Jennifer Estep - By a Thread

“No,” I agreed. “They never are.”

“I’ve known Jonah a long time, and he’s handling some of the paperwork regarding my new casino. He called me this morning, and naturally I mentioned the unfortunate incident at the hotel and how I’d sent my men out to deal with what seemed to be a very small, easily solvable problem, but that they’d ended up dead instead.”

The pleasant smile never left the vampire’s face, but his green eyes were just as cold and hard as mine were now. “I lamented to Jonah that my men couldn’t do something as simple as handle two female tourists, much less the restaurant owner that they were trying to help. You can imagine my surprise when he asked me what the two tourists looked like—and if my men had been stabbed to death. When I told him that, yes, my men had indeed been stabbed to death, that’s when he mentioned your name. We had quite a long talk about you, Gin. Jonah was even kind enough to text me a photo of you, along with those of your friends.”

Damn and double damn. I’d thought that maybe getting out of Ashland for a few days might change my perpetual bad luck, but the bitch was out in full force tonight and ready to fuck me over once again.

Since there was no point in hiding why I was really here any longer, I palmed one of my silverstone knives and held it up so that Dekes could see it.

“Well, since you know I’m the Spider, surely you realize why I came here this evening.”

Dekes made that arrogant, dismissive wave with his hand again. “I assume it had something to do with Callie Reyes. From what my sources have been able to dig up, she’s good friends with your . . . sister, is it? Detective Coolidge? I believe I saw the detective by the pool. A beautiful woman, your sister.”

My hand tightened around the knife. If this bastard thought he was getting anywhere near Bria, then he obviously hadn’t listened closely enough to McAllister. I might not like the smarmy lawyer, but I knew enough about him to realize that he’d tell Dekes every little detail he knew about me, including how I’d killed Mab. So why wasn’t Dekes worried I’d do the same to him? I didn’t know what game he was playing, but I had a feeling that I’d already lost. The only question now was how high the price was going to be.

“But as beautiful as your sister might be, she’s just not as special as you are, now, is she, Gin?”

“Special?” I asked. “What the hell are you talking about?”

I didn’t care what he thought was so damn special about me, but I asked the question because it let me slide another step in the vamp’s direction. I’d been easing closer and closer to him as we’d talked, and now I was only about fifteen feet from him. As soon as I got within arm’s reach, I was lunging forward and taking him out with my knives, magic, or both if necessary. The two giants stood off to my left, their gazes fixed on me. They’d noticed the steps I’d taken, but they’d made no move to counter them, not even to unbutton their suit jackets and reach for the guns they were probably wearing. Apparently they thought their boss could handle me all by himself. A troubling thought, and I started to wonder just how badly I’d underestimated the vampire.

Dekes’s eyes gleamed in his face, and I felt like a mouse staring into the face of a very large, very hungry cat. “You see, what really intrigued me about you, Gin, and the reason I let you and your friends slip into my press conference is your elemental power—and the fact that you have both Ice and Stone magic. At least, that’s what Jonah claimed on the phone. I couldn’t quite believe it myself. It’s an exceptionally rare gift, being able to tap into two elemental areas like that. I’ve certainly never met anyone with a dual gift before—and I’ve had quite a bit of experience with elementals over the years.”

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, to keep him talking so I could creep even closer to him, but Dekes beat me to the punch.

“Bring them in!” the vampire called out in a loud voice.

Footsteps sounded in the hall, and a third giant stepped into the library, dragging Vanessa into the room. The other woman gave me a look that was a mixture of anger, disgust, and pity. A second later, two more giants entered the library—also dragging Vanessa inside.

I blinked, staring at the limp figure that hung in between the last two giants and wondering if I was seeing double. No, wait, that wasn’t Vanessa. The woman, who looked to be unconscious, had the same black hair and beautiful skin that Vanessa did, indicating that they were related, but her features were younger, softer, smoother. She also wore an elegant black evening gown, but the fabric didn’t hide how painfully thin she was. I could see the bones in her chest all the way across the room. But the strange thing was that she had on the same diamond and pearl jewelry that Vanessa did—a wide choker around her neck and matching cuffs on either wrist. Two more giants stepped into the library and shut the double doors behind them.

Now there was a total of seven giants in the room, along with me, Dekes, and the two women. Not great odds, but I’d survived worse.

“I’m not sure if you realize it or not, but my lovely wife, Vanessa, has a younger sister, Victoria.”

Dekes nodded at the giants, who dragged the two women over to where we stood. The giants dumped the still-unconscious Victoria onto the green leather sofa while Vanessa broke free of the man holding her, rushed forward, and dropped to her knees beside the couch, cradling her sister’s head in her hands. Anguish filled Vanessa’s face as she looked at her sister, an anguish that I knew all too well. I’d felt the same thing the night Bria had been kidnapped and taken to Mab. Fear, rage, and utter, humiliating helplessness that I’d failed to protect my sister.

Earlier at the press conference, Vanessa hadn’t been warning me away from her husband because she thought I might steal him from her—she’d been trying to save my life. I’d just been too smug and arrogant about my own prowess as the Spider to realize it. Never believe your own reputation . Fletcher had told me that more than once, but that’s just what I’d done tonight, thinking that Dekes would be an easy mark for an assassin like me.

I wondered if it would be the last mistake I ever made.

“Darling,” Dekes said in a soft voice. “Let’s show Gin just how good I am to you and your dear sister.”

Vanessa’s back stiffened, and her whole body trembled with fear, rage, or perhaps both. For a moment, I thought she wasn’t going to do what he said, but she slowly pushed herself to her feet and turned to face me. With shaking hands, Vanessa yanked the jeweled cuffs off her arms, unsnapped the choker from around her neck, and let them all drop to the floor.

Bite marks covered her neck and wrists—deep, vicious, ugly bite marks.

The skin around Vanessa’s wrists was mottled, purple, and broken from the wounds, and the same marks ringed her neck like the choker she’d just torn off. Most of the marks looked fresh, but I could see the gleam of old white scars and newer pink puckered ones here and there—so many fucking scars. I couldn’t tell how many times Dekes had bitten her or for how long, but my stomach recoiled at the sight, and the spider rune scars embedded in my own palms began to itch and burn with old memories. I knew what it was like to be marked like that, to be branded, to be tortured. I’d only endured it once, but Vanessa had been subjected to it over and over and over again, ever since she’d been married to Dekes—perhaps even longer.

Now I knew why the diamonds and pearls had whispered and wailed with anger, pain, and fear instead of their own sparkling beauty. The jewels were echoing Vanessa’s own feelings of being trapped in her marriage to Dekes, of being used so cruelly by the vampire.