By a Thread

by Jennifer Estep

  “Why not?” I said, forcing the words out through the lump of emotion that clogged my throat. “What’s changed?”

  Bria looked at me. “Because we came down here, and I saw how Donovan treated you. How he thought he was so much better than you, so much more righteous, and I realize that it’s the same way I’ve been treating you for months now, when you’ve done nothing but save my life over and over again. With no question, no hesitation, and nothing asked in return. Not one damn thing.”

  Tears streaked down her cheeks, and her blue eyes were agonizingly bright in her face. “The truth is that I’m ashamed of myself for acting like him and most especially for taking you for granted. When we found out that Callie was in trouble, you were the first one to do anything about it. You immediately stepped up and offered to help her. If it wasn’t for you, Callie would be dead now and probably Donovan along with her. You saved her not because I asked you to and not even because she was my friend but because you saw someone who was in trouble and you realized you could help her. Maybe you are an assassin, maybe you are one of the bad guys, but you know what? I don’t give a damn anymore. You’re my sister first, and that’s all that matters to me.”

  I blinked and was surprised to find hot tears sliding down my own cheeks, one after another in a torrent that I couldn’t control. She . . . she . . . understood. She actually understood who and what I was and that I would probably never change or give up being the Spider. She knew it all, and she was still here with me. All sorts of emotions surged through my heart then, but there was one that drowned out all the others—relief. Pure, sweet relief that she wasn’t going to walk out of my life, that she was going to stick with me through the good and the bad and whatever else the world threw at us.

  I reached forward and wrapped my arms around Bria, and she did the same to me. We stood like that for several minutes, still and quiet, with silent sobs shaking both of our bodies. Just letting out all the fear and anger and guilt that had crept up on us both and had created this gulf between us. But we’d overcome those emotions, and I’d be damned if we’d ever grow apart like this again.

  Finally, we both drew back and wiped the tears from our faces, both of us pretending not to notice that we’d been crying in the first place.

  “So,” I said when I could finally speak again. “What do you say we hop into Finn’s fancy convertible and drive back to Ashland?”

  Bria smiled and held out her hand to me. “Let’s go home.”

  I threaded my fingers through hers and, hand in hand, we headed for the car.

  29

  Two weeks later, it was business as usual at the Pork Pit.

  Sophia wearing her Goth gear and baking bread for the day’s sandwiches. The smells of grease and sugar flavoring the air as burgers and more sizzled on the grill. Waitresses grabbing plates and handing out food as fast as Sophia and I could dish it up. Finn, Bria, Owen, and all my other friends and family dropping by for meals. Me reading my latest book behind the counter in between lulls in the action.

  Customers wondering whether or not I’d kill them for merely looking at me.

  Things hadn’t changed much since I’d come back from Blue Marsh. Actually, things hadn’t changed at all. People still flocked to the Pork Pit to get a glimpse of the notorious Gin Blanco, the woman who might or might not be the Spider and who might or might not have killed Mab Monroe. Whispered rumors still followed me from one side of the restaurant to the other, and everyone froze every single time I picked up a knife of any sort to peel potatoes or slice tomatoes.

  But my time in Blue Marsh had given me a different perspective on things, and now the obvious stares, rumors, and whispers didn’t bother me as much as they had before. People would think what they wanted to about me, and there was nothing I could do to stop or change their rampant speculations. Eventually, some other scandal would pop up in Ashland, and everyone would turn their attention to it instead of me. Gin Blanco and the infamy surrounding her would die down and slowly be forgotten, and I’d be relegated to an urban legend, a myth, if folks bothered to remember me at all. But I was okay with that. In fact, it couldn’t happen soon enough for me, and I looked forward to the day when I was back in the shadows once more. In the meantime, I’d survive—just the way I always did.

  The folks in Ashland might not have changed while I’d been gone, but I found that I had—at least a little bit. I might have almost died fighting Dekes, and I’d never forget the vampire’s vicious attack on me, but I’d made peace with some of the things in my life, mainly my fears about Bria.

