“That was how the two of them met? Because of you?”
Warren nodded. His dark eyes met mine in the mirror again. “I knew that he could help her, that he was probably the
“Half giant, half dwarf, and all mean,” I murmured, echoing what Jo-Jo had once told me about Grimes.
Warren nodded his agreement. “But I didn’t think that Fletcher would ask for my help too. At first, I refused, but then Jo-Jo came back to the store and begged me to guide him up there. I couldn’t turn her down then—or now.”
“Thank you, Warren,” I said in a soft voice. “For everything.”
“Bah,” he said, waving his hand. “Don’t thank me until it’s over, Sophia is back where she belongs, and that bastard Grimes is finally dead.”
He stared out the window again, his eyes distant, his lips pinched together, the lines on his face grooved even deeper with old memories, old hurts, old heartaches. I wondered what Warren was seeing, what he was remembering, what he was feeling. If he was reliving the trip he’d taken with Fletcher so very long ago or if he was thinking ahead to the danger he was going to face for a second time.
Either way, there was nothing for me to do but keep on driving and hope that I could get us all back down the mountain again in one piece after we rescued Sophia.
Warren directed me to one of the many scenic overlooks on the narrow, curvy, switchback roads of this section of the Appalachian Mountains. Unlike the others that we’d passed, which were little more than gravel pits squeezed in between the road and the sheer edge of the mountain, this overlook was actually a park with a paved lot. I stopped Roslyn’s car in front of a sign planted in the grass that read
I stared through the windshield at the wooden sign and realized that maybe I wasn’t as unfamiliar with the area as I’d thought.
“Is something wrong?” Owen asked, noticing me eyeing the sign.
I shook my head. “No, not wrong. But I’ve been here before. I should have remembered when I first heard the name. Fletcher brought me here years ago. Not to the park but to this mountain.”
I didn’t add that the old man had taken me out only to desert me on our hike, just to see if I had the strength and smarts to get back down the mountain on my own. One of the many tests he’d given me over the years. I wondered how much I’d be tested today. Didn’t much matter. Like I’d told Finn and everyone else: Harley Grimes was a dead man. He just didn’t know it yet.
“Gin?” Owen asked. “Are you okay?”
I shook my head to clear away the memories. “Yeah.
Let’s move. I want to get eyes on Sophia and Grimes’s camp as soon as possible.”
Owen, Warren, and I grabbed our gear, locked the car, and walked up a series of steep, narrow stone steps that led from the parking lot to the top of a ridge that curved and bulged out like a half-moon. A few blue and green fiberglass picnic tables perched in the grass, along with a couple of dented metal trash cans. A three-foot- high stone wall marked the edge of the grass and separated the tables from the steep drop below. The ridge offered a sweeping view of the cluster of mountains that surrounded us.
Trees and rocks stretched out as far as the eye could see, like green and gray ribbons unspooling in every direction, crowned by the deep, vivid blue of the sky and the burning orange citrine jewel of the sun so very high above.
Roslyn’s had been the only vehicle in the parking lot, and no one was eating lunch at the picnic tables, stretching their legs after being cooped up in the car, or walking their dog through the grass for a quick potty break.
Good. I didn’t want anyone to see us, especially with Owen and me looking like commandos out of some action movie, Warren our grizzled, rifle-toting sidekick. Besides, if someone saw us, there was always the chance that word would reach Grimes that we were coming.
Warren pointed to the right, and I realized that the park featured more than picnic tables and a pretty overlook. Several wooden signs shaped like arrows were stacked on top of one another where the grass gave way to the trees. Three faint paths started at the signs, then curved off in three different directions into the green and brown canopy of the forest beyond.
“The eastern trail leads to the next ridge over,” Warren said. “That’s where Grimes’s camp is. From what I remember, Grimes and his men often use this little park as a meeting spot. Most folks in these parts know better than to stop here, day or night.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “Grimes and his men bring the guns, and other folks show up with suitcases full of cash.”
Warren nodded. “cash, gold, even diamonds on occasion. Fletcher told me that he found an old-fashioned safe and a stash of valuables in one of the outbuildings at Grimes’s camp. He said that he also saw some of Grimes’s men burying metal boxes full of cash and guns in the woods all around the camp.”
That didn’t surprise me. A lot of folks in Ashland didn’t trust banks—with good reason. Sometimes the people working for the financial institutions were even more crooked than the criminals who called the city home.
Finn was a prime example of that, given his day job as an investment banker. He didn’t swindle his clients, but he thoroughly enjoyed playing shell games and hoodwinking
the government out of all of the tax money that his clients owed. And he was amazingly good at it; Finn could hide money better than a squirrel storing nuts for the winter.
And Grimes wasn’t the only one with caches of money and weapons hidden here and there. I had stashes of cash, knives, clothes, and other supplies all over Ashland.
Fletcher’s house. Bria’s house. Finn’s apartment. Behind a freezer in the back of the Pork Pit. In Roslyn’s office at her nightclub, Northern Aggression. In a bathroom vent
in the English building at Ashland community college,
where I took so many classes. Even in a fireplace at Owen’s mansion.
I glanced at Owen, who’d been quiet while Warren and
I were talking. I hadn’t thought much about the duffel
bag that I’d left at his house a few months ago. But that had been back before Salina had come into our lives. I wondered if he still had my things or if he’d thrown them out.The last notion made my heart twinge with pain, but I ignored it and focused on the signs and trails again.
“c’mon. We need to get moving.”
I slid my backpack onto my shoulders and headed for the eastern trail. Owen and Warren did the same with their gear, then fell into step behind me.
With myself in the lead, we walked a good distance in silence with only the sounds of the forest around us. The high, cheery
This was a pretty patch of woods, and if we’d been out on a summer hike, I would have taken my time and enjoyed the scenery. The dark brown soil of the forest floor gave way to the lush, vibrant green of leaves, and the arching branches of trees stretched high into the cloudless sky above. The thick canopy dappled the forest in shifting shadows, which provided some welcome relief from the July heat, although the humidity was as muggy and oppressive as ever. Despite the shade, sweat trickled down my neck and the small of my back, making my clothes stick to my skin like patches of soggy tape. I could have used my Ice magic to help cool myself, but I didn’t want to waste my power like that. Not when I had a feeling that I’d need every ounce of my strength to go up against Grimes.
His combination of giant and dwarven blood made him tough enough, but add his Fire magic to that, and you had a truly dangerous enemy. Not to mention the fact that Hazel had the same sort of strength and Fire power that her brother did and how much malicious glee she took in using her magic to hurt other people.
But what worried me the most was Sophia. She’d been shot at least twice before she’d stumbled into
