By a Thread

10

I filled Finn in on what had happened. He agreed to call Owen so they could get an early start, drive down to Blue Marsh, and meet Bria and me for brunch at the Sea Breeze at ten. I also asked Finn to dig up everything that he could on Randall Dekes. I wanted to know exactly whom and what I was dealing with before the vampire sent more men after us—or decided to make an appearance himself.

I hung up with Finn and took a long, hot shower, washing away the stench of bleach that clung to my hands and scrubbing the blood out from underneath my fingernails. When I was done, I changed into a pair of loose cotton pajamas and brushed out my wet hair. Bria had already gone to bed, and I added my bloody clothes to hers, which were already burning in the fireplace. I should have crawled into bed and tried to sleep, but instead, I curled up on a couch in front of one of the sliding glass doors that overlooked the endless ocean.

Restless, I picked up my cell phone and hit one of the numbers in the speed dial. He picked up on the third ring.

“Hello?” Owen Grayson’s deep voice rumbled through the receiver.

“Hi, it’s Gin,” I said, even though he knew my voice as well as I did his.

“Hey.” Warmth immediately filled his tone. “How are you? I just got done talking to Finn. He told me that you and Bria had a run-in with some local muscle earlier.”

“You might say that.”

I told Owen what had taken place tonight, starting with Pete and Trent showing up at Callie’s restaurant and threatening her and ending with Bria and me dumping the four men’s bodies into the palm-tree-shaped pool at the Blue Sands hotel.

Owen chuckled at that. “You know, you’re going to give the pool boy a heart attack in the morning when he goes out to clean the filters.”

I joined in his laughter. “I know.”

We fell silent, but it wasn’t an awkward, uncomfortable pause. It was one of the many things I loved about Owen. He didn’t rush to fill in the empty spaces but was content to just let them—and me—be when I needed him to.

“So why did you really call?” Owen finally asked in a soft voice. “I can tell that there’s something else going on besides Bria’s friend being threatened. I can hear it in your voice. Something’s bothering you.”

Owen and I had only been together for a few months, but he could read me better than almost anyone else could, even Finn sometimes. I’d told Owen everything—except for the fact that I’d also run into Donovan tonight.

I was still trying to figure out how I felt about seeing the detective again. Oh, I didn’t love him, not like I did Owen, but Donovan and I had shared something once upon a time, even if it had been only for a little while. It was hard to ignore the echoes of the old feelings and memories in my heart, even though I knew that what I felt for Owen was much, much deeper and that he was far more important to me than Donovan had ever been.

“I called because I wanted to hear your voice,” I murmured. “I needed to hear it. Being on vacation is . . . harder than I thought it would be.”

“How so?”

I rubbed the spider rune scar on first one palm, then the other, struggling to put my feelings into words. “Because I don’t seem to be very good at it. We haven’t even been gone a day, and it feels like I’m right back where I started. Like I never even left Ashland and the bad guys behind. I was looking forward to relaxing. And I tried today—I really did. I let Bria drag me around all afternoon, and I even oohed and aahed over tacky T-shirts and cheap seashell necklaces just like you’re supposed to when you’re on vacation. Can you believe that? I don’t think I’ve ever oohed and aahed in my entire life.”

Owen laughed again.

“What? It’s not funny,” I grumbled. “It’s downright embarrassing.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it.” I could hear the smile in his voice through the phone. “This too shall pass.”

“I know, I know. It’s just a long weekend, and I’ll make the best of it. But then there’s Bria,” I said, finally focusing on what was really bothering me.

“What about Bria?”

I sighed. “She loves it down here, Owen. She absolutely loves it. You should have seen her face today. Other than the visit to the cemetery, she was so happy, especially when we first walked into the Sea Breeze and she saw Callie again. I keep forgetting that this was her home for so many years, that she had friends and a job and a life down here. Part of me wonders if she regrets leaving all of that behind to move to Ashland. To find me. Because, let’s face it, things haven’t exactly been easy for either one of us these last few months.”

