Mallory Parker was the perfect picture of an old-school Southern grandmother. Someone who was always polite, punctual, and oh-so-proper in everything from her speech to her dress to the way her pinkie crooked out just so as she sipped her tea.
Still, the longer I looked at her, the more I got the sense that there was more to Mallory than satin, lace, and diamonds. She might seem as old and fragile as the tea set on the table, but her blue eyes were sharp and bright as she took in everything around her.
“. . . go ahead with your Hawaiian vacation,” Lorelei said. “I can change your ticket so that you leave tonight.”
“But what about you, sweetheart?” Mallory said in a twangy voice that was far more hillbilly than high society. “We were supposed to take our annual trip together after the fund-raiser today, just like we always do.”
Lorelei flashed her grandmother a smile, even though it didn’t reach her eyes. “I have some business to wrap up, but I can fly out and meet you in a few days. So what do you say?”
“I say that it sounds like a grand old time,” I drawled. “I’ve always wanted to visit Hawaii. Aloha.”
Lorelei shot me an annoyed look. She didn’t like me eavesdropping. Too bad. I was going to do a lot worse than that today. My frilly getup must have thrown her off, because confusion filled her face as she tried to figure out who I was. I tipped up the brim of my hat to reveal my face.
Her jaw clenched. “What are you doing here?”
Instead of answering, I flagged down a passing waitress and plucked a tall, frosty mint julep off her tray. I took my sweet time leaning back in my chair and arranging my ridiculous skirt around my legs before sipping the drink. The cold, tart liquid slid down my throat, leaving behind a refreshing zing of mint in my mouth. Mmm. Perfect.
“Why, just enjoying the party,” I drawled again. “I always like to come out and support a good cause, don’t you? And there are so many listed on that sign. Although I find myself most intrigued by the name of the event itself. Lily Rose. Such a pretty name for such a pretty party.”
I took another sip of my mint julep. Lorelei kept glaring at me, admittedly with good reason. My words had been far more cruel than kind. Maybe I fit in with the society sharks better than I thought, even if I wasn’t bothering with fake smiles and syrupy-sweet bless your hearts.
Mallory Parker stared at me, wondering who was upsetting her granddaughter so very much. Her eyes narrowed with recognition. “Gin Blanco.”
I stared back, surprised that she knew me. We didn’t exactly move in the same social circles. But there was a knowing tone in Mallory’s voice, telling me that she knew exactly who I was and what I did. Interesting. Then again, I supposed that I shouldn’t have been surprised, given what Fletcher had tried to do for Lily Rose and Lorelei all those years ago.
“Ms. Blanco,” the dwarf said, leaning forward and holding her small, weathered hand out over the table to me. “I’ve seen you at various events with Mr. Lane, but I don’t think that we’ve ever been formally introduced. Mallory Parker.”
“Ma’am,” I murmured, shaking her hand.
Her grip was much firmer than I expected. Then again, she was a dwarf. Even at more than three hundred years old, she still had enough inherent strength to break every bone in my hand if she wanted to. And she was also smart enough to realize that I wasn’t here for the mint juleps.
“Lorelei?” Mallory asked, a hint of steel hardening her hillbilly voice. “What’s going on? Why is Ms. Blanco here?”
Lorelei opened her mouth, but I beat her to the punch.
“I’m here because Raymond Pike is trying to kill your granddaughter.”
* * *
All around us, the society ladies flitted to and fro like colorful butterflies, each one twitching the wings of her billowing skirt to attract maximum attention as they talked, laughed, and cut one another to pieces with soft words and sly smiles. A soft breeze gusted through the garden, causing a set of silver wind chimes dangling from one of the trellises to tinkle-tinkle together, but the notes sounded more mournful than cheery. Farther out in the garden, the tree branches tangled together, then scraped apart, while the limbs on a nearby rhododendron bush quivered, as if chilled by the cool fall wind.
But our table was completely quiet, except for Mallory’s sharp, sudden intake of breath.
