bronze skin. The Hispanic detective looked the same as I waited until the two college girls had disappeared I remembered, except for the lines on his face. For once, through the swinging doors and were out of earshot bethey seemed to have smoothed out, as though some great fore I looked back at the detective. “I saw you on TV at weight had been lifted off his lean shoulders. As though the coal mine. Looked like you had your hands full recovhe’d made some decision that had finally brought him a ering Tobias Dawson’s body.”
measure of peace. I wondered what it could be, but I had The detective nodded. “I did. But owen Grayson was a funny feeling it had something to do with me. Maybe a tremendous help with that. So were all the other emereverything to do with me. gency and disaster workers.”
The detective came over and rested his hands on the We could have been talking about the weather for as counter. Hands that had done such wonderful things to interesting as the conversation was. But the detective’s my body. “Gin.”
hands gripped the edge of the counter like he wanted to
“Detective.”
break it off. He was upset about something. I had no idea
“Can we talk?” he asked in a low voice.
what it could be. Because he was the one who’d turned I hadn’t seen the detective since that afternoon I’d his back on me that day at the mine, not the other way waved to him from the ridge, and he hadn’t made any efaround. So I decided to get to the heart of the matter. Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 386-387
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“Why did you come here, Donovan?” I asked. “What
“I came here to explain,” Donovan said in a low voice. do you want?”
“Can you please just let me do that?”
The detective stared at me, his golden eyes tracing over
“Fine,” I snarled. “Explain.”
my face. “I’m leaving Ashland, Gin. I thought you should Donovan drew in a deep breath. “I’ve thought about know. I thought I should tell you in person.”
you every day, Gin. Ever since that first night we met at For a moment I was stunned. Simply stunned. of all the orchestra house. The night Gordon Giles was murthe things he could have said, I wasn’t expecting that—and dered. I’ve replayed that scene over and over in my head. the emotions it stirred up in me. Hurt. Anger. Sadness. And not just that one. That night at Northern Aggres“You’re leaving town? Why?”
sion. The time we spent together at the country club. Donovan ran his hands through his black hair. “A lot Then, in my car a few weeks ago. That night in the rain. I of reasons. Too many to get into right now.”
can’t get you out of my head. Your voice, your smell, your
“Well, let’s get into the only one that matters, the real laugh, the way you feel against me.”
reason you’re here. Me,” I snapped. “You’re leaving town
“Why is that a bad thing?” I asked. “We’re attracted to because of me, aren’t you?”
each other. That’s what people do when they’re attracted
“Guilty as charged.” The detective tried to smile. It to each other.”
didn’t come off very well.
Donovan stared at me. “It’s a bad thing because of who
“Why?” I asked. “You turned your back on me at the you are and what you used to do.”
mine that day. I got the message. For some reason, you I’d expected the words, but they still stung. I sighed. don’t want to have anything to do with me. Not anymore.
“If this is still about Cliff Ingles—”
You don’t have to leave town to accomplish that, detecHe shook his head. “It’s not about Cliff, not anymore. tive. I’m not the sort who runs after a man, begging him I know why you killed him. Like I told you before, I not to leave her.”
might have done it myself, if I’d had the chance. No, this My voice dripped with acid. So did my heart, but I is about me.”
kept my face calm, cold, remote. I wasn’t going to let I just looked at him.
Donovan Caine know how much he’d hurt me that day—
Donovan drew in a breath. “Do you know why I didn’t how much he was hurting me now. I’d thought we could come see about you at the mine?”
have something together, a real relationship. That maybe
“Not really.”
Donovan was someone I could share my heart and life
“After that night we were together on my car, I felt like with, dark though they were. But that hope had burned maybe there could be something between us,” he said in up and crumbled to ash, like so many other things in my a low voice. “But then you said you were going after Tolife. Hope. A wasted emotion, more often than not. bias Dawson. To kill him. And I let you. I let you. I just Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 388-389
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stood by in the background while you went after another You don’t consider any other options, you don’t consider man—to murder him. I did the very thing I’d always anything. You decided you wanted Dawson dead, and sworn not to do—I looked the other way. Not because you made it happen.”
Dawson was a bad guy, but because of you. I compro“I did what needed to be done,” I said in a cold voice. mised myself because of you, Gin, and what I feel for
“Nothing more, nothing less. And there were no other you.”
options, detective. Because the police in this town are a Guilt, grief, and disappointment flashed in his golden joke, and we both know it. The only law, the only justice, eyes. And I thought back to what Warren T. Fox had told in Ashland is what people make for themselves.”
me. He’s not the one for you, the old man’s voice whispered Donovan flinched at my harsh words, but he didn’t in my head. Somehow I pushed my hurt aside, trying to dispute them. “I just—I can’t do this anymore. I’m sorry, be calm and rational about this. Trying to get Donovan Gin. But this thing with us, it’s over.”
Caine to change his mind. To stay. To give us a fucking
“So you’re leaving town to get away from me?” I chance.
snapped.
