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Chapter 25
We rode for about fifteen minutes, the limo twisting and turning through the downtown area like a large black beetle scuttling ever closer to its ultimate destination. Nobody said anything, but the giants kept their eyes on Bria and me the whole time, ready, willing, and eager to slap us around if one of us tried to do something stupid.
Now that we were captured and officially on the way to our deaths, LaFleur seemed to have lost interest in us. The other assassin drank more of her blue gin and stared out the window the whole time.
With every passing mile, I could feel Bria's body getting tenser and tenser against mine. I could almost see the wheels turning in her mind as she thought of and discarded various ways to overpower and escape our captors. Several times, she glanced at the limo door, as if she was thinking about leaping over the giant and flinging herself out of the vehicle.
While I admired my sister's bravado, I didn't bother doing the same. It wouldn't do us any good to try to make a break for it. Not while we were all squished together in the back of the limo. LaFleur would only have to touch one of us with her electrical magic, and it would zip through all of our bodies like chain lightning. I had no doubt that the other assassin was perfectly fine sacrificing Mab's giants, as long as Bria and I weren't breathing in the end.
Finally, the limo slowed, then stopped. The giants yanked us out of the car, and I found myself standing in the old train yard once again. The limo had pulled into the very center of the yard, and metal railcars surrounded us on all sides. The smell of smoke wafted over to me, and I looked over my shoulder.
The crumbled, blackened remains of the train depot still smoldered, despite the cold. Finn had been right when he'd claimed that I'd started a four-alarm fire, because virtually nothing remained of the structure but mounds of flaky ash. Here and there, warped pieces of metal stuck up out of the gray ash, gleaming underneath the portable spotlights that had been set up around the depot. I guess the metal had just been too thick and dense to completely melt with the rest of the building.
A cold smile pulled up my lips. Well, that was one thing I'd done right these past few days. If nothing else, I'd delayed Mab's plans for her twisted nightclub and bought Roslyn Phillips and Northern Aggression at least a few more months of business.
Then my eyes fell to all the metal rails that crisscrossed through the train yard and stretched out like greedy fingers in every direction-metal that could conduct LaFleur's electrical magic faster than I could slit her throat with one of my silverstone knives. Even now, I remembered the pain of her electrical power slamming into me. It had hurt like nothing else I'd ever experienced. Worse than being stabbed, worse than being shot. Hell, even worse than being beaten by Elliot Slater.
The smile dropped from my face. I was really starting to hate this place.
Elektra raised an eyebrow. "I'm afraid this is the end of the line for you girls. "
"Wow," I said. "Did you come up with that little bit of witty repartee all on your own? Or has Jonah McAllister been giving you tips in between blow jobs?"
Elektra regarded me for a moment. Then she backhanded me across the face as hard as she could. Despite her petite frame, the assassin had plenty of strength in her muscles. But worse than the sheer force of it was that she put some of her magic into the blow, and I felt the static shock of her power all the way down to my bones. Just for an instant, but the jolt was more than enough to make me stagger back and my heart race from the electrical discharge. Fuck. She was so strong. I was really going to have to figure out some way to keep her electrical elemental magic from killing me before I stabbed her to death.
Elektra eyed me. Satisfied that I was properly cowed, she jerked her head at the giants.
"Put them in the railcar while I get some things ready for our special guests," she snapped. "And I want one of you on every side of that damn railcar. If the Spider's lurking out there tonight, she's not getting her hands on these two, understand?"
The giants nodded. There were four of them now, including the limo driver, who'd stepped out to join the other three. Right now, they were more afraid of LaFleur than the nebulous danger the Spider presented. I had to admit I was a little disappointed. After my performance here the other night, you'd think that the giants wouldn't be so quick to discount the Spider and what she could do to them. But they were faced with a more immediate danger in LaFleur, so that's what they chose to focus on. I suppose I couldn't blame them for that.
Still, the irony of the situation wasn't lost on me. Oh, the bloody irony. If I'd been alone, I would have laughed long, loud, and hard over the absurdity of it all.
Because what Elektra LaFleur didn't realize was that she had already captured the Spider-and the assassin was planning to kill me and my baby sister before the night was through.
LaFleur disappeared into the shadows, probably to go get some kind of power tools or other sharp objects that she could torture Bria and me with. I'd needled her too much for her to just blast us with her electricity. No, the assassin really wanted to make it hurt for as long as possible before she finally went in for the kill shot with her elemental magic. Or maybe she was just going to get a couple of white orchids that she could leave on our bodies after the fact. Didn't much matter either way. She'd left us alone with the giants. Mistake number two. Never take your eyes off your target.
The giants marched us deeper into the train yard, leading us over to the same car they'd been holding Natasha in when I'd rescued her. Had it just been two nights ago? Somehow, it seemed like a lifetime. Especially since tonight might be the end of mine and Bria's.
The giants forced us up the steps and into the railcar. Someone had removed the table and cards because the inside was empty now-except for the brown bloodstains on the metal floor and the matching spatters on the silver walls. Mab's men hadn't gotten around to mopping those up just yet.
My eyes slid to the back window, already thinking of how Bria and I could escape. But several solid two-by-fours covered up the hole, bolted into the metal. The giants had already fixed that part of the car, making it prisoner-ready once more. We wouldn't be getting through those boards, not without making noise that would easily give us away. I might want to kill LaFleur, but I'd rather know that Bria was safe first. Telegraphing every single step of our escape was one way to ensure that it wouldn't happen at all.
The giants slung us down in the middle of the railcar. The metal floor was as cold as ice, even through the thick fabric of my jeans. My breath frosted in the air. The temperature had already dropped into the low teens tonight.
"Don't move," one of the giants growled before the four of them trooped outside.
The door slid most of the way shut, but it didn't make that particular, heavy click that would tell me the giants had fully sealed us inside. Hmm.
Bria started to scramble to her feet, but I put my hand on her arm and held her in place on the metal floor beside me.
"Wait," I whispered. "Just wait. "
Bria frowned at me in confusion but did as I asked. Ten . . . twenty . . . thirty . . . I didn't even get to forty-five seconds before the door rolled back once more and one of the giants stuck his head inside, checking on us and making sure we were exactly where he'd left us. Just like I'd thought he would.
Satisfied that we were going to stay put, he nodded, pulled his head back outside, and slammed the metal door shut. This time, the latch did click into place. I didn't think they'd actually locked us in, since I didn't hear an iron bar or anything else bang down on the outside, but they'd shut the door until LaFleur returned and told them to open it. Or until I figured out a way to make them open it.
"How did you know that he would look back inside?" Bria asked in a low voice.
