Spider's Bite

24

At four o’clock the next afternoon, I found myself in the elegant confines of Five Oaks, the snobbiest, most exclusive, and most highfalutin country club in Ashland.

Jo-Jo Deveraux had called earlier in the day with the info I’d needed — the next event on the James sisters’ social calendar. Haley and Alexis, along with five hundred other invited guests, were due to attend an afternoon fund-raiser for a battered-women’s shelter that was being held at the country club. Jo-Jo had pulled a few of her drama mama strings and managed to secure invitations for Donovan Caine and me. Finn had already been invited, given the fact he moved money around for most of those in attendance.

Now I stood in the club’s spacious main ballroom, watching the flow of people and waiting for the James sisters to arrive. Five Oaks was a massive complex of five circular buildings, and the ballroom was in keeping with the grand scale of things. The round room itself was several thousand feet wide and soared four stories into the air. A glass dome formed the ceiling, letting natural light stream down onto the club’s members. Multiple sets of stairs led up to the upper levels, each of which featured a balcony that ringed the entire ballroom.

Floor-to-ceiling glass windows lined the curve of the back wall, along with two large doors that led out onto a wide stone patio. The impressive view showed off the club’s smaller outbuildings, a series of acorn-shaped pools, tennis courts, and the smooth, green expanse, beige sand traps, and tall, colorful flags of the golf course.

People, clustered in small groups, talked, laughed, and sipped mint juleps on the main floor. Some had wandered up to have more private conversations on the second floor balcony. Others had taken their drinks and planted themselves at tables covered with pale peach linens. The country club’s rune — an acorn — was stitched in gold thread in the center of each tablecloth. The event was going to feature a sit-down dinner later, but the booze and bullshit were already flowing.

I spotted several prominent vampires, elementals, dwarves, and giants in the crowd, each one doing their best to make their importance known to everyone else in attendance. But no one shone brighter than Mab Monroe. The Fire elemental looked polished and glamorous in a floor-length canary yellow gown. A fringed shawl covered her bare arms, and the ruby in her sunburst rune necklace flashed against her cleavage. Mab had planted herself in the exact center of the ballroom. People stood three deep around her, jockeying to get a moment of her attention. But Mab’s giant guards for the evening kept the unwanted commoners from getting too close.

The other two members of the triangle of trouble were in attendance as well — Mab’s lawyer, Jonah McAllister, and her enforcer, Elliot Slater. With his silver hair, snazzy suit, and capped teeth, McAllister looked every bit like the smooth talker he was. Slater’s seven-foot figure loomed large over the crowd. A diamond bigger than an eye winked on the giant’s pinkie.

I stood near the back wall, just on the fringes of a group of businessmen dressed in dark suits. A few of them shot me appreciative looks, but the frigid chill in my gray eyes kept them from approaching me. At least until they’d had a few more drinks.

To blend in with the rich folks, I’d donned a simple but elegant black wrap dress Jo-Jo had given me for Christmas last year. The garment was made of a loose-knit material and featured long, billowing sleeves that hid my knives. The material fell to my knees, allowing me to strap two more blades to my thighs. My purse held another knife. Black stilettos covered my feet, and I’d twisted my hair into a high ponytail, complete with two razor-sharp chopsticks.

My cell phone rang, and I plucked it out of my purse. One of the businessmen eyed me.

“My husband,” I said in a pleasant voice. “The giant. Such a protective man. Likes to know where I am all the time — and who I’m with.”

He gulped and turned his attention back to his drink. Evidently I didn’t look fuckable enough to risk tangling with a jealous giant.

I stepped a few feet away from the group of men and opened my phone. “Any sign of them?”

“Not yet,” Donovan Caine replied. “Although Finn seems to be enjoying himself at the bar.”

I looked across the ballroom. After we’d entered the country club, we’d split up. Together, we were too noticeable, too much of a target. It was easier and safer to get lost in the crowd. Finnegan Lane had ensconced himself at the bar just inside the main entrance. Like every other man on the premises, he wore a tailored suit. The classic cut of the navy fabric highlighted Finn’s broad shoulders, while the light filtering through the glass roof made his brown hair gleam. He was currently chatting up a dwarf dripping with diamonds. The woman had to be over four hundred by the looks of her wrinkled skin, rheumy eyes, and snow-white hair. Probably some client of his.

Finn saw me staring. He winked, raised his glass in salute, and went back to his conversation. Very little could distract him when he was working or entertaining a lady — no matter how old she was. Finn might not sleep with the old ones, but he enjoyed charming them as much as he did the young stuff.

