Sharpest Sting: An Elemental Assassin Book

by Jennifer Estep

  No, we wouldn’t, thanks to Mason. Anger and sorrow bubbled up inside me, but I pushed the emotions down. The longer we stood here, the more danger we were in, so I jerked my head.

  “Come on. Let’s get started.”

  Bria crouched down and unzipped her black duffel bag, pulling out a small, collapsible shovel. I grabbed the same sort of shovel out of my own bag, then leaned down in front of my father’s tomb. I traced my fingers over Tristan’s name, then dropped my gaze lower, searching for the same sort of crudely carved telltale ring-of-swords rune that Fletcher had scratched into my father’s tombstone at Blue Ridge Cemetery.

  But I didn’t find one.

  No runes or other symbols had been scratched into my father’s tomb, and the gray stone was smooth, shiny, and untouched, as if it had just been erected a moment ago. My heart sank. I had been so certain that Fletcher had been pointing me in this direction, that he’d carved the ring-of-swords rune into my father’s marker to tell me to look here, at Tristan’s tomb. Plus, it would have been just like Fletcher to hide the ledger right under Mason’s nose. But it seemed I was wrong and that I had put Bria and myself in danger for nothing.

  “Gin?” Bria asked. “Did you find the rune?”

  I shook my head and moved around the tombstone, but I saw the same nothing as before. No runes or symbols were carved into the marble that shouldn’t be here. But if Fletcher hadn’t buried the ledger with my father, then where was it?

  “Gin?” Bria asked. “Are we prying open the tomb or not?”

  Frustrated, I surged to my feet, spun away from the tomb, and stared out over the rest of the cemetery. My gaze moved from one marker to the next, and my eyes slowly narrowed. Just because the ledger wasn’t in my father’s tomb didn’t mean that Fletcher hadn’t stashed the book in another grave. There were plenty to choose from.

  I yanked my phone out of my pocket, pulled up one of the photos I’d taken in Blue Ridge Cemetery last night, and showed it to Bria. “See if you can find this symbol carved into any of the markers. It will be small and faint, probably right above the grass, someplace most people wouldn’t notice it.”

  Bria took one side of the cemetery, while I searched the other, both of us moving from one tombstone, cross, or marker to the next. While we worked, I kept an eye on the surrounding trees and the path that led to the mansion. Just because there were no cameras or sensors here didn’t mean that some giants wouldn’t patrol through this area. But no one appeared, and we continued our search.

  The more markers we looked at and eliminated, the more desperate I became. Mason’s deadline to find and turn over the ledger was midnight tomorrow. If it wasn’t here, then I didn’t know where else to look. If Fletcher had hidden the ledger in the woods around his house or stashed it in some safety-deposit box under a fake name, then I would probably never find it.

  Especially since Mason would kill me for failing—and my friends along with me.

  Fifteen minutes later, I had finished with the markers on my side of the cemetery, although Bria was still looking at the ones on hers. I was about to double back through the rows and see if I’d missed anything when I spotted a final tombstone standing off by itself at the far edge of the cemetery. I hurried in that direction. The marker itself was nothing fancy, but the name carved into it made me blink in surprise.

  Hugh Tucker.

  The date of Tucker’s birth was listed but not his death, since that hadn’t happened yet. Curious. Most people only had tombstones erected if their spouses died before them. I wondered if Tucker had ordered this one to be put up—or if Mason had done it as a warning.

  Either way, I crouched down and examined the tombstone from top to bottom. Unlike the other markers, which were grand, hulking monstrosities covered with flowery poems and platitudes, Tucker’s stone was plain and simple, with no extra adornments.

  I was about to turn away from it when I noticed a slightly darker spot near the bottom. My heart started pounding, but I forced myself to lean forward and carefully peer at the stone. I had been wrong. Tucker’s marker did have one adornment, a ring-of-swords rune carved into the lower right-hand corner, the same place it had been on my father’s tombstone in Blue Ridge Cemetery.

  My heart pounded a little harder and faster. “Bria! Over here!”

  My sister rushed over. She blanched when she saw it was Tucker’s tombstone, but the two of us went to work with our shovels. We hadn’t dug down all that deep, maybe a foot, when the point of my shovel thunked against something.

