Black Widow (31 page)

When we had a good idea of how many people were going to be attending the party, Silvio took over, since he'd gotten his hands on the most useful things of all—blueprints of the newly remodeled Monroe mansion, along with the guard rotations.

Jo-Jo cleared off one of the tables, and Silvio unrolled
the blueprints with a slight flourish, then bowed his head to me and stepped back so we could all crowd around them.

Finn pouted. “I've been trying to get my hands on this info ever since Gin fake-died. How did you manage it?”

“A good assistant never reveals his sources.” Silvio gave him a small, satisfied smile. “Perhaps people just like me more than they do you.”

Finn glared at the vampire, but Silvio kept smiling. He liked needling Finn. Couldn't blame him for that. It was certainly one of my favorite sports, so much so that I thought it should be an official national pastime.

“Madeline doesn't have as many guards as I thought she would,” Xavier rumbled, running his finger down a list of names. “Looks like about three dozen total, split three ways—guarding the perimeter, roaming through the mansion, and then at the party itself.”

“Yeah, but you're forgetting that she has Emery as the head of them,” Bria pointed out. “She's worth at least three giants just by herself.”

“Heh,” Sophia rasped, cracking her knuckles. “She's not so tough.”

We all looked at each other, but nobody argued with the Goth dwarf.

After we'd reviewed the guard rotations and the blueprints, we moved on to the next phase—weapons.

Finn got Xavier to help him carry several large, heavy duffel bags into the salon. A gleeful grin spread across my foster brother's face, as though he were opening up presents on Christmas morning, instead of unzipping bags full of guns, silencers, and ammunition.

“Where did you get all these on such short notice?” Phillip asked, hefting a revolver in his hand.

“Why, they were a gift from Madeline,” Finn drawled. “The only good thing she's ever done for us.”

“They were the weapons she was going to buy from Harley Grimes to outfit her guards,” Owen added. “The ones we intercepted when Sophia and Jo-Jo killed him that night at Gin's.”

“They were just gathering dust and cobwebs in that tunnel under Dad's house, so I figured that we might as well bring these babies out of storage and give them a spin.” Finn struck a pose with a particularly large rifle. “What do you think? Is gunmetal gray my color?”

We all groaned.

While Finn continued to show off with the weapons, Silvio drifted over and handed me a small sheet of paper.

“What's this?” I asked.

He frowned. “I'm not quite sure, but I thought you should see it, since it's part of the work that Madeline ordered done on the mansion. Most of the renovations were fairly standard stuff. New paint, new ceilings, new floors. But this is different.”

“How so?”

He tapped the paper. “From what I can tell, it's a single suite of rooms that she's had remodeled. A bedroom, a bathroom, and some sort of living room.”

“What's so unusual about that?”

“This suite is on the bottom floor of the mansion, tucked away in one of the back corners, well away from the rest of the construction.” Silvio hesitated. “It almost seems like she's been fixing up a place for someone to stay.”

A chill ran through me at his words. “Madeline is going to have a houseguest?”

“That's my speculation.”

“Who?”

Silvio shrugged. “Unfortunately, that's something I haven't been able to find out.”

He didn't say anything else, but he could see the concern on my face. We were going to have enough problems dealing with Madeline, Emery, and their giant guards. We didn't need to worry about anyone unexpected popping up to throw a wrench in our plans.

“If it helps, the remodeling was only finished this morning,” he said. “Madeline's guest probably hasn't arrived yet and might not until after the party.”

He was trying to reassure me, but it didn't work. Silvio touched my shoulder, then moved back over to talk to Jo-Jo.

I kept staring at the paper in my hand, not really seeing all the lines, squiggles, and other marks. I wasn't an Air elemental, so I never got glimpses of the future like Jo-Jo did. But for some reason, I felt more concerned about Madeline's mysterious houseguest than I did about anything else.

*  *  *

While my friends talked among themselves, I roused myself out of my worry and stepped back so that I was in the doorway of the salon, my gaze sweeping over the interior. The blueprints, the names scribbled on the dry-erase board, the duffel bags full of guns and ammo, even the old copies of the
Ashland Municipal Codex
that were stacked around Rosco's basket.

As I looked at first one thing, then another, I thought and thought and thought about things, my mind whirring a hundred miles an hour. Trying to picture how it would all go down. Trying to see if there were any holes in or problems with my plan that I hadn't accounted for. Trying to anticipate how Madeline and the underworld bosses might react when they realized that I was still alive.

Trying to figure out if I was dooming myself and my friends to a short, pain-filled night that would end with all our deaths.

But this was how it had to be. I was only going to get one shot at Madeline, and this was it. So I thought about Fletcher and what he might have done in my place. I thought that the old man would have approved of my plan and all the lessons I'd learned that night so long ago when we were trapped in those metal barrels. The ones that I'd largely forgotten about until Madeline had so cruelly reminded me of them.

The others realized that I was staring at them, and they quieted down and looked back at me.

“Well,” I said, grinning wide, “I think we're ready to give Madeline and the rest of the Ashland underworld a night that they will never, ever forget. Here's what we're going to do.”

