I sighed. I’d never claimed to be good at this relationship stuff, and once again, it seemed I’d made a mess of things without even trying.
The doors next to the bar led into the restaurant’s kitchen. My eyes scanned the stainless-steel appliances, the pots of coffee brewing on their burners, the white order tickets tacked up over a series of stoves that lined the back wall. Even though it was a relatively small space, everything was neat and clean just like it was at the Pork Pit. I approved.
Callie stood in the middle of the kitchen, pouring thick, creamy batter into a series of waffle makers, calling out orders and instructions to the other cooks, and handing finished plates of food to the waitresses standing by. She had a smile on her face as she talked and laughed with her staff, and it was easy to tell that she was the heart and soul of the kitchen. That the food she served up at the Sea Breeze had a little bit of her love and joy in every single bite.
Callie looked over her shoulder at the sound of the doors swinging open, probably expecting another waitress to come hurrying through with a new order, and her eyes lit up when she realized that it was Donovan instead. She finished the latest waffle she was making, slid it on a plate, and passed it off to another chef to be topped with fresh peaches, honey, and whipped cream. Then she hurried over to Donovan, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed the detective’s stubbled cheek. The food wasn’t the only thing that Callie loved—she cared about Donovan too.
My heart twinged again, and a sort of wistful sadness filled me. I didn’t want the detective for myself, but I didn’t know that I wanted to see his obvious happiness either, especially when I’d been the cause of so much unhappiness in his life.
Donovan smiled down at his fiancee. Then his gaze cut to me, and his face iced over once again. He took a step back from Callie.
“Can you take a break and go into your office for a few minutes?” Donovan asked in a low voice. “Gin and her friends have some things that they’d like to talk to you about. Things that we all need to talk about.”
Callie stared at me, then back at her fiance, clearly wondering what was going on between us. Damned if I knew.
“Sure. This way.”
We left the kitchen and stepped through another door into a small office in the very back of the restaurant. A desk, a computer, a phone, a couple of printers, piles of paper and invoices everywhere. It was your typical small-business office with a typical jumbled mess. Callie took the seat behind the desk, Donovan perched on the edge of it, and the rest of us crowded inside the cramped space. Finn closed the door behind him so we wouldn’t be overheard.
“What’s going on?” Callie asked, looking at Bria. “You said earlier you wanted to talk.”
Bria nodded and drew in a breath. “We need to discuss what we’re going to do about Randall Dekes and the threats he’s made against you.”
Callie shook her head, causing her dark ponytail to swish against her shoulders. “I’ve told you before, Bria, that there’s nothing for you to do. Dekes is my problem, not yours. Sooner or later, Donovan will find something to connect him to Stu’s death, and the vampire will be put in jail where he belongs.”
“Maybe, but it won’t stick. Not for long. And he won’t find it before Dekes kills you,” I said in a soft voice. “The vamp’s already made the decision to do that.”
Callie flinched, like I’d hauled off and slapped her. After a moment, she forced out a weak laugh. “What? That’s crazy.”
She tried to make her voice sound strong, confident, sure, but I could hear the doubt in her tone. She’d heard the shocked, horrified whispers of how Dekes had gotten the other people on the island to sell out to him already, and she’d been threatened by his goons herself. Not to mention what the vamp and his men had done to the old man at the ice-cream shop a few days ago. Callie sat there, chewing on her lip and tapping her fingers on top of the papers scattered across her desk.
“How do you know that Dekes plans to murder me?” she finally asked.
“Because Gin’s an assassin,” Donovan said in a cold, flat voice. “She kills people.”
My hands curled into fists at his sneering, superior tone, and for a moment, I thought about punching him in the face. I’d hoped to avoid telling Callie exactly who I was and what I did, if only for Bria’s sake. Not many people could be friends with an assassin—or friends with the sister of one. I might be jealous of Callie, but I didn’t want to come between the two women. I loved Bria too much to be that petty. But I should have known that Donovan would tell his fiancee all about me and what I did late at night—and pass the same old judgments on me here that he had back in Ashland.
Callie’s face paled, and she looked at me with wide, fearful eyes. She might have guessed that I had something to do with the dead men in the pool, but it was another thing to have her worst suspicions confirmed.
She turned to Bria. “An assassin? Your sister’s an assassin?” her voice dropped to a whisper.
My sister shifted on her feet, not quite meeting Callie’s shocked stare. “Yes, Gin’s an assassin.”
“I go by the name the Spider,” I said, trying to spare Bria from having to explain anything else about me and further alienate her friend. “Perhaps you’ve heard of me.”
I’d meant the words as a joke, but Callie’s face paled a little more, the golden glow completely washing out of her skin.
“The Spider? The assassin who killed that Fire elemental up in Ashland?” Callie looked at Donovan. “The assassin that you couldn’t stop obsessing about a few weeks ago? The one that you tried so hard to find out if she was dead or alive?”
My breath caught in my throat, but I kept my features blank. Donovan had actually been concerned about me? Now? After all this time? I didn’t know what to make of that—or that news of my taking down Mab had made its way this far south. That last point was particularly troublesome, to say the least.
Callie gazed at me, then at Donovan, who was doing his very best not to look at me. I could almost see the proverbial lightbulb snap on over her head.
“It’s her, isn’t it?” Callie said, a note of accusation and worry creeping into her voice. “Gin’s the reason you left Ashland. The woman that you were . . . involved with. The one who made you doubt yourself and what you were doing by being a good cop in such a corrupt city.”
I glanced at Donovan, who still wouldn’t look at me. I hadn’t thought that I’d made any kind of dent in his moral righteousness, but apparently I had, if the detective had brought his emotional baggage into his relationship with Callie.
“Awkward,” Finn said in a singsong voice.
This time, Bria kicked him in the shin. Finn winced and bent down to rub his leg.
I cleared my throat. “Anyway, Donovan is right. I’m an assassin. I used to kill people for money—”
“A
Bria drew her leg back for another kick, but Finn held up his hands and backed away from her as far as he could in the tiny office.
“Like I said, I used to kill people for money, but these days I run more of a pro bono business,” I said. “I help folks with certain . . . problems that they and the law can’t or don’t know how to handle.”
“Problems like Randall Dekes,” Callie said.
“Problems exactly like Randall Dekes.”
She stared at me, her gray-green eyes dark with suspicion, hurt, and a touch of fear. I wondered if the last emotion was because I was the Spider or the fact that she knew that I used to fuck her fiance. “And why in the world would you want to help me? I certainly can’t pay you much. I can’t pay you anything, really. The wedding —”
She stopped, realizing how ironic it was to mention her impending wedding to her fiance’s ex-lover. But I’d give Callie her props because she sucked in another breath and finished her thought. “The wedding has taken up most of my savings, along with some repairs and renovations that I’ve recently made to the restaurant. So I ask again—why would you want to help me?”
“Because you’re Bria’s best friend. She loves you, and I’d do anything for my sister,” I answered honestly.