“Just give it some time,” Owen said. “Bria’s only been back in your life for a few months. The two of you are still getting to know each other. There’s bound to be an adjustment period as you both figure out what kind of relationship you can and want to have, especially now that Mab isn’t around to constantly be a threat to both of you.”

“Yeah, but so far, I don’t think that Bria likes what she sees very much. I wanted this vacation to be stress- and bad-guy-free so we could finally have a chance to connect with each other, but it looks like it’s going to be anything but that.”

We fell silent again. Outside, the waves continued to crash into the shore, while the moon slowly sank toward the ocean, making the frothing water glimmer with a pale, ghostly light.

“You know, if I left now, I could be down there just after sunrise,” Owen murmured in a low, sexy tone. “You, me, a deserted beach. The possibilities are endless.”

Liquid heat flooded my veins as I pictured the two of us rolling around in the sand together, the sea spraying over us as we made love, Owen’s hands moving up and down my body, even as mine did the same to his. “Mmm. Tempting. Very tempting.”

“But?”

“But you’d have a hell of a time dragging Finn out of bed tonight. He tends to whine whenever his precious sleep is interrupted. I already woke him up once. I wouldn’t want you to have to listen to him bitch for the next several hours.”

Owen laughed again. “It would be worth it for you, Gin. Besides, I’m sure I could find some duct tape somewhere here in the house. A couple of pieces of that would take care of even Finn’s whining.”

I smiled. Whether we were having a simple conversation about nothing important or discussing something as deep and convoluted as my feelings toward my sister, Owen always knew exactly what to say to make me feel better.

“I don’t know,” I drawled. “Finn’s got an awfully big mouth. I don’t think that just one roll of duct tape would do it.”

Owen laughed again.

We flirted with and teased each other for a few more minutes before the conversation wound down. We paused again, and I thought once more about telling Owen about Donovan and how the detective had suddenly reappeared in my life. But that would lead to another conversation about my gnarled, knotted feelings, and I felt like I’d already exposed enough of my doubts, insecurities, and vulnerabilities to Owen. I’d never considered myself a coward, but I just didn’t have the balls to get into my history with Donovan. Not tonight.

“I love you,” Owen finally said.

“I love you too,” I whispered back, and hung up.

I put the phone down on one of the coffee tables, but instead of going to bed like I should have, I sat there in the dark and stared out at the ocean, wondering what new troubles the sunrise would bring with it.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully, and Friday morning dawned clear, bright, and hot. By the time Bria and I left the rented beach house to drive over to the Sea Breeze, the temperature had already climbed into the lower eighties, and the stifling humidity made it seem ten degrees warmer than that. I spotted a few people moving in and around the other houses farther down the street as folks gathered up their chairs, blankets, umbrellas, coolers, and sunscreen for a day at the beach, but nobody showed any interest in us that they shouldn’t have.

As powerful and connected as Dekes was, he and his men hadn’t tracked us from the hotel last night. I hadn’t expected them to, given my alias, but it was nice to know that we were in the clear—at least for now. I had no doubt that the bodies in the hotel pool had been found by this point. I didn’t know exactly how Dekes would react to the death of his men, whether he would rage and scream or quietly, coldly plot out his payback, but I’d have my guard up, just like I always did.

Bria and I got into Finn’s busted-up convertible and headed for the Sea Breeze. I thought that the car might get a few strange looks with its cracked windshield, ripped seats, and dented hood, but Bria parked it in a far corner of the lot next to a few junked pickup trucks, and it blended right in.

Apparently Callie’s restaurant served up an even better brunch than they did supper because the lot was even fuller than it had been last night, with several cars double-parked and others lining either side of the road. All the seats at the picnic tables were already taken, so we once again headed inside to wait for a table.

“Do you think that Finn and Owen are already here?” Bria asked, standing on her tiptoes and looking over the crowd.