23

The next evening, I got ready for the most important party of my life.

Or at least, what might be left of it.

According to what Jo-Jo had learned, Madeline was going to be wearing some fancy, haute couture gown to her shindig, but I dressed the way I always did—to kill.

Tonight, that meant black boots and thick black coveralls that zipped up to my neck. I also tucked my five knives into their usual slots, since Silvio had returned them to me. My spider rune ring was back on my right index finger where it belonged, with the matching necklace resting in the hollow of my throat underneath my coveralls. Both pieces pulsed with more of my Ice and Stone magic than ever before, since I'd spent a good portion of my time hiding out at Jo-Jo's pouring my power into the silverstone. They were the two most important parts of my plan, even more so than my knives.
Tonight, my jewelry would determine whether I lived or died.

The others geared up in similar style, and we packed the rest of our supplies into black duffel bags. I wanted to hang on to the element of surprise for as long as possible, so weapons weren't the only things we were going to need tonight.

Finally, when we were all ready, we gathered in the salon to check everything one last time. Me, Owen, Bria, Finn, Xavier, Jo-Jo, and Sophia. Phillip, Silvio, and Roslyn were also in on the plan, but they were going in another way. Eva, Violet, and Catalina had wanted to help as well, but we'd voted them down, and the girls were up at Country Daze, with Warren and Cooper watching over them. If things went wrong, the guys would protect them from the fallout.

And things could go so horribly wrong tonight.

Owen came over and slid his arm around my waist. “Are you ready for this?”

I let out a breath. “Yeah. I'm ready, consequences and all. Finally.”

He nodded and held me close until it was time to leave.

*  *  *

We grabbed our gear, piled into our various vehicles, and drove over to the Monroe estate.

But we didn't stop and try to ram our vehicles through the closed gate that fronted the mansion. I didn't want to announce our presence until the last possible second, so we cruised on by, although Sophia slowed her convertible down long enough for me to peer in through the gate and take note of the dozens of limos and expensive town cars that
were parked in the long driveway that led up to the house. It looked like the party was just getting started. Good.

Sophia drove to the next house over. The gates here opened as the dwarf steered her convertible up to them. Behind us, the others followed in their own cars. We drove up to the mansion, then parked in the driveway in front of the house. The door opened, and Charlotte Vaughn stepped outside.

While the others pulled their gear out of the cars, I strolled over to her. Charlotte eyed my friends for several seconds before turning to me.

“You can imagine how surprised I was to get your call,” she said. “Considering that I just went to your funeral yesterday.”

I'd seen Charlotte there, and she'd been one of the few folks who seemed genuinely sad that I was gone. Although whatever kindness or affection she felt for me would always be mixed with anger at how I'd killed her father, and rightfully so.

I grinned. “I do like to do the unexpected. What can I say? Coming back from the dead is a specialty of mine.”

“What are you planning, Gin?” she asked, suspicion flaring in her brown eyes. “I heard about the party that Madeline Monroe is throwing tonight.”

I shrugged. “I'm going to do what I do best.”

“And why do you and your friends need access to my estate to do it?”

“Because I don't want Madeline to realize what's happening until it's too late.”

Charlotte arched a black eyebrow. “I see. Did you know that I had a visit from Madeline a few days ago? It
was right after the fire at the Pork Pit. She wanted to talk about me giving her an interest in Vaughn Construction, the one that Mab used to own.”

“Silvio, my assistant, might have mentioned that to me. It shouldn't be a problem, after tonight.”

After a moment, Charlotte grinned back at me. “Still looking out for me, Gin?”

“It's another one of those things that I do best.”

Charlotte let out a soft laugh. She waved her hand at everyone, then disappeared back into her mansion.

The others were waiting on me, so I grabbed the bag of gear that Owen passed me, and we all headed for the woods on the far side of the estate. We reached the tree line. I took the lead, while the others fell in step behind me.

“Are we there yet?” Finn groused after we'd been walking for all of three minutes.

I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn't see me, and we trudged on.

It took us about forty-five minutes to reach my makeshift tree house. I climbed up into the top, drew a pair of night-vision goggles out of my bag, and focused them on the back of the estate.

The iron lamps that lined the pool and the patio were all lit, casting a soft golden glow over the shimmering surface of the water and the gray stone that surrounded it. The area was quiet, with only three bored-looking guards making their circuits around the lawn. Exactly what I'd expected and hoped for. Now that I was dead, Madeline wasn't worried about anyone's slipping onto the estate or trying to assassinate her from the trees. Why have your
guards stationed outside when the folks gathered inside the mansion were the real danger here tonight?

I climbed down from my perch and rejoined the others. “Looks like it's smooth sailing, at least until we get to the lawn. Everybody ready?”

Everyone checked their guns a final time, while I palmed one of my knives.

“Let's do this.”

*  *  *

We crept through the woods, still on the lookout for any rune traps, trip-wires, or land mines that Madeline and Emery might have planted. But the area was clean, and we reached the edge of the lawn with no problems.

Now it was time to contact Phillip, Roslyn, and Silvio, who were already here.