  I froze, as did Bria. Then I stabbed out with my shovel again. Thunk. Something was definitely buried in this grave, which should have been completely empty, since Tucker wasn’t dead yet.

  I dropped to my hands and knees, as did Bria, and we both frantically scraped our shovels down into the dirt. A minute later, we uncovered a silverstone box about the size of a large laptop. I yanked the box out of the dirt, ignoring the grime that covered my hands, and set it on the ground.

  “Open it,” Bria said in an eager voice.

  The smart thing to do would have been to fill in the dirt as quickly as possible, then grab the box and leave. But I was as eager and curious as Bria was, so I wrapped my hand around the small padlock, coated it with my Ice magic, and then shattered the Ice and the lock along with it. The instant the lock was out of the way, I cracked open the top of the box, holding my breath, and hoping, hoping, hoping I would find the mysterious ledger inside.

  And I did.

  A black book like the one Mason had shown us was wrapped in plastic and nestled inside the box.

  “This is it,” I whispered.

  “Open it,” Bria whispered back. “Open the plastic, and see what the ledger says.”

  I reached out to do that very thing, but then I thought of what Fletcher would do in this situation. I’d confirmed the box contained the ledger. Ripping off the plastic to see what information might be inside would definitely be pushing my lousy luck.

  So I shook my head and closed the box. “No. Let’s put the grave back together as best we can, then leave. We can look at the ledger later, when we’re someplace safe.”

  Bria didn’t like it, but she nodded, and we filled in the hole. It wasn’t the best or neatest job, but I grabbed some dead branches and several handfuls of dried leaves from the woods and scattered them across the dirt, as though the wind had blown them into the cemetery. Maybe the forest debris would keep anyone from looking too closely at the grave and realizing that someone had been digging here.

  The second that was done, I collapsed my shovel and stuffed it into my duffel bag. Bria did the same with hers, and we both slung our bags onto our shoulders. I leaned down and grabbed the silverstone box from the ground, then looked at my sister.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I said.

  She nodded, and we both headed toward the edge of the cemetery. We were almost to the tree line when I saw a shadow move out of the corner of my eye. I whirled in that direction. A familiar figure was standing on the stone path to my right.

  Hugh Tucker—and he was pointing a gun at me.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Bria and I both froze. Tucker sidled along the path, moving a little closer to us. He eyed Bria, as if making sure she wasn’t going to draw her own gun, then focused on me.

  His black gaze lingered on the box in my hand. “I see you found the ledger. How nice of you to retrieve it for me, Gin.”

  I tightened my grip on the box. “I didn’t find it for you. I found it for me. So I can destroy Mason.”

  Tucker shook his head. “The ledger won’t help you do that, and it won’t get you anything but dead.”

  I frowned. The vampire’s face was its usual blank, inscrutable mask, but something in his tone bothered me. It almost seemed like he knew exactly where the ledger had been all along. But how could he know that? Fletcher had hidden the ledger here for me to find…hadn’t he?

  I pushed away my questions and self-doubt. No. I was just imagin
ing things. Tucker always had his own agenda, and I wasn’t going to fall for another one of his tricks.

  He took another step closer and held out his hand. “Give me the box, Gin. Trust me. It’s for the best.”

  “Why?” I snarled. “So you can give it to Mason and get back into his good graces? So he will fire Emery and restore you as his right-hand man? Forget it.”

  “Give me the ledger.” He aimed his gun at Bria. “Or I will shoot your sister.”

  Bria let out a soft curse, and anger shimmered in her blue eyes, along with her Ice magic. The fingers of her left hand curled into a fist, as though she was debating whether to sling a spray of Ice daggers at Tucker. I was thinking of doing the same thing. But the vampire was extremely fast, and he could probably dodge any attack Bria and I might make and still manage to fire at her.

  “You want to shoot someone, then shoot me,” I growled. “Point the gun at me, not Bria.”

  An amused grin curved the corners of Tucker’s mouth. “So you can use your Stone magic to harden your skin and simply let my bullets bounce off you? No thanks.”

  I growled in frustration. That was exactly what I’d been planning on doing, along with tackling the vampire and making him eat that gun barrel-first.

