By a Thread

26

“You know,” I murmured a few days later. “I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of this vacation thing.”

“Really?” Owen said, pressing a soft kiss to the hollow of my throat. “It certainly took you long enough.”

It was early Wednesday morning. Owen and I had left the others sleeping in the beach house and had slipped out to the cove so we could have a little privacy. The sun had just come up over the eastern horizon, and we were lying on a couple of blankets, protected once again by the striped umbrella over us.

And once again, we were completely, blissfully naked.

We’d already made love and were basking in the warm, soft afterglow, watching the rest of the world wake up around us. The seagulls were once again flying their usual circles above, while the heat of the day had already started to shimmer up in waves from the golden sand. The ocean rolled in and out of the shore on its endless journey, the sparkling water looking just as bright and blue as the cloudless sky above.

“I can’t believe we’re going home this afternoon,” I said, snuggling a little closer to Owen.

“Don’t tell me these past few days have turned you into a beach bum,” he teased.

“No, but it has been nice to just relax. As much as I hate to admit it, Finn was right. I needed a vacation.”

And I’d finally gotten one these past few days. We’d all decided to play hooky from work and stay in Blue Marsh a little while longer to help sort out the consequences of Dekes’s oh-so-timely demise. Really, though, Donovan had done most of the heavy lifting, dealing with the police and their questions and keeping the rest of us out of things. I didn’t know exactly why the detective was being so helpful, but I wasn’t going to question his motives too closely, since his handling of the investigation had left the rest of us free to while away the hours as we pleased.

Jo-Jo had spent her days by the beach at the Blue Sands hotel, sipping tropical drinks and flirting with the cute cabana boys and lifeguards. More often than not, Sophia joined her older sister, although the Goth dwarf was more interested in swimming and relaxing than flirting. Finn also frequented the hotel to get his long-awaited massages and other lavish pampering, along with Bria.

My sister had also spent quite a bit of time with Callie, helping the other woman come to terms with everything that had happened. Callie had been more than a little shaken up after being kidnapped and smacked around by Dekes, and Bria was helping her friend deal with things as best she could. I thought that hanging out with Callie was good for Bria too, and that it might get her to face her own lingering demons about being tortured by Mab. I hoped so anyway.

As for me and Owen, we’d taken more than one long, clichéd walk on the beach to the cove. In between walks, we’d gone out and explored Blue Marsh, from the downtown shops and restaurants to the island’s nature preserves and parks. We didn’t talk much, but just being with Owen soothed me and made my own nightmares about Dekes and his attack on me a little easier to bear. I would never forget what the vampire had done to me, how he’d stolen my blood and my magic and had almost killed me, but that was all right. I’d add the hard lessons that the vamp had taught me to all the other painful ones I’d learned over the years.

“So what are you going to say to Donovan when you see him this afternoon?” Owen asked, cutting into my thoughts.

Callie was throwing a good-bye luncheon for us at the Sea Breeze before we headed back to Ashland. I knew as well as Owen did that Donovan would be there. I hadn’t seen the detective much these past few days, but I’d told Owen how Donovan had reached out to me when he’d seen me outside Dekes’s burning mansion. Needless to say, Owen hadn’t liked that one little bit.

“I don’t think there’s anything to say,” I replied. “Donovan made his choice back in Ashland, and I made mine the other night. Actually, I made it a long time ago, even if I didn’t know it yet.”

“Really? What choice would that be?” Owen asked.

I tapped my index finger on his nose. “Why, you, silly.”

“Oh. That.”

I rolled my eyes and punched him in the shoulder. Owen just laughed, his deep, rumbling chuckles washing over me like the waves crashing into the shore.

“Well, I still think that I should kick Donovan’s ass for hurting you. Hell, just on general principles,” Owen said. “The man’s an idiot.”

“Oh, quit being such a guy. I am perfectly capable of defending my honor and whatnot. Besides, kicking Donovan’s ass might be satisfying, but in the end it’s not worth the effort of washing the blood out of my clothes.”

“But I thought you womenfolk liked it when your guy acts all rough and tough and alpha male. When we take charge of things.”

“Maybe,” I admitted. “It depends on what you think you’re taking charge of.”

Owen drew me into his arms, and his hands started sliding down my body once more in slow, deliberate, delicious way. I drew in a breath and arched my back, leaning into him.

“Just maybe?” he whispered, his violet eyes shimmering with heat.

“Definitely,” I whispered back, before pulling his lips down to mine once more.

