I stared at him. “Because in addition to the one I stole from the bridge, I also found a bomb hidden underneath one of the moving trucks. My guess is that the three of you were going to load all of that art and all of the other giants onto those trucks, then blow them all sky-high when they crossed the bridge. That way, all your men would be dead, and everyone would think that the three of you were too.”
Clementine kept staring at me, but Opal and Dixon shared a nervous glance behind her back, confirming that I was right.
“No, the only things the three of you ever planned on leaving here with were that tube from the vault and all of the jewelry you took off the hostages,” I said. “Pry the gems out of their settings, and they’re a lot easier to fence than well-known pieces of art. Since the jewelry wasn’t in the moving trucks, I’m willing to bet that it’s down here somewhere.”
Opal’s head snapped to the right. I followed her gaze and realized that there was something else tied up to one of the slips in the very back: a small speedboat. I could just see the glint of a silverstone case that had been propped up in one of the seats.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Nobody said anything, and the only sound was the steady rush of the river flowing around us. Finally, Clementine barked out a laugh.
“Well, maybe I was wrong to be so hasty in my previous judgment about you being so disappointing,” she said. “Because you certainly are clever.”
“I do try.”
Yeah, I was preening a little bit, but only so I could give Owen as much time as possible to get into position to rescue Eva. I didn’t want the giants to remember that he was out here somewhere and realize that all my blustering was just a ploy to distract them from his rescue attempt.
Clementine’s face hardened. “Enough talk. Why don’t you hand over the tube before I tell Dixon to blow the girl’s head off?”
Dixon grinned and waggled his gun at me. I looked at him a moment longer, not giving any hint about the waterlogged figure I saw climb up one of the ladders at the very back of the boathouse, sneak over to the outer circular path, and head in his direction.
Since I had a knife in my right hand, I reached down with my left and slowly slid the ebony tube out of the pouch on my belt. I held the tube up high and then slowly turned it around, making sure that Clementine saw the flash of Mab’s sunburst rune on the smooth wood.
Her eyes narrowed, and she studied me a moment longer.
“Put it on the ground, and roll it over here,” she said. “Real easy-like. Or the girl dies.”
I slowly bent down and did as she asked. The tube hopped and skipped across the stone, heading toward her. Clementine raised her foot, then brought her boot down gently on top of the tube, stopping it. Still keeping her eyes and her gun on me, she bent down and picked up the tube.
“Opal, you keep your gun on her,” Clementine said. “You too, Dixon. I want to make sure that Ms. Blanco gave us what she promised she would.”
I gave her a bright, carefree smile. “Why, Clementine, would I lie?”
“Certainly,” she replied. “I would.”
Apparently, Clementine was more familiar with the tube than I was. Instead of taking a moment to figure out how to open it, she immediately pressed on the ruby in the middle of the sunburst rune. Interesting, that she would know to do that.
Clementine slid the paper out of the hollow tube, unrolled it, and read the sheet. Opal and Dixon kept their guns trained on me, and I stayed perfectly still, not wanting to give them any reason to shoot me or, worse, Eva.
Clementine scanned the sheet for the better part of two minutes before she was satisfied. I kept my eyes on Dixon—and the shadow that was creeping closer and closer to him. Another minute, two tops, and Owen would be ready to make his move, as would Bria and Xavier in the rotunda.
When she finished reading, Clementine rolled the paper up, slid it back into the tube, and stuffed the whole thing into her pants pocket. Then she looked at me again.
“You know, I’m rather surprised that you gave it back to me just like that.”
I shrugged. “It’s just Mab’s will. What do I care about that? It’s not like she left me anything. Although I am curious about why you want it so badly. Care to share? After all, you’re just going to kill me anyway.”
“You’d better fucking believe it,” Clementine agreed. “But I’m not dumb enough to tell you anything, especially while you’ve got that radio clipped to your belt. Why, who knows who might be listening in?”
Well, it had been worth a shot. More important, though, Owen had crept closer to Dixon. He was now standing on the outer circular path behind the column nearest and parallel to the giant. He couldn’t move any closer for fear that Dixon or Opal would spot him, but he was well within striking distance. All I had to do now was distract the giants until the right moment.
“You know, you and I are a lot alike, Gin,” Clementine said.
“Really? How so?”
She stared at me. “We both do whatever we have to in order to survive. In fact, I rather admire you. Why, to hear the rumors, you’re the most heartless, ruthless bitch this town has ever seen.”
“My, my, my,” I drawled. “What a lovely compliment. Especially coming from someone like you.”
“I mean it,” she continued in a genuine voice. “The things you’ve managed to do as the Spider, the folks you’ve taken down these past several months. I’ve heard about them, you know. Tobias Dawson. Elliot Slater. Elektra LaFleur. And then of course the biggie, Mab Monroe herself.”
I shrugged. “What can I say? I don’t like bullies. That’s what all of them were—just like you.”
Her eyes glittered in her face, but her voice was calm, friendly even, when she spoke again. “Actually, you killing Mab has made life better for a lot of folks, including me. My boys and I have had a lot of fun with that Fire elemental bitch out of the picture. My protection business has been booming. Of course, what the idiots who hire me don’t realize is that there’s no one around anymore to keep me from taking whatever I want, whenever I want it, especially from them.”
“Well, I’m happy that I could help a small business succeed.”
“But the problem is that a lot of other people have had the exact same idea,” she continued, as if I hadn’t spoken. “In some ways, things are even worse than before. At least, with Mab around, you knew where you stood: below her. Now everybody’s fighting everybody else. It makes things . . . messy for us all. It’s one of the reasons I’ve been thinking about getting out of town for a while now. Too much damn drama going on these days.”
“Pardon me if I don’t shed any tears for the trials and tribulations of Ashland’s criminal element,” I said. “I’ve got my own problems with them, in case you haven’t heard.”
Clementine grinned. “Oh, I’ve heard, all right. Did you know there’s a huge betting pool about who will kill you and when they’ll do it? Last time I’d heard, the pot was more than a million bucks.”
I didn’t respond, but the news didn’t surprise me. There was already some fool supposedly selling T-shirts with some cheesy slogan about eating at the Pork Pit and living through the experience. I didn’t know whether to be flattered or annoyed that people were cashing in on my notoriety. Finn would have been annoyed, especially since he wasn’t getting a cut of the action.
“Really?” I asked. “Well, who am I to stand in the way of commerce? Although I pity the folks who try to collect on that particular wager. It’s a deadly gamble.”
Her grin widened. “I thought you might say something like that. That’s another way we’re alike. You make sure that your enemies don’t live too long, just like I do.”
“Well, I’d say that you’ve failed pretty miserably at that so far tonight, since I’m still breathing. Then again, you should never trust a minion to do something important, especially one who doesn’t know when to quit with the self-tanner.” I looked at Dixon. “You do realize that you look like a pumpkin on steroids, right?”