  Tucker took another step closer to Bria, still pointing his weapon at her. He held out his free hand. “Give me the box. Now. Or Bria isn’t going to like what happens next.”

  My eyes narrowed. He was pointing the gun at Bria but not at her head or heart. No, he was aiming at her shoulder, as though he only planned on winging her if I didn’t cooperate.

  Tucker had tried to kill me or have me killed several times over the past few months, but he had never done the same to Bria. Oh, he had ordered some kidnappings, but as far as I knew, he had never truly threatened my sister with permanent, grievous bodily harm, and I had a suspicion he wouldn’t pull the trigger now.

  “You’re bluffing,” I said. “You’re not going to kill Bria. You can’t. She reminds you too much of Eira.”

  Bria blanched at the reminder that he had been in love with our mother. Tucker’s lips pressed into a tight, thin, unhappy line, but he didn’t deny my accusation.

  “Just give me the ledger,” he snapped. “And let me save you from yourself, Genevieve. For once in your life, listen to me.”

  I frowned. That bothersome tone rippled through his voice again, the one that made me think he knew far more about the ledger than he was letting on. In that moment, I felt Hugh Tucker was trying to tell me something important without actually saying the words, just like Fletcher had done with this whole Circle treasure hunt.

  “What are you up to, Tuck?” I asked.

  “Just give me the damn ledger,” he snapped again. “Now. Or I will shoot Bria.”

  Shooting Bria wasn’t the same thing as killing her, but I didn’t want my sister to get hurt, so I held out the box. I could always surge forward, tackle the vampire, and wrest his gun away—

  Click.

  For a sickening moment, I thought Tucker had shot Bria after all, but then a familiar figure stepped out of the woods, a gun in her hand.

  Lorelei Parker.

  Tucker had been so focused on Bria and me that he hadn’t noticed Lorelei creeping up on his blind side. Neither had I. One second, it was just the three of us. The next, Lorelei had appeared in the cemetery like some vengeful ghost.

  “You’re not going to shoot anyone,” Lorelei said. “Throw down your gun. Now. Or I’ll put a bullet in your skull, Mr. Tucker.”

  He tipped his head to her. “Ms. Parker. Always a pleasure.”

  Lorelei snorted. “I doubt that. But I left my grandmother’s bridal shower for this, and you’re going to do exactly what I say. So toss your gun away. Gently.”

  Tucker hesitated, but he did as she commanded.

  The vampire’s gun hit the ground at Lorelei’s feet. Her gaze dropped to it for just a split second, but that was all the opportunity Tucker needed. Before I could shout a warning, he lunged forward and grabbed Lorelei’s wrist. The two of them struggled, but Tucker managed to knock her gun away. Lorelei cursed, and Tucker spun her around and hooked his arm around her neck.

  Bria and I both froze again. My sister had pulled her own gun, while I had palmed one of my knives, but Tucker could easily snap Lorelei’s neck before Bria and I could attack him.

  “So sorry to disappoint you, Ms. Parker,” Tucker purred. “But I don’t particularly like getting shot. I prefer to avoid such unpleasantness.”

  Instead of being frightened, Lorelei let out a low laugh. “Me too. So keep your fangs to yourself.”

  Tucker’s black gaze dropped to her throat, and I could have sworn a spark of hungry interest flickered across his face, although it vanished in an instant. “Please. I’m a gentleman. I would never bite a lady without her permission.”

  “Too bad I can’t say the same,” Lorelei replied.

  He frowned. “What do you mean?”

  She turned her head so that she could see his face out of the corner of her eye. Then she smiled. “I don’t ask permission before I stab people who are manhandling me.”

  Magic flashed in Lorelei’s blue eyes. A long Ice dagger popped into her right hand, and she plunged the weapon deep into Tucker’s thigh.

  Tucker hissed with pain and loosened his grip. Lorelei spun away, then whirled right back around, surged forward, and punched him in the face. Tucker hissed again and staggered back, his nose bloody and that Ice dagger still stuck in his thigh.

  Bria snapped up her gun, and I raised my knife, and we both rushed forward to flank Lorelei.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  Bria, Lorelei, and I backed away from Tucker and stepped into the woods. He watched us go, but he didn’t try to follow us. The second he was out of sight, I jerked my head at my friends.

