Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

a hopeful tone. “It’s Violet nodded. “Thank you. For everything.”
    just a Honda. Several years old at that. It’s not like I left Jo-Jo smiled at her. “No problem. Come on back my Aston Martin down there.”
    sometime, and we’ll work on your hair, darling.”
    He shuddered at the thought. Violet chewed her Violet frowned, and her hand crept up to her frizzy lower lip.
    blond locks. “What’s wrong with my hair?”
    “You have insurance, don’t you?” I asked.
    Jo-Jo speared her with a hard look. “Nothing a hot-oil Violet nodded.
    treatment and some deep conditioning can’t take care of.”
    “Then you can worry about your car later. Right now Violet’s confused frown deepened, but I grabbed her we need to go see your grandfather. You still want us to arm and pulled her off the porch before she could think help the two of you, right?”
    too hard about her split ends. Finn followed us, and we Violet nodded again. “of course. Like I said, the Tin walked out to his car. Since we were going to be tooling Man was my only hope. Now you’re my only hope.”
    up into the mountains today, Finn had decided to drive only hope? How very Star Wars. I grimaced. But his oh-so-rugged Cadillac Escalade instead of his Aston I didn’t tell Violet Fox how misplaced her trust in me Martin.
    was, how misguided, how laughable, even. That I only Violet stopped in front of the SUV and looked at us. brought death to people, not hope. That I was doing this
    “What about my car? Did you guys drive it somewhere rare, pro bono good deed out of my own fucking insalast night?”
    tiable curiosity more than anything else.
    Finn and I exchanged a look. Driving Violet Fox’s car
    “Come on,” I said, opening the door on the SUV. to a safer location had been the last thing on my mind.
    “Let’s go.”
    “We had to leave it in the parking lot,” I said. “We were more concerned with getting you patched up than Finn steered out of Jo-Jo’s subdivision and headed north. what to do with your car.”
    Following Violet Fox’s directions, we left the suburbs beViolet’s face paled. “You mean—you mean you left it hind and drove through the heart of Northtown, where the there in that Southtown parking lot? All night?”
    rich, richer, and richest lived. People didn’t have mansions Her concern was more than warranted. Leaving a car in in Northtown—they had estates. If not for the driveways, that neighborhood was just begging for trouble. By now, iron gates, and tasteful brick walls that could be seen from Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 158-159
    12/17/09 9:32 PM
    160 JENNIFER ESTEP
    Web of Lies 161
    the streets, you might have thought the area was deserted. buildings were also tin, the kind that made a slow, steady Because nobody with real wealth, magic, or power was rain sound like a classical sonata.
    gauche enough to let their home be seen from the road. The parking lot—if you wanted to call it that and not We drove on, still heading north. The terrain became just loose gravel, curved around the store like a crescent rockier, more rugged, as the rolling hills of the lowlands moon. A stop sign squatted off to the right, and the road gave way to knobby ridges and pine-covered mountains. came to a T, forcing you to go right or left. one of the Houses began to appear on the side of the road, although road signs pointed the way back to the interstate and they were far less grand than the hidden McMansions declared that this stretch of pavement was part of some that populated the Northtown estates. The road narscenic, tourist-trap highway. The other sign featured an rowed from four lanes to two and twisted back on itself arrow and the words Dawson No. 3. Less than a mile in a series of switchbacks that would give most folks nauaway. Interesting. I might have to go check out the coal sea. Instead of sleek sedans and chrome-covered SUVs, mine, after I met the illustrious Warren T. Fox. we began to pass dump-and coal trucks on the road. We got out of the car. Underneath my boots, the parkAfter about thirty minutes of driving, Violet pointed ing lot gravel vibrated with the sounds of traffic and tires out the windshield. “That’s it, just up ahead at the crosscontinually rolling across it. A low growl that told me roads.”
    the stones had seen a lot of people and cars go by in their Finn slowed, turned into a gravel lot, and parked. I time. Nothing sinister, just the everyday facts of life. peered out the window at the