“You know as well as I do that Tobias Dawson was Donovan lifted his hands in a helpless gesture. “Yes. never going to leave the Foxes alone. That he was in deep No. I don’t know. It’s not all about you. Part of it is with Mab Monroe and both of them— both of them—
the department. There’s so much corruption there. I’m would have done everything in their power to get their just . . . tired of it all. of getting up every single fucking hands on those diamonds. Dawson dying was the only morning and knowing that I’m fighting a losing battle. way to save Warren and Violet.”
I’m on the edge here, Gin. Close to becoming just like Donovan shook his head. “I just can’t bring myself to all the other crooked cops in this city. Letting you go believe that, to accept it.”
after Alexis James was one thing. She came after both of This was the same old argument we’d had so many us first. But Tobias Dawson, that was different. If it had times now. Too many to count. It wouldn’t go anywhere, been anyone but you, I would have cuffed your ass and so I decided to try another tactic. “Why is feeling somedragged you down to headquarters before you got anything for me so terrible? Why can’t you just accept the fact where near Dawson. But I didn’t. And I regret it. More I used to be an assassin and that I’m trying to change?”
than you’ll ever know. I’m sorry, Gin. I want you to know
“Because you’ll never change. Not really.”
that. I really am sorry.”
“oh no?”
“No,” I said. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I’m sorry I
“No,” he replied in a firm voice. “Think about it. We wasted my time on you. Face it, Donovan. You’re not find out what Tobias Dawson’s doing, and what’s the first leaving town because I killed Dawson. You’re le
aving thing out of your mouth? You talking about killing him. town because you didn’t stop me from doing it. Because Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 390-391
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you didn’t have the strength to. Because even now, de“Where are you going?”
spite everything, you still want to fuck me. You’re runHe shook his head. “I think it’s better if you don’t ning away because your morals are more important to know that, Gin.”
you than anything else, including what you could have I nodded. Maybe it was.
with me.”
“I also came here to warn you,” Donovan said in a Donovan flinched, but he didn’t deny the truth of my soft tone. “Jonah McAllister is out for blood for whoever words. It was too late for that. Now the detective just killed his son. He won’t stop until he finds the person relooked weary. His resignation only made me angrier. For sponsible. one of my sources says he’s looking into everya moment, the rage surged through me, hard and cold one Jake had a problem with—including you. And Mab and bitter as bile. I wanted to throw something, break Monroe doesn’t think you died in the mine with Dawson. something. I wanted to break him. Palm my knife, step My captain got a call from her the other day wanting to forward, and slash his throat with it. Hurt him like he know if we’d found any more bodies in the rubble. So was hurting me.
watch your back.”
But I drew in a breath. I might wound Donovan
“Why tell me all this?” I said. “It’s not like you care. with words, but nothing else. I might be a former asNot really.”
sassin, but I was better than that. I’d never killed out of Not enough to stay. That’s what I wanted to say, to passion, and I wasn’t going to start now. The detective scream at him. But I didn’t.
wasn’t worth it.
Donovan shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I felt I owed
“You turned your back on me at the mine because it to you. The department’s already replaced me.”
you were glad I was dead,” I said. “Because the choice to
“With who?” I said it more to say something than out be with me had been taken out of your hands, and your of any real curiosity.
precious morals were still intact. And then I popped up He shrugged again. “Some hotshot from Savannah again, still alive. And you were right back to square one. named Coolidge. That’s all I know. A woman. Supposed That’s the real truth, isn’t it?”
to be a real go-getter. Just like you.”
He didn’t say anything. And I finally let myself acDonovan stared at me again. His gold eyes burned knowledge something I’d known all along. Donovan into mine. Emotions flashed in his gaze. Longing. Fear. Caine wanted me, but he wasn’t strong enough to accept Regret. Determination. For once, I softened my face and me. Not my past, not my strength, not the woman I let him see what I really felt for him. Surprise flickered was. Bitter disappointment filled me, replacing my rage, in his eyes, and for a moment, I thought it might be but I forced myself to ask the final question I wanted an enough to change his mind. But then his face hardened, answer to.
and I knew I’d lost him. I hoped Donovan Caine’s morEstep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 392-393
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als kept him warm at night because I never would again. Not now.
There was nothing left to say. The detective nodded at me a final time, stared into my eyes a moment longer. Then he turned and walked out of the Pork Pit, leaving 35
my gin joint, my heart, cold and empty and aching. I gave Violet and Eva their promised milkshakes, then kicked them out and closed down the restaurant for the night. Thirty minutes later, I was just about to leave when the phone rang. on a whim I picked it up, half-hoping that it might be Donovan Caine, calling to apologize or—something. Anything.
“Pork Pit.”
“Hello, Gin.”
owen Grayson’s deep voice flooded the line. A pleasant sound, but I couldn’t hold back my disappointed sigh.
“owen.”
“You don’t seem overjoyed about hearing from me,”
he said.
“What do you want?” Maybe I should have been nicer, maybe I would have been nicer if not for Donovan Caine.
