He couldn’t have shocked me more than if he’d just gotten LaFleur to pump me full of her electrical elemental magic. For a moment, I just stood there, mouth open, blinking. Then reality set back in.
“Present? You got me a Christmas present?”
He let out another low laugh. “In a manner of speaking. That is the Christmas tradition.”
“Oh.”
I’d gotten a few small things for Finn and the Deveraux sisters, but it had never occurred to me that Owen might expect something too, given the newness of our relationship. I grabbed a nearby pen and scribbled a note down on the top sheet of my order pad. Buy Owen Xmas present. Too bad I had no idea what that present would be or what he would even like. Shopping had never been high on my list of priorities.
“Actually, that’s why I’m calling,” Owen said. “I wanted to talk to you about Christmas. I thought it might be nice if you came over.”
“Oh.” It seemed that was the only thing I could say. “But Christmas is family time. I thought that you’d want to spend that with just Eva. I don’t want to intrude.”
“You’re not intruding, Gin,” Owen said in a firm voice. “You are never an intrusion.”
I fell silent. I didn’t know about that. Having an assassin around was kind of like having an elephant in the room. It was so big that you just couldn’t look away from it, even when you did your best to pretend it wasn’t even there.
Owen must have taken my silence for acceptance because he continued. “I was thinking that you could ask Finn and the Deveraux sisters to join us. Maybe Roslyn and Xavier too, if they’d like. Eva plans to invite Violet and Warren Fox over. We could make it into a real holiday party.”
A party? That didn’t sound so bad. At least then I wouldn’t have to be alone with Owen and Eva and feel like an awkward, socially inept third wheel. Killing people was far easier than making polite chitchat.
“And you could even ask Bria, if you wanted to,” Owen finished.
“Oh.” I was really dazzling everyone with my conversational skills today.
Owen knew that Detective Bria Coolidge was my long-lost sister and that I desperately wanted to tell her who I really was. But, of course, that I was also afraid of what Bria might do when she found out I’d been an assassin for years and that I was the Spider, the mysterious woman who’d declared war on Mab Monroe.
“Gin?” Owen asked. “Are you still there?”
The bell over the front door chimed, indicating that I had a customer, and saving me from answering him. I hoped it was the call-in order that Sophia had taken a few minutes ago so I could close my gin joint down for the night and get on with finding Natasha.
No such luck. To my surprise and consternation, Jonah McAllister walked through the door.
Despite his sixtysomething years, Jonah McAllister was still an attractive man — if you thought that having absolutely no wrinkles or natural expression in your face was something to be desired. McAllister had his chiseled features sandblasted by expensive Air elemental facials on a regular basis in order to keep his youthful glow intact. His smooth face seemed at odds with his thick coif of silver hair, which swirled around his head and gave him an elegant, distinguished air. A perfectly fitted black suit covered his trim figure, topped by a long black wool overcoat.
But more important than his slick appearance was the fact that Jonah McAllister also happened to be Mab Monroe’s personal lawyer and the number two man in her organization now that Elliot Slater was dead. And he was very, very good at what he did. McAllister was known throughout Ashland for his ability to get the worst criminals off with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Which is why he handled all of Mab’s legal affairs. Thanks to McAllister’s expertise, the Fire elemental had never been charged with anything, not even a traffic violation, much less taken to court, despite all the murders, kidnappings, and beatings that Mab had ordered over the years — or had simply rolled up her sleeves and done herself.
Jonah McAllister also happened to hate me, since he suspected me of being involved with his son, Jake’s, death a few weeks ago. That’s when Jake had come into the Pork Pit, scared and threatened my customers, and tried to rob me before I’d shown him exactly whom he was dealing with. But the punk hadn’t learned from his first mistake. During one of Mab’s parties, Jake had threatened to rape and murder me, so I’d stabbed him to death and left him in the Fire elemental’s bathtub. Needless to say, the older McAllister had been extremely upset.
Ever since then, Jonah McAllister had kept an eye on me, trying to figure out what, if anything, I knew about his son’s murder. McAllister had even had Slater and some of his giant goons attack me one night over at Ashland Community College. Of course, I hadn’t cracked under the pressure of the giants’ fists, even though they’d almost beaten me to death. But that didn’t stop McAllister from suspecting me. So far, the slick attorney had gotten exactly nowhere, but he hadn’t given up, as witnessed by his visit here tonight. No doubt he’d dropped by just to see what other kind of trouble he could make for me.
McAllister stepped to one side, holding the door open for someone coming in behind him, and I realized that the lawyer wasn’t alone. He had a woman with him, one that I recognized.
LaFleur.
13
In the split-second it took me to register the fact that Jonah McAllister and LaFleur were here in the Pork Pit, in my restaurant, in my gin joint, all sorts of scenarios flickered through my mind. Most of them involved my killing the two of them where they stood and helping Sophia dispose of the bodies.
The Goth dwarf had helped Fletcher Lane dispose of bodies for years, and I’d inherited her services when I’d taken over the assassination business from the old man. Sophia had the same Air elemental magic as her sister, Jo-Jo. Except in Sophia’s case, she used her power to rip molecules apart, to break them down and tear them into nothingness. All of which was great for getting pesky little things like bloodstains off floors and walls.
My eyes strayed to the two couples still lingering over their food. Sophia and I couldn’t take care of McAllister and LaFleur, not in front of four witnesses. Anyway, it was better to see what the dynamic duo actually wanted first before I made my move.
“I’ve got to go,” I told Owen. “I just had a customer walk in the front door.”
“Anyone I know?” he asked.
“Jonah McAllister. And he has the new girl in town with him.”
Silence. I’d told Owen all about LaFleur and what her plans were for me the other night when I’d been at his house.
“Do you need some help, Gin?” Owen asked in a soft voice. “I can be there in ten minutes.”
And this thing might be over with in one, depending on what the two of them wanted and what they knew about me and who I really was. Still, it pleased me that Owen cared enough to come, that he wanted to help me, wanted to stick his neck out for me.
I put my left hand down under the counter out of sight and palmed one of my silverstone knives. The blade was sharp enough to cut through almost anything, including McAllister’s inflated ego — and neck.
“No, I think I can handle it. Sophia’s here now, and Finn is on his way. Four really would be a crowd,” I murmured. “Besides, they’re not here to kill me. They want something instead. They wouldn’t have come in through the front door otherwise. And if they knew who I really was, they would have brought some of Mab’s giants along with them for backup, at the very least. Maybe even Mab herself, if she was in the mood to watch.”