stick of need any more.
dynamite was Tobias Dawson’s rune for his mining comViolet nodded. “All right. My grandfather, Warren pany.
; Fox, owns a store up on Ridgeline Hollow Road called Violet continued with her story. “In the past, Dawson Country Daze. It’s an old-timey country store with glass was content just to wait. He’s a dwarf, after all, just a soda pop bottles, barrels full of penny candy, locally made bit over two hundred. He’s bound to outlive Grandfather goods, that kind of thing. It’s also right next to one of the and me too. But he’s not taking no for an answer anybig coal mines—Dawson Number Three. It started out more. He’s sent some of his men out to harass us. They’ve as an underground mine with a big seam of coal. But the broken the windows in the store, threatened customers, coal ran out a few years ago, so the underground part has interfered with our deliveries. You name it, they’ve done been idle since then. Now it’s just a strip mine. The owner all that and more the last two months, trying to drive us of the mine, Tobias Dawson, has been after my grandfaout of business. Grandfather’s been able to handle Dawther to sell the store, land, and mineral rights to him for son’s men so far, but I worry about him. Dawson’s more or years so he can expand the mine and search for more coal. less told Grandfather that he’ll kill us both if Grandfather But the store and the land have been in our family for doesn’t sell out to him. Grandfather said no, of course.”
generations. Grandfather has always refused, saying he’d I didn’t bother asking Violet Fox if they’d gone to the rather die than see any more of the mountain destroyed.”
police to complain about Tobias Dawson. The dwarven Tobias Dawson. I knew that name. Dawson was one mine owner had more than enough money to bribe the of the biggest mine operators in Ashland, a dwarf who’d po-po to look the other way, and he could always use pulled coal out of the mountains for years himself as a his connection to Mab Monroe to get the cops in her miner before making enough money to start up his own pocket to back off and let him go about his intimidacompany. He’d had nothing but success ever since. A true tion business. The only person who might listen to the miner through and through who was always on the lookFoxes would be Donovan Caine. Even then, the detective out for the next big seam of coal in the mountains. If couldn’t take on someone like Tobias Dawson by himself. Tobias Dawson wanted something, he usually got it—
Not and live to tell about it.
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“So that’s why that dwarf attacked you tonight,” I there was the folder of information Fletcher Lane had left murmured. “You grandfather wasn’t budging, so Dawme—the one about my murdered mother and older sisson decided to give him some incentive to sell out—your ter. The photo of Bria that proved she was still alive, still body.”
out there somewhere.
Violet shook her head. “That wouldn’t have worked, I needed to figure out what to do about all that. How either. If anything, Grandfather would have gotten his to take care of Jake McAllister without pointing the finger shotgun and gone over to the mine to have it out with back at myself. What to do about his father. How to find Dawson.”
my baby sister, Bria. Decide whether I actually wanted
“Where Dawson could justifiably kill him in self-deto do that or not. Fletcher had left me all these questions fense in front of any number of witnesses,” Finn pointed to find the answers to. I didn’t need to go gallivanting up out. “Either way, Dawson would have gotten what he into the Appalachian Mountains to help an old geezer wanted—you and your grandfather out of the way.”
and his granddaughter take on someone as dangerous and Violet shivered and hugged her arms to her chest. potentially lethal as Tobias Dawson.
Nobody said anything for the better part of a minute. But my decision had already been made. It had been Then Jo-Jo looked at me with her pale, colorless eyes. the moment I’d become curious enough to track down
“Gin?”
Violet Fox and see what kind of trouble she was in, see Gin. My adopted name. Such a short, simple word. why she wanted to speak to the Tin Man. Curiosity. DefiBut that single syllable was imbued with a world of meannitely going to get me killed one day. Probably real, real ing. I knew what Jo-Jo was asking. If I was going to help soon.
Violet and her grandfather, Warren T. Fox. Because with“Sophia,” I said. “I’m going to need you to watch the out someone like me on their side, someone just as cold, Pork Pit for a few days. Maybe help me out with some ruthless, and dangerous as Tobias Dawson, the Foxes other things too, if the need arises.”
weren’t long for this earth. If I hadn’t gotten curious and The Goth dwarf nodded. A tiny smile softened her intervened tonight, Violet would already be raped, dead, hard, pale face. Nothing Sophia liked better than hanand cold in that parking lot. dling the other things I sent her way. I rubbed my head. I didn’t need this right now. I was
“Finn, I need everything you can get on Tobias Dawsupposed to be retired, not sticking my nose into someson, his mining operation, and why he might want the one else’s problems. Especially not for free. Then there Foxes’ land so badly.”
was Jake McAllister and his well-connected, lawyer father, Finn nodded.
