Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

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Pocket Books
    A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
    1230 Avenue of the Americas
    New York, NY 10020
    As always, this book is dedicated to my mom This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are and grandma for taking such good care of me. used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or And to Andre for doing the same.
    persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Copyright © 2010 by Jennifer Estep
    Thanks for always understanding when I have to disappear to do “book stuff.” Your love and support All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address means more to me than you will ever know. Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
    First Pocket Books paperback edition June 2010
    PoCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
    For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected]. The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. Cover design by TK
    Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
    ISBN 978-1-4391-4799-3
    ISBN 978-1-4391-5544-8 (ebook)
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Acknowledgments
    once again, this book would not have been possible without the help of many, many people.
    Thanks to Annelise Robey for her unwavering support, and to Megan McKeever and Lauren McKenna for all their editorial advice and encouragement. Thanks to Kathy Still, who answered my questions about coal mining and more. Any mistakes are mine, not hers.
    And finally, thanks to all the readers out there. Knowing that folks enjoy my books is one of the things that makes it all worthwhile.
    Happy reading!
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    1
    “Freeze! Nobody move! This is a robbery!”
    Wow. Three clichés in a row. Somebody was seriously lacking in the imagination department.
    But the shouted threats scared someone, who squeaked out a small scream. I sighed. Screams were always bad for business. Which meant I couldn’t ignore the trouble that had just walked into my restaurant—or deal with it the quick, violent way I would have preferred. A silverstone knife through the heart is enough to stop most trouble in its tracks. Permanently.
    So I pulled my gray eyes up from the paperback copy of The Odyssey that I’d been reading to see what all the fuss was about.
    Two twentysomething men stood in the middle of the Pork Pit, looking out of place among the restaurant’s blue and pink vinyl booths. The dynamic duo sported black trench coats that covered their thin T-shirts and flapped Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 10-1
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    2 JENNIFER ESTEP
    Web of Lies 3
    against their ripped, rock star jeans. Neither one wore a demands. Not many folks to look at. Monday was usually hat or gloves, and the fall chill had painted their ears and a slow day, made even more so by the cold bluster of wind fingers a bright cherry red. I wondered how long they’d and rain outside. The only other people in the restaurant stood outside, gathering up the courage to come in and besides me and the would-be robbers were my dwarven yell out their trite demands.
    cook, Sophia Deveraux, and a couple of customers—two Water dripped off their boots and spread across the college-age women wearing skinny jeans and tight Tfaded blue and pink pig tracks that covered the restaurant shirts not unlike those the robbers sported. floor. I eyed the men’s footwear. Expensive black leather The women sat shocked and frozen, eyes wide, barbethick enough to keep out the November cold. No holes, cue beef sandwiches halfway to their lips. Sophia stood no cracks, no missing bootlaces. These two weren’t your next to the stove, her black eyes flat and disinterested as typical desperate junkies looking for a quick cash score. she watched the beans bubble. She grunted once and gave No, they had their own money—lots of it, from the looks them a stir with a metal spoon. Nothing much ever bothof their pricey shoes, vintage T-shirts, and designer