AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Normally, I would have let someone who'd been so severely injured as Vinnie sleep until morning. Being magically healed always took a toll on a person, as you went from being close to death to suddenly being healthy again. It pretty much zapped all your strength until your body could switch gears and catch up with itself again. Hell, even I would have liked to crawl into bed myself and not come out until morning. But I wanted answers, and I wanted them now. So I reached over and poked Vinnie in the shoulder.
It took about a minute of prodding before the Ice elemental's eyes fluttered open, and he became aware of his surroundings. Vinnie looked at Jo-Jo and frowned with confusion.
"You're welcome," the dwarf said, before getting to her feet, going over to the sink, and washing her hands again.
Vinnie sat up in his chair, his gaze flicking around the room, taking in all the beauty supplies, obviously wondering how he'd gotten from the park to Jo-Jo's salon. He froze when he spotted Xavier and Roslyn sitting together on a loveseat against the far wall. After a moment, his blue eyes cut to me, lingering on all the blood on my clothes, before going back to his vampire boss and her giant bouncer.
Vinnie opened his mouth, but I beat him to the punch.
"Before you start spouting some lame-ass lie about what you've been up to these past few days, let me tell you what we know," I said in a cold voice. "We know that you've been spying on Roslyn for Mab Monroe. We know that an assassin who goes by the name LaFleur came to see you at Northern Aggression tonight and that it wasn't the first time that you've talked to her. We know that she told you to tell everyone about a shipment of drugs that were coming in down at the docks, in hopes that the Spider would show up and LaFleur could take her out. How am I doing so far?"
Vinnie didn't say anything, but he swallowed once and nodded his head.
"Good. You've decided to be reasonable. " I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him a hard stare. "Here's the deal. You tell us everything that you've told LaFleur and Mab, and everything that they've said to you or threatened you with. And, at the end of your story, if I like what I hear, I may just let you live. So start talking. "
Vinnie just kept staring at me, his eyes wide in his face.
"Now!" I barked.
The Ice elemental looked at his boss again, but Roslyn's face was even harder and colder than mine. So was Xavier's. After a moment, Vinnie slumped back against his chair.
"I didn't want to do it, Roslyn. " Vinnie's Russian accent was even more pronounced than before, probably from all the stress he was feeling right now. "You have to believe me. You've been so good to me. I never wanted to betray you like this. "
"I know, Vinnie," Roslyn said in a soft voice. "Now tell us what you know. "
He drew in a shaky breath. "A week ago, I'm at the club, working the bar like usual. I go outside to take out the trash, and this woman comes up to me. At first I think she's just drunk or outside smoking something she shouldn't, you know? But she calls out to me, calls me by my name. And she starts telling me all these . . . things. Like what time I get off work every night, and where Natasha and I like to eat dinner. Where Natasha goes to school. "
Vinnie's voice dropped to a whisper. He swallowed again and forced himself to continue.
"And then she tells me that her name is LaFleur and asks me if I've heard of her. I say no. And she says that after tonight I'll never forget her. She turns and calls out to someone, and this guy steps forward. He was just a guy, somebody that I'd never seen before. She stares at him a second and starts smiling. And then she raises her hand up, and she-and she just-"
"Electrocuted him," I finished. "Right there in front of you. "
Vinnie stared at me in surprise. "Yeah, how did you know?"
I gave him a grim smile. "Because unlike you, I have heard of her. Go on. "
Vinnie nodded. "Anyway, LaFleur tells me that she's working for Mab Monroe on a special assignment. To find and kill the Spider. And that I'm going to help her do this. At this point, I am freaking out. But I can't exactly leave, not without her killing me too. "
He shuddered at the memory of the other assassin threatening him. Couldn't blame him for that. Not when LaFleur had thrown in a demo of her electrical magic right there on the spot.
"So she approached you about working for her. Then what happened?" I asked.
Vinnie swallowed again. "This woman, LaFleur, said that unless I wanted to end up like her friend, I was going to start watching Roslyn for her. Going to see who Roslyn was hanging out with, who she talked to at the club every night. She wanted me to make a list of every woman that I saw Roslyn with. She said that one of them had to be the Spider, and it was just a matter of narrowing it down. "
Well, he'd just confirmed what Brown, the vampire, had said in the park. I didn't know if LaFleur had been ordered to do all this by Mab or if the assassin had come up with the plan all on her own. Either way, it wasn't good news for me.
"I told her that I was just a bartender, that I didn't know about anything that had happened with Roslyn or Elliot Slater or the Spider or any of it. But she wouldn't take no for an answer. LaFleur said that if I didn't do exactly what she said, she'd kill Natasha and make me watch while she did it. And then she'd kill me. "
Vinnie's voice dropped to a whisper and was so soft that I had to strain to hear him. "I just-I didn't have a choice. You didn't see what she did to that man. You didn't smell it or hear him scream. So yeah, I did what she said. I started watching Roslyn. And when LaFleur came back to the club a few days ago and told me to start talking about the drug shipment, I did that too. "
"Why didn't you come to me, Vinnie?" Roslyn asked. "I would have believed you. I would have helped you. "
The Ice elemental gave her a wan smile. "I know that you would have tried. But Elliot Slater almost killed you, and this woman makes him look like Santa Claus. And Natasha, she comes first with me. She always has. I couldn't risk her. I'm sorry, Roslyn. So very sorry. "
The vampire nodded, accepting his apology. "I know, Vinnie. Believe me, I know. "
"So what did LaFleur say to you tonight?" I asked. "When she came into the club?"