I opened my mouth to answer her when a large, familiar body sidled up next to me.

“Why, hello, gorgeous,” a low, sexy voice rumbled in my ear. “Can I interest you in a walk on the beach?”

Smiling, I turned around to find Owen standing behind me. Finn was there too, but I only had eyes for my lover.

Owen was on the tall side, topping out at about six foot one, with a strong, sturdy body that had hard, sleek muscles in all the right places. His hair was black, and the sunbeams streaming in through the porthole windows made the hidden blue highlights in his thick locks shimmer. The midnight color of his hair set off his pale skin and his piercing violet eyes. His nose was a little crooked, the result of having been broken long ago, and a thin white scar slashed down his chin, but I thought that the small imperfections only added to his rough, rugged appeal. He’d dressed down today in a pair of khakis and a short-sleeved black polo shirt that showed just how wide and strong his chest was, and I thought he was the most handsome man in the room. Hell, in the whole South.

I wrapped my arms around Owen’s neck and drew his mouth down for a kiss. I’d meant for it to be a quick caress of my lips on his, but Owen coaxed my mouth open, his tongue stroking against mine, his hands kneading my back, and liquid heat pooled in my stomach. It was several seconds before I pulled back, breathless, aching, and yearning for something else besides breakfast. Something that would be even more delicious and far more satisfying.

“You know, that walk on the beach is sounding better and better all the time,” Owen murmured, his eyes glinting with the same heat that thumped through my veins.

“Later,” I promised. “We’ve got work to do this morning, remember? Finn, did you bring the information that I asked you to? Finn?”

He was too busy bending Bria over backward and planting a sound, lingering kiss on her to answer. It took them even longer to come up for air than it had Owen and me, and by the time Finn set Bria back up on her feet, most of the people in the restaurant were staring at them. A few of the wives were even poking their husbands in the chests, muttering about how they never got kissed like that anymore.

Finn grinned, gave an elaborate flourish with his hand, and dipped into a low bow before straightening up and addressing the entire restaurant. “And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it is done.”

A couple of the older women broke out into enthusiastic applause, and Finn winked at them all in turn. A furious blush flooded Bria’s cheeks at the unexpected, unwanted attention, but her blue eyes were sparkling. Whatever his faults might be, Finn made my sister happy, and that was all I really cared about, even if I’d wanted to keep a lower profile this morning.

We got a booth in the back and sat down, with Finn and Owen sliding into the opposite side from Bria and me. Finn was carrying a silverstone briefcase, but he didn’t open it and put it on the table. He didn’t need to. I knew what was inside already—all the information he’d been able to dig up on Dekes in the last few hours. In addition to his prowess as an investment banker, Finn also dabbled in information trading. Well, perhaps dabbled wasn’t the right word when you had an extensive network of spies and snitches in Ashland and beyond like he did. Either way, there were few things he liked better than unearthing other people’s deepest, darkest secrets, whether it was for cold, hard cash or just his own personal amusement.

There would be plenty of time to sort through the files later. Right now, I was determined to enjoy a meal with some of the people I cared about the most. I was still on vacation, and I was determined to act like it—at least for the next hour or so.

We ordered enough food for an army, and the four us of laughed and talked and joked while we waited for everything to arrive, like we were out on a casual double date instead of getting ready to consider what to do about Dekes. Or maybe this was just our own sort of date, plotting against the bad guys while we chowed down.

Thirty minutes later, Callie came over to our booth with several platters of steaming food balanced on her forearms, with two more waitresses trailing along behind her carrying even more dishes.

Stacks of thick Belgian waffles drizzled with peach syrup, piles of fresh-cooked bacon, sizzling sausage, golden hash browns, deep-fried cinnamon rolls drizzled with sweet icing, toasted pineapple muffins slathered with whipped cream cheese, iced glasses full of mango mimosas. I breathed in, relishing the smells of the sticky waffles, flaky muffins, and hearty meats. They mixed together with all the other mouthwatering flavors in the air, creating a cloud of succulent aroma over the table.

