Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

helplessness tightViolet let out a soft gasp. ened Donovan’s rough features. Because he also knew Warren stared at me. “So you do what Fletcher Lane, how hard it could be to get justice for victims like Violet. what the Tin Man did.”
    Especially in Ashland.
    “I used to. I’m retired now.”
    Warren noticed Violet’s shiver as well. His wrinkled face Warren peered at me with his shiny brown eyes. “And tightened, and rage flashed like black lightning in his eyes. what did he call you?”
    He reached over and patted his granddaughter’s hand. I met his gaze with a flat stare. “The Spider.” The rune
    “Don’t think about it, honey,” Warren said. “Don’t scars on my hand itched at the sound of my former assasyou ever think about what happened last night again. Besin moniker. My mouth twisted. “Perhaps you’ve heard cause Tobias Dawson and his men will never lay another of me.”
    hand on you. I promise. No matter what I have to do to Warren gave a curt nod of his head. “I have.”
    stop them.” He muttered the last few words. Nobody said anything. A bit of wind gusted down
    “You should have told me,” Donovan Caine cut in. “I off the mountaintop overhead and stirred up dust in the could help you with Dawson. Get him to back off.”
    gravel parking lot. The breeze swept on, and the tiny Finn snorted his disbelief. The detective glared at him. whirlwinds died down.
    “Please,” Finn scoffed. “Most of the Ashland po-po
    “I want to thank you for saving my granddaughter’s couldn’t get a puppy to give up a chew toy, much less life,” Warren said. “But why did you really come here?
    manage someone like Tobias Dawson. You know he’s Why do you want to stick your neck out for two people friends with Mab Monroe, right? You giving Dawson the you don’t even know? Why do you want to tangle with hard cop stare isn’t going to cause him indigestion, much somebody like Tobias Dawson? Like your friend said, he’s less get him to back off.”
    not someone whose bad side you want to get on.”
    “So what do you suggest?” the detective snapped.
    “Yeah,” Donovan chimed in. “I thought you’d retired.”
    “Well,” I drawled. “There was a reason I drove up here I stared at the detective. our eyes met and held, and today.”
    the familiar heat warmed the pit of my stomach. AnswerEstep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 170-171
    12/17/09 9:32 PM
    172 JENNIFER ESTEP
    Web of Lies 173
    ing warmth sparked in Donovan’s eyes, although he tried your land so badly he’d be willing to kill for it. I don’t care to smother it with cool indifference.
    much for bullies like that.”
    I held the detective’s gaze a moment longer, then
    “A curious sort, huh?” Warren asked.
    turned my attention to Warren T. Fox, who’d stopped his I smiled. “It’s a trait I got from Fletcher. So what do rocking. His wrinkled face was blank and free of emotion, you say? Shall I poke around and see what I can come up as though he couldn’t care less about my answer, but his with? or should Finn and I get in his car and go back to fingers dug into the arms of his chair. Warren needed me, the Pork Pit? It’s your choice, Warren.”
    and he knew it—even if Donovan Caine didn’t. The old man stared at me, that thoughtful look in his
    “You’re right,” I said in a quiet voice. “I don’t know you eyes once again. As though he knew something about me and your granddaughter, don’t care about you. Why am I that I didn’t even know myself. But Warren didn’t get a here? Because you once told your granddaughter a story chance to answer.
    about the Tin Man, about how he helped people with on the highway, a black SUV slowed. Instead of passproblems. You and Fletcher Lane might not have spoken ing by like all the other cars and trucks, it pulled into the in decades, but you still cared enough, thought enough, gravel lot. For a moment, I thought the Foxes were going about him to tell Violet that story. So I’m here because of to get their first customer of the day. Then I saw the white Fletcher. Because the two of you were like brothers once banner on the car door. The one that read Dawson Minupon a time. Because if Fletcher were still alive, he’d be ing Company. The two is in Mining had been changed to sitting right here, whether you wanted him to or not.”
    resemble a rune—a lit stick of dynamite. The same rune There was more to it than that, of course. Much more. the dwarf who’d attacked Violet had