Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

bad things I’d done start with. To make me look in her direction and figure it in my life, all the people I’d killed. or pretend that I out for myself.
    wouldn’t do it all over again, if it became necessary. I knew the who; now I wanted to know the why . Why
    “Warren, you old coot, you were right after all.” I had Mab killed my mother and older sister? Why had she raised my glass in a toast, then took another sip of gin. tortured me? Why had she demanded to know where Bria I plunked my glass down on the battered coffee table, was? When I found out the why, I’d have the final piece and my eyes landed on the folder—the one that conof the puzzle. tained the information on my murdered family. That And then I’d kill the bitch.
    was something else I’d been thinking about a lot these oh, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. That I could die past few weeks. For the first time, I think I realized why in the process. That I probably would die. But Mab MonFletcher Lane had left it for me. He’d regretted his past roe had murdered my family, made me think I’d killed my with Warren T. Fox, for not making amends with his old baby sister for seventeen years. I’d lived on the streets and Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 398-399
    12/17/09 9:32 PM
    400 JENNIFER ESTEP
    eaten garbage because of her. Hidden from junkies and vampire pimps and all the other Southtown trash. Been scared and weak and frightened because of her. But not anymore. And mine wasn’t the only family she’d ruined over the years. The Snow family was hardly a footnote compared to all the horrid things Mab Monroe had done. And then there was Bria. My eyes traced over the picture of my baby sister. Blond hair, cornflower blue eyes, Turn the page for a sneak peek the primrose rune around her neck. She was out there at the next Elemental Assassin book,
    somewhere, waiting for me.
    “I’m going to find you, baby sister,” I whispered. “one way or another.”
    My eyes flicked up to the rune drawings propped on the mantel. I stared at the image of the Pork Pit that I’d Venom
    drawn, of the sign over the front door. Fletcher’s rune, as I thought of it. I raised my glass in another toast.
    “Here’s to you, Fletcher Lane,” I said. “I hope I’ll make Jennifer Estep
    you proud.”
    only the ticking of the grandfather clock in the hall broke the silence. I tossed back the gin and set my glass aside. Then I picked up the folder, ready to go through all the information again. And again and again if necessary. Until I found all the answers I was looking for. Coming Soon from Pocket Books Donovan Caine had been right about one thing. Part of me would always be the Spider—and it was time to put my skills to good use. To do the things that needed to be done. Find Bria.
    Figure out why Mab Monroe had murdered my family. Kill Mab.
    “The good ole days are back again,” I said. Then I got to work.
    Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 400-401
    12/17/09 9:32 PM
    sinking back into my bed and not getting out of it for a week.
    Just after seven on a cold, clear December night. This 1
    was the last day of finals for the semester, and the campus was largely deserted. only a few lights burned in the windows of the kudzu-covered brick buildings that rose above my head. The stones whispered of formulas and theories and knowledge. An old, sonorous, slightly pretentious sound that was decidedly at odds with the sinister shadows that blackened most of the quad. No one else was within sight. Which is probably why the bastards decided to jump me here. Well, that and the fact that kidnapping me would be such a fucking bother . one second I had my face buried in a tissue blowing The bastards never would even have gotten close to me if my sore, drippy nose for the hundredth time today. The I hadn’t had the flu.
    next, I looked up to find myself surrounded by three giCoughing, sneezing, aching, wheezing. That was me. ants.
    Gin Blanco. Restaurant owner. Stone and Ice elemental. oh, fuck.
    Former assassin. And all-around badass. Laid low by a I stopped, and they immediately closed ranks, forming microbe. Ugh.
    a loose triangle of trouble around me. The giants were all It had started as a small, ominous tickle in my throat around seven feet tall, with oversize, buglike eyes and fists three days ago. And now, well, it wasn’t pretty. Watery almost as big as my head. one of them grinned at me and eyes. Pale face. And a nose so red and bright even Rucracked his knuckles.