Callie nodded. Bria cursed and quickened her pacing, moving from one end of the bar to the other with sharp, precise movements.
“I take it you’ve heard of him?” I asked my sister.
She nodded. “Unfortunately. He’s a real estate mogul and developer who’s had a home here for more than a century. Remember all the mansions and shopping centers that we drove by today? Dekes built all of those.”
“He’s practically bought up the whole island,” Callie added in a soft voice. “He plans to build a big resort complex on Blue Marsh—a casino, golf courses, spas, restaurants, the whole nine yards. It’ll put everything else on the island to shame and probably out of business as well. There were a few initial holdouts like me, but everyone else has sold out to him already.”
“Why?” Bria asked. “Because of the money he was offering for their property?”
Callie nodded. “That and the fact that there have been some . . . accidents. Vandalism, mostly. Another business owner was beaten up pretty badly one night when his store was robbed.”
Accidents. Right.
“Where is Dekes going to build this resort?” I asked.
“He’s adding it on to the Blue Sands hotel.” Callie held her hands out wide. A brittle smile tightened her face. “According to the plans that I’ve seen, we’re sitting in the middle of the main floor of his casino. He’s supposed to break ground on construction in two weeks, but he’s having a press conference tomorrow at the Blue Sands to formally announce the project. He owns the hotel, and his mansion adjoins the grounds.”
Bria let out another curse, one that was longer and louder than all the ones she’d muttered so far. I eyed her. My sister wasn’t much for swearing, not like I was, and it took a lot to get her riled up. Usually, only Finn could ruffle her feathers like this.
“There’s more, isn’t there?” I asked her.
There always was in situations like this one.
“Real estate isn’t all that Dekes is into,” Bria said. “I started investigating him just before I left to go back to Ashland. Extortion, intimidation, gambling, prostitution, murder. He’s got quite a racket going, and his hands are in practically every legal and illegal business on the island. And it’s not just here. He has interests up and down the East Coast, from the Outer Banks of North Carolina all the way south to Key West.”
“In other words, Randall Dekes is the Mab Monroe of Blue Marsh,” I said.
Bria nodded. “Only he hides it a lot better than she did. He’s buddy-buddy with all the local politicians, gives money to the fire and police departments, sponsors kids’ sports teams, things like that. He’s a very slick salesman that way. He also happens to be a very old and very powerful vampire. Some folks say that he has elemental magic too, although I don’t know if that’s true or not.”
Despite all the popular myths and stories out there, vampires were born, not made, just like everyone else was. They had heartbeats, breathed air, and could walk around in the sun just as easily as I could. Vamps could wear as much silver as they wanted, and garlic didn’t do any more than give them bad breath or the occasional case of indigestion.
Just about the only myth that was true when it came to vampires was that they all needed blood to live, in addition to more mundane food. To them, sucking down a pint of O-positive was just like regular humans chowing down on a steak. Animal blood would do in a pinch, but most vamps preferred people blood, and there were dedicated vampire blood banks that paid folks very well to come by and donate as often as they could. The blood banks then turned around and distributed all those precious pints like cartons of milk, with a slight markup, of course.
The twist was that vampires got more than just nutrition from blood, depending on whose platelets they were dining on. Regular old human blood was enough to give most vampires enhanced senses, extra strength, and lightning-fast reflexes. It was when they drank from other magic users that things got really interesting.
A vampire who chugged down the blood of a dwarf or giant would take on characteristics of those races and become just as strong as dwarves and giants naturally were—at least until the blood cycled out of the vamp’s system like food moving through a human’s body. Vampires who drank blood from elementals got the ability to use that person’s power, whether it was Air, Fire, Ice, Stone, or one of the offshoots of those areas, like electricity, acid, water, or metal. And of course some vamps were elementals themselves—they had the inherent magic flowing through their veins already, just like Bria and I did.
Whether he had elemental magic himself or stole it from his victims, Randall Dekes sounded like a very dangerous man.