“It all looks wonderful,” Bria said. “Thanks, Callie.”

The other woman nodded. “Sure. It’s my pleasure. I hope you guys enjoy it.”

She smiled, but the tight expression didn’t really lift her lips. Callie looked like she hadn’t slept well last night. Purple smudges had gathered in the corners of her eyes, streaking out across her skin like a football player’s greasepaint, and her whole body was tight and rigid. Even her blue work apron and the casual white T-shirt and khakis she had on underneath seemed stiff and starched with tension.

“What’s wrong?” Bria asked, picking up on her friend’s dark mood.

“Four bodies were found floating in the pool at the Blue Sands hotel this morning,” Callie said in a soft voice. “It’s the talk of the whole island.”

Yeah, I’d figured it would be, and coming into the restaurant had only confirmed my suspicion. I’d heard more than a few folks around us say words like dead bodies and murdered and pool since we’d been sitting in our booth. Not too hard to figure out what everyone was buzzing about.

“The Blue Sands happens to be the same hotel where you told me that you had booked a suite,” Callie continued. “One of the men was Pete Procter, and another was his buddy, Trent. I’m sure you remember them. They’re the two guys who came into the restaurant last night and threatened me. The same two guys that your sister . . . dealt with.”

Callie looked at me, and I met her gaze head-on. If she hadn’t figured out by now that there was more to me than met the eye, well, she hadn’t been paying attention. Callie didn’t strike me as the kind of woman who missed much. She’d already put most of it together, and all she needed now was confirmation from us. How she would react when Bria told her what had happened was what was going to be interesting.

Bria hesitated. “Come back later when you get a break, okay? There are some things that we need to talk about, including what happened to those two guys. In private.”

Callie stared at me another second before dropping her gaze and nodding at Bria. “Sure. Just as soon as I get a chance.”

She turned, threaded her way through the packed tables, and headed back into the kitchen to start on her next order, with the waitresses trailing along behind her. Nobody at our booth spoke for a moment.

“Well, that was rather awkward,” Finn said.

None of us answered him.

But Finn being Finn, he ignored the silence, smiled, and picked up one of the platters of food. “But on to more important matters. Who wants waffles?”

We spent the next hour eating. The food was just as delicious as it had been the night before. The waffles were light and fluffy, the peach syrup was sweet without being too sugary, and the mango mimosas packed just enough of a champagne punch to make you think about lazing away the rest of the day in a chair out on the beach.

Finally, though, the food was finished, the platters were cleared away, and it was just the four of us at the table once more, which meant that vacation time was over—for now.

“All right,” I said. “Lay it out for us, Finn.”

“Why, I thought you’d never ask,” he drawled.

Finn put his silverstone briefcase on the table, popped it open, and pulled out a thick manila folder. He flipped it open, turned it around, and scooted the file over to me and Bria.

“Randall Michael Dekes,” Finn said. “Vampire, real estate mogul, and all-around bloodsucking bad guy. Exact age and magical abilities unknown, but he’s rumored to be more than three hundred and exceptionally powerful, with lots of elemental magic to spare.”

Finn had included a color head-and-shoulders portrait of Dekes that looked like it was taken off some corporate website. I picked it up so I could study it a little closer. Randall Dekes had sable brown hair, a thick, bristling mustache, and pale green eyes. His dazzling white teeth made his skin seem even tanner than it was, and he wore a fancy gray suit that even Finn would be envious of. A diamond shaped like a miniature palm tree winked in the middle of the solid gray tie that trailed down his chest. Overall, he reminded me of an old-fashioned movie star, a Clark Gable type playing the part of a tropical island lord—dark, strong, sleek, and handsome.