  She was my baby sister, and I’d saved her from Mab. I’d kept that promise to her, and her life was her own now. I’d always love Bria whether she chose to stay in Ashland or decided to spread her wings and live somewhere else someday. But I didn’t think my sister would be going anywhere anytime soon. We were getting along better than ever, now that everything was out in the open between us, and I thought that Finn and Bria were on the verge of something serious too.

  As if she’d heard my thoughts, the bell over the front door chimed, and my sister stepped into the restaurant. It was warm outside today, as spring was finally in full force in Ashland, and Bria had left her long coat at home. She wore a pair of dark jeans, along with a crisp white button-down shirt and a pair of comfortable but stylish black boots. As always, she was on the job, and her gun gleamed on her black leather belt right next to her gold detective’s badge.

  It was late in the day, almost closing time, and only a few folks sat at the blue and pink vinyl booths in front of the windows, chowing down on their food. Bria came over and slid onto a stool right next to the cash register.

  “Hey there, baby sister,” I said, using one of the day’s credit card receipts to mark my place in the copy of Watership Down by Richard Adams that I was reading. “What can I get you?”

  “Just an iced sweet tea,” she said. “I’m parched.”

  I filled a glass with the sweet, sugary tea, then wrapped my hand around it and reached for my Ice magic. Elemental Ice crystals spread across the glass, immediately frosting it, and I held my palm up and created a couple of Ice cubes and dropped them into the tea as well, just for good measure. It had taken several days for my body to replenish the magic that Dekes had stolen from me. I was back up to full strength now, and I couldn’t help but test my power every so often to make sure that it was still there. Maybe it was paranoid, but I wasn’t going to take my magic for granted—not anymore.

  I added a couple of slices of lemon to the tea before passing it over to Bria. She took a few long drinks before setting the glass aside, reaching into the back pocket of her jeans, and coming up with a small square cream-colored envelope. She put the envelope down on the counter and carefully slid it over to me.

  “Callie sent me a wedding invitation,” Bria said in a quiet voice. “I just got it today. I thought you might want to see it. She put a note in there, inviting you to come to the wedding if you wanted to.”

  I’d thought about Callie a lot over the past two weeks and even more about Donovan. I’d wondered if the detective would go through with the wedding, but given the invitation, it looked like he intended to after all. I knew that in his own way, Donovan had made a promise to Callie when he’d given her that engagement ring, and he wanted to keep it. He wouldn’t want to embarrass her by backing out now, no matter how he really felt about her—or me.

  Still, I thought they’d be happy together. Callie adored the detective, and she was just the kind of woman Donovan really wanted to be with, deep down. Smart, sweet, pretty, charming, and a great cook. They’d find a way to make it work. Whatever lingering feelings Donovan might have for me would fade in time, and he’d eventually be glad I’d turned him down in the Sea Breeze, because he’d have exactly the kind of life that he wanted—and so would I.

  “I don’t need to see the invitation,” I said, pushing the envelope back across the counter to her. “But you can tell Callie that I hope that she has a
great life with Donovan. I really mean that.”

  “I know you do.”

  Bria slipped the invitation back into her pocket. She sat at the counter and sipped her tea, and the two of us talked back and forth while I wiped down the counter.

  “You want to head over to Northern Aggression and get a drink after I close up the restaurant for the night?” I asked. “Just the two of us?”

  She shook her head. “Sorry, but I can’t. I’m supposed to meet Finn for an early supper over at Underwood’s. But how about a rain check? Maybe tomorrow night?”

  “I’d like that.”

  Bria smiled. “Me too.”

  My sister’s smiles came easier and lasted longer these days. The tension and anger in her had eased as well, and her eyes weren’t quite as dark and haunted as they had been before. She was slowly getting over the torture she’d suffered because of Mab, just like I was coping with what Dekes had done to me. Together, we were helping each other heal and move on with our lives.

