Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

Graysons was probably the best place for Violet until this tight hug. Eva Grayson had been thrilled her best friend thing was over. “All right. Call Eva.”
    wanted to crash at her place a few days, and Violet had Violet blinked. “Now?”
    already packed a bag. Now we stood in the foyer of the I nodded. “Now. I want this all squared away tonight. house, saying our good-byes.
    That way, I can focus on getting to Dawson.”
    “You could come with me,” Violet told her grandfather. Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 242-243
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    Warren put a speckled hand on her cheek and shook outside. Violet waited with Finn on the porch. Donovan his head. “You know I can’t. That’s just not me. The only Caine leaned against the porch railing, still brooding. way I’m leaving this land is when they cart me off in a “Take Violet straight to Eva Grayson’s house,” I told pine box. Besides, Gin might need me for something. I Finn. “No stops.”
    want to be around if she does.”
    Finn pouted. “Would I do something like that?”
    Violet nodded and tried to smile. Tears filled her dark
    “Yes.”
    eyes.
    He stuck out his lip a little more. Violet laughed at his
    “We need to get you to Eva’s,” I said in a low voice. expression. Finn’s green eyes swept over her. He grinned. Violet gave her grandfather another hug and picked up
    “Shotgun, Finn,” I murmured to him. “Remember her bag. Finn held open the door for her, and the two of Grandpa Fox and his shotgun.”
    them stepped outside.
    That dulled Finn’s smile, but it didn’t completely erase I went over to Sophia and Jo-Jo. “If anything happens, it. Few things could ever do that. Finn had pulled his if Tobias Dawson or his men come back, you kill first and Cadillac over to the house. He opened the passenger’s side ask questions later, understand?”
    door for Violet, who gave him another shy smile, then The Goth dwarf grunted at me. Jo-Jo nodded her head. slid inside.
    “We know, Gin,” Jo-Jo said. “This isn’t the first time After a moment, Finn tore his gaze away from her long Sophia and I have done this sort of thing.”
    enough to glance at me. “Hope you don’t mind sitting in I frowned. “It’s not?”
    the back,” he said in a very unapologetic tone. The dwarf smiled. “No. We watched out for folks for
    “I don’t mind at all because Donovan’s going to drive Fletcher a time or two as well.”
    me home,” I announced.
    Again, there was that mention of Fletcher Lane helpFinn blinked. “He is?”
    ing out other people. That secret part of him that I hadn’t
    “I am?” Donovan chimed in.
    known about. I don’t know why the thought unsettled
    “Yeah,” I said. “You are.”
    me, but it did. or maybe it was just because I was off the Donovan’s face tightened a little more in the darkness. edge of the map here. I’d spent seventeen years of my life killing people, and here I was trying to save an old man Finn and Violet headed back toward Ashland, and Donoand his granddaughter from a greedy miner—for free, no van and I did the same in his sedan. We didn’t speak, exless. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. only one thing was cept when I gave him directions to Fletcher Lane’s house. certain. It was a hell of a lot more entertaining than my We pulled up about thirty minutes later. Donovan Caine retirement had been so far.
    peered through the windshield at the rambling, misI left the dwarves to watch over Warren and stepped matched structure.
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    “So this is where you live now?” he asked. you killed him. And since you wouldn’t tell me, I did
    “Yeah. It was actually Fletcher’s house, the old man some digging on my own.”
    who ran the Pork Pit.”
    I tensed. Damn and double damn the detective and
    “Finn’s father, your former handler. The one who was his tenacity.
    tortured and murdered by Alexis James.”
    “A lot more people were willing to do me favors after I nodded. Donovan said nothing.
    the Alexis James incident,” Donovan continued. He I stared at the detective, my eyes tracing over the rough stared out the windshield at the rain instead of looking at planes of his face. “You could come in,” I suggested. me. “one guy who worked vice was particularly helpful.
    “Spend the night. With me.”
    He told me that I should talk to a hooker, one of Roslyn Donovan