Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

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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    Web of Lies 397
    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