Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies (14 page)

Violet drew in another breath. “Anyway, I hadn’t really thought about the Tin Man in years—until this morning.”

“What happened this morning?” Finn gave Violet another encouraging smile.

Violet ducked her head and smiled back, as though she wasn’t used to so much male attention. Probably not.

Girls with glasses, and all that. “I’m a business major at Ashland Community College. Eva Grayson’s my best friend. She was at the Pork Pit last night. All she could talk about today was the robbery and how the woman behind the cash register stopped it.”

Sophia snorted.

“Well, I did have some help,” I said to appease the Goth dwarf. “So you talked to Eva, and you remembered this story your grandfather had told you about the Tin Man. Okay, I’ll buy that. But why do you even need the Tin Man’s help in the first place?”

Violet chewed on one of her fingernails. “It’s a long story.”

“Good thing we’ve got nothing but time then.”

I didn’t mention to the girl that she wasn’t going anywhere until I’d determined she wasn’t a threat to me, Finn, the Deveraux sisters, or the restaurant. Jake McAllister was going to make enough problems for me. I didn’t need any more.

Violet nodded. “All right. My grandfather, Warren Fox, owns a store up on Ridgeline Hollow Road called Country Daze. It’s an old-timey country store with glass soda pop bottles, barrels full of penny candy, locally made goods, that kind of thing. It’s also right next to one of the big coal mines—Dawson Number Three. It started out as an underground mine with a big seam of coal. But the coal ran out a few years ago, so the underground part has been idle since then. Now it’s just a strip mine. The owner of the mine, Tobias Dawson, has been after my grandfather to sell the store, land, and mineral rights to him for years so he can expand the mine and search for more coal. But the store and the land have been in our family for generations. Grandfather has always refused, saying he’d rather die than see any more of the mountain destroyed.”

Tobias Dawson. I knew that name. Dawson was one of the biggest mine operators in Ashland, a dwarf who’d pulled coal out of the mountains for years himself as a miner before making enough money to start up his own company. He’d had nothing but success ever since. A true miner through and through who was always on the lookout for the next big seam of coal in the mountains. If Tobias Dawson wanted something, he usually got it—no matter who got dead in the process. Dawson was also deep in bed with Mab Monroe. I remembered seeing his name in the file Fletcher had compiled on the Fire elemental queen.

Hearing Dawson’s name also made me recall where I’d seen the symbol that had been tattooed on the bicep of Violet Fox’s attacker. Unless I was mistaken, a lit stick of dynamite was Tobias Dawson’s rune for his mining company.

Violet continued with her story. “In the past, Dawson was content just to wait. He’s a dwarf, after all, just a bit over two hundred. He’s bound to outlive Grandfather and me too. But he’s not taking no for an answer anymore. He’s sent some of his men out to harass us. They’ve broken the windows in the store, threatened customers, interfered with our deliveries. You name it, they’ve done all that and more the last two months, trying to drive us out of business. Grandfather’s been able to handle Dawson’s men so far, but I worry about him. Dawson’s more or less told Grandfather that he’ll kill us both if Grandfather doesn’t sell out to him. Grandfather said no, of course.”

I didn’t bother asking Violet Fox if they’d gone to the police to complain about Tobias Dawson. The dwarven mine owner had more than enough money to bribe the po-po to look the other way, and he could always use his connection to Mab Monroe to get the cops in her pocket to back off and let him go about his intimidation business. The only person who might listen to the Foxes would be Donovan Caine. Even then, the detective couldn’t take on someone like Tobias Dawson by himself.

Not and live to tell about it.

“So that’s why that dwarf attacked you tonight,” I murmured. “You grandfather wasn’t budging, so Dawson decided to give him some incentive to sell out—your body.”

Violet shook her head. “That wouldn’t have worked, either. If anything, Grandfather would have gotten his shotgun and gone over to the mine to have it out with Dawson.”

“Where Dawson could justifiably kill him in self-defense in front of any number of witnesses,” Finn pointed out. “Either way, Dawson would have gotten what he wanted—you and your grandfather out of the way.”

Violet shivered and hugged her arms to her chest.

Nobody said anything for the better part of a minute.

Then Jo-Jo looked at me with her pale, colorless eyes.

“Gin?”

