Cindy turned her head at exactly the right moment to see me step out from behind the trees.
"Dave!" she yelped. "Watch out!"
As always, I cursed fickle, fickle luck for messing with me yet again, but there was nothing I could do but follow through with my strike.
Thanks to Cindy's warning, Dave was able to sidestep my initial attack. The giant was quicker than I expected, and he grabbed hold of my arm and shoved me into the closest tree before stepping up and driving his fist into my kidneys.
I hissed from the impact, but I returned the favor by snapping my elbow back into his ribs as hard as I could. Dave took several steps back, which put him right in Owen's path. Owen crashed through the middle of the briars, raised his gun high, and smashed the weapon into the side of Dave's head. The giant grunted, reached out, and tackled Owen. The two of them fell to the ground, rolling back and forth in front of the thorns.
I whirled to face the other giant, but Cindy must have started moving away the second she saw me, because she was already fifteen feet away from my position. Cindy kept right on moving, even as she fumbled for her walkie-talkie. I started after her, but I'd only taken three steps when my boot snagged on one of the briars, making me pull up short. Even as I tried to yank free, I knew that I wouldn't be able to get to the giant in time. Helpless, I watched as Cindy raised the radio to her lips -
Pfft!
The walkie-talkie shattered into a dozen pieces.
Pfft! Pfft!
Two holes suddenly appeared in Cindy's throat. Her eyes widened in pain and surprise, but she dropped to the ground without making another sound.
Dave managed to throw Owen off him and scramble to his feet. He turned to shout or maybe run -
Pfft! Pfft!
Two holes appeared in his forehead, and he went down as well.
I finally pulled myself free from the branch and darted behind the closest tree, wondering what this new danger might be, but there was no need.
A second later, Bria stepped into sight, Xavier right behind her, each holding a gun at the ready. I let out a tense breath and walked out where she could see me.
"Hey there, baby sister," I drawled. "It's about time you got here."
* * *
We all stood there, listening, but the only sounds outside the museum were the wind rustling through the garden and Owen's raspy breathing. Wherever they were, the other giants hadn't heard the fight, which meant that we were safe for at least a few minutes.
Bria stalked over and hugged me tight. I returned her embrace, feeling a little bit of the worry ease from my body. Two against Clementine and the rest of her crew wasn't great odds. Four against all those giants wasn't much better, but it leveled the playing field a bit, especially given what I had in mind.
"Are you okay?" Bria whispered in my ear. "I was worried about you."
I pulled back. "I'm fine. Just a little bruised and bloody, but that's pretty much par for the course for me, isn't it?"
Bria's gaze swept over my body, taking in the tattered dress, the long, thin scratches on my hands, arms, and legs from crawling through the briars and bushes, the blood that coated me like some sort of macabre body art. She grimaced and shook her head, telling me exactly how battered and beat-up I looked. And that didn't even take into account all of the dull, throbbing aches in my body from where the giants had hit me tonight. But I was still alive, breathing, and upright, at least.
My eyes dropped to the gun in Bria's hand. "When did you get a silencer?"
"This?" she said, holding it up so I could see it better. "It was a present from Finn for our three-month anniversary."
"How romantic."
She grinned. "Well, at least it's useful, and it does last longer than flowers or a box of candy. I thought it might come in handy tonight. I know how you love to keep things quiet."
"That I do," I said, moving past her.
I went over to Owen and touched his arm, the one that wasn't injured. "Are you okay?"
He nodded, then winced as he gingerly probed a bruise that was already forming on his right cheek from where he'd been grappling with the giant. "I've been better, but I'll live."
I turned back to Bria. "Where's Jo-Jo?"
"She's on her way," Bria said. "She and Cooper were having dinner at Underwood's. She said it would take a while for them to get over here. She told me to come on, that you'd need me and Xavier before she could get here."
I nodded. Jo-Jo had a bit of precognition. Most Air elementals did, since the currents and emotions on the wind whispered to them of all the actions people might take. I didn't know what Jo-Jo might have gotten a glimpse of, but if she'd sent Bria on ahead, that meant that things were going to get a whole lot worse before they got better - if we all didn't get dead in the meantime.
"Tell me about the giants."
Bria shook her head. "We'd just made it across the bridge and slipped into the gardens when we heard them coming our way. One minute, Xavier and I were alone. The next, there were giants everywhere. In the parking lots, on the bridge, in the gardens. All yelling back and forth and looking for something - or someone. So we found a place to hide and waited them out. It took a while, but eventually, they all headed back up to the museum. The last we saw of them, they were clustered around some moving trucks by the entrance. That's when we headed in this direction."
"Yeah," Xavier chimed in. "We were wondering where you and Owen might be, but then we heard someone shooting. So we just followed the sound of the gunshots. And look, they led us straight to you, Gin."
He grinned at me, and I returned the gesture.
"Gunshots are a pretty good indicator that I'm lurking around," I said.
"So what's the situation on this end?" Xavier asked.
I quickly filled them in on all my wanderings, killings, and stealings in the museum, including how I'd gotten Owen out of the vault and swiped Mab's will.
Bria frowned. "Okay, robbing the partygoers and the museum I understand. But why would Clementine want to steal Mab's will?"
I shrugged. "I don't know, but she must want it something fierce to go to all this trouble - "
The walkie-talkie on my belt crackled. I'd turned the volume down while Owen and I had been hiding, although I'd made sure it was loud enough for me still to hear the giants' squawks to one another as they searched for us. But this voice sounded louder and far more forceful than the others, the cadence of the words different, so I adjusted the volume so that we could all hear what was being said. I didn't catch all the words, but I didn't have to, since she apparently decided to repeat herself.Clementine's voice came through loud and clear. "I'll say it again. This message is for whoever's been going around killing my boys. We need to talk."