And dangerous. Dekes was smiling in the photo, but the expression didn’t reach his eyes. Instead, he stared at the camera in a way that was mocking, smirking, and predatory all at the same time, like he knew some great secret that no one else did. His lips were curled back far enough to show the glittering edges of his pearl-white fangs, like he was considering sinking them into whoever was holding the camera and wondering whether the resulting bloodstains would be worth running his expensive suit for. Oh yes, definitely dangerous—and arrogant too.

“Over his three hundred and some years, Dekes has built up a vast real estate empire concentrated primarily on coastal properties in the Carolinas, Georgia, and down into Florida, with a few recent purchases in the Bahamas as well,” Finn continued. “On the surface, he’s a well-respected, legitimate businessman who’s responsible for some of the most successful developments on the East Coast. Casinos, hotels, restaurants, golf courses, luxury spas, shopping centers. If it’s on the waterfront and it’s a smashing success, then Dekes probably had a hand in creating it.”

Bria looked up from the pages she’d been reading. “And below the surface?”

Finn shrugged. “He does whatever it takes to buy up the land that he wants to develop, usually for a fraction of its value. Threats, intimidations, bribes. In the last year, Dekes and the men he employs have been linked to half a dozen beatings and even more arson investigations related to property owners who didn’t want to sell out to him. Interestingly enough, the beating victims survived. The arson ones didn’t. Like I said, I don’t know what kind of magic Dekes does or doesn’t have, but he enjoys playing with fire, whether it’s elemental power or the old-fashioned kind that you get with matches and gasoline.”

I put the portrait of Dekes down on the table and sorted through several other pictures that Finn had included in the folder. Instead of being more images of the vampire, these photos showed the burned-out, smoldering remains of various homes, businesses, and other assorted properties. Blackened bodies could be seen in all the photos, gnarled, twisted, and burned, the victims’ mouths open in silent screams.

The photos reminded me of how Mab had used her elemental Fire magic to reduce my mother and sister to nothing more than ashy husks. For a moment, I was back there in our burning mansion that night, my own screams ringing in my ears, the harsh, acrid smell of seared flesh filling my nose, the sickening stench overpowering everything else—

A waitress dropped a fork on the floor in front of our booth, and the harsh, reverberating clang-clang-clang snapped me out of my memories. I sighed. Mab might be dead, but I wondered if I’d ever be able to truly overcome what she’d done to my family. But this wasn’t about me—it was about helping Callie—so I pushed away my troubling thoughts and kept studying the photos.

It didn’t take me long to realize that Dekes didn’t just limit his cruelty to the property owners who wouldn’t sell out to him. Many of the bodies in the photos were too small to be adults, and a few were obviously the remains of animals, their silverstone collars still glinting around their charred necks. Men, women, kids, pets. Dekes and his men had killed them all indiscriminately. In a way, that made the vamp worse than me. I might have murdered people for money, but I’d never killed a kid, cat, dog, or some other poor, pitiful, defenseless creature who couldn’t fight back. Those were the rules Fletcher had instilled in me, the code that I still followed to this day. Dekes didn’t appear to have even that much decency—or mercy.

I wondered if the vampire sank his fangs into his victims and drained them dry before he murdered them, or if he’d simply locked them in their own houses and businesses alive before he burned the buildings down around them. Either one would be a horrible, horrible way to die.

“So he’s got a pattern,” Owen murmured. “He starts out with threats, then moves on to beatings. If that doesn’t convince you to sell your property to him, then Dekes and his men torch your home or place of business—with you locked inside it. Then he buys up the property for a song after the fact, if he just didn’t get you to sign it over to him before he killed you anyway.”

Finn made a shooting motion at Owen with his finger and thumb. “Bingo.”

“And now he wants Callie’s restaurant,” I said. “What did you find out about the casino that Dekes is planning on building on the island?”

“It’s going to be a big, big deal,” Finn said. “Every kind of game that you could want to play, along with Vegas-style shows, dancing, liquor, five-star restaurants, high-end shops, even a set of stables so they can have live horse races and polo matches on the grounds. You’ve got to hand it to the guy—he definitely thinks on a grand scale.”