“Finn always has a good time at these things,” I murmured. “Sometimes I think he should have been born a woman so he could be a true debutante.”

Donovan chuckled through the phone. A low sound that warmed me from the inside out.

My eyes drifted up to the second floor. Donovan Caine leaned over the balcony above my head, his phone against his ear. The detective wore one of Finn’s suits in a blue color so pale it was almost silver. Caine’s shoulders weren’t quite as wide as Finn’s, so the jacket didn’t drape perfectly. But I’d felt the strength in his lean muscles at the nightclub. He’d forgone a tie in favor of undoing the top button of his white dress shirt, which let more of his bronze skin peek through. Classic, rugged, sexy. Donovan Caine looked good enough to eat. Mmm.

Our eyes met, gold on gray. Not for the first time, I fantasized about having my way with the detective. About feeling his mouth on mine, his hands on my body, the hard length of him moving inside me. Just the idea made me ache.

Donovan Caine stared down at me. His hazel eyes darkened to the color of smoked whiskey as his gaze went from my breasts to my legs and back up again. His gaze met mine, but this time he didn’t look away. Emotions flashed in his eyes like lightning. Desire. Want. Need. Guilt. The detective was thinking about how much he wanted me. About how our time together was coming to an end, and soon he’d officially have to go back to hating me. Donovan was thinking about how much he’d like to take what he could get today and hate himself for it tomorrow.

Me too. In that moment, I made my decision. The detective was going to be mine.

Before the evening was through.

Something caught Donovan’s attention, and he glanced down. “There’s Haley James. Just coming into the ballroom.”

I moved to my right, farther away from the businessmen, so I could see Haley. She wore a short gold cocktail dress that set off her pale skin and blue-green eyes. The garment was a little risqué for this early in the day, cut almost to her belly button in the front, with her cleavage swelling on either side of the severe V. Her strawberry-blonde hair was swept up into a chignon, and large diamond studs winked in her ears.

Finn had spotted Haley James too. He turned more toward the dwarf he was talking to, presenting his back to the rest of the room, although he cocked his head to one side so he could still see Haley. Unless things got out of hand, Finn’s job was to sit at the bar and keep an eye on the sisters. I wanted to know how Haley and Alexis reacted after I dropped the flash drive bomb on them.

“I see Haley,” I told Donovan. “Where’s Alexis?”

“Right behind her.”

I looked past Haley to see Alexis James stepping into the ballroom. Like me, Alexis wore a little black dress with matching pumps. The usual strand of pearls circled her throat and wrist, although she’d added a couple more ropes around her neck. My free hand curled into a tight fist. I’d like to choke the bitch with her own pearls, but that would be too good for her. Too easy a way for her to die. I might kill people quickly on jobs, but this went beyond business — this was personal. Alexis James was going to suffer every bit as much as Fletcher had.

And then some.

But the James sisters weren’t alone. Captain Wayne Stephenson shuffled in the door behind them. The pudgy giant wore a white suit that made him look even wider than he really was. Even though the room was air-conditioned, Stephenson dabbed at the sheen of sweat on his forehead with one of his white handkerchiefs. Just being within sight of Alexis probably made him nervous. Two more men wearing dark suits stepped inside the ballroom behind the giant. One of them was Charles Carlyle’s friend from the Cake Walk. The other man had been with Alexis the night she’d gone to Donovan Caine’s cabin. They both stuck close to Stephenson, like ducks waddling after their mother. More of Alexis James’s flunkies. So now she was taking her entourage out in public with her. Interesting.

Stephenson and the two goons were unimportant at this point, so I stayed on the phone with Donovan and watched the women, waiting for my chance to get Haley alone. It took the sisters about five minutes to maneuver past the bottleneck of people in front of the entrance. But once they did, they split up. Alexis waved at someone and headed in that direction. Stephenson and the two men also drifted that way. Haley grabbed a mint julep from one of the passing waiters and moved to sit at an unoccupied table near the center of the room. Perfect.

“Here I go,” I said, glancing up at Donovan Caine.

Caine nodded. “Good luck.”

I smiled. “I don’t need luck, detective. I have something better — leverage.”

Cell phone in hand, I headed for Haley James. It took me the better part of two minutes to stalk across the ballroom carpet. My stilettos poked holes into the plush fabric, killing it one step at a time. Just like I was going to do to Alexis James in the near future. But I reached Haley without incident and dropped into the seat next to her. Alexis stood about fifty feet away, firmly entrenched in a group of people. She didn’t notice me cozying up to her sister. Neither did Wayne Stephenson or the other two men, who stood behind Alexis. Good.