I raised my eyebrows, mildly surprised it had taken her this long to reach out to me. I grabbed the walkie-talkie, brought the speaker up to my mouth, and hit the button on the side.
"Why, hello, Clementine," I drawled. "I was wondering when you might call."
Chapter 20
"Who the hell are you?" Clementine demanded.
Well, she was blunt, I'd give her that.
"I'm the person who took what you were after in the vault. That's all you need to know."
Clementine had heard my voice before in the rotunda and bathroom, so I made my tone low, throaty, and raspy, as though I'd spent my life chain-smoking and chugging down mountain moonshine - sort of like Sophia's voice.
"Who are you?" she asked again. "Some sort of thief?"
Tension eased out of my shoulders. I'd thought she might put two and two together and realize that Gin Blanco, the Spider, was alive and well, especially given that I'd used my knives to kill some of her men. But apparently, she was still under the impression that Dixon had murdered me outside the bathroom. Good. That was good. Because if she didn't realize who I really was, then she also wouldn't realize that she had all the leverage she needed - Finn, Roslyn, Eva, and Phillip - to get me to do exactly what she wanted.
"Something like that," I replied. "You didn't think you were the only one who had the bright idea of hitting the big gala, now, did you? All that art on display here tonight, all those jewels, all the publicity surrounding the event. Why, the Briartop staff practically begged me to show up and take something."
"You bitch," she snarled. "You piggybacked onto my heist."
"You stung the museum, so I decided to sting you instead," I corrected. "Honor among thieves is highly overrated. And why should I do all the hard, dirty work of getting into the vault when you and your crew were so eager to do it for me? I was prepared to crack it myself, but what happens when I finally go for it? Why, I find you in there ahead of me. So I decided to wait for the perfect moment to get what I came for - or, rather, to create the perfect moment."
"The explosion."
"The explosion," I agreed. "You really shouldn't leave bombs lying around where just anyone can find them."
"And what was it exactly that you came for?" Clementine asked.
I plucked the diamond necklace I'd swiped from the vault earlier out of a pouch on my belt. I held it up, admiring the sparkle of the jewels for a moment, before tossing it over to Bria. "A lovely little necklace. Exquisite diamonds. All nice and shiny and ready to be fenced. That ebony tube you were after just happened to be a bonus."
Silence. I could almost hear Clementine thinking, trying to figure out whether to admit that the tube was what she'd broken into the vault for. In the end, she decided to come clean. She didn't have another play here, and we both knew it.
"And how did you even know that tube was what I was after?"
"Oh," I said, "I have my ways. You wouldn't want a girl to reveal all her trade secrets, now, would you?"
More silence.
"What's your name?" Clementine asked.
"Well, I could give you a name, but I think we both know it wouldn't be my real one," I said. "So why bother?"
"Fine, Ms. No-Name. Here's how this will go down. You either give me back what you stole, or I start killing people," Clementine said, her voice just as polite and pleasant as mine. "Starting with Eva Grayson. I'm sure you saw her earlier tonight. Such a pretty girl. It would be a shame to have to put three bullets in her face."
Owen stiffened, and his violet eyes blazed with anger. He started to open his mouth, but I shook my head and held my finger up to my lips.
I thought she might say something like that, and I was ready for her threat. I chuckled, making the sound light, carefree, and just a tad mocking. "You go right ahead. I don't care in the slightest whether some poor little rich girl lives or dies."
"Well, Mr. Grayson might care," Clementine said, changing tactics. "Why don't you put him on so I can ask him?"
Owen looked at me, but once again I shook my head.
"Grayson's dead," I rasped. "He took a couple of bullets helping me get out of the museum. Bled out quick after that."
"I don't believe you," Clementine replied. "You went to a lot of trouble to get him out of the vault."
"Wrong. I went to a lot of trouble to get my diamond necklace and your mystery tube out of the vault. Grayson was just there. I took him along as a human shield, in case I ran into any of your giants, which, of course, I did. He served his purpose, then outlived his usefulness."
I stared at Owen. He frowned at me, doubt filling his eyes - doubt about me and my words. He was wondering what I was playing at. The fact that he couldn't just trust me after everything we'd been through hurt, another briar burrowing into my heart. But I wasn't surprised by his lack of trust. That was another thing I'd sliced in two when I'd cut Salina's throat.
"Well, if Grayson's dead, then why haven't one of my men found his body yet?" Clementine asked.
"Because your men aren't nearly as good at this game as I am. I hope you got them at a discount rate. I haven't been impressed so far. I've killed, what, eight, nine of them now? And I haven't got a scratch on me."
Not true, of course, but she didn't need to know about all my aches and pains, or my dwindling reserves of magic.
Clementine was quiet for a moment. Thinking. "Why haven't you left the island yet?"
"Well, let's just say that I didn't count on you bringing along quite as many giants as you did. They've made things a bit more difficult than I expected."
"You won't get off Briartop alive," she vowed, anger coloring her voice.
"If you want to lose more men, that's fine by me. I don't have any plans for the rest of the night, and I've got plenty of guns and ammo, thanks to all the weapons I've taken off your men. Rest assured that I have ten million little reasons to motivate me to live - and to kill whoever gets in my way."
More silence.
I let Clementine stew a few seconds before speaking again. "However, all that doesn't mean that we can't come to some sort of agreement. Things don't need to get any bloodier and more unpleasant than they are already. Besides, if there's one thing I'm always interested in, it's increasing my profit margin. I'm rather lazy that way."
I was totally channeling Finn and his never-ending greed, but I figured it was an emotion the giant would understand well.
"What do you want?" Clementine asked.
Ah, the money question. Now she was finally getting down to business - and so was I.