I raised my eyebrows, mildly surprised it had taken her this long to reach out to me. I grabbed the walkie- talkie, brought the speaker up to my mouth, and hit the button on the side.
“Why, hello, Clementine,” I drawled. “I was wondering when you might call.”
20
“Who the hell are you?” Clementine demanded.
Well, she was blunt, I’d give her that.
“I’m the person who took what you were after in the vault. That’s all you need to know.”
Clementine had heard my voice before in the rotunda and bathroom, so I made my tone low, throaty, and raspy, as though I’d spent my life chain-smoking and chugging down mountain moonshine—sort of like Sophia’s voice.
“Who are you?” she asked again. “Some sort of thief?”
Tension eased out of my shoulders. I’d thought she might put two and two together and realize that Gin Blanco, the Spider, was alive and well, especially given that I’d used my knives to kill some of her men. But apparently, she was still under the impression that Dixon had murdered me outside the bathroom. Good. That was good. Because if she didn’t realize who I really was, then she also wouldn’t realize that she had all the leverage she needed—Finn, Roslyn, Eva, and Phillip—to get me to do exactly what she wanted.
“Something like that,” I replied. “You didn’t think you were the only one who had the bright idea of hitting the big gala, now, did you? All that art on display here tonight, all those jewels, all the publicity surrounding the event. Why, the Briartop staff practically
“You bitch,” she snarled. “You piggybacked onto my heist.”
“You stung the museum, so I decided to sting you instead,” I corrected. “Honor among thieves is highly overrated. And why should I do all the hard, dirty work of getting into the vault when you and your crew were so eager to do it for me? I was prepared to crack it myself, but what happens when I finally go for it? Why, I find you in there ahead of me. So I decided to wait for the perfect moment to get what I came for—or, rather, to create the perfect moment.”
“The explosion.”
“The explosion,” I agreed. “You really shouldn’t leave bombs lying around where just anyone can find them.”
“And what was it
I plucked the diamond necklace I’d swiped from the vault earlier out of a pouch on my belt. I held it up, admiring the sparkle of the jewels for a moment, before tossing it over to Bria. “A lovely little necklace. Exquisite diamonds. All nice and shiny and ready to be fenced. That ebony tube you were after just happened to be a bonus.”
Silence. I could almost hear Clementine thinking, trying to figure out whether to admit that the tube was what she’d broken into the vault for. In the end, she decided to come clean. She didn’t have another play here, and we both knew it.
“And how did you even know that tube was what I was after?”
“Oh,” I said, “I have my ways. You wouldn’t want a girl to reveal all her trade secrets, now, would you?”
More silence.
“What’s your name?” Clementine asked.
“Well, I could give you a name, but I think we both know it wouldn’t be my real one,” I said. “So why bother?”
“Fine, Ms. No-Name. Here’s how this will go down. You either give me back what you stole, or I start killing people,” Clementine said, her voice just as polite and pleasant as mine. “Starting with Eva Grayson. I’m sure you saw her earlier tonight. Such a pretty girl. It would be a shame to have to put three bullets in her face.”
Owen stiffened, and his violet eyes blazed with anger. He started to open his mouth, but I shook my head and held my finger up to my lips.
I thought she might say something like that, and I was ready for her threat. I chuckled, making the sound light, carefree, and just a tad mocking. “You go right ahead. I don’t care in the slightest whether some poor little rich girl lives or dies.”
“Well, Mr. Grayson might care,” Clementine said, changing tactics. “Why don’t you put him on so I can ask him?”
Owen looked at me, but once again I shook my head.
“Grayson’s dead,” I rasped. “He took a couple of bullets helping me get out of the museum. Bled out quick after that.”
“I don’t believe you,” Clementine replied. “You went to a lot of trouble to get him out of the vault.”
“Wrong. I went to a lot of trouble to get my diamond necklace and your mystery tube out of the vault. Grayson was just there. I took him along as a human shield, in case I ran into any of your giants, which, of course, I did. He served his purpose, then outlived his usefulness.”
I stared at Owen. He frowned at me, doubt filling his eyes—doubt about me and my words. He was wondering what I was playing at. The fact that he couldn’t just trust me after everything we’d been through hurt, another briar burrowing into my heart. But I wasn’t surprised by his lack of trust. That was another thing I’d sliced in two when I’d cut Salina’s throat.
“Well, if Grayson’s dead, then why haven’t one of my men found his body yet?” Clementine asked.
“Because your men aren’t nearly as good at this game as I am. I hope you got them at a discount rate. I haven’t been impressed so far. I’ve killed, what, eight, nine of them now? And I haven’t got a scratch on me.”
Not true, of course, but she didn’t need to know about all my aches and pains, or my dwindling reserves of magic.
Clementine was quiet for a moment. Thinking. “Why haven’t you left the island yet?”
“Well, let’s just say that I didn’t count on you bringing along quite as many giants as you did. They’ve made things a bit more difficult than I expected.”
“You won’t get off Briartop alive,” she vowed, anger coloring her voice.
“If you want to lose more men, that’s fine by me. I don’t have any plans for the rest of the night, and I’ve got plenty of guns and ammo, thanks to all the weapons I’ve taken off your men. Rest assured that I have ten million little reasons to motivate me to live—and to kill whoever gets in my way.”
More silence.
I let Clementine stew a few seconds before speaking again. “However, all that doesn’t mean that we can’t come to some sort of agreement. Things don’t need to get any bloodier and more unpleasant than they are already. Besides, if there’s one thing I’m always interested in, it’s increasing my profit margin. I’m rather lazy that way.”
I was totally channeling Finn and his never-ending greed, but I figured it was an emotion the giant would understand well.
“What do you want?” Clementine asked.
Ah, the money question. Now she was finally getting down to business—and so was I.
“Now you’re talking, sugar. I consider myself a reasonable person. I’m willing to trade you the tube and its contents.”
“In exchange for what?”
“Two things. First, and most important, safe passage off the island.”
“And the second?”
I drew in a breath. “Second, you let all the hostages live.”
It was a calculated risk, but it was one I had to take.
“And why do you care so much about those folks?” Clementine asked. “Considering that just a minute ago, you were telling me to put a couple of bullets into Eva Grayson?”