My sudden appearance startled Haley James, and she jerked back in her seat, almost knocking over her mint julep. Her wide blue-green eyes met my narrowed gray ones. The cold knot of rage twitched in my chest, and for a moment, my emotions threatened to overwhelm me. Anger, rage, disgust. Part of me wanted to palm one of my knives, stab Haley, and melt away in the bloody, screaming confusion. Let Alexis feel the loss of her sister as keenly as I did Fletcher’s death, if the Air elemental bitch could feel anything besides glee at torturing people.

But I’d promised Donovan Caine that I’d give the other woman a chance to prove her innocence. And I didn’t go back on my word. No matter how much I might want to.

So I laid my cell phone on the table and smiled at the other woman. “Hello, Haley.”

She frowned. “Do I know you?”

I amped up my smile. “Well, sugar, we haven’t officially met, but I’m sort of on your payroll. Your sister, Alexis, hired me to kill Gordon Giles.”

It took a couple of seconds for my words to sink in. Haley frowned again, replaying what I’d said in her mind. An innocent woman, one who knew nothing about anything, would have vehemently denied the allegation. Been shocked and outraged by the accusation. Would have already been screaming bloody murder about sitting next to a self-proclaimed assassin. Instead, Haley’s face shuttered, and her eyes narrowed to slits. Oh yeah, she was in this all right — up to her fucking neck.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she asked. “What do you want? Money?”

I laughed. The harsh, mocking sound made several people turn around and stare at me.

“Money,” I sneered. “Do you think you can buy me off so easily? After what your sister’s done? I don’t think so.”

Haley raised a sculpted eyebrow. “You were perfectly willing to take money to kill Gordon Giles.”

I leaned forward. “That was before your sister decided to double-cross me. That was before Alexis tortured the old man at the barbecue joint. Before she had her goons beat my friend almost to death. Before she decided to kill the police detective to avoid any loose ends.”

Since her offer of money had failed, Haley decided to try another tactic. She opened her eyes a little wider, as though her brave front was finally cracking. I had to give her credit, she changed direction smoothly. “This wasn’t my idea, you have to believe me. Alexis is the one behind it all. She forced me to go along with her. To go along with everything.”

“Nice act,” I said. “Convenient too, to blame your sister for everything. But in case you haven’t noticed, I ran out of mercy a long time ago. Guilt by association works just fine for me.”

Haley let her lower lip quiver. “It’s not an act. Alexis threatened me. Threatened to hurt me, kill me if I didn’t do exactly what she wanted.”

“Really?” I asked. “Is that why your log-in and pass word information are linked to the embezzled accounts? Because Alexis forced you to steal all that money from your own company?”

She nodded and swiped at the corner of her eye, as though brushing away a tear. Southern women might know a thing or two about melodrama, but Haley was laying it on thicker than frosting on a cake.

I snorted. “Sugar, you are a terrible liar. I’ve seen better acting from the vampire hookers on the Southtown streets.”

Haley studied me a moment. Once she saw I wasn’t buying her act, her face hardened once more. Back to playing the tough girl. Too bad I really was one.

“I know why you wanted Gordon Giles dead. He was going to go to the police about the embezzling, and you just couldn’t have that. But there is one thing I am curious about,” I said. “What’s been the point of all this? Surely, you don’t really think the two of you can dethrone Mab Monroe just by stealing a few million bucks?”

Haley shrugged. “That’s Alexis’s dream, not mine. She’s the one who enjoys playing Mob queen with her Air elemental magic. Alexis thinks her magic makes her more powerful than it really does.”

“So why?” I asked. “Why support her pipe dream?”

Haley’s eyes flashed with hatred. “Because Mab Monroe stole our father’s company, his pride and joy, bought up the stock right out from under him. But that wasn’t enough for her. Daddy was fighting the takeover, fighting her, and she killed him. She told us she did and said if we wanted to keep on breathing, we’d better go along with her. That was two years ago. And now the bitch orders us around, tells us what to do, as if we don’t know our own company better than she ever could. I’m just taking back what’s mine. And if Alexis does manage to kill her, well, all the better. Maybe then our father can rest in peace.”

The venom in her voice would have made most people drop dead. I imagine Mab Monroe would have only found it mildly irritating. So Alexis was the one with delusions of magical grandeur. Haley was just going along with her sister’s plan so she could steal. Nice family.

“What the fuck do you want?” Haley snapped. “I assume there’s a point to this meeting.”