  That isn’t to say it was all smooth sailing. After all, I was still an assassin, and Bria was still a cop. The push and pull between our two chosen professions would always be there, but there was more to us than that now. There was more to our relationship than that now. We were starting to become real friends, in addition to being sisters.

  Still, I knew that no matter what happened in the future, no matter what challenges we faced, we would do so together.

  And that was all that really mattered.

  Eventually, Bria polished off the rest of her sweet tea and headed out to meet Finn for dinner, promising to call me tomorrow. Thirty minutes passed with no new customers coming in the door, so Sophia and I started closing down the Pork Pit for the night while we waited for the few folks left inside to finish up their meals and leave. After we turned off all the appliances, I grabbed the last of the day’s trash bags and stepped out into the alley behind the restaurant.

  The darkness greeted me like an old friend, as did the rest of the sights. The oil and grease on the pavement, the crack in the wall opposite the Pork Pit, the soft, slow murmurs of the bricks.

  The two guys in the shadows waiting to get the jump on me.

  Nope, things hadn’t changed much since I’d been back in Ashland. The underworld was still in turmoil, which meant that the lowlifes were still gunning for me, still coming around the restaurant in hopes of taking out the Spider. I’d seen a few of them hanging around the Pit, looking at me with cold, calculating eyes, but no one had tried to kill me—until now. I was mildly surprised that it had taken them this long to start up again.

  I threw the trash bags into one of the Dumpsters, then turned to see exactly who was lurking around tonight.

  “Y’all might as well come on out,” I said. “I know you’re there. I can smell you.”

  “Smell me? But I just took a shower this morning!” an indignant voice drifted out of the shadows.

  There was a loud sound, like someone was getting smacked upside the head. Then another voice let out a low mutter.

  “Shut up, idiot.”

  My thoughts exactly.

  But the two men knew their cover was blown, so they stepped out from behind the Dumpster at the far end of the alley. I recognized them immediately, and it was déjà vu all over again.

  It was Billy and Bobby, the giant and the Fire elemental who’d jumped me the night Finn had said I needed a vacation. Apparently they hadn’t learned anything from the previous ass-kicking I’d given them. Some people just never did, like Jonah McAllister.

  Through the grapevine and his many spies, Finn had heard that the slick lawyer was deeply, deeply disappointed that I’d made it back to Ashland in one piece. Apparently, after he’d attacked me that first night in his library, Dekes had called McAllister to brag about how easily he’d killed me. That had gotten Jonah’s hopes up—hopes that I’d dashed as soon as he’d learned Dekes was really dead instead of me. I had no doubt that McAllister was already cooking up another scheme he hoped would lead to my death, but it was the lawyer’s days that were numbered—not mine.

  The two guys stepped forward and cracked their knuckles, evil grins spreading across their faces. Nope, looked like they hadn’t learned a thing last time—or they wouldn’t be stupid enough to be standing in the alley with me right now.

  “Surrender now, Spider,” Billy the giant said. “And we might just go easy on you.”

  “Yeah,” Bobby the Fire elemental chimed in. “We won’t hurt you—much.”

  The two men chuckled at their seeming cleverness. I rolled my eyes. The only people these two were really hurting were themselves.

  “Didn’t y’all learn your lesson the first time?” I said. “You should be grateful you’re still breathing. Now, run along like good little boys before I lose my temper and kill you.”

  Bobby’s face twisted, and a murderous glint shimmered in his eyes along with his Fire magic. “Nobody talks to us like that, bitch.”

  The Fire elemental sucked in a breath and went on a long, rambling rant then, talking about how he and his buddy were going to make me wish I’d never been born. Typical talk in the shadows of Ashland. It amused the hell out of me, and I found myself leaning against the wall of the Pork Pit and just letting him talk—because that’s all these guys were.