Owen and I made love again and then lounged on the beach for most of the morning before putting our clothes back on and heading to the beach house. We took a shower, threw on some fresh clothes, and packed up our belongings. Jo-Jo, Sophia, Finn, and Bria came back from their various excursions and did the same, chattering on about all the things they’d done and seen. Then we all headed over to the Sea Breeze for our last vacation hurrah.

Callie had decided to close down the restaurant for the afternoon to give us a private good-bye luncheon—and what a luncheon it was. Grilled chicken smothered with a sweet mango salsa, sticky cilantro rice mixed with chunks of pineapple, smoky mesquite-marinated steaks, lobster tails dripping with butter, blackened shrimp, fresh-baked bread, baskets of deep-fried hush puppies, crispy sweet potato fries, gallons of pomegranate lemonade, even a couple of key lime pies for dessert. Callie had pulled out all the stops, and we all dug into the scrumptious meal, sitting at a series of tables that had been pushed together in the center of the restaurant.

“I couldn’t have made it better myself,” I told Callie after I’d stuffed myself with two pieces of pie.

Callie smiled. I hadn’t spent as much time with her as Bria had these past few days, but we’d gotten to know each other a little better. I’d told her all about the Pork Pit and the food I cooked up there, and she told me how her family had started the Sea Breeze decades ago. I wouldn’t say that Callie and I were friends now, but we weren’t enemies either. I’d even apologized to her for the bitchy way I’d acted the first time we’d met. It was important to me to be friendly with Callie for Bria’s sake, and I found that I wasn’t jealous of their close relationship anymore. We were both part of Bria’s life, and we each had our place in my sister’s heart. What exactly those places were was up to Bria to decide, and I was going to respect her wishes—whatever they might be.

“So do you have any idea what you’re going to do now?” Bria asked her friend.

Callie’s smile widened. “Just keep on keeping on right here at the restaurant. You don’t know what a relief it is, not to have to worry about Dekes or his men bothering me anymore.”

She didn’t have to say the words—I could see the difference in her for myself. The worried purple smudges were gone from under her eyes, and her whole body was utterly relaxed. Her gray-green eyes were that much brighter in her pretty face, and there was a lightness in her step that hadn’t been there before. A weight had definitely been lifted off Callie’s shoulders, and seeing how relaxed and happy she was made me glad that I’d been able to help her.

“In fact,” Callie added, “I’m thinking about expanding the Sea Breeze with the help of my new business partners.”

Callie looked down the table where Vanessa and Victoria were sitting next to Finn. As was usual whenever he was around anyone with money, my foster brother was telling them all about the wonderful things he could do with the cash that the sisters had made hocking the treasure he’d swiped from the mansion before the fire. Victoria’s eyes glazed over as Finn started talking about tax shelters, but Vanessa had a shrewd, calculating expression on her face. I thought that the Fire elemental was going to be a force to be reckoned with in Blue Marsh someday very soon.

Callie, Vanessa, and Victoria had become fast friends, bonded together by what they’d suffered because of the vampire. The sisters had been staying at the beach house with the rest of us these past few days. I’d thought that they would leave Blue Marsh immediately, but apparently, despite the bad memories, they liked it here and felt it would be a good place to settle down. Besides, someone had to stay around to oversee Dekes’s many business interests on the island. The vampire had died without leaving a will, so everything he owned now belonged to his wife, Vanessa. Vamps. They all thought they were going to live forever.

Vanessa had already hit the ground running. Finn had helped her get started, and she’d already scrapped the casino project and planned to return all of the property that Dekes had bought to their rightful owners—with a little something extra for their time, trouble, and suffering at the vampire’s hands. It would be a lot of work, erasing Dekes and his legacy from the island, but I thought Vanessa was up to the task.

“I’m glad you’re going to be here for a long time to come,” Bria said, squeezing Callie’s hand. “And the restaurant too. Blue Marsh wouldn’t be the same without either one.”

Her friend squeezed back. “Me too. And it’s all thanks to you.”

Bria shook her head. “Thank Gin. Not me.”

“I already have,” Callie said. “Many times. I even offered to pay her what I could for doing her . . . ah . . .”

Her voice trailed off, and she winced. Callie still wasn’t completely comfortable with the knowledge that I was an assassin, but I couldn’t blame her for that. I was just glad she’d accepted me as much as she had for Bria’s sake. I didn’t want things to be awkward between the two of them—not because of me.

“Pro bono work,” I said in a helpful voice.

“Right. Pro bono work,” Callie finished. “But she wouldn’t hear of it.”

