Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

Ashland, a place that would offer absolutely anything a person’s black heart could desire, no matter how twisted, perverted, illegal, or deadly it was.
    “You think this is where Mab is going to establish her new business?” I asked.
    Through the phone, I heard Finn take another sip of his coffee. “That thought crossed my mind as well, so I did some checking on my laptop after I realized that LaFleur was going to be here a while. Guess who just happens to have bought up all the land in the area recently, including the train yard itself.”
    My hand tightened around the phone. “Mab Monroe.”
    “The one and the same,” Finn said. “Whether it’s the new nightclub or not, Mab’s up to something out here. And LaFleur is helping her with it.”
    That was more than enough reason for me to pay a visit to the area tonight. But there was something else I wanted to know before I met Finn—the reason we were doing all of this in the first place.
    “Any sign of Natasha?” I asked.
    I doubted that the little girl was still alive. Mab’s men had probably killed her last night, since they’d been planning to do the same to Vinnie. Given what Bria had told me, the bodies of the three men I’d disposed of last night had been found at the park, along with my rune. The Fire elemental would know that I was responsible for stiffing her goons. And since Vinnie wasn’t among the corpses, Mab would also realize that I’d gotten my hands on him—and that he’d probably spilled his guts to me about LaFleur and everything else that was going on.
    All of which meant that there was just no reason for Mab to keep Natasha alive, except maybe for use in her sick nightclub. I had Vinnie now, not the Fire elemental, so the girl was no good as leverage anymore. But there was a slim chance that she might still be breathing—there was always a chance, even if it rarely turned out that way.But more important was that I’d made a promise to Vinnie to do what I could to find his daughter. Or at least make the people who took her pay—with their lives.
    “Not yet,” Finn said. “But I’m going to take a casual stroll around the premises and see what I can see. Might be nice if you came and joined the party. You know, like you wanted me to last night at the park.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Must you always mock me with my own words?”
    “Yes,” he chirped in a happy tone. “So you coming or not?”
    “Oh, you know me,” I drawled. “I never miss a good party.”
    I told Sophia what Finn and I were going to do and asked her to tell Jo-Jo to be on standby, just in case one of us got injured during the course of the evening. The dwarf grunted at me and went home, still wearing her black Santa hat with its dangling, grinning skull. I hoped that wasn’t an omen of things to come tonight. For me, anyway.
    Once I turned out the lights in the storefront, I went into the back of the restaurant and grabbed a black duffel bag from behind one of the freezers. Cash, knives, clothes, credit cards, a disposable cell phone, some healing supplies, a ski mask. The bag held everything that the Spider might need for a bloody good time out on the town. Emphasis on the
bloody
part.
    I changed clothes, trading in my blue work apron, T-shirt, and jeans for a pair of heavy cargo pants, boots, and a thick turtleneck. All in black, of course. I didn’t reallywear any other color while I was working. Few assassins did. Besides, by the time I got to Finn it would be after eight, and the night would be as dark as my clothes. Always better to blend into your surroundings, especially when you were going into hostile territory.
    For the finishing touch, I put on a black vest. The garment had a variety of zippered pockets on it, which I stuffed full of my various supplies. Even without the extra gear, the vest was still heavy. That’s because it was made of silverstone, just like my knives. In addition to absorbing elemental magic, the metal also had the added benefit of being tougher than Kevlar. Which meant that I could take a few bullets or blasts of magic to the chest and still come up swinging. Given the fact that I planned on killing Elektra LaFleur, I wanted every single advantage that I could get, no matter how small it might be.
    When I was finished dressing, I checked my silverstone knives and made sure they were all in their proper slots. One up either sleeve, one in the small of my back, and two tucked into my boots. My standard five-point