“I just wanted to talk to you, see how you were, since Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 394-395
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you haven’t returned any of my messages,” he said in a
“No worries,” owen replied in a smooth tone. “I’m mild voice.
nothing if not patient. I just wanted to call and remind My hand tightened around the phone. Since the inciyou that you had other options, Gin.”
dent at the mine, owen Grayson had called the Pork Pit
“Well, I’ll keep those other options in mind,” I and left me a few messages, none of which I’d returned. drawled. “But right now, I’ve had a long day, and I plan Mainly because I hadn’t known where things had stood to go home—alone.”
with me and Donovan Caine. Well, now I did. But I didn’t
“Don’t let me keep you then,” he murmured. need owen Grayson to swoop in and pick up the pieces. I
“Don’t worry. I won’t.”
could do that all by my lonesome. Been doing it for years. He let out another laugh, and I found myself smiling
“I’ve been busy.”
back, despite my mood.
“Seeing Donovan Caine?” he said. “Eva called and told
“Good night, Gin,” he rumbled.
me he stopped by the restaurant tonight and that things Good night, owen.”
were tense between the two of you.”
And just like that, he was gone. But unlike Donovan My gray eyes narrowed. “Eva’s very chatty, isn’t she?”
Caine, I knew that owen Grayson would be back. For owen let out a laugh. Somehow the low sound lightsome reason, that thought comforted me, standing in the ened my mood the tiniest bit. “Don’t blame her. I asked darkness of the restaurant.
her to play the part of spy.”
“And why is that?”
After owen’s call, I drove home to Fletcher’s. Checked
“Because my offer still stands,” he replied. “About the gravel in the driveway, then the granite around wanting to get to know the real Gin Blanco.”
the door. once I was satisfied there was no one lurkI snorted. I didn’t think owen would like the real Gin ing around, I went inside and headed straight to the Blanco and her silverstone knife collection. Then again, kitchen. I poured myself a tall glass of gin, dropped he hadn’t flinched that night at Mab Monroe’s party when some Ice cubes in it, then plopped down on the sofa in I’d been pretending to be a hooker. Which was more conthe den. I leaned my head back, stared into space, and sideration than Donovan Caine had ever shown me. Still, brooded.
I wasn’t ready to jump into something new. Not with Donovan fucking Caine. He was all I could think owen Grayson, whose real motives were still a mystery to about right now. I couldn’t believe the detective was actume. Despite the desire I’d seen in his violet eyes. ally leaving Ashland. That he was leaving me. That we
“Sorry, owen, but I’m just not in the mood right were never going to get the chance to fully explore this now,” I said in a kinder tone. “I don’t think I will be for sizzling attraction between us. All that promise tossed the foreseeable future.”
aside. And for what? So the detective could rest easy at Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 396-397
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night, his idealistic morals and outdated code of justice friend. Fletcher had had some fifty years to do it, and still intact? Pointless, all of it.
he’d never gotten around to it. He didn’t want me to have I took a long pull of my gin, relishing the cold burn those same kinds of re
grets, so the old man had given me of the alcohol. For a moment, I considered retrieving a choice, given me the information I needed to make a the bottle out of the cabinet and getting sloshed. But choice. And I knew what I was going to do. I’d known it wouldn’t do me a damn bit of good. I’d just wake up ever since the night of Mab Monroe’s party. with a hangover tomorrow. Donovan Caine would still Ever since I’d realized she was the Fire elemental who’d be leaving, if he hadn’t already gone. He’d just broken murdered my family.
up, more or less, with a former assassin. Not the kind of Maybe it had been her smell, jasmine mixed with person you wanted knowing your whereabouts. smoke. Maybe it had been her silky voice. or even that I could go after Donovan, of course. Talk to him again, brief laugh she’d let out while she’d been standing over me, plead my case, ruthlessly seduce him into giving us andiscussing my impending demise with Tobias Dawson. other chance. Into staying in Ashland. I’d thought about But it had brought all of my memories of that night back nothing else on the drive home.
to the surface. I hadn’t seen the Fire elemental’s face when But I couldn’t do that. Because I still wanted what I’d she’d tortured me. But I’d heard her voice, her laugh. always wanted—Donovan Caine to desire me, to want to And they were identical to Mab’s.
be with me, Gin Blanco, the former assassin who called I was sure of it now. or maybe I’d known all along herself the Spider. But he didn’t, and he never would. His but just hadn’t wanted to admit it to myself. That’s why code of justice wouldn’t let him, any more than mine Fletcher had written Mab’s name down in the folder to would let me forget about all the bad things I’d done start with. To make me look in her direction and figure it in my life, all the people I’d killed. or pretend that I out for myself.
wouldn’t do it all over again, if it became necessary. I knew the who; now I wanted to know the why. Why
“Warren, you old coot, you were right after all.” I had Mab killed my mother and older sister? Why had she raised my glass in a toast, then took another sip of gin. tortured me? Why had she demanded to know where Bria I plunked my glass down on the battered coffee table, was? When I found out the why, I’d have the final piece and my eyes landed on the folder—the one that conof the puzzle. tained the information on my murdered family. That And then I’d kill the bitch.
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