“You know, Dekes has offered me far more than what the Sea Breeze is worth,” Callie said, interrupting my thoughts. “He’s even promised me a job heading up one of the new restaurants in the resort complex.”
“So what’s the problem?” I asked.
She looked at Bria. “There was a fire about a week ago at an ice-cream shop not too far from here. Remember Stu Alexander?”
Bria nodded. “He used to give us free chocolate-dipped cones sometimes when we went into his shop. He was such a sweet old man. I remember he sent flowers to my parents’ funerals, even though he didn’t know them or me very well.”
“Well, he was killed in the fire. Burned alive inside his own store. Stu Alexander, who never hurt anyone in his entire life. I still can’t quite believe it.” Callie wrapped her arms around herself, but she couldn’t completely hide her shiver. “The cops are still trying to determine whether it was an accident.”
“But you don’t think it was an accident,” I said.
Callie stared at the floor. “I went into the shop the day before the fire to pick up an ice-cream cake for one of the waitresses’ birthdays. Stu told me that Dekes and some of his men had been by the shop that morning. That Dekes said it was his last chance to sell out or else. Stu loved his store just as much as I do the Sea Breeze. It was his whole life. He said he’d told Dekes that he was never going to sell, no matter how much money the vampire offered him. Stu even bragged about how he got his gun out from behind the counter and got Dekes and his men to leave. But the next day, Stu was dead.”
She shivered again. “Of course, I told the police what Stu told me, but they say they can’t do anything without proof. Stu was the last holdout besides me.”
This wasn’t the first time I’d encountered a situation like this. Not too long ago, I’d helped out Warren Fox, an old friend of Fletcher’s. A coal tycoon named Tobias Dawson had secretly discovered diamonds on Warren’s land and had done everything he could to get his hands on them, even sending someone to rape and kill Warren’s granddaughter, Violet. I’d stopped Dawson, though—one of my growing number of pro bono deeds as the Spider.
“Why didn’t you tell me about all of this?” Bria asked. “I could have helped you before it got this far.”
Callie shrugged. “Whenever I’ve called lately, you’ve always sounded busy, distracted, worried. It seemed like you were having enough problems of your own in Ashland, and I didn’t want to bother you with mine.”
Bria’s gaze cut to me, and I knew what she was thinking. That maybe if she hadn’t been so busy looking for her long-lost big sister, Genevieve Snow, looking for the Spider, looking for me, maybe Callie would have told her about Dekes. Then maybe Bria could have figured out a way to help her friend before now—and maybe even saved an old man from being murdered. Bria didn’t say anything, but I could see the guilt glimmering in her eyes—along with that anger again.
Anger at me and the fact that I hadn’t come straight out and told Bria who I really was when she’d come back to Ashland. Anger that I’d let Mab capture her. Anger that the Fire elemental had tortured her, despite my promises to keep that from ever happening. I didn’t think Bria was wrong to blame me. I’d failed to protect her when it mattered most, something that would always haunt me.
Mab Monroe might be dead, but I wondered if things would ever really be right b
etween me and my sister. If the Fire elemental and the two divergent paths that she had put me and Bria on, the things that she’d done to us, would ever really be forgotten—or forgiven.
But that was a worry for another day. Right now, the question was what to do about Randall Dekes. Was taking down Dekes the smart thing to do? I had few doubts it was the right thing, given everything that Callie had said and what I’d witnessed here in the restaurant tonight.
But I’d come to Blue Marsh to get away from my troubles as the Spider, not throw myself knives-first into someone else’s problem, especially someone that I didn’t have any real connection to. Callie was Bria’s friend, not mine. But that was the catch—Bria loved Callie like a sister, and I loved Bria. I’d do anything for my sister, including protect her friend the best way that I knew how.
I hadn’t known Stu Alexander, but I could keep Callie from ending up like him. I could keep Bria from crying over her best friend’s grave like she had her parents’ earlier today. I could do at least that much for my sister. I didn’t know if it would make up for everything she’d suffered because of me, but all I could do was keep trying—and hope that it counted for something with Bria in the end.