Her gaze swung back to Lorelei. “Is this true? Has Raymond finally tracked you down?”
Lorelei shook her head, making the brim of her white hat bob up and down like a ship riding the ocean waves. “It’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“That’s not the question I asked, young lady,” Mallory snapped in true grandmotherly fashion.
Lorelei sighed. “Yes, Raymond is in Ashland.”
“How do you know for sure?” Mallory asked.
“There was an . . . incident on the Delta Queen riverboat a couple of days ago.”
The dwarf’s eyes narrowed. “What sort of incident?”
The way Lorelei was skirting around things, she’d never tell her grandmother what had really happened, so I decided to cut to the chase.
“Raymond Pike planted a bomb on the riverboat,” I said. “One that was full of potential shrapnel. Nails, to be exact.”
Mallory blinked. “Nails. Are you sure?”
“I got an up-close-and-personal view of the device, along with a second one that he left behind in the woods. Trust me, I’m sure.”
Lorelei kept her posture easy and relaxed, but her fingers fisted around the linen napkin in her hand, making the diamonds in her rose-and-thorn rune ring flash in warning.
And the faintest bit of magic surged off her.
It was just a brief pulse of power, like the chill you would feel if you opened a refrigerator door and then quickly shut it again, but it was there. Curious. Lorelei wasn’t known to be an elemental. Perhaps hiding her power had been Fletcher’s idea, another way to protect her from her brother. I wondered if she had the same metal magic that Pike did—and if she was as strong in her power as he was.
Lorelei got a grip on her magic, smothering it, but she didn’t bother to hide the death stare she was giving me. She was plenty pissed at me for dropping the dime on Raymond being in town. Too damn bad. Yeah, ratting out Lorelei to the old lady wasn’t exactly the nicest thing I’d ever done, but I doubted that Lorelei would have agreed to see me otherwise, much less answer any of my questions about her half brother. She still probably wouldn’t do that, now that I’d riled her up.
Mallory drummed her gnarled fingers on the table, deep in thought. “So that’s why you want me on a plane to Hawaii. You’re trying to get me out of the way. So you can do what, exactly? Stay behind and kill Raymond yourself?”
“That is exactly what I’m going to do,” Lorelei snapped. “Just like I’ve been dreaming about for years now. My only regret is that my father isn’t still alive so I could do the same to him.”
The cold venom in Lorelei’s voice shouldn’t have surprised me, but somehow it did. It was hard for me to reconcile what I knew about Lorelei Parker, suave smuggler to the stars, with that beaten, battered girl I’d met all those years ago. But as I looked at Lorelei, her features slowly darkened, bruises ringing out from around her eyes to blacken her entire face, just as it had been back then. I blinked, and the illusion vanished, although not the memories it left behind.
Mallory stabbed her finger at her granddaughter. “Well, you can forget about it, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere. Not until that bastard is dead. And you are absolutely not taking him on by yourself.”
Lorelei sighed. “Now, Grandma . . .”
“Don’t you Grandma me,” Mallory snapped. “I already lost one granddaughter to a Pike. I’m not going to lose another one.”
She sucked in a deep breath, then let loose with a string of salty curses that let us know exactly what she thought o
f the not-so-dearly-departed Renaldo Pike and his son, Raymond. Mallory’s voice wasn’t all that loud, but her hillbilly tone was sharp and vicious enough to attract the attention of the society sharks, who were always hungry for more drama and gossip. The other ladies stared and whispered behind their white-gloved hands, but Mallory ignored them and kept right on cursing.
I grinned, making mental note of her words. I’d have to remember them for later.
Finally, Mallory wound down, although she kept muttering to herself and tapping her fingers on the table. Suddenly, she stopped and focused on me again.
“Why are you here, Ms. Blanco? What’s your interest in all this? I would think that such matters would be beneath your notice, given your new position as the head of the underworld.”
I arched an eyebrow. “And I would think that someone like you wouldn’t know anything at all about the Ashland underworld.”
