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"I can do the whole song and dance," Roslyn volunteered. "You know, say that everyone was in the nightclub and no one heard a thing. Just like always. "
I stared at the bodies that littered the parking lot. Ten minutes ago, the men had been full of vim and vigor. Now th
ey were nothing, less than nothing, like yesterday's newspaper all crumpled up and thrown away.
"No," I said in a thoughtful voice. "I'm not going to leave my rune behind, and you guys aren't going to call it in. We're going to pretend like this never happened. "
Bria frowned. "But why? What's different about tonight?"
"Because Mab has hired subcontractors," I said. "These aren't her men. Not really. But if I leave my rune behind and they realize that I stepped in to protect you, Mab will know that she's right about our connection. She'll tell the bounty hunters, and then there'll be a feeding frenzy, even more so than there is already. No, our friends here are going to disappear quietly. And I know just the Goth dwarf to make it happen. "
Thanks to a call from Finn, Sophia Deveraux showed up about fifteen minutes later, driving her classic convertible.
As usual, the Goth dwarf wore black from head to toe. Only tonight, her ensemble consisted of a pair of work boots and long, heavy coveralls. The perfect outfit for disposing of a dead body. Or six in this case. While we'd waited for Sophia to show up, Xavier and I had walked over, retrieved Jenkins's body from the alley, and brought it back here to the parking lot. No need to make the dwarf trudge all that way, especially when the alley was still coated with the slippery elemental Ice that I'd created. She'd be busy enough here as it was.
"As you can see, things got a little more hectic than I expected tonight," I told Sophia.
"Hmph. " The dwarf grunted in agreement as she surveyed the bodies.
"You need help with anything?"
Sophia rolled her black eyes and huffed, like I'd just insulted her. I suppose that I had. Like me, Sophia preferred to work alone, and she was damn good at her job. The Goth dwarf had been getting rid of bodies for Fletcher for years before I'd come along and taken over the assassination business from the old man.
Sophia was incredibly strong, even for a dwarf, but what really set her apart was the fact that she had the same elemental Air magic that her sister, Jo-Jo, did. The older dwarf used her magic to heal, but Sophia did something different with hers. In addition to putting blood vessels and broken bones back together, Air magic was also great for tearing them apart-and sandblasting bloodstains, DNA, and brain matter off doors, floors, walls, and wherever else it happened to spatter. Sophia wouldn't bother getting rid of the tacky pools of blood in the parking lot, since the harsh winter elements would soon erode them. But she would take care of the dwarven bounty hunters' bodies for me, disintegrating them with her Air magic and hauling off whatever pieces were left to parts unknown.
"We're going to Jo-Jo's to get Bria patched up," I told Sophia. "See you there?"
"Mmm-hmm," she said in a distracted tone, already pulling on a pair of gloves, probably so she wouldn't ruin her manicure. Her nails gleamed pearl pink in the semi-darkness, the soft, girly color looking decidedly at odds with her stark black coveralls.
"I'll stay with her," Xavier said. "Just in case anyone wonders what she's doing and comes over to investigate. "
I nodded. There was a slim chance anyone would venture by at this late hour, at least someone who was still sober and not soused from their time inside Northern Aggression. But if they did, the giant would flash his police badge and send them on their way. Good. Sophia could take care of herself, but it never hurt to have someone around watching your back.
"Thanks," I told the giant. "I owe you one. "
Xavier grinned. "Nah, you don't owe me anything. At least not for this. Although I wouldn't be opposed to another free lunch or two. That was one fine meal we had today. "
I raised an eyebrow. "Better be careful talking about how good my cooking is. Roslyn might get jealous. "
The vampire madam let out a soft laugh. "Oh, I'll freely admit that your cooking is much better than mine, Gin. But I have certain skills you don't, especially in the bedroom. I think that Xavier far prefers those, even over a plate of the Pork Pit's best barbecue. "
Roslyn gave Xavier a sly look, and the giant's grin widened.
"Well played, Roslyn," I murmured. "Well played. "
Xavier gave Roslyn a hot, lingering look that told me exactly what the two of them would be doing later on. Then the giant moved over to stand by Sophia, who had pulled a measuring tape out of her coveralls to see how many of the bounty hunters' bodies she could squeeze into the trunk of her convertible. Despite its swooping fins and clean lines, the black vehicle always reminded me of a hearse. Tonight, the dwarven mobsters would take their last ride in it.
Roslyn went back inside Northern Aggression to continue circulating through the crowd and keep up appearances. Finn and I helped Bria limp over to his Aston Martin, which was parked in the nightclub's east lot.
Bria and I didn't speak while we rode over to Jo-Jo's house. My sister was still pissed that I'd killed her informant, even though Jenkins had sold her out. Finn tried to fill in the silence, cracking wise and telling a few jokes, but even his antics couldn't defrost the tension between us.
Twenty minutes later, the three of us were in the warm, familiar confines of Jo-Jo's salon. Bria sat in one of the cherry red salon chairs, while Jo-Jo examined her face with a critical eye.
"That's a nasty cut you've got there, darling," the dwarf told Bria. "The bastard walloped you good, didn't he?"
Bria grimaced. "That he did. "
Jo-Jo held her palm up close to Bria's face and reached for her Air magic. The dwarf's power filled the salon, once more making the spider rune scars on my palms itch and burn. Jo-Jo leaned forward, and Bria hissed like an angry cat. Not because Jo-Jo was hurting her, but because she could sense the dwarf's Air magic, just like I could-and it felt nothing like our cool Ice magic or even my similar Stone power.
