By a Thread

“And because you don’t deserve what Dekes has in store for you. You just want to run your restaurant, cook your food, and see to your customers. Nothing else. You never wanted any trouble, but it has come looking for you these past few months. Believe me, I can relate to that—more than you know. That’s why I’d help you. That’s enough for me. Let it be enough for you too.”

Callie shook her head. “But you’re still talking about killing someone, just because I asked you to.”

I grinned at her. “Sweetheart, you don’t even have to ask. Not after last night.”

“That’s the second time someone’s said something about last night,” Donovan said. “What the hell happened? And how did it end with me fishing four bodies out of the pool at the Blue Sands?”

“Dekes sent some of his men to the hotel suite where Bria and I were staying,” I said. “They were planning to rape and murder us. That’s when I heard them talking about Callie as well—about how they were planning to do the same thing to her after they got done with me and Bria.”

Finn pointedly cleared his throat.

“And they also busted up Finn’s car along the way,” I added.

“Bastards,” my foster brother muttered. “You never, ever key an Aston Martin, much less crack the windshield or rip up the seats. They deserved to be gutted like fish for that alone.”

Callie’s eyes widened at the venom in his voice, and she stared at him like he’d just grown another head. Finn smiled at her, following it up with a sexy wink. Bria kicked him again just for that.

Donovan’s eyes narrowed to slits. “I thought as much. I knew it was you as soon as I heard that they’d been stabbed to death.”

I could have pointed out that Bria had actually killed Pete Procter with her Ice magic, but I knew it wouldn’t make a difference to Donovan.

“Guilty as charged,” I quipped. “Just like old times, right?”

Donovan gave me a disgusted look then—the same disappointed, disheartened, utterly disgusted look that he had dozens of times before. The look that said that he couldn’t believe he hadn’t shot me when he’d had the chance, the first night we’d met at the Ashland Opera House. The look that said he couldn’t believe he’d ever let himself get close to me. The look that said I wasn’t worth one single shred of his time, attention, consideration, or sympathy.

My heart twinged again, but this time it was more from anger than some deep, dark, hidden longing.

“Look,” I snapped. “I didn’t come down here looking for trouble, but whether you like it or not, Bria and I are in this thing with Callie now. We’ve embarrassed the vampire twice and killed four of his men. From what little I know about him, Dekes doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to let things like that slide. He can’t—not and be the badass everyone claims he is. And he still needs the land that the Sea Breeze sits on to build his casino. He’s not just going to forget about that either, no matter how much you might want him to.”

Donovan couldn’t argue with my logic, but he couldn’t bring himself to agree with me either. I knew that Donovan’s morals meant more to him than I ever had, but I wondered how he felt now that Callie’s life was the one in danger. Because Callie was everything I was not—good, sweet, innocent. Would Donovan bend his morals to let me save her? Or would he refuse, foolishly try to go after Dekes through legal methods, and get them both killed in the process?

“Why don’t we let Callie decide?” I asked. “Since it’s her life on the line.”

We all looked at Callie. Some of the color had returned to her face, but confusion, surprise, and hurt still filled her eyes. She kept staring at Donovan like she’d never seen him before. I wondered if it was because she’d just found out that he’d slept with an assassin or because he hadn’t told her who I really was last night. Looked like Donovan wasn’t any better at this relationship stuff than I was.

“I’m not sure,” Callie finally said in a hesitant tone. “I know that Dekes is a horrible person, that he’s hurt people, that he killed Stu Alexander or had it done, but we’re sitting here talking about murdering him. As much as I love the Sea Breeze, it’s not worth his life.”

“Well, Dekes thinks that it is definitely worth your life,” I said. “And I’m the one talking about murdering someone. Everyone else is just an innocent bystander.”

“I’d go with cheerleaders myself,” Finn said in a helpful voice.

This time, Bria shoved her elbow into his side. Finn winced and shuffled a little closer to Owen, who gave him an amused look.

“I can’t let you do that, Gin,” Donovan said in a low voice. “I can’t let you go after Dekes. You know that.”

The anger that had been simmering in my stomach turned into a slow boil, and I glared at him. “You aren’t letting me do anything, Detective. Not one damn thing. I’m a big girl, and I make my own decisions, remember? And I’ve decided I’m going to crash Dekes’s press conference this afternoon. That’s all there is to it.”

“If you go after him, I’ll arrest you,” Donovan snapped. “I won’t be part of your murdering him. I won’t let you get it away with it again. Not here. This is my town, Gin. Not yours. You can either play by my rules or you can get the hell off my island.”

I opened my mouth to snap back that I’d like to see him try to fucking arrest me, when Callie got to her feet and held up her hands.

“Please, enough, stop. Both of you. I . . . appreciate what you’re trying to do, Gin,” she said. “What you’re offering to do for me. But I’m not any more comfortable with this than Donovan is, especially since you’re talking about murdering Dekes like it’s something casual that you do every day of the week.”

Callie’s statement was far closer to the truth than she knew, given how many thugs I’d taken out in Ashland over the past few weeks and all the others that would be waiting for me when I went back home. Vacation or no vacation, things in the Ashland underworld were by no means settled. It made me tired just thinking about how many more hoods I’d have to take out before the others got the message to leave me the hell alone—if they ever did.

But more than that, I sensed that same kind of bone-tired weariness in Callie. She’d been fighting Dekes for months now, and the struggle had taken its toll on her. Oh, she seemed happy enough on the surface, cooking in her restaurant, laughing and joking with her staff and customers, but tension radiated off her like lightning from a storm cloud. Even now, in the privacy of her own office, her petite body was ramrod straight, and her troubled eyes kept drifting toward the door, as if she expected more of Dekes’s men to barge in at any second just because we were talking about the vamp. I was willing to bet that today wasn’t the first morning that Callie had woken up with tired smudges under her eyes and knots in her stomach—but it could be the very last, if I had my way with Dekes this afternoon.

“I understand,” I said in a gentler voice. “So how about we compromise? Instead of doing what I usually do, I’ll strongly suggest that Dekes leave you alone. We’ll leave it up to the vampire what happens from there. What he does from then on and all the consequences are on him, okay? Can you live with that?”

Callie nodded with obvious relief, but the tension didn’t leave Donovan’s rough features. The detective knew me far better than his fiancee did. He knew exactly what I’d do if the vampire failed to heed my advice: that I’d stick my knives in Dekes and walk away before the vamp’s body even hit the floor. And the worst part for Donovan was that he also realized there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. Not really. Oh, I imagined he could warn Dekes, but all that would do was make it harder for me to get to the vampire and delay the inevitable. And really, all Donovan’s talk about stopping me was just that—talk. Just like it had been back in Ashland. The detective wanted Callie to be safe, and deep down he was happy to let me be the one to get my hands dirty instead of him.

Good thing I liked playing in the muck.

12

There was nothing else to say, so Owen, Finn, Bria, and I left Callie and Donovan in the office. The four of us walked back through the kitchen and the front of the restaurant before stepping outside into the afternoon sun.