“I want you and your sister to walk away,” I said. “Withdraw the reward money Halo Industries is offering for information about me. Get Alexis to call off her men, including Captain Wayne Stephenson. Finnegan Lane and Donovan Caine, the men your sister wants to torture and kill, they walk, too. We all walk away and keep breathing. And you can keep right on skimming millions off the top from your own company. I don’t give a fuck about you stealing from Mab Monroe because you weren’t smart enough to hang on to your own business.”

She wouldn’t be stealing that much longer, because I was going to put a knife in Haley’s gut and cut Alexis every which way I knew how as soon as the sisters lowered their guard. I’d play the blackmail card now to get Finn and Donovan Caine free of this mess, but the bitches were going to die for what they’d done to Fletcher. Besides, they’d double-crossed me first. It was only fair.

Haley’s face tightened at my insult, but she knew I wasn’t finished. “Or else?”

I stared at her, my gray eyes as cold and hard as ice. “Tell me, have you or Alexis heard from Charles Carlyle today?”

She didn’t say anything.

I smiled. “I had the opportunity to speak with Chuck last night. He didn’t say much, of course, but I did find something interesting in his possession — Gordon Giles’s flash drive. Seems Chuck stumbled across it and decided to keep it for himself as insurance against Alexis turning on him. Of course, he won’t be using it now, but he was nice enough to pass it on to me before he died.”

For the first time, true panic sparked in Haley’s blue-green eyes.

“I read through the files. That’s how I knew your log-in information was the one used to steal the money.” I pointed across the ballroom to where Mab Monroe was still holding court. “Now, I could just go ahead and give the information to Mab. I’m sure she’d be very interested in learning more about your embezzlement, since she’s your company’s major stockholder. What do you think?”

The smallest gasp escaped from Haley’s tight lips. Her face paled, and her forehead gleamed with the beginnings of a nervous sweat. Her control was starting to crack. “You — you can’t tell Mab anything. She’ll kill us, just like she did Daddy.”

“I can do whatever the hell I want, Haley. I’m the one with the flash drive. Why, I could walk over to Mab Monroe this minute.” I raised my arm as if to wave to the Fire elemental. “I’m sure I could get her attention—”

“No!” Haley grabbed my arm, trying to lower it.

Haley’s shout echoed through the ballroom, overpowering the din of conversation. Several people turned to see what all the fuss was about, including Mab Monroe. The Fire elemental spotted me pointing at her and Haley clutching my arm. Mab frowned, but I just smiled and waggled my fingers at her, as though we were old friends. After a moment, Mab lifted her hand and waved back, even though she couldn’t possibly know who the hell I was or why I was waving at her like a loon. Mab crooked her finger at Elliot Slater and whispered something in his ear. Slater snapped his fingers, and another one of Mab’s giant guards walked over to them. Time to wrap this up.

“Think over my offer, Haley,” I said. “I’m only going to make it this one time.”

“You don’t understand,” she hissed. “Alexis is the one who wanted Gordon dead, not me. I wanted to pay him off, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Said she wanted to teach him a lesson for turning on her. It was all I could do to convince her to hire an assassin, instead of doing it herself and getting caught. It would have been fine, if she’d just listened to me. But Alexis always complicates things. She had to get fancy and set you up, even though I told her it wasn’t necessary, that it might backfire. But she didn’t want Mab sniffing around us or the company. Not yet. Not before she’s ready to make her move.”

“And you’re boring me with this because …”

“Because Alexis won’t take what you’re offering now,” Haley replied in a shaky voice. “She won’t back down, not from you, not from anybody. Before Daddy died, Alexis never threw her Air magic around. Nobody even knew she had any, except for the family. But after he died, she changed. Started using her magic for everything, started practicing with it so she could go after Mab. Her magic … it’s made her reckless, crazy. I can’t reason with her anymore.”

I gave her a cold look. “Then I suggest you try harder, Haley. Or you’re the one who’s going to be feeling Mab Monroe’s wrath. I imagine she can torture you much longer than Alexis did the old man at the restaurant. Mab’s had a lot more practice at that sort of thing. She could probably keep you alive for days.”

Haley blanched, and her face took on a greenish hue, as though she wanted to vomit.

I plucked a business card out of my purse and held it out to her. The number for my cell phone was scribbled across it. “You have an hour to get Alexis on board, call me at this number, and agree to my demands. After that, well, who knows what will happen?”

Haley James snatched the card from my hand with trembling fingers and clutched it to her heaving chest. I gave her the hard stare another moment, then grabbed my cell phone, got to my feet, and strolled away.