  “What are you smiling at?” Bobby growled, finally noticing that I wasn’t the least bit scared of him, his magic, or his giant friend.

  “Nothing much,” I drawled. “I was just thinking that there’s no place like home.”

  The two men looked at each other, obviously confused. Then they charged at me, the way I knew they would. This time I didn’t bother picking up one of the dented trash can lids. Instead, I palmed the silverstone knives tucked up my sleeves and stepped up to meet them.

  Magic and blood arced through the air and splattered onto the alley floor and walls, punctuated by sharp, pain-filled screams that quickly died off to choking gurgles.

  Then . . . silence.

  I got to my feet and wiped my bloody knives off on the clothes of my latest victims. Billy and Bobby stared up at the black sky, eyes and mouths wide open in shock and fear. It was far too late for them to agree with me. It was far too late for them to do anything at all.

  Oh, I knew that it wouldn’t end with these two. More Billys and Bobbys would seek me out in the coming days, trying to cash in and build their street cred at the Spider’s expense. Not to mention McAllister and whom he might decide to send after me next.

  But I’d be right here at the Pork Pit waiting for all of them, serving up the best barbecue in Ashland and helping those who couldn’t help themselves after-hours in my own special way. With Owen, Bria, Finn, the Deveraux sisters, and all my other friends right by my side.

  Yep, the Spider was definitely back.

  Still smiling, I slid my bloody knives up my sleeves and headed inside the restaurant to ask Sophia to come and help me get rid of the blood and the bodies.

  Turn the page for a sneak peek at the next book

  in the Elemental Assassin series,

  WIDOW’S WEB

  Jennifer Estep

  Coming soon from Pocket Books

  1

  Breaking into the building was easy.

  Too easy for an assassin like me.

  Hell, I didn’t even have to break in—I could have walked right through the front door, waved at the guard stationed behind the reception desk in the lobby, and taken the elevator up to the appropriate floor. Stroll into an office building holding a vase of flowers, an oversize teddy bear, or a couple of pizza boxes smelling of grease, pepperoni, and melted mozzarella, and no one looks too closely at you. Except to wish that they were the ones who’d thought to order pizza for dinner.

  The delivery ruse was one that I’d used countless times before, and I would have done it again today—except he knew that I was coming for him. He was on his guard, and everyone coming into the building was being checked and double-checked for wea
pons and to see if they even had the right to be there in the first place.

  Besides, I preferred to be subtle about these things—to creep around in the shadows, leap out, take down my target when he least expected it, and then vanish back into the darkness once more. As the assassin the Spider, I had a reputation to uphold—that I could get to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

  Something that I planned on proving once again this evening—no matter how tight my target’s security was.

  It had taken me the better part of a week to scout out various locations where the hit might go down. Home, office, the route in between, restaurants he liked to frequent for lunch and dinner, even Northern Aggression, Ashland’s most decadent nightclub, where he spent a fair amount of time after-hours. I’d eventually decided to do the job in his office, which was housed in one of the city’s downtown skyscrapers. He probably thought he was safe there, given the amount of security, but he was going to learn exactly how wrong he was.

  It had taken another week and been a bit more difficult than I’d expected, getting my hands on the building’s blueprints and figuring out a way to get close to my target, but I’d managed. I always managed. I wouldn’t have been the Spider otherwise. Besides, I always enjoyed a challenge.

  Now I was into the third week of the operation, and it was finally time to put my plan into action, since the job had to be done before the end of the month. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but the target knew about the looming deadline and that I was gunning for him. Every day that passed meant that security got that much tighter and my job that much more difficult.

  Two hours ago, I’d strolled into a downtown parking garage wearing a black pantsuit and matching heels. I’d pulled my dark, chocolate brown hair up into a high, sleek ponytail, while black glasses with clear lenses covered my cold gray eyes. I looked like just another corporate office drone, right down to the enormous black handbag that I carried.