The Spider

29

After Fletcher and I had said our piece to each other, I went into the kitchen and got the others.

Finn helped Fletcher to his feet, and then the two of them headed upstairs so Fletcher could take a shower and get cleaned up before crashing in one of Jo-Jo’s guest beds. I waited until I heard the water start running in one of the upstairs bathrooms, then settled myself in the chair that Fletcher had vacated.

“Think you have enough magic left to use on me?” I asked in a low voice.

Jo-Jo smiled. “Of course, darling. You know that you never have to ask me that. I’m always happy to take care of you.”

But I felt like I did have to ask, especially tonight, when all of this was my fault.

Jo-Jo sat back down in her own chair, raised her hand, and reached for her magic.

Pins and needles swept over my entire body, stabbing into my skin and then the muscles and blood vessels underneath, as Jo-Jo grabbed hold of all the oxygen in the air, circulated all those tiny molecules through my body, and used them to put everything back where it was supposed to be. I dug my fingers into the padded arms of the chair to hold myself as still as possible, although I couldn’t help but squirm in my seat every once in a while, like a kid trying to wiggle away to keep from having her dirty face wiped clean.

Finally, Jo-Jo released her hold on her magic. The milky-white glow vanished from her eyes, and she lowered her hand to her side. The last of the pinpricks disappeared. I let out a tired sigh. I hadn’t been shot, not like Fletcher had, but the long night had still worn me out. Jo-Jo patted my shoulder and moved around the salon, washing her hands again and straightening up.

I left her to her work and headed up the stairs to take a shower and get cleaned up. I was walking down the upstairs hallway toward one of the bathrooms when Finn stepped out of a guest bedroom and closed the door behind him.

“Fletcher asleep already?” I asked.

Finn nodded. I wasn’t surprised. Most folks slept for several hours straight after being healed by an Air elemental. That’s how long it took your mind to catch up with your body and realize that you were not, in fact, dying anymore. I’d probably do the exact same thing once I got settled for the night. The only thing that was keeping me from collapsing right now was the desire not to dirty up one of Jo-Jo’s guest beds with all the filth that covered me.

Finn leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest and putting one ankle on top of the other. “So,” he said, “when are you going after Sebastian? Not tonight, I hope.”

The idea had crossed my mind, and if I thought there was any chance that I could have killed him, I would have already been in Finn’s car and headed over to the mansion. But that would have been reckless and impatient. So I would let Sebastian savor his victory—for now.

I shook my head. “No. I’m exhausted. I’m in no shape to go after him tonight. Besides, I want to be careful and cautious about things this time, like I should have been all along.”

Finn nodded. “Good. But what do you think Sebastian will think when his men don’t come home tonight?”

I shrugged. “He’ll probably assume that you and Fletcher killed them, not that I’m still alive.”

“Either way, he’ll be waiting for someone to retaliate.”

“I know.”

Finn looked at me. “Just promise me one thing: that you and Dad will sit down and plan how to take him out, okay? Me too, if you like. Promise me that you won’t go after Sebastian by yourself.”

“Of course,” I said, lying through my teeth.

Finn had been targeted, and Fletcher had been beaten and shot, all because of me. I wasn’t risking them again, not even to help me get Sebastian. Besides, I was the one he’d made such a fool of, I was the one he’d played, I was the one who’d believed his sweet lies. I had to take care of that—of him—myself, or I’d never be as strong as I wanted to be. I’d never be what Fletcher intended me to be.

I’d never truly be the Spider.

Finn’s eyes narrowed in suspicion at my easy agreement, but I kept my face blank. Finally, he nodded, satisfied by my false promise.

“All right,” he said. “Since Dad’s asleep, I’m going to head back to my apartment. I need to do some serious damage control with Roslyn.”

“Tell her that Gin says hi,” I said, teasing him a little bit.

He winced. “If she’s even still there.”

I thought of the way Roslyn hadn’t batted an eye when I’d shown up covered in blood. Most folks would have freaked out but not her. She’d been completely, utterly cool. Still, I’d seen the sharp interest in her gaze as she’d wondered what Finn and I were really up to.

“She probably is. If nothing else, because she’s curious.”

He nodded, then flashed me a grin. “Even if she’s not, I can always call her and try to smooth things over. I got her to give me her number even before we left the party.”

I had to laugh at his utter confidence in his smarmy seduction skills. “Well, if anyone can make a woman forget all about a lot of blood and some big, fat, whopping lies, it’s Finnegan Lane, baby.”

His chest puffed up with pride. “Damn straight.”

But his merriment quickly fled, and his handsome face turned serious again. “I haven’t said this yet, but I’m glad you’re okay, Gin. I know that we haven’t exactly been the best of friends lately, but I don’t know what Dad and I would do without you.”

