His ominous warning delivered, the casino boss stalked over to one of his giants and started speaking to the other man in a low voice. A few feet away, Bria was talking with the coroner, while Xavier was taking statements from some of the giants who’d been on deck when Antonio was wrung out like a wet dishrag. I glanced over the railing. Down below in the parking lot, Violet was helping Sophia put the last of the supplies from the Pork Pit into the dwarf’s convertible, while Owen and Eva stood off to one side, arguing.
I looked at them all in turn, thinking. Then I pulled out my cell phone and called Finn again. He must have been waiting by the phone, because he picked up after the first ring.
“Gin? What’s happening? What’s going on?” Finn asked. “Have you killed Kincaid yet?”
“Sadly, no.”
“Why not?”
I let out a breath. “Because as shocking as this sounds, he’s actually the victim tonight—and has some strange connection to Owen and Eva. Right now, I’m not sure if I know the bad guy from the worse guy.”
“Who could be worse than Kincaid?” Finn asked.
“Salina Dubois,” I said. “I want you to get your hands on everything you can about her. Right now. Then meet me at Fletcher’s house. And you might want to put a pot of coffee on when you get there. It’s going to be a long night.”
There was nothing else for me to do there, so I said my good-byes to Bria and Xavier. My sister promised to call or drop by my house if she had any news, but I knew she’d be busy well into the night tracking down Salina and seeing what she had to say for herself. Even then, at this point, it was Salina’s word against Kincaid’s, which meant there was nothing Bria could do anyway—to either one of them. Sure, I’d seen what had happened to Antonio and Kincaid, but assassins didn’t exactly make the best witnesses in a court of law.
I walked down the gangplank, across the boardwalk, and into the parking lot. The police cars were still on the scene, their bright lights swiveling around and around in endless loops, but all the students had left. I headed over to where the others stood by Sophia’s convertible.
Owen looked at me. “I’m so sorry you got dragged into the middle of this, Gin. Eva should have known better than to go anywhere near Kincaid, something we will discuss in further detail when we get home.”
“No,” Eva said. “I want to stay at Gin’s house tonight.”
“Eva—” he started.
“Gin’s house is the safest place I know,” she said, her voice trembling just a bit. “I need to feel safe right now, Owen, and I won’t at home. Not when I know Salina’s back in Ashland and that she could show up at the house at any time—that you’d let her into the house at any time.”
Owen opened his mouth to argue.
“It’s okay,” I cut in. “You both know you’re welcome to stay with me anytime. I’d love to have the company.”
I didn’t add that them coming home with me tonight was for the best anyway, since we had a lot to talk about.
“Fine,” Owen muttered. “We’ll stay with Gin tonight. But don’t think this gets you out of the punishment you have coming for going behind my back and talking to Phillip.”
Eva’s eyes narrowed, and the siblings glared at each other. Normally, the two of them got along like gang-busters, but whatever had happened in the past had driven a Kincaid-specific wedge between them, one that was still there, even now, all these years later.
Sophia offered to take Violet home. Violet and Eva hugged and exchanged a few whispers before Violet got into Sophia’s car, and the two of them left. I wasn’t surprised when Eva immediately pivoted in her flip-flops, marched over to Finn’s Escalade, threw open the door, and got into the passenger’s seat without another word—or a single glance at her brother. I looked at Owen, who just shrugged, letting me know it was fine.
“I’ll follow you over there,” he said, then pulled me into his arms. “I’m just glad you’re safe, Gin.”
My arms tightened around him, and I breathed in deep, letting his rich scent, the one that always made me think of metal, fill my nose. For a moment, I let myself forget about everything that had happened tonight and just concentrated on Owen—on the feel of his hands on my back, his warm body next to mine, his lips resting against my temple.
Then I exhaled and put all those soft emotions away, because the night wasn’t over yet, and I still hadn’t gotten the answers to any of my questions—answers that I needed now more than ever.
I drew back and looked at him. “I’ll see you at Fletcher’s. Don’t worry. We’ll straighten everything out.”
Owen nodded and headed across the parking lot to his car. I rounded the Escalade and opened the driver’s door. But before I got inside, I looked up.
Phillip Kincaid was leaning over the railing of the Delta Queen. The bright globes on the decks above him made his slicked back hair gleam like gold, even as the lights cast his features in darkness and caused his long, ominous shadow to stretch out onto the boardwalk below. No doubt he’d seen the whole thing—Owen and Eva arguing, Eva getting into my car, Owen leaving. I wondered what the casino boss thought of all that, if he’d been pleased Eva had taken his side over her brother’s, if he even knew why she’d done such a thing in the first place.
Kincaid raised his hand to his forehead and gave me a mock salute before stepping away from the railing and disappearing from sight. Once again, I wondered what game he was playing—and why I had a feeling he wasn’t quite the monster Owen said he was.
12
Eva didn’t say a word in the twenty minutes it took for me to drive across town. Instead, she stared out the window and brooded. I didn’t try to question her. There would be plenty of time for that at home.
I turned off the road and steered the Escalade up the rough gravel driveway, leaning into the familiar lumps and bumps as the SUV rocked from side to side. In my rearview mirror, the headlights on Owen’s car bounced up and down as he did the same thing. Eventually, both vehicles chugged to the top of the ridge, and Fletcher’s place came into view.
The old man had left me his ramshackle house, and the sight of it never failed to lift my spirits, even after a night like this one. A light burned on the front porch, illuminating the white clapboard, brown brick, and gray stone that joined together at crazy angles to form the sprawling structure. The house had passed through a lot of hands over the years, and each of the folks who’d lived here before had added on a room or two onto the structure; hence the mishmash of materials and styles.
The house looked quite a bit worse for wear these days, thanks to all the bullet holes that peppered the front and sides like tiny black eyes. Back in the winter, bounty hunters hot on the trail of the Spider had laid siege to the house. I was still digging bullets out, but I didn’t mind. Fletcher had spent years fortifying his home to withstand just such a standoff, and it had more than held up against the hail of gunfire.
Still, that didn’t mean someone couldn’t be lurking around, waiting to make a run at me. Most of the fools who came after the Spider limited their murderous attempts to the Pork Pit, but a few of the braver ones had sought me out here at home. I supposed I could have moved to some anonymous apartment where folks would have a harder time finding me, but the house was one of the last pieces of Fletcher that I had left, and I’d be damned if anyone was going to make me leave it behind.
“Stay in the car for a minute,” I told Eva as I opened the door and got out.
I motioned for Owen to sit tight in his vehicle as well, then walked around the SUV, placing myself between it and the house. My eyes swept over the landscape, from the black maw of the woods on my left to the flat yard that stretched out to my right before abruptly falling away in a series of jagged cliffs.