"C'mon, Phillip. I might be an idiot, but I'm not blind," I said, mocking him with his own words. "I see the way the two of you look at each other."
He grimaced. "And I can see that you're not too happy about it. So I thought that I wouldn't bring it up tonight. Or any night, for that matter."
This time I waggled my eyebrows at him. "My baby sister being not so secretly in love with one of Ashland's most ruthless crime bosses. What's not to like?"
Phillip's grimace deepened because every word I said was true. Eva was crazy about him, and Phillip felt the same way about her, despite the fact that she was still in college and he, owner of the illustrious Delta Queen riverboat casino, wasn't exactly one of the nicest guys in town. Then again, nice guys only got one thing in Ashland: dead.
Still, I couldn't judge Phillip, at least not for his profession, since I'd done plenty of bad things over the years myself. Not to mention the fact that I'd spent the last several months dating an assassin.
I let out a breath. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. Not really. I want Eva to be happy, and you too. It's just . . ."
"You think that I'm too old for her," Phillip finished. "And that what I do and who I am are too dangerous for her to be around. And you would be absolutely correct on all counts."
Eva had recently turned twenty, while Phillip, a childhood friend of ours, was about ten years older. He was right. I didn't like the age gap, but I was more concerned about Eva becoming a target for all of Phillip's enemies who might use her to hurt him.
Instead of agreeing with him, though, I shrugged, not sure what to say that wouldn't make things worse. Something that was becoming more and more of a problem lately. My mouth and the words that erupted out of it kept getting me in trouble with the people I cared about.
Sierra returned with our drinks, keeping me from digging myself in any deeper. Phillip slugged down his Scotch in one quick swallow, put his empty glass back on her tray, and told her to bring him another one. I pushed my gin off to one side of the table, having lost my thirst for it.
We didn't speak, and the pulsing music did nothing to break the sudden awkwardness between us. It was only after Sierra brought him another drink that Phillip finally looked at me again.
"Don't worry," he said. "I'm not going to lay a hand on Eva."
"I know - I know you wouldn't do something like that."
I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth. Because I had misjudged Phillip in the past. Hated him, reviled him, thought him to be the worst sort of scum imaginable and actively wished him dead - for years. And I'd lost so much because of it.
Because of Salina Dubois and all of her damn lies.
Doubt flickered in Phillip's eyes, and I knew he was wondering whether I really meant what I'd said. His suspicion was well earned, and it hurt as much as if a giant had punched me in the stomach. Every time I thought that I was finally moving past what Salina had done to me and my loved ones, something like this came up - some small, stupid, thoughtless thing that I said or did that brought up all of the past anguish, anger, and accusations. But I had no one to blame but myself. I was the one who had inflicted Salina on everyone simply by blindly loving and trusting her.
But before I could reassure Phillip once again that I knew that he would never hurt Eva, he frowned and looked toward the front of the club.
"Well, well, well," he said, letting out a low whistle of appreciation. "Look who else came out for a little fun tonight."
I glanced in that direction and immediately froze.
She was on the tall side and slim, with a walk that was somehow simple and seductive at the same time. Unlike most of the other women, who were wearing as little as they could get away with, she wore jeans, low-heeled black boots, and a black leather jacket over a scarlet tank top, all the better to conceal the knives she carried. She almost always wore dark colors, but they suited her.
She wasn't the most beautiful woman in the club, but there was something about her that caught your eye and made you keep watching her. Maybe it was the small, amused smile that always seemed ready to play across her lips or her long, confident strides or the cold, clear light that burned in her gray eyes.
Whispers sprang up in her wake as she moved through the club, but she ignored them. She'd gotten good at that these past few months. She'd had to. Still, some of the murmurs drifted over to me, despite the music.
"Is that her?"
"Oh, yeah, that's her, all right."
"Better steer clear, man. Or she'll carve you to pieces."
Of course, the music ended just in time for everyone in the club to hear that last statement, and the woman in question paused to stare at the dwarf who'd said it. His mouth gaped open, and he shrank back, trying to disappear into the crowd. She let him. Her eyes flicked around, calmly going from one face to another, but suddenly, everyone was very interested in heading back out onto the dance floor or getting a drink from the bar. After a moment, she walked on.
Gin Blanco. The assassin the Spider. The woman I loved - the one I'd betrayed.
Chapter 2
Gin strode over to the elemental Ice bar. A blond woman walked beside her - Bria, her younger sister - but I was completely focused on Gin.
As if by magic, as soon as she approached, two seats opened up at the end of the packed bar. But it wasn't any kind of elemental power at work. It was just Gin walking into a room and people hurrying to do whatever they thought would please her - and keep them from getting sliced open with one of her silverstone knives.
One of the few perks of having a badass reputation like the Spider's. One that Gin never seemed to pay much attention to, which was one of the many things that I loved about her. With her Ice and Stone magic, Gin was one of the most powerful elementals in Ashland, and she could have easily stepped up and taken the late Mab Monroe's place as the queen of the underworld. But she hadn't. All Gin wanted was to be left alone to live a nice, quiet life.
For a while, I'd been part of that nice, quiet life. Well, as nice and quiet as Gin's life ever got, which wasn't very, given all the bad guys who wanted her dead. Even now, after everything that had happened between us, I still wanted to be part of that life, her life, even though I didn't deserve it anymore - or most especially her.
Gin sat down on one stool, and her sister plopped down on the other one, just as cool and confident as could be. Detective Bria Coolidge was an Ice elemental and powerful in her own right.
Gin leaned forward and said something to the bartender. For a moment, the pale blue light burning in the man's eyes flickered as he lost his hold on his Ice magic. He was nervous, but he shouldn't be. Gin wouldn't kill him, unless he tried to kill her first. And if he did, well, it would be the last thing that he ever did.