Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

just the precaution of pulling out my cell phone and calling as much as I did.
    Sophia Deveraux at the Pork Pit. The phone only rang
    “Um-mmm.” Yes, in not-so-many words. twice before she picked it up. Despite my instructions
    “Good,” I said. “We’ll be waiting.”
    to the contrary, the Goth dwarf was still at the barbecue We hung up, and I slipped the phone back in my restaurant.
    pocket. The wooden floorboards creaked, and Warren T.
    “Hmph?” Sophia answered with her usual, monotone Fox came to stand beside me. He too stared out the front grunt.
    windows of the store. Two cars zoomed by, barely slowing
    “It’s Gin. This is going to be a bit more difficult than long enough to make the left turn at the crossroads before I’d originally thought. I need you to close the restaurant heading toward the interstate.
    for the day and come up here. Might as well put a sign We didn’t speak. Silence was one thing that had never on the door saying we’re closed the rest of the week, while bothered me. Didn’t appear to bother Warren much eiyou’re at it.”
    ther. But we needed to get on with things. Because the
    “Problems?” Sophia rasped.
    Foxes couldn’t hide here in the store forever, and I wanted I glanced at Violet, who was now handing Finn a cold to make sure they were someplace safe when I left them bottle of Dr. Enuf, and Warren, who was still glowering at to go snooping over at the mine.
    him. “Not so much a problem as a concern. I need to go
    “Where’s your house?” I asked. “Does Violet still live do some recon work on Tobias Dawson, and I don’t want at home with you?”
    to leave Violet and her grandfather alone in the store Warren nodded. “She does. The house sits on the back while I go do it. I don’t want Dawson and his men comedge of the lot, behind a stand of trees, next to a small ing around behind me and doing something stupid, like creek. You can’t see it from the road.”
    Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 188-189
    12/17/09 9:32 PM
    190 JENNIFER ESTEP
    Web of Lies 191
    So not only did Tobias Dawson want the land where
    “You’re hard like he was,” Warren continued. “Able to Warren’s store sat, he also wanted the old man’s house. put his feelings aside and do what needed to be done no In the South, taking someone’s ancestral home was even matter what. I always admired that about him. Fletcher worse than merely wanting their land. Even more reason was always stronger than me. Even when Stella left us for me to kill the dwarf.
    both, I never saw him break. He never wavered, not once,
    “I’ll need to see the house in a bit. Make sure it’s as not even for a second. You would have never known anysecure as it can be.”
    thing was even wrong with him.”
    Not that some wood, nails, and a door would keep out Stella, the woman they’d both loved. The one who’d a giant, but every little bit helped. Even a few seconds’
    ruined their friendship, then run off with another man. delay could mean the difference between the Foxes escapWarren lapsed into silence again, and his glossy eyes ing or not, living or dying.
    dulled with old memories. After a minute, he shook Warren nodded, and we lapsed into silence again. his head and came back to himself. “Anyway, I know I
    “I suppose I should thank you,” Warren finally said in don’t deserve it, but I appreciate your help, especially a gruff voice. “For wanting to help me.”
    for Violet’s sake. She would have died last night if not
    “You don’t have to thank me. Just do what I say, and for you.”
    everything will be fine.”
    I shrugged. “I would have done the same for anyone Warren stared at me. “You’re a lot like him, you know. else.”
    Like Fletcher.”
    Warren shook his head. “No, I don’t think you would I didn’t respond. At one time, I would have enjoyed have. You know there are some people who just deserve the comparison. Now, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be like killing. Something Donovan hasn’t realized yet. SomeFletcher Lane, with his secrets and hidden agendas. I still thing he won’t ever be able to admit to himself. His father couldn’t believe he’d known who I really was all these was the same way. He tried to help me out with Dawson years, that he’d compiled that file about the murder of some years back, but it didn’t take.”
    my family, that he’d known Bria was alive and where she
    “So that’s how you know Donovan. You knew his fawas—and that he hadn’t