Sharpest Sting

by Jennifer Estep

  “And what about Bria and me?” I asked. “Did you know that we survived Mab? That Fletcher had saved us?”

  After the attack, the old man had found Bria wandering around the woods near our home and made arrangements for her to be adopted by a loving family. Then, later on, I had stumbled into the alley behind the Pork Pit, and he had taken me in.

  Mason glanced at Bria, then focused on me again. “No. I thought you were both dead. Fletcher hid the two of you very well. It was only after Detective Bria Coolidge returned to Ashland that I realized the Spider and Genevieve Snow were one and the same.”

  Bria let out a soft, strangled cry and shot me a guilty look, but I shook my head. None of this was her fault.

  “Of course, I tried to break my stalemate with Fletcher many times over the years, but he always managed to escape my traps,” Mason said. “Eventually, he became less of a concern, and I moved on to more important matters.”

  He shrugged again, as though it was ancient history, but it wasn’t. Not to him—and certainly not to me.

  More and more anger pounded through my body, but I ignored the sensation and thought about this coldly, critically, the way Fletcher would have, the way he had taught me to think as the Spider. The old man had been dead for more than a year. If Mason had been truly desperate to get his hands on the missing ledger, he would have come for it as soon as he got word Fletcher was gone. Instead, he’d let months go by without revealing himself.

  So what had changed in Mason’s world? What had made him want—need—the ledger now?

  Something else was going on, something Mason didn’t want me to know about. But I was going to find out what my dear uncle was hiding, and then I was going to put the bastard in this cemetery, right alongside the other Circle members.

  Emery cleared her throat, drawing Mason’s attention, and tapped her finger on her silver watch. He nodded at her, then looked at me again.

  “I have another appointment, but it’s been so nice to finally meet you all in person and reminisce about our dead loved ones,” Mason said.

  I didn’t respond, and neither did Bria or Lorelei. Nothing had been nice about this, especially not the ugly truths Mason had revealed about Fletcher and my parents.

  “But back to the business at hand.” Mason pushed away from the column, straightened up to his full height, and peered down his nose at me. “You will find the ledger Fletcher stole.”

  I shook my head. “I know you won’t believe me, but I’ll tell you again anyway. Fletcher never told me anything about you or the Circle, and he never mentioned any ledger. I have no idea where he might have hidden it.”

  “Then figure it out,” he snapped. “You will find the ledger and deliver it to me by midnight Saturday.”

  “Or else?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

  Mason stepped forward, leaned down, and stared me in the eyes, his gray gaze colder than the bitterest blizzard. He reached for his magic, and his Stone power rippled off him, making my father’s tomb and the rest of the pavilion quake, as well as the surrounding tombstones. He didn’t shatter any of the markers, though. He didn’t have to. He’d already shown me exactly what he was capable of.

  “Or else I will kill every single person you love, Gin. Starting with Bria.”

  His threat delivered, Mason released his grip on his magic, moved past me, and strode away. All I could do was stand in the middle of the cemetery and watch him go, his poison promise ringing in my ears.

  Chapter Nine

  Mason vanished into the woods, heading back toward the mansion, but Emery, Tucker, and the giants remained behind.

  Emery looked at Tucker. “Take care of them. I need to go with Mason.”

  She didn’t wait for a response before she spun around and hurried after my uncle. Two giants went with her, but the other four stayed with Tucker, their guns still trained on Bria, Lorelei, and me.

  Tucker stared at Mason’s twisted shrine to the brother he had murdered. The corners of the vampire’s lips curled with disgust. “Come on,” he said, his voice surprisingly gentle. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Tucker and the four giants shepherded us out of the cemetery, through the woods, and back to the mansion. Tucker skirted around the house and led us to the front driveway, where the black SUV was still sitting. He gestured for us to get inside. Three of the giants climbed in after us, their guns still out, while the fourth man got behind the wheel. Tucker slid into the front passenger seat.

  No one said a word as the driver cranked the engine, coasted down the driveway, steered through the open gate, and pulled out onto the main road. Fifteen minutes later, the SUV stopped in the parking lot in front of the Posh boutique.

