Jennifer Estep - Tangled Threads

“I have to admit that you gave me a good fight this time,” I said. “Hiring LaFleur to come to Ashland to try to kill me was an inspired move, since it was so obvious that none of your own men were going to get the job done. Too bad you backed the wrong horse. Again. But that seems to be a bad habit of yours. One that I’m going to end very, very soon.”

“So you killed LaFleur tonight,” Mab snarled. “So what? It’s not going to save you in the end, Spider.”

“Probably not,” I murmured, staring up at Bria. “But it sure as hell was fun.”

I hung up the phone and passed it back to Bria. It started ringing again the second that she touched it, but she waited until it had stopped before turning away from me, flipping it open, and calling in her kidnapping.

While she did that, I picked up one of my wayward knives and used the hilt to draw my spider rune into the gravel right next to LaFleur’s body. Mab already knew I’d been here, of course, but I wanted to drive the point home to her, so to speak.

A few minutes later, just as Bria was finishing up her call, a pair of headlights popped into view at the far end of the train yard. By this point, I’d managed to get to my feet and retrieve all of my silverstone knives, so I palmed one of the weapons, just in case the vehicle held more of Mab’s men. Bria didn’t have a weapon; she picked a long piece of pipe up out of the junk in the train yard and held it down by her side. She came up to stand beside me, even though she didn’t look at me.

Tires crunched on the gravel, and a large silver SUV rolled over to us. The doors opened, and Finn got out of the passenger’s side. I expected Sophia Deveraux to hop out of the driver’s seat, but to my surprise, Owen slid out of the vehicle instead.

The two men jogged over to us. Owen stopped in front of me, his violet gaze sweeping over my body, but when he realized that I was in more or less one piece, some of the tight concern in his face faded away.

I held up one of the bloody knives he’d given me for Christmas. “You should give me presents more often. Because this one worked like a charm.”

Owen shook his head and just smiled at me.

Finn was a little more practical about things. Once he looked me over and made sure that I was okay for the time being, my foster brother directed his attention to Bria.

“Detective,” he said. “You’re looking well this evening, all things considered.”

“Lane,” Bria replied in a cool voice, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re acting as smarmy as ever.”

Finn grinned, his green eyes twinkling. He loved a challenge, especially when the current object of his affection so obviously hated him. Or at least hated him knowing that she was attracted to him. Even after everything that had happened tonight, a spark of interest filled Bria’s face as she stared at Finn before she managed to hide it. Finn saw it too, which made his grin widen that much more.

“We need to leave,” I said, interrupting his leering at Bria. “Bria’s called the cops and told them about her … kidnapping this evening. And lucky intervention and rescue by the mysterious Spider.”

Finn and Owen stared at me, then at Bria. My baby sister shifted on her feet, but she met their curious gazes head-on.

“The cops will be here any minute,” she said in a cool voice. “So I suggest the three of you leave before they arrive — or I decide to change my story.”

Owen came over and gently put his arm around me to help me to the SUV. Finn stayed where he was. He looked at Bria, then back again at me, a more hopeful look on his face now. I shook my head, telling him that nothing had been resolved between the two of us.

Bria saw the exchange and frowned. Our gazes met and held again. So many emotions shimmered in her bright blue eyes. Shock. Relief. Weariness. And just a touch of fear. The last one saddened me more than I’d thought possible. I didn’t want my baby sister to be afraid of me. I wanted her to see the hope and longing that filled my heart. I wanted her to know I would never, ever hurt her. I wanted her to accept me, if only for this one brief moment.

Whatever Bria saw in my face, it wasn’t enough to break through this wall between us — a wall I’d built brick by brick, body by bloody body, as the Spider.

“Come on, Gin,” Owen said.

His arm tightened protectively around me, as if he could somehow shield me from having my heart broken by my sister. It was already too late for that, though.

“We need to get you to Jo-Jo’s,” he finished. “You’re hurt. You need to be healed.”

Bria was the only one who could really heal me right now, who could soothe this fierce ache in my heart. But apparently my sister wasn’t interested in having anything else to do with me, because she turned away from my hopeful, searching gaze.

There was nothing I could do but accept her decision — at least for tonight. So I nodded and let Owen help me over to the waiting SUV. Finn followed us.

Bria stood there next to Elektra LaFleur’s body and watched us disappear into the night.

Owen loaded me into the front of his SUV and drove me over to Jo-Jo’s. Once we got there, Finn took his own Aston Martin back to the train yard, to keep an eye on Bria from a discreet distance and see how the cops and Mab Monroe reacted to the latest strike by the Spider. I wanted someone that I trusted nearby in case things didn’t go as Bria thought they would. If worse came to worse, Finn would charge in and get my sister out of there — whether she wanted to go or not.

Owen put his arm around me again and helped me up the three steps to Jo-Jo’s wraparound porch. Before he could use the knocker to bang on the door, I grabbed his arm. I tilted my head back and stared up at him.

“You didn’t have to come with Finn, tonight,” I said.

Owen looked down at me, his violet eyes flashing like amethysts in the semidarkness. “Yes, I did. Because I care about you, Gin. A lot.”

He didn’t use the L-word, but there was a catch in his voice that told me that he was thinking about it. Maybe Eva had told him that would also be too much, too fast. I smiled at the thought.

“What’s so funny?” he murmured.

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

His arms tightened around me, and I felt the warmth of his body sink into my own. It felt good. It felt right. For a moment, I just stood there and wondered at the soft concern filling his face. I didn’t know how or when or even why it had happened, but Owen truly cared about me, bloody knives and all. He’d shown it to me over and over again these past few days, but for the first time, I let myself believe in him — and us.

“There’s nothing I can do that’s going to drive you away, is there?” I murmured.

Owen flashed me a sly grin. “Finally figuring that out, are you?”

I nodded.

His grin deepened. “Well, it sure took you long enough.”

We stood there on the porch another moment, just holding on to each other, before Owen helped me inside and back into the salon. Jo-Jo was there waiting, along with Sophia.

I sat down and leaned back in one of the cherry red salon chairs like I’d done so many times before. Jo-Jo raised her hand, and her Air elemental magic filled the room as she started to heal me. For some reason, it didn’t bother me as much as it had before. Oh, her magic still felt like she was pricking me with thousands of sharp needles all at the same time, but it didn’t make me grit my teeth the way it usually did, and the silverstone scars on my palms didn’t itch and burn nearly as much.

Maybe my nerves had been fried a little more than I’d thought by LaFleur’s electricity. Or maybe it was because anything would have felt good in comparison to the jolts that the other assassin had given me tonight. LaFleur might be dead, but I’d remember the crackling power of her magic forever, another little scar on my psyche to go along with all the others that were already there, all the other people I’d managed to kill by skill or magic or sheer luck, like Alexis James, Tobias Dawson, and Elliot Slater.