“But can’t he just build the casino somewhere else on the island,” Bria asked, “since he owns so much other land here already?”

Finn shook his head. “Nope, like you said, Blue Marsh is an island, which means that it has a finite amount of space. Sure, Dekes owns most of that space, but there are a few other movers and shakers on the island that even he couldn’t piss off without some serious reprisals. He just doesn’t have enough parcels of land strung together to build the kind of casino that he wants. At least, not without the land that the Sea Breeze sits on. And we all know that it would be far easier for him to go after Callie than the island’s other power players.”

I stared out at the framed seashells on the walls, the old, tattered fishing nets strung between them, the brass railing and the sunken boat that make up the bar. Despite my jealousy of Callie’s easy friendship with Bria, I was big enough to admit that her restaurant was something special, something worth saving. More than that, it was Callie’s home just like the Pork Pit was mine.

I might be on vacation, might have wanted to leave all the blood, bodies, and violence back in Ashland for the weekend, but I wasn’t going to stand by and let some vampire thug take Callie’s restaurant away from her, not when I could do something to help her. Not when I knew just how much she and this place meant to Bria.

Besides, Randall Dekes had either ordered or approved of his men raping and murdering Bria and me last night. The bastard was going to pay for that alone—even if I was supposed to be on vacation.

“Dekes is a cocky bastard too,” Finn added. “Apparently, he’s having a press conference late this afternoon out on the south lawn of his estate to formally announce the construction of the casino—even though he doesn’t have the last piece of land that he needs to start breaking ground. Here’s another interesting tidbit: the press conference was supposed to take place on the patio around the pool at the Blue Sands hotel, but the location was changed due to some unforeseen circumstances.”

I snorted. “You mean the four bodies I left floating in the water there.”

Finn just grinned at me.

“He’s holding a press conference? Really?” I asked. “Is that all that bad guys know how to do? Hold press conferences and parties?”

“Why do you say that?” Bria asked.

“Do you know how many people that I’ve killed before, during, and after press conferences? It’s laughable, really. You basically stand up in front of everyone and brag about how rich and powerful you are. It’s like an open invitation to an assassin like me. Come on down, take a free shot at me, and have a drink while you’re at it. I don’t imagine Dekes’s event will be any different. The only question is how easy it will be to get in. Right, Finn?”

He shot me a grumpy look. “Despite what you think, I’m not a magician, you know. I can’t just conjure up invitations out of thin air, especially since we’re not in Ashland anymore.”

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Okay, okay,” Finn grumbled. “So I might have started working on getting us invites as soon as I found out about the press conference. I don’t think it will be too hard, since Dekes has basically invited everyone who’s anyone on the island. I actually do business with some folks who are friendly with Dekes, so the four of us can get in that way. Friends of a friend and whatnot.”

“No,” I said. “The three of you can get in that way. I’m thinking about taking another approach. Just in case things get a little messy with Dekes.”

“And what would that be?” Owen asked.

I smiled at him. “The great thing about throwing a press conference to announce your new multimillion-dollar casino is that you have to actually invite the press. The bad guys have to have someone to crow to about their accomplishments. So I’ll go in as a reporter. That should be an easy, plausible way to get a few minutes alone with Dekes. You can create some quick credentials for me, can’t you, Finn?”

“Sure,” Finn grumbled again. “I might as well wave my magic wand and do that too while I’m at it.”

“Oh, quit bitching,” I said. “You know you love little challenges like this. Schmoozing invitations and creating fake documents gets your blood pumping and makes you feel all clever and larcenous.”

He shot me a sour look.

“Anyway, I think it’s a good plan,” I said.

Owen reached over and took my hand in his. “But what about—”

He stopped in midsentence. He blinked for a few seconds before his violet eyes narrowed, his mouth flattened out into a hard, thin line, and his hand tightened on mine. I turned to see what he was glaring at—and spotted Donovan Caine standing in the door of the restaurant.