Web of Deceit - (Elemental Assassin, #2.5) Page 0,2

him and started scanning the house in front of her. We’d gone over the photos and blueprints a dozen times, and I knew that Gin was comparing the physical house with the mental image that she’d formed in her mind. Marking all the entrances and exits, just in case things didn’t go as planned.

The plan itself was simple. Gin would attract Jackson’s interest when he made his usual round of the weekend parties, tell him that she was a runaway, and get him to take her back to his older brother Jimmy’s row house. Once inside, Gin would kill Jimmy, leave the house, and walk the several blocks over to the Pork Pit, where I’d be waiting for her.

I just hadn’t told my apprentice that I’d be watching from the shadows to make sure that everything went smoothly tonight. No reason to hurt the girl’s pride just because I worried about her like I was her real father. Just because I didn’t want to admit that she was growing up and coming into her own as an assassin, as the Spider. She was already better than I’d been at her age. Colder. Calmer. More focused. One day soon, she’d be better than I’d ever dreamed of being.

I just hoped that my training her would be enough to make up for how I’d failed her so miserably before. For my part in her mother and older sister’s deaths. For how I’d failed to protect Gin and the rest of her family from the fiery wrath of Mab Monroe.

Perhaps it was my dark thoughts or the intense focus of my gaze on her, but Gin sensed that not all was as it should be. She turned away from the house and scanned the rest of the block, her gray eyes peering into the shadows. Maybe the cracked pavement under my feet had given me away. As a Stone elemental, Gin could sense vibrations in whatever form the element took around her, from a brick house to a concrete sidewalk to a weathered granite tombstone. People’s feelings and emotions sank into the stone around them over time, and Gin could listen to and interpret those impressions. Perhaps she could sense my mixed feelings of worry and pride even now, rippling through the pavement toward her.

Jackson fished something out of the back of the car, and I spotted a glint of metal before he stuck the gun in his coat pocket. I frowned. The kid brother packing a pistol had not been part of my calculations tonight, but I wasn’t too worried. Jackson wasn’t the only one here with a gun tonight or the know-how to use it.

Jackson moved to take Gin’s arm and started leading her toward the row house. After a moment, Gin let him take her the direction that she wanted to go anyway. Jackson escorted her up the sagging steps and opened the door. Golden light from inside the house slanted across Gin’s face, emphasizing the hard set of her features. Whatever she might be feeling on the inside, no emotions flickered in her eyes. No doubt about what she was here to do, and certainly no fear. My heart swelled with pride. She was my girl, all right.

“I can’t wait to introduce you to my brother,” Jackson’s voice drifted across the street to where Jo-Jo and I stood. “He’s going to love you, Gin.”

“Of course he will,” she replied. “He’s going to love me to death.”

With those ominous words, my apprentice stepped inside the house.

#

The door had barely closed behind Gin when Jo-Jo poked me in the shoulder.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” the dwarf said. “Go around to the back of the house and keep an eye on her in case she gets into trouble.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

Jo-Jo’s pale eyes narrowed, but her lips curved up into a smile, showing the laugh lines on her face. “Don’t you tease me, Fletcher Lane. I’ve got a hundred-plus years on you. Didn’t your mama ever teach you to respect your elders?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I repeated and ducked out of the way before Jo-Jo could jab me with her finger again.

I left the dwarf behind, crossed the street, and slipped into the alley that ran beside the row house. Garbage carpeted the pavement, and the steady, cool, October breeze sent more than one soda can skittering into the wall. The air reeked of sour beer and stale cigarettes. These sorts of places always smelled the same, as the sweat and desperation so