It took me a second to realize what he was really asking.
I gave him a flat look. “Are you kidding me? I’ve just had the worst date in the history of the world, and you’re actually hitting on me?”
An embarrassed flush filled his chiseled cheeks. “Well, when you put it like that, it does sound really bad.”
I snorted again. “You could say that. Although you and my foster brother would get along great. He would totally approve of your method of trying to seduce a girl when she’s down.”
“Hey, now,” the guy said, seeming genuinely affronted. “It’s not like that at all. You’re not the only one who’s had a bad . . . breakup. Trust me on that. But you just seem . . . interesting. More interesting than any girl I’ve met in a long time.”
My heart twisted, because those were more or less the same words that Sebastian had so sweetly said to me, the first of many that he’d used to draw me into his sticky web of lies. Anger rose up in me again, along with more than a little hurt.
“Listen, pal,” I snapped. “I’m a waitress. Just because you found me wandering around Northtown doesn’t mean that I have money. Even if I did, you wouldn’t be getting any of it.”
He shrugged again. “I don’t care what you do. I’m a blacksmith, so I’m not exactly rolling in dough either. Not yet, anyway. I have plans, though—”
“Good for you.” I cut him off.
The guy fell silent, still staring at me. I shifted under his scrutiny. For some reason, it seemed like he could see all of my secrets written in the harsh lines of my dust-covered face.
“This guy who left you stranded, he really did a number on you, didn’t he?”
I shrugged, trying not to let him see how close he was to the truth. Sebastian had ripped my heart to shreds, but that wasn’t the worst thing. He’d also made me doubt myself, especially my ability to tell the truth from a bald-faced lie. In a few short weeks, he’d undermined all the confidence that I had in myself as an assassin, and I hadn’t even realized that I was being taken for a fool until it was too late. If I couldn’t tell when a guy was playing me, then how could I ever be good enough to live up to what Fletcher had trained me to be?
How could I ever truly be the Spider?
But I couldn’t think about that right now. What mattered was getting to Finn. Time to go. My fingers curled around my knife. Time to kill.
“Thanks for the ride,” I said, opening the door and getting out of the car. “But I need to leave now.”
“But you didn’t even tell me your name,” the guy protested.
“It’s not like you told me yours.”
“Owen,” he said with a grin.
“Well, good night, Owen.”
He hesitated, obviously waiting for me to tell him my name, but I’d learned my lesson with Sebastian, one that I’d never, ever forget. Finally, when it became clear that I wasn’t going to give him any more information about myself, he nodded his head.
“Take care,” Owen finally said.
“Yeah. You too.”
He waved at me. “Until we meet again.”
I wanted to tell him that the odds of that were slim to none, but his crooked grin made me hold my tongue. He’d done me a huge favor, and I’d acted like a total bitch during the entire ride. So I raised my hand and waved back at him, as though he were dropping me off at home after a late-night date. I sort of wished that he was. He seemed nice, this Owen.
The smile slipped off my face. So had Sebastian.
Owen gave me a final wave, then made a U-turn in the parking lot and drove off. As soon as his taillights had disappeared, I crept over to the side of the building and peered around the corner. Apparently, the giant had finished his phone call, because all three men were getting out of their vehicle and heading for the front door. It wouldn’t take them long to get inside the building and make their way to Finn’s apartment, and I wanted to be in place before they did.
I tightened my grip on my knife and disappeared around the corner.
I hurried over to the side door of the building. Unlike the front door, which was always open, this one was locked. I reached for my magic, and a few seconds later, I was bending over the door, a pair of Ice picks clutched in my fingers. It took me longer than I would have liked to pick the lock, but I managed it, then tossed the thin shards of Ice off into the bushes that lined this side of the building.
I slipped inside and shut the door behind me. I was at the bottom of a stairwell, so I crept up the five steps to the first floor of the building. I peered through the glass set into the top of a door there, which let me see into the lobby. The three giants now stood in front of the elevator, waiting for it to come down so they could ride up to Finn’s floor.
I hurried up the steps, determined to beat them, even though I was sucking wind by the time I reached Finn’s floor. I stopped in the stairwell and looked out through the glass in that door, but the giants weren’t here yet.
I opened the door, stepped into the hallway, and hurried over to the elevator. Behind me, the door to Finn’s apartment was closed, but I ignored it. This was a new building, and he was the only tenant on this floor so far, something he crowed about every chance he got. Good. That meant that no one else would hear the screams that were coming. Besides, I didn’t need his help with this.
The lights on the elevator slowly lit up as the metal cart climbed from one floor to the next. I stayed where I was, right in front of the opening, and waited—just waited. I didn’t mind being patient. Not for this.
Ding!
The doors slid back, revealing the three giants. They’d been talking among themselves, and they weren’t even looking toward the opening, which gave me time to dart forward, raise my knife high, and slam it into the chest of the man closest to me. He screamed in surprise, and his buddies’ heads snapped around as they wondered why some ghostly-looking chick was stabbing their friend to death.
I didn’t give them time to wonder long.
I pulled my knife out of the giant’s chest and slashed it across his throat. Blood sprayed all over the inside of the elevator, and me too, but I didn’t care. I finally had a focus for my rage, and I was going to let it out.
The second giant raised his fists and swung at me, but I ducked down, twirled my knife in my hand, and rammed it into his thigh. He collapsed on top of the first giant, and I drove my knife into the side of his neck, feeling the blade scrape against the bones in his spine.