  I glanced over at the storefront. People were moving around inside, although I couldn’t tell if any of my friends were there.

  Tucker turned around in the passenger seat. He glanced at Lorelei and Bria before focusing on me. “Maybe now you’ll finally take my warnings to heart,” he said. “Do what Mason says. Find the ledger, Gin. Or Bria and everyone else you love will suffer the consequences.”

  I was too tired and heartsick to muster up a snappy comeback or pithy threat, so I ignored him and climbed out of the SUV. I was still clutching the file Mason had given me, and the manila folder felt heavier than ever, as though it contained an anchor instead of a few photos.

  Bria and Lorelei also climbed out of the vehicle. One of the giants yanked the door shut, and the driver hit the gas. The SUV peeled away from the curb and headed toward the parking lot exit. A few seconds later, the driver steered out onto the main road, and the vehicle zoomed away.

  “Gin! Bria! Lorelei!”

  Several muffled voices sounded, the boutique door flew open, and a giant rushed outside. He was around seven feet tall, with a strong, muscled body, and was wearing a black leather jacket, jeans, and boots. His head was shaved, and the afternoon sunlight glinted off his ebony skin, as well as the black aviator sunglasses hooked into the top of his dark green sweater.

  Xavier, Bria’s partner on the force, skidded to a stop in front of us. His dark gaze snapped from Bria to Lorelei to me and back again, and he visibly relaxed when he realized we were okay.

  The boutique door flew open again, and Roslyn hurried outside, followed by Mallory, who was moving just a bit slower, given her age. Roslyn rushed forward and hugged Bria, while Mallory did the same to Lorelei.

  “Pumpkin!” Mallory cried out in a choked voice. “I thought I’d lost you!”

  Lorelei rubbed her grandmother’s back. “Never.” She hugged Mallory again, although she stared at me, worry filling her face.

  Roslyn let go of Bria. My friend started to hug me but stopped short when she caught sight of my face. “Gin! Are you okay?”

  I reached up and gingerly probed my cheek. With everything that had happened, I’d almost forgotten that Emery had plowed her fist into my face. The bruise pulsed and throbbed like a rotten tooth underneath my cold fingers, but it was a small sting compared to the crushed, serrated shards of my heart still scraping together.

  “I’m fine. It looks worse than it is.”

  “I don’t think that’s possible, since it looks like an eggplant exploded all over your face,” Xavier rumbled. “What happened? Roslyn called me and said that you guys had been kidnapped. But your kidnappers brought you back?”

  “I—”

  My phone rang, cutting me off. I pulled the device out of the back pocket of my jeans. To my surprise, it had survived all my hard falls intact, and the screen said Silvio was calling. Of course he was. My assistant had probably been trying my phone every minute on the minute since I’d been gone. Now that I was away from the signal jammers at the mansion, he could finally get through.

  I answered the call. “Hey. It’s me. I’m fine.”

  “Gin!” Silvio’s voice filled my ear. “Where are you?”

  “At the Posh boutique. Hugh Tucker just dropped off me, Bria, and Lorelei. We’re all ok
ay. Where are you?”

  “I’m with Finn. The two of us left the Pork Pit as soon as Xavier called and told us what was going on. We’ve been driving around ever since, searching for you. So has Owen.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Willa the seamstress and the Posh salesclerks lurking by the storefront windows. They were clearly wondering what was going on, as were the shoppers from the surrounding stores, many of whom were gathered around the ruined car that the giants’ SUV had smashed into when they’d been trying to run me down. A uniformed cop was also standing by the car, taking photos of the damage.

  Time to go. The Circle had spies everywhere, and I wouldn’t put it past Mason to have planted some people at the shopping center to see how my friends and I reacted to his ultimatum. The thought of him hurting—killing—Bria and the rest of my loved ones made me want to scream with rage, but I forced myself to push down my anger, fear, and dread.

  “Gin?” Silvio asked. “Are you still there? What do you want me to do?”

  “Call Jo-Jo and ask her to shut down the salon for the rest of the day. Tell Owen to meet us there. Stuart Mosley too. We all need to get someplace safe where we can regroup. Also, call Sophia and Catalina and tell them to close down the Pork Pit early. I’ll text Liam Carter and fill him in.”