“What if I told you that I could help you with Dekes?” I asked Callie. “That I could get him to leave you alone—for good?”
Bria sighed, knowing what was coming next. “Gin . . .”
She didn’t get to finish her thought. The screen door creaked open, and quick footsteps sounded, hurrying across the wooden floor.
“Callie!” a worried voice called out. “Are you okay?”
This time, I was the one who froze—shocked into absolute stillness just like everyone else had been earlier. I couldn’t have been more surprised, more stunned, than if the ground had opened up at my feet and Mab had crawled out of her grave right in front of me.
I’d never thought I’d hear the light, quick tread of his footsteps again. I’d never thought I’d hear that low, sexy, slightly raspy voice again. I’d never thought I’d see him again, not after everything that had happened, not after the bitter way that things had ended between us.
Not after he’d walked away from me without so much as a backward glance.
For a moment, I sat there, still frozen, wondering if I was just imagining things, if my mind was playing tricks on me—cruel, cruel tricks.
“Callie?” he asked again, drawing closer. “Why aren’t there any customers? Where’s the rest of the staff? And who are these women?”
I breathed in, and his familiar scent filled my nose—that sharp, clean scent that always made me think of soap. And I knew that I wasn’t wrong or mistaken or just imagining things.
I drew in a breath and slowly swiveled around on my stool.
Detective Donovan Caine stood behind me.
5
The last time I’d seen Donovan Caine had been when he’d dumped me at the Pork Pit, ending our brief but intense affair. That had been several months ago, but he still looked the same as I remembered—the same as I’d pictured him in my mind more than once on a late, lonely night, wondering where he was and what he was doing. Whom he might be with.
His black hair was cropped close, looking as dark as midnight above his smoky, topaz-colored eyes. He had a strong chin and smooth bronze skin that hinted at his Hispanic heritage. Donovan topped out at just over six feet, and the blue suit he wore showed just how lean and muscled his body was. He wasn’t wearing a tie, and his white button-down shirt was open at the throat. His hair was also standing straight up, like he’d been running his hands through it.
Still, despite his rumpled appearance, he looked . . . calmer, happier, and more at peace than I’d ever seen him.
Donovan stared at Callie, making sure that she was all right, before turning his attention to Bria, then me. He started to look back at Callie but did a double take instead, his golden gaze locking with my gray one.
In that moment, I remembered how he’d felt pressed up against me, how he’d whispered my name over and over again, how he’d made me feel—and then how he’d walked away without giving me a chance. Without giving us a chance. My heart constricted in my chest, squeezing in on itself, but I couldn’t tell whether it was with longing or anger.
His eyes widened, his mouth fell open, and all the color drained out of his face. “Gin? Gin Blanco?”
I tried to smile, but I couldn’t quite make my lips turn up. “The one and the same. Hello, Donovan. You’re looking well.”
Donovan blinked several times, as if I were a ghost and he could somehow banish my image just by staring right through me. When that didn’t work, his gaze went to Pete and Trent, who were still out cold on the floor.
“Your work, I assume?” he said, leaning over and checking each man’s neck for a pulse.
“Of course.”
“I’m surprised they’re not dead,” he muttered, and straightened back up.
I suppose I could have told him that I hadn’t come here looking for trouble. That I was trying to relax this weekend, not carve up bad guys for kicks. That they’d started it, not me, and that they were damn lucky I hadn’t finished it—permanently. But the fact that one of the first things out of his mouth was an insult after all this time made my hackles rise.
I grinned, baring my teeth at him. “What can I say? I’ve mellowed since the last time we spoke, Detective.”
Donovan looked at me, I looked at him, and Callie and Bria stared at both of us, wondering what the hell was going on. Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Finally, Bria cleared her throat, stepped forward, and held out her hand. “I’m Detective Bria Coolidge.”
