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"Phillip Kincaid is more than capable of protecting himself," I said. "Or at least putting enough of his giants in between him and Salina to make things interesting. "
"Please, Gin," she said, a pleading note creeping into her voice. "I care about Philly too. He's my friend. "
I thought he was a little more than a friend, given the adoring way Eva had been looking at him earlier on the Delta Queen, but I didn't mention that. I couldn't do anything about Eva's crush on Kincaid. No matter what I thought of the casino boss, he had tried to protect her tonight, by hiring me to cater the fund-raiser. In his own way, Kincaid cared about Eva just as much as she did about him. It was a big point in his favor.
"We don't have a deal if Philly isn't a part of it," she said.
Despite the situation, I smiled. When she put her mind to it, Eva Grayson was just as tough a negotiator as her big brother was.
"I'll do what I can for Kincaid, providing he decides to play nice with me, but