“Bah.” She waved her hand, making her many rings sparkle. “Where do you think I got all these diamonds from? I earned them, with every shipment of booze and guns and money that I smuggled into Ashland. I didn’t marry or sleep my way into them, like so many of these simpering fools here did.”
She glared at the ladies who’d been staring at us, and they quickly returned to their previous conversations, although they kept sneaking glances at us.
I looked at her with new appreciation. So Mallory Parker had been a smuggler, and she’d no doubt taught her great-granddaughter all the tricks of the trade. Maybe she’d even passed her business on to Lorelei, just as Fletcher had done to me. Another way Lorelei and I were more alike than I’d ever thought possible.
When it seemed everyone was minding her own business again, Mallory turned her steely blue gaze back to me. “I will repeat my question. Why do you care about Raymond Pike and what he’s up to in Ashland?”
“Normally, I wouldn’t care who was trying to kill your granddaughter. In fact, I would cheer them on, given all the men she’s sent to try to murder me over the past several months.”
Mallory looked at Lorelei, who shrugged.
“It’s just business, Grandma. Eliminating threats. You’re the one who taught me how to do that, remember?”
Lorelei’s calm, nonchalant tone caught my attention, as did her specific words. Eliminating threats. What did she mean by that? Because she hadn’t eliminated me. That’s what I had done to every person she’d sicced on me. Or was there more to her attempts to take me out than I’d realized? And if so, what, exactly?
The dwarf’s lips puckered at Lorelei’s words, but warm pride flashed in her eyes, making them sparkle even brighter than her diamonds. The same sort of pride that had always lit up Fletcher’s face whenever I’d mastered or used one of his lessons. I wondered what Mallory had taught her granddaughter about eliminating threats.
The old woman waved her hand, telling me to continue.
“As I said, I wouldn’t normally care about Lorelei and her enemies.”
“But?” Mallory asked.
“But Raymond Pike planted his bomb on the Delta Queen, which happens to belong to Phillip Kincaid, a friend of mine. I take attacks on my friends very personally.”
“I’ve heard that about you,” Mallory scoffed. “Idiot. I hope you know that such sentimental foolishness isn’t a luxury someone like you can afford to indulge in. Especially in your current position. Not if you want to survive. You’re hanging on to control of the underworld by a thread, and it is a thin, tenuous thread at best.”
I shifted in my chair, uncomfortable at just how right she was. “And you’re an expert on survival?” I sniped back.
Mallory’s thin chest puffed up. “I am in Ashland, sweetheart. I was here in the beginning, back when this town was founded, and I’ll be here for many more years to come.”
I couldn’t argue with that, since she was at least two hundred fifty years older than I was—and smarter and far more sly than her garden dress and her soft Southern demeanor implied.
Mallory gave me a syrupy smile, the kind that was almost always accompanied by a knife in the back. Lorelei winced, apparently having seen that smile before. And I suspected that, old lady or not, Mallory Parker was as hard-core as they came and could outthink and outplot almost anyone, including me.
“Tell me one thing,” she purred. “Since we’re all just businesswomen sitting here shooting the breeze.”
“What?” I didn’t bother to keep the wariness out of my voice.
Her smile widened, and I realized that I’d stepped right into her sticky web, whatever it was. “How much is your going rate, Ms. Blanco? Or do you prefer to be called the Spider when actually negotiating?”
My danger radar immediately pinged up into the red-alert level. “Why do you want to know?”
“Because I want to hire you.”
“For what?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
Mallory’s smile widened, her expression sweeter, softer, and more innocent than ever before, even as her eyes gleamed with the cold satisfaction of a hunter having snared something in her trap. “Why, to kill Raymond Pike, of course.”
15
An angry blush bloomed in Lorelei’s cheeks, which turned as blood-red as the roses on the white trellis closest to our table. She shot me another hate-filled glare, as though this ridiculous proposal had come from me and not her grandmother.