I leaned over and lightly punched him in the shoulder. “You’re just saying that because you want to get your greedy, grubby hands on more of our money. Without me hanging around, you’d be out of a middleman job and all the sweet, sweet cash that comes along with it.”

“True,” Finn agreed in a happy voice. “But I’d miss you more than the money, Gin. I hope you know that, that you really know that, deep down, where it matters.”

Hot tears stung my eyes, and my throat closed up with emotion. All I could do was nod. Finn slung his arm around my shoulders and hugged me to his chest. We stood like that for one precious moment. Then we both drew back, not quite looking at each other.

“Duty calls,” he quipped. “And so does Roslyn.”

“Go get her, tiger.”

Finn gave me a saucy wink before striding down the hallway and out of sight. I watched him go, so proud of him, so grateful for him.

My brother—and my friend now too.

I shuffled into one of the guest bathrooms, stripped off my ruined dress, and took a long, hot shower to wash away all the blood, grime, and gore of the night.

Too bad I couldn’t slough off Sebastian’s betrayal as easily as I scrubbed the blood off my hands.

I got out of the shower, dried off, and slipped into an old T-shirt and a pair of pajama shorts that were among the stash of clothes I kept at Jo-Jo’s. Then I got comfortable in one of the spare beds. Despite the long, hard night, my mind kept racing as I lay in the dark and went back over every single moment I’d ever spent with Sebastian. Every word he’d said to me, every smile he’d given me, every lie he’d told me.

I didn’t think I’d get much sleep, but I must have been more exhausted than I’d realized, because I quickly fell into the land of dreams, of memories . . .

Even in sleep, though, my mind kept going, churning from one horrible moment of my life to the next. My mother and Annabella disappearing into balls of elemental Fire. The stones of our mansion crashing down all around me. Climbing through the piles of rubble that remained behind, searching for Bria. Finally realizing that she was dead because of me and my magic. My confused, aimless wanderings through the woods that surrounded our house. The moment when I finally stumbled onto a road—a road that would eventually lead me to the Pork Pit and Fletcher, even if I didn’t know it yet . . .

My eyes snapped open. For a moment, I couldn’t quite remember where I was, but the soft summer sunlight slanting in through the window illuminated the cloud-covered fresco on the ceiling. The splashes of blue and white soothed me, and I realized that I was safe at Jo-Jo’s.

I let out a breath and put my hands over my face, as though I could dig my fingers into my skull and pull out all of the memories that haunted me. This was the second time in the last few weeks that I’d flashed back to my past in my dreams. I hoped I wouldn’t make a habit out of reliving my life every time I went to sleep. That would be rather tragic—and tiring.

Still, I thought back over my dreams, my memories, trying to find the reason for them, if there was such a thing. I’d thought that nothing could ever be more horrible than witnessing the murder of my family, but in some ways, the pain Sebastian had inflicted on me had been even worse.

I’d been a kid back then, ambushed and tortured in the middle of the night by a stranger who was older and stronger. There was no way I could have known what was coming.

But Sebastian had wormed his way past all of my defenses, which I’d thought were so strong, clever, and impenetrable. But he’d fooled me as easily as he had everyone else. I’d been lucky to escape the mausoleum with my life, and luckier still to have made it to Finn and Fletcher in time to save them both.

Or was it luck? The only kind of luck that Fletcher had taught me to believe in was bad luck. He said that we made everything else ourselves. I didn’t know about that, though. But I’d survived all the other horrible things that had happened to me, and somehow I had survived Sebastian Vaughn too, despite his best efforts to kill me.

But I wasn’t the only one who’d suffered at his hands. Cesar was dead because of his scheming. And Charlotte would continue to suffer, continue to be abused by her brother, unless I did something about it.

She probably wished that she hadn’t, now that she knew what I’d done to her father, but Charlotte had saved my life last night. If she hadn’t woken me up when she did, Sebastian would have gotten Porter to tie me down to the bed, and the two men would both probably still be torturing me right now. And Finn and Fletcher might be dead too.

I owed Charlotte for that, more than she would ever realize. But I also owed her for being so very wrong about her father, for taking away what was left of her family, just as the Fire elemental had taken my mother and sisters from me all those years ago. That was one of the things I hated the most about this whole situation, how I’d become just like that mysterious killer thanks to Sebastian’s machinations and my own impetuousness.

But I couldn’t change what I’d done. I couldn’t bring Cesar Vaughn back to life. But I could sure as hell make certain that Sebastian died for his sins.

Oh, I knew that killing Sebastian wouldn’t make up for taking Charlotte’s father away from her. It wouldn’t make up for anything I’d done, not one damn thing. Nothing would.

But I still had to try, all the same.

So I threw back the covers and got out of bed.