  “Run. Now.”

  So we ran. And ran and ran. Ten feet, fifteen, twenty, fifty.

  When we were a hundred feet away from the cemetery, I held up my hand, and we all slowed down. I glanced back over my shoulder, but I didn’t hear Tucker crashing through the woods after us, and he wasn’t shouting for anyone to help him.

  Had he actually come here alone? Why? And why wasn’t he chasing after us? Or at least yelling for help? The quiet troubled me far more than if he’d been screaming at the top of his lungs.

  Whatever Tucker’s motives, it seemed as though he was going to suffer in silence. So I plunged deeper into the woods, with Bria and Lorelei following along.

  * * *

  It didn’t take us long to hike through the woods and reach the neighboring mansion where I’d parked my van. The property was still empty and deserted, although Lorelei’s car was now sitting in the driveway.

  “How did you find us?” I asked.

  Lorelei shrugged. “I could tell you were up to something, so I left the bridal shower, got into my car, and started driving up and down the streets, looking for you. I spotted you and Bria getting into your van a few blocks away from Northern Aggression. I hung way back so you guys wouldn’t see me, but after a few turns, it wasn’t hard to tell you were coming here.”

  Well, at least she had followed us the old-fashioned way, instead of hijacking my phone like Silvio sometimes did. I’d turned off the device before I’d gone into Northern Aggression to keep my assistant from tracking me.

  “Thank you for coming,” I said. “I don’t know what would have happened with Tucker if you hadn’t shown up.”

  Something flickered in Lorelei’s eyes at the mention of the vampire, although the emotion quickly vanished. “You should have just told me what you guys were planning. I would have been happy to help.”

  “I know, but I didn’t want to put anyone else in danger. It’s bad enough Bria and I came here, especially with Mason and his men inside the mansion.”

  Lorelei nodded, accepting my explanation and apology, then gestured at the dirt-covered box in my hand. “The missing ledger, I presume?”

>   “Yeah.”

  “Now what?” Bria asked.

  Lorelei checked her watch and sighed. “Unfortunately, I need to go back to the nightclub. There are still two more hours of party games and drunken debauchery, not to mention the stripper.”

  Her lips curled, and her nose crinkled with disgust. Yeah, I wouldn’t have wanted to watch my grandmother hoot and holler and stuff dollar bills down a guy’s G-string either.

  “Well, be careful when you and Mallory leave the club. It’s only a matter of time before Mason realizes that I have the ledger, and he might try to grab you, Mallory, or Mosley for leverage,” I said. “Bria and I will loop in everyone else about what’s going on.”

  Lorelei nodded. “Where are you guys going?”

  “Fletcher’s house. We’ll regroup there and see if we can figure out what’s in this ledger that is so important to Mason. I’ll keep you posted.”

  Lorelei promised to do the same, then got into her car and left. Bria and I slid into my van. My sister drove while I called our friends.

  “I knew you were up to something at breakfast this morning. I knew it!” Silvio exclaimed. “You should have let me come with you, Gin.”

  “I needed you to keep an eye on the Pork Pit,” I replied. “Besides, it was just a hunch. I didn’t know for sure the ledger was buried in the Circle cemetery. Did anything unusual happen at the restaurant this afternoon?”

  He huffed, still annoyed with me. “Well, I know you weren’t expecting him, but Liam showed up, although he left as soon as I told him that you weren’t here. He said he would text you later.”

  Hmm. Liam hadn’t texted me this afternoon. I wondered what he was doing, but he wasn’t my top priority right now.

  “That’s fine. Tell Sophia to stop cooking, send the waitstaff home, cash out the current customers, and close down the restaurant as fast as she can. Then you go pick up Owen and meet me at Fletcher’s house. I’ll call Finn.”

  Silvio agreed. We hung up, and I dialed Finn. My brother also wasn’t happy about being left out of my scheme, but he agreed to finish his work at the bank and come to Fletcher’s house. I also texted Jo-Jo, Xavier, and the rest of our friends, telling them what had happened and to keep a watch out for Emery Slater and her men.