Jonah. I had no doubt the younger McAllister would
“Jo-Jo, I’ll probably need some healing supplies.”
make good on his threat to try and kill me. And finally, The older dwarf nodded her head as well.
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Violet looked back and forth between the four of us.
“I don’t understand. I thought Finn’s father, the Tin Man, was dead? How is any of this going to help me and my grandfather?”
“Because, sweetheart,” I said. “I might not be the Tin 12
Man, and I’m definitely no fairy-tale hero, but I’m the closest thing you’re going to get.”
once my professional help was secured, Violet Fox immediately wanted to go home and make sure her grandfather was okay.
“Forget it,” I said. “You’re not going home tonight. You need to stay here and rest. You’ve been through a serious trauma. Despite being magically healed, you still need some downtime to recover.”
By this point, purple circles rimmed her dark eyes, and she moved slowly, like every motion was an enormous effort. Violet Fox was about to pass out from sheer exhaustion. I didn’t add the fact I wanted Violet to stay right where she was so Jo-Jo and Sophia Deveraux could babysit her. The dwarves would make sure Violet didn’t do anything stupid, like tell her grandfather about the attack and have him go tearing off after Tobias Dawson in a rage.
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“He won’t,” I replied. “You said it yourself. Your grandwhile Finn sweet-talked Sophia into going out into the father and his shotgun can handle Dawson’s men. That’s rain and seeing what she could do about the blood Violet why the dwarf came after you instead. He wasn’t getting had dripped all over the backseat of his precious Aston anywhere threatening your grandfather.”
Martin. once Jo-Jo finished with Violet, the dwarf took
“But how do you know?” she persisted. me into the salon, where she gave me a plastic tub. The I gave her a flat look. “Because I’ve had a lot of experidwarf’s cloud rune decorated the top of the container. I ence with this sort of thing. Dawson’s probably waiting traced my fingernail over the pale blue paint. for his cell phone to ring, for his man to check in and tell In addition to healing with their hands, Air elementals him that you’re dead. When he realizes something went like Jo-Jo could also infuse their magic in various prodwrong, Dawson will be too busy trying to find his own ucts, like the ointment she’d just handed me. The ointman and figure out what the hell happened to him to ment wouldn’t work as well as Jo-Jo healing me herself, worry about your grandfather. At
least for tonight. Trust but it would keep me from keeling over until I could get to me. We’ve got time for you to get some beauty sleep.”
her. Jo-Jo also gave me a couple of smaller containers of the Violet opened her mouth to argue with me some ointment, including one that looked like a makeup commore, but I cut her off. pact and another solid tube of it that resembled lipstick.
“You can call your grandfather and check in. See how
“Thanks,” I said. “I have a feeling I’m going to need he is, and tell him you’ll see him tomorrow. But if you these, if I’m getting mixed up with Tobias Dawson.”
want my help, you’re staying here tonight. Capisce? ”
Jo-Jo’s white eyes clouded over. “Maybe. Although I Violet Fox might be a straight-A business student, but don’t think the tub will be much help. Not this time.”
her resistance wilted under my cold stare. “All right,” she Her voice was soft and distant, like she was somewhere murmured. “I’ll call my grandfather.”
far away instead of standing in front of me. In addition to
“Good,” I replied and pushed her bowl back over to her healing powers, Jo-Jo also had a bit of precognition. her. “Now, eat some more cobbler.”
Most Airs did. They could read vibrations and feelings in the wind just like I could in whatever stone was near me. Violet Fox ate some more apricot bars and vanilla ice But where my element whispered to me of the past, theirs cream, while the rest of us plotted. Jo-Jo and Sophia often hinted at the future. Another way the two elements agreed to keep an eye on her until Finn and I showed up opposed each other.
tomorrow. The two of us would drive Violet back home, After a moment, Jo-Jo’s eyes cleared, and she stared at meet with Warren T. Fox, and see what we could do to get me. “So, are we ever going to talk about it?”
Tobias Dawson to back off.
“Talk about what?” I asked, sliding the compact and Jo-Jo settled Violet in one of her upstairs bedrooms, lipstick tube into my jeans pocket.
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