Gin
. My adopted name. Such a short, simple word.

But that single syllable was imbued with a world of meaning.

I knew what Jo-Jo was asking. If I was going to help Violet and her grandfather, Warren T. Fox. Because without someone like me on their side, someone just as cold, ruthless, and dangerous as Tobias Dawson, the Foxes weren’t long for this earth. If I hadn’t gotten curious and intervened tonight, Violet would already be raped, dead, and cold in that parking lot.

I rubbed my head. I didn’t need this right now. I was supposed to be retired, not sticking my nose into someone else’s problems. Especially not for
free
. Then there was Jake McAllister and his well-connected, lawyer father, Jonah. I had no doubt the younger McAllister would make good on his threat to try and kill me. And finally, there was the folder of information Fletcher Lane had left me—the one about my murdered mother and older sister.

The photo of Bria that proved she was still alive, still out there somewhere.

I needed to figure out what to do about all that. How to take care of Jake McAllister without pointing the finger back at myself. What to do about his father. How to find my baby sister, Bria. Decide whether I actually wanted to do that or not. Fletcher had left me all these questions to find the answers to. I didn’t need to go gallivanting up into the Appalachian Mountains to help an old geezer and his granddaughter take on someone as dangerous and potentially lethal as Tobias Dawson.

But my decision had already been made. It had been the moment I’d become curious enough to track down Violet Fox and see what kind of trouble she was in, see why she wanted to speak to the Tin Man. Curiosity. Definitely going to get me killed one day. Probably real, real soon.

“Sophia,” I said. “I’m going to need you to watch the Pork Pit for a few days. Maybe help me out with some other things too, if the need arises.”

The Goth dwarf nodded. A tiny smile softened her hard, pale face. Nothing Sophia liked better than handling the
other things
I sent her way.

“Finn, I need everything you can get on Tobias Dawson, his mining operation, and why he might want the Foxes’ land so badly.”

Finn nodded.

“Jo-Jo, I’ll probably need some healing supplies.”

The older dwarf nodded her head as well.

Violet looked back and forth between the four of us.

“I don’t understand. I thought Finn’s father, the Tin Man, was dead? How is any of this going to help me and my grandfather?”

“Because, sweetheart,” I said. “I might not be the Tin Man, and I’m definitely no fairy-tale hero, but I’m the closest thing you’re going to get.”

12

Once my professional help was secured, Violet Fox immediately wanted to go home and make sure her grandfather was okay.

“Forget it,” I said. “You’re not going home tonight. You need to stay here and rest. You’ve been through a serious trauma. Despite being magically healed, you still need some downtime to recover.”

By this point, purple circles rimmed her dark eyes, and she moved slowly, like every motion was an enormous effort.

Violet Fox was about to pass out from sheer exhaustion.

I didn’t add the fact I wanted Violet to stay right where she was so Jo-Jo and Sophia Deveraux could babysit her. The dwarves would make sure Violet didn’t do anything stupid, like tell her grandfather about the attack and have him go tearing off after Tobias Dawson in a rage.

“But what if Dawson sends some men after Grandfather?”

Violet asked.

“He won’t,” I replied. “You said it yourself. Your grandfather and his shotgun can handle Dawson’s men. That’s why the dwarf came after you instead. He wasn’t getting anywhere threatening your grandfather.”

“But how do you
know
?” she persisted.

I gave her a flat look. “Because I’ve had a lot of experience with this sort of thing. Dawson’s probably waiting for his cell phone to ring, for his man to check in and tell him that you’re dead. When he realizes something went wrong, Dawson will be too busy trying to find his own man and figure out what the hell happened to him to worry about your grandfather. At least for tonight. Trust me. We’ve got time for you to get some beauty sleep.”

Violet opened her mouth to argue with me some more, but I cut her off.

“You can call your grandfather and check in. See how he is, and tell him you’ll see him tomorrow. But if you want my help, you’re staying here tonight.
Capisce?
”

Violet Fox might be a straight-A business student, but her resistance wilted under my cold stare. “All right,” she murmured. “I’ll call my grandfather.”

“Good,” I replied and pushed her bowl back over to her. “Now, eat some more cobbler.”

