I shrugged. "What can I say? I don't like bullies. That's what all of them were - just like you."
Her eyes glittered in her face, but her voice was calm, friendly even, when she spoke again. "Actually, you killing Mab has made life better for a lot of folks, including me. My boys and I have had a lot of fun with that Fire elemental bitch out of the picture. My protection business has been booming. Of course, what the idiots who hire me don't realize is that there's no one around anymore to keep me from taking whatever I want, whenever I want it, especially from them."
"Well, I'm happy that I could help a small business succeed."
"But the problem is that a lot of other people have had the exact same idea," she continued, as if I hadn't spoken. "In some ways, things are even worse than before. At least, with Mab around, you knew where you stood: below her. Now everybody's fighting everybody else. It makes things . . . messy for us all. It's one of the reasons I've been thinking about getting out of town for a while now. Too much damn drama going on these days."
"Pardon me if I don't shed any tears for the trials and tribulations of Ashland's criminal element," I said. "I've got my own problems with them, in case you haven't heard."
Clementine grinned. "Oh, I've heard, all right. Did you know there's a huge betting pool about who will kill you and when they'll do it? Last time I'd heard, the pot was more than a million bucks."
I didn't respond, but the news didn't surprise me. There was already some fool supposedly selling T-shirts with some cheesy slogan about eating at the Pork Pit and living through the experience. I didn't know whether to be flattered or annoyed that people were cashing in on my notoriety. Finn would have been annoyed, especially since he wasn't getting a cut of the action.
"Really?" I asked. "Well, who am I to stand in the way of commerce? Although I pity the folks who try to collect on that particular wager. It's a deadly gamble."
Her grin widened. "I thought you might say something like that. That's another way we're alike. You make sure that your enemies don't live too long, just like I do."
"Well, I'd say that you've failed pretty miserably at that so far tonight, since I'm still breathing. Then again, you should never trust a minion to do something important, especially one who doesn't know when to quit with the self-tanner." I looked at Dixon. "You do realize that you look like a pumpkin on steroids, right?"
"Hey!" Dixon shouted, his features turning petulant and sullen. "I'll have you know that this was a spray tan. The best spray tan money can buy."
Opal rolled her eyes. So did Clementine.
"And my point is made. If you want something done right . . ." I let my voice trail off.
"Oh, don't you worry, Ms. Blanco," Clementine said, flexing her free hand into a fist and taking a menacing step forward. "I plan to give you my personal attention this time around - "
A sharp, high-pitched squawk sounded through the walkie-talkie on Clementine's belt, followed by several more distinctive sounds.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Gunshots burped through the device. Looked like Bria and Xavier had finally pulled their triggers on the giants in the rotunda, so to speak.
"Clementine! Clementine!" a voice screamed through the walkie-talkie. "We're taking fire! We're taking - "
The voice abruptly cut off with a loud gurgle, although other screams and more crack-crack-cracks of gunfire continued to sound through the walkie-talkie. Clementine stared down at the device, then her head snapped up to me.
"What the hell did you do, you meddlesome bitch?" she demanded.
"You have your crew, and I have mine," I said. "Right now, they're killing your giants in the rotunda. And when they're done up there, they'll come down here and help me finish off you and the rest of your sick, twisted family - "
Clementine didn't bother responding to my taunts.
Instead, she raised her gun and fired at me.
Chapter 24
The second Clementine started to raise her gun, I ran to my right, ducking behind the fisherman statue.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The three bullets she'd just shot at me slammed into the statue. One of them punched through the brim of the old man's hat, causing the marble to wail.
Dixon also raised his gun to fire at me - just as Owen stepped out from the shadows.
"Eva!" Owen screamed. "Get down!"
Eva twisted out of Dixon's grasp and immediately dropped to the ground. Dixon whipped around, searching for this new danger even as he brought his weapon up. Owen didn't give him a chance to react. He raised his gun and shot the bastard in the face.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
With each shot, Owen stepped forward. He knew as well as I did that it took a lot of bullets to put down most giants, so he emptied the whole clip into Dixon, catching him in the face, throat, and chest. Owen might not have been as good a shot as Bria and Xavier, but Dixon was a big target and hard to miss, especially with Owen closing the distance between them.
The giant screamed and jerked as the bullets tore through his tan flesh. Shock and surprise filled his face - what was left of it, anyway. Owen had blown off a chunk of Dixon's chin and peppered his throat with bullets. Good. It was time the giant got a taste of his own medicine.
Click.
The gun was empty, so Owen tossed it aside and grabbed another one from against the small of his back. He didn't have to use it, though.
Dixon opened his mouth and tried to mumble something, but apparently, it's hard to talk when the bottom half of your face is missing. He staggered back, tripped over Eva, who was huddled into a tight ball on the stone behind him, and did a header into the water.
"Dixon!" Clementine screamed. "Dixon!"
But it was too late for her nephew, and we all knew it. Owen raced forward and helped Eva to her feet. He shoved his sister behind him and started backing up, moving his gun back and forth between Opal and Clementine, ready to shoot them if they made a move toward him and Eva.
Across the distance, Owen's eyes met mine. He hesitated, and I saw the worry and concern in his gaze as he debated whether to step away from Eva and try to help me. But I made the choice for him.
"Go!" I screamed at him. "Go! Go! Go!"
Owen hesitated a moment more before nodding, grabbing Eva's hand, and heading toward the front of the boathouse, keeping to the outer circular path and darting from column to column and statue to statue for cover. I sprinted from the statue over to a column on the far right side of the boathouse so the giants couldn't shoot all of us at once.