“Detective Donovan Caine,” he murmured, shaking her hand.
Bria nodded, like the name actually meant something to her. “I took your job in the Ashland Police Department, and you took mine in Savannah. We never met in person, but we spoke on the phone a few times, working out the details of the switch.”
“Of course,” Donovan said, recognition filling his face. “I remember you now. I did work in Savannah for a while before transferring out here to Blue Marsh.”
This time, I was the one who blinked in surprise. When Donovan had left Ashland, he’d made it perfectly clear that he wanted to disappear and never see me again. So I’d tried not to think too much about where he’d gone, and I hadn’t tried to find him, although Finn had volunteered to hunt him down and kneecap him for hurting me. Turns out, the detective had been closer than I realized this whole time. He’d taken Bria’s place down here to get away from me, his troublesome assassin lover, and she’d assumed his job up in Ashland to try to find me, her long-lost sister. Ah, the irony. Kicking me in the teeth just as usual.
“You’re a detective, and you’re here with Gin?” Donovan asked, a suspicious note creeping into his voice.
Bria’s face tightened. She realized what he was really asking just like I did—if Bria knew I was the Spider.
Her eyes frosted over, and she put on her hard, flat cop face. “Of course. Gin’s my sister. We were just telling Callie about Gin’s . . .”
“Security business,” I finished in a helpful tone.
Bria gave me a look that said it would be a very good idea for me to shut the hell up right now. “Yes, her security business, when you arrived, Detective.”
Donovan let out a harsh, bitter laugh, something he’d done more than once when I was around. Even now, after all these months, the dark, caustic sound still felt like a knife twisting in my stomach.
“Donovan?” Callie asked, laying her hand on his arm. “Are you okay?”
He turned to her. “I’m sorry. It’s just been a long day, and I was so worried when I got the call about the fight here. Are you all right? Did anyone hurt you?”
“I’m fine, really. Gin made sure that those men didn’t harm me or anyone else.”
Donovan didn’t look at me. “I’m glad.”
Callie wrapped her arms around Donovan. The two of them share
d a soft, gentle kiss; then he pulled her into a tight embrace, sliding his arms across her back and burying his face in her neck. The diamond ring on Callie’s finger winked at me like a cold, mocking eye, and I finally put two and two together. Took me long enough.
Callie had mentioned that her fiancé was a cop and had asked the bartender to call him. I’d just never expected it to be my cop. Or my ex-cop. Or whatever the hell Donovan Caine was to me now.
Callie was Donovan’s fiancée. The thought rattled around inside my head, echoing over and over again. Of course she was. If I’d thought the irony of the situation had merely been kicking me before, it was now laying a full-body smackdown on me, concentrating on my bruised ego and battered pride—and maybe my wounded heart too.
I felt as though a giant had just sucker punched me, but I kept my face cold, smooth, remote, and impassive. Hiding my true feelings was one of the first things Fletcher had taught me when he’d started training me to be an assassin—even if I wasn’t quite sure what those feelings were right now. Anger, longing, regret, attraction. They were all a big jumbled mess inside me, tiny barbed threads that pulled my emotions first one way, then the other, until everything was twisted, tangled, and snarled beyond all comprehension.
Donovan and Callie broke apart, although he kept one arm around her waist, holding her close to his side, something he’d never done with me—not even once. He hadn’t been able to get away from me fast enough whenever we were together.
“You want to tell me what happened?” Donovan asked in a quiet voice, finally looking at me. “And why you’re in Blue Marsh?”
“Bria and I are here on vacation,” I said in an even tone. “Her idea. We drove down from Ashland earlier today. Callie and Bria are old friends, and Bria wanted to stop and catch up with her. We were finishing our dinner when those two clowns showed up and started threatening Callie. Things were getting ugly, so I made sure the good girl won, just like I always do. End of story.”
“You should have seen her, Donovan,” Callie said, a bit of awe creeping into her voice. “It was amazing the way that she took those two guys down all by herself. Especially that giant.”
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