  “Catalina has a study date this evening with Eva Grayson and Violet Fox at Country Daze,” Silvio replied. “I’ll ask Sophia to drive them up there.”

  The Country Daze store belonged to Warren T. Fox, Violet’s grandfather. Warren was an ornery old coot who had been Fletcher’s best friend growing up. He would protect Violet with his life, and Eva and Catalina too.

  “Good idea,” I replied. “Tell Warren what’s going on, and ask him to let the girls spend the night there. He’ll keep them safe.”

  “Gin?” Silvio asked. “Are you okay? You sound…strange.”

  Strange? I supposed that was his polite way of saying shattered, but I didn’t correct him. “See you soon.”

  I hung up and focused on my friends. Xavier had his arm around Roslyn’s shoulders, while Mallory was clutching Lorelei’s hand like she never wanted to let it go. And Bria, well, Bria looked as tired, defeated, and heartsick as I still felt.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I said.

  * * *

  Bria and I got into her sedan, which had survived the kidnapping unscathed, and she cranked the engine and steered out of the parking lot. Xavier, Roslyn, and Lorelei and Mallory followed us in their own vehicles. I texted Liam Carter and asked him to meet us at the salon.

  Bria and I didn’t talk on the ride. Neither one of us knew what to say.

  What could you say when confronted with an evil like Mason Mitchell? When you shared the same blood? When your own uncle had tortured and murdered his twin brother, your father? I had tangled with a lot of bad, bad people over the years, everyone from Harley and Hazel Grimes to Beauregard Benson to Raymond Pike, but Uncle Mason put them all to shame.

  Mason’s lack of remorse was absolutely chilling, but what truly worried me was his Stone magic. I was a strong elemental, something I’d proven to myself and my enemies time and time again, but Mason had far more raw magic than I did. He could use his Stone magic to utterly crush me the same way he had crushed my father, and I wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing to stop him.

  Just like I wouldn’t be able to stop him from hurting everyone I loved.

  That stark truth sliced through me as cleanly as one of my silverstone knives, cutting away my self-confidence and carving up every frantic, half-assed plan that sprang to my mind about how to kill Mason. Try as I might, I just couldn’t think of a way to do it. I was an assassin, I was the Spider, and I couldn’t think of a way to kill my murderous uncle when it mattered most.

  I had never felt like more of a failure.

  I was still dreaming up and discarding plans when Bria steered her sedan into a subdivision, climbed up a hill, and stopped in a driveway in front of a white plantation house. Xavier, Roslyn, and Lorelei parked their own vehicles nearby.

  Silvio had spread the word, and several other cars were already clustered in the driveway. Silvio, Finn, Owen, and Liam Carter were waiting on the front porch, along with a dwarf who was around five feet tall with wavy silver hair, hazel eyes, and a hooked nose. Stuart Mosley, Finn’s boss at First Trust bank, and Mallory’s fiancé.

  Bria and I got out of her sedan. Finn rushed over to her, while Owen did the same to me. Mosley hurried over to Mallory and Lorelei, but Silvio and Liam hung back on the porch.

  Owen wrapped me up in a fierce, tight hug, and I buried my face in his neck, drinking in his rich, metallic scent and trying to pretend the last two hours had never happened. That I hadn’t finally learned the horrible truth I had been so desperately seeking.

  Owen must have sensed how much I needed him right now because he pulled me closer, stroked his hand down my back over and over again, and whispered in my ear, telling me how much he loved me, how everything was going to be okay, and how we were going to get through this together.

  I held on to Owen, hiding in his warm, strong embrace, until I felt steady enough to let go. I pulled back, and Owen cupped my face in his hands, careful not to touch my bruised cheek.

  His violet gaze searched my gray one. “Are you okay?”

  The love and concern in his tone almost broke me again, but I swallowed the hard knot of emotion in my throat. “I’m okay. Come on. We have a lot to talk about.”

  Owen nodded and hugged me again. Then we trooped inside with everyone else.

