Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

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
    12/17/09 9:32 PM
    398 JENNIFER ESTEP
    Web of Lies 399
    night, his idealistic morals and outdated code of justice friend.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 regrets, 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