———

Violet Fox ate some more apricot bars and vanilla ice cream, while the rest of us plotted. Jo-Jo and Sophia agreed to keep an eye on her until Finn and I showed up tomorrow. The two of us would drive Violet back home, meet with Warren T. Fox, and see what we could do to get Tobias Dawson to back off.

Jo-Jo settled Violet in one of her upstairs bedrooms, while Finn sweet-talked Sophia into going out into the rain and seeing what she could do about the blood Violet had dripped all over the backseat of his precious Aston Martin. Once Jo-Jo finished with Violet, the dwarf took me into the salon, where she gave me a plastic tub. The dwarf ’s cloud rune decorated the top of the container. I traced my fingernail over the pale blue paint.

In addition to healing with their hands, Air elementals like Jo-Jo could also infuse their magic in various products, like the ointment she’d just handed me. The ointment wouldn’t work as well as Jo-Jo healing me herself, but it would keep me from keeling over until I could get to her. Jo-Jo also gave me a couple of smaller containers of the ointment, including one that looked like a makeup compact and another solid tube of it that resembled lipstick.

“Thanks,” I said. “I have a feeling I’m going to need these, if I’m getting mixed up with Tobias Dawson.”

Jo-Jo’s white eyes clouded over. “Maybe. Although I don’t think the tub will be much help. Not this time.”

Her voice was soft and distant, like she was somewhere far away instead of standing in front of me. In addition to her healing powers, Jo-Jo also had a bit of precognition.

Most Airs did. They could read vibrations and feelings in the wind just like I could in whatever stone was near me.

But where my element whispered to me of the past, theirs often hinted at the future. Another way the two elements opposed each other.

After a moment, Jo-Jo’s eyes cleared, and she stared at me. “So, are we ever going to talk about it?”

“Talk about what?” I asked, sliding the compact and lipstick tube into my jeans pocket.

“That folder I gave you. The one Fletcher spent so long working on.”

I grimaced. Jo-Jo had been the one who’d given me the folder about my murdered family two months ago soon after Fletcher’s funeral. The dwarf had told me to come talk to her about the information when I was ready.

Something else I hadn’t done yet.

“What’s there to talk about?” I shrugged. “For some reason, Fletcher Lane knew who I really was all along, and he never said a word to me about it. Instead, he spent his free time compiling all the info he could on my dead family, like I was another one of his targets. Some hit he was trying to figure out how to do. The old man gives the folder to you, then gets murdered before he can tell me about it—or what the hell he wanted me to do with the information. I don’t see what we have to discuss.”

Jo-Jo stared at me. “Your sister, for starters.”

I snorted. “Oh yes, my baby sister, Bria, who I find out is alive after thinking she was dead for seventeen years.”

“I can understand why you feel hurt, why you feel like Fletcher betrayed you. But family is everything, Gin,” the dwarf said in a soft voice. “Whether it’s the one you’re born into or the one you make for yourself. Bria is your blood, your sister, and she’s alive. You can’t just ignore that.”

“Fletcher left me a picture of her, but he didn’t tell me how to find her. Where she’s at, what she’s even like now. Kind of sloppy of him to omit that information, don’t you think?” I snapped.

“Fletcher Lane never did anything he didn’t mean to,” Jo-Jo said. “He left you that picture for a reason. You’ll understand why one day.”

The tone of her voice made the wheels of my brain grind together—just like my teeth were doing. My gray eyes burned into her light ones. “You know, don’t you? You know why he compiled that information.”

Jo-Jo tilted her head. “I have some ideas.”

“Care to share?” I asked in a sarcastic tone.

The dwarf shook her head. “It’s not my place. This is between you and Fletcher.”

“He’s
dead
.”

“Doesn’t mean he still can’t speak to you,” Jo-Jo said.

“All you have to do is be willing to listen.”

I opened my mouth to tell her to cut out the cryptic talk, that it was a little hard to have a conversation with someone who was buried six feet under. But Finn chose that moment to stroll into the salon. He jangled his car keys in his hand.

“You ready?” Finn asked.

I glanced at him. “Sophia cleaned the blood out of the back of the Aston already? How the hell did she do that?”

“Soap, water, and some dwarven elbow grease,” Finn replied. “That woman’s a genius. Smells and looks just like it did the day I got it.”