“Keep your money,” I said, waving my hand. “Taking care of a scumbag like Dekes was its own reward. Trust me on that.”

Callie bit her lip and nodded. Then she turned back to Bria.

“Anyway, I have a question for you. Back before all this started, I was going to ask you if you wanted to be my maid of honor. The wedding’s not too far away. Besides, you know how much I’ve always wanted to make you wear a horrible bridesmaid’s dress,” she joked. “Something with bows and lace and in a totally ridiculous color that will look hideous on you.”

Bria’s blue eyes flicked to me and then farther down the table to Donovan, who was talking to Jo-Jo. I hadn’t told Bria what had happened between Donovan and me, but my sister was a cop. She was good at reading people and sniffing out secrets. She knew there was something going on with me and the detective—she just didn’t know what it was. I also hoped she knew that I would never do anything to purposely hurt her friend.

“I’d love to be your maid of honor, Callie,” Bria finally said. “You know that.”

The two of them put their heads together and started talking about dresses, color schemes, and hairstyles. I sat back and let their cheerful words wash over me before looking up and down the table at my friends and family. It was calm, quiet, happy moments like this that made what I’d suffered because of Dekes and all the other bad guys like him worthwhile, and I was determined to savor it, to tuck it into my heart so that I would always remember and appreciate it.

We talked, laughed, and joked for the better part of two hours. But eventually, all of the food was eaten, and the conversations wound down. One by one, we got to our feet and drifted toward the door. Jo-Jo and Sophia were the first ones to leave, with Jo-Jo saying that she had to have the salon open in the morning or her regular customers would be beating down her front door with axes to get inside and have their hair and nails done. Jo-Jo hugged everyone a final time, then followed Sophia out the door. A minute later, I heard the Goth dwarf’s convertible start up and zoom out of the sandy lot.

Vanessa and Victoria said their good-byes as well, adding they were headed back to the beach house. I’d managed to get the rental on the property extended through the end of the summer, which would give them plenty of time to find a place of their own if the two women didn’t just go ahead and move into the lavish penthouse suite at the Blue Sands hotel. Finn was all for that idea and for coming back down soon for another weekend of pampering—on the house, of course.

“Is he always so shamelessly greedy?” Vanessa whispered to me at one point.

“Yes,” I said. “But the man can do magical things with money. Trust me. You won’t find anyone better than Finn to help you get a handle on Dekes’s business interests.”

Once Vanessa and Victoria stepped outside, that left Finn, Bria, Callie, Donovan, Owen, and me in the restaurant to say our good-byes. The others headed for the front door, but the detective grabbed my arm and pulled me aside.

“Gin?” Donovan asked in a low voice. “Can I talk to you a minute?”

Donovan had been a few seats down from me on the opposite side of the table. The detective hadn’t spoken much during lunch, although he’d laughed and joked at the appropriate times. Mostly, though, he’d been sneaking glances at me.

I stared at the detective, then looked over my shoulder at the others. My gaze locked with Owen’s, and once again, I wondered at the love that I saw there for me—the love and the trust and how I’d ever been lucky enough to earn either one of them. I nodded at Owen, and he nodded back. He knew I needed to talk to Donovan one last time, that I needed to say some things to the detective that were a long time coming, and he was enough of a man to let me do that without interfering.

Owen stepped outside, but he wasn’t the only one who’d noticed that the detective had drawn me aside—so had Bria. My sister raised her eyebrows and jerked her head at the door.

“Gin?” she asked, a warning tone creeping into her voice. “Aren’t you ready to leave yet? I thought that you wanted to get back home before dark.”

“Y’all go on ahead,” I said. “There’s one more thing that I need to wrap up with Donovan. It won’t take but a minute. I promise.”

Bria shot me a worried glance. She knew just how much damage could be done in a minute, especially between old lovers. But Callie looped her arm through my sister’s and pulled them both outside, either oblivious or unconcerned about the looming drama. The screen door banged shut behind them, and their voices faded away as they walked out into the parking lot.

I turned back around to stare at Donovan. “You wanted to talk, so talk.”

The detective looked at me, an agonized expression on his face, his fingers curling and uncurling into fists by his sides, his whole body tight and rigid with tension—but still he didn’t move. Our eyes locked together, and I saw all these conflicting emotions shimmering in his bright gaze. Heat, need, desire, guilt—but still he didn’t move.

The seconds ticked by. Ten . . . twenty . . . thirty . . . forty-five . . .

Finally, Donovan jerked forward, pulled me into his arms, and crushed his lips to mine.