  We went to the back of the house, which opened up into an old-fashioned beauty salon filled with cherry-red chairs. Style, fashion, and gossip magazines were stacked on tables throughout the room, while scissors, combs, curlers, hair dryers, and other tools covered the long counter that ran along one wall. The air smelled of perms, hair dyes, and other chemicals, along with a sweet, soft note of vanilla.

  The salon was empty except for a middle-aged dwarf who was adding water to a metal dog bowl and a black-and-brown basset hound standing next to her. The dwarf’s white-blond hair was perfectly curled and styled, and her subtle makeup highlighted her pale skin and clear, almost colorless eyes. She was wearing a string of white pearls over a white dress patterned with tiny pink roses, although her feet were bare, despite the February cold outside.

  Jolene “Jo-Jo” Deveraux added the last of the water to the bowl, then patted the dog’s side. “There you go, Rosco,” she crooned to her beloved hound.

  Rosco licked her hand and slurped down some water before curling up in his wicker basket in the corner.

  Jo-Jo straightened and caught sight of me lurking in the doorway. Her eyes widened. “Darling! Your face!”

  She stepped toward me, but I waved her off. “You can fix it later. Right now, we need to talk.”

  We all crammed into the salon. Me, Owen, Bria, Finn, Silvio, Roslyn, Xavier, Lorelei, Mallory, Mosley, Jo-Jo, Liam. It was a tight fit, but we managed it.

  Jo-Jo washed her hands, then fluttered around, offering her unexpected guests everything from water and chicory coffee to sandwiches and cookies, but no one took her up on it.

  I ended up standing in the corner, next to Rosco. The basset hound whined, clearly upset by the tension in the air, and curled up into an even tighter ball in his basket. I crouched down and rubbed his long, floppy ears. Rosco whined again, but he licked my hand, as if he knew how much I was hurting and was trying to comfort me.

  I patted him again, then got to my feet and stared out over the salon. The longer I looked at the familiar furnishings, the more I thought about Fletcher. The old man had brought me here countless times so that Jo-Jo could use her Air elemental magic to heal whatever injuries I’d received on my latest job as the Spider.

  Fletcher, who had worked for the Circle, who had once been Mason’s right-hand man.

  The shock had finally worn off, although equal parts anger and disgust had taken its place, but I once agai
n forced down my emotions. I couldn’t give in to my feelings. Not now, when everyone was depending on me to tell them what to do and how we could protect ourselves from this deadly new threat.

  I drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. Then I stepped forward and faced my friends. “Here’s what happened.”

  I calmly, quietly, ruthlessly told them everything that had transpired. Emery Slater and her giants kidnapping Bria, Lorelei, and me and taking us to the historical association mansion. Meeting Mason and hearing his horrible revelations about Fletcher and my parents. Trekking out to the Circle family cemetery and seeing my uncle’s twisted shrine. I also told my friends about the black ledger Mason wanted me to find—and what would happen to us all if I failed.

  Silence dropped over the salon, and no one moved or spoke. Finally, Finn shook his head.

  “No,” he said in a low, raspy voice. “It has to be a lie. Dad would never work for someone like Mason. Never.”

  My fingers tightened around the manila folder still in my hand. I hadn’t put it down for a second, not even while I’d been petting Rosco. Part of me wanted to rip it to pieces, but I couldn’t keep this from Finn, no matter how much it would hurt him. So I shuffled across the salon and handed the file to my brother, who was sitting on a couch with Bria.

  Finn took the folder, set it down on his lap, and opened it. As soon as he saw the first photo of Fletcher and Mason in the Pork Pit, he knew it was true, just as I had. In an instant, all the fight leaked out of him, and his whole body sagged.

  Finn flipped through the pictures and studied the handwritten note. After several seconds of silent contemplation, he snapped the folder shut and tossed it down onto the table in front of him, as if he couldn’t bear to look at the contents any longer.

  Mason’s folder hit the one on my father’s death that Bria had laid on the table, and pictures slid out of both files—Fletcher and Mason smiling inside the Pork Pit and Tristan’s broken body stretched out on an autopsy table. The two images couldn’t be any more different, and it was still hard for me to believe they were connected.