“Absolutely not,” Lorelei ground out the words. “I don’t need Blanco’s help, Grandma. I can take care of myself—and you too. I’ve been doing it for years now.”
Mallory crossed her arms over her chest. “You are my granddaughter, and I will do whatever is necessary to protect you from that man. I’ve kept track of him. From what I’ve heard, he’s even more dangerous and depraved than his father ever was.”
Lorelei’s jaw clenched tightly. “And you think that I haven’t been watching out for Raymond too? That I haven’t been waiting for him to find me? I know exactly how twisted he is. I’m the one who lived in that house with him, remember? He always hated Mom and me. Was always jealous of how much attention our father paid her. Raymond tore Mom down with his cruel words and stupid pranks every chance he got. For years. Making Mom look bad and getting us both in trouble with my father was the thing he loved best.”
Mallory’s face softened at the mention of Lily Rose and the torture she and Lorelei had endured. “I know you can take care of yourself, sweetheart. But you should let me do my job and take care of you too. I love you too much to lose you to him.”
She reached over, put her brown, wrinkled hand on top of Lorelei’s pale, smooth one, and gave it a gentle squeeze. Another bit of power rolled off Lorelei, this blast even colder and stronger than the first one had been.
My eyes narrowed. I knew Ice magic when I felt it, but her previous pulse of power had been different, more like Pike’s metal magic. Ice and metal . . . Could Lorelei actually be gifted in two elements? Like me? If so, how had she managed to keep that hidden all these years? Especially given her position in the Ashland underworld? I’d underestimated her. It seemed she was even better at keeping secrets than I was.
For a moment, Lorelei’s face filled with raw, naked emotion, along with a bone-deep weariness. In that instant, I saw the wounded girl she had once been—and how part of her ached to just let Mallory handle everything. To stop being tough and strong, just for a little while, and let someone else take care of things for a change.
Take care of her.
Her hurt and heartache punched me in the gut and stole my breath away. Because they were feelings that I knew all too well, ones that had been building inside me ever since I’d taken out Mab and the Ashland underworld had discovered that I was the Spider and decided that they wanted me dead no matter what.
But Lorelei couldn’t step aside any more than I could, especially not now. The moment passed, the feel of her Ice magic van
ished, and her face hardened again. She squeezed Mallory’s hand back, then released it and took hold of her black satin clutch sitting on the table.
“I’ll take care of Raymond,” Lorelei said. “Don’t worry about him—or me. When the time’s right, I’ll kill him. Like I should have done all those years ago.”
Once again, Lorelei shot me a harsh, accusing look, as if this was all my fault.
Mallory waved her hand, causing her diamond rings to flash again. “That’s all well and good, but there’s no reason not to get some added insurance by hiring Ms. Blanco. It’s not like we can’t afford her. That’s why we’ve done so many nasty things over the years—to have money to pay for little incidentals like these.”
“Incidentals? Let me make one thing clear: I’m not your fucking hired help,” I snapped. “So don’t talk about me like I’m not sitting right here.”
Mallory sniffed, then picked up her teacup and took a dainty sip, her pinkie perfectly positioned, as though she really were the sweet, innocent old lady she appeared to be and not a former smuggler who could curse better than a sailor and was trying to hire me to do a hit.
Across the garden, a woman said Mallory’s name and waved to her.
“Why, Delilah!” Mallory called out. “Bless your heart! Don’t you look lovely!”
Delilah beamed and gestured for Mallory to join the group of women she was chatting with. Mallory smiled and waved back. But as soon as Delilah turned her head, a dark scowl crinkled the dwarf’s face.
“I can’t stand that woman,” Mallory muttered. “All she does is talk about her stupid horses. But she gives the gardens a hefty annual donation, so I have to go make nice. You two should do the same. After all, we’re all on the same side now.”
I snorted. “I doubt that.”
Mallory ignored me and got to her feet. “Ten million should do it,” she said. “Ten million dollars for you to kill Raymond. It’s really quite generous, considering that it’s several times more than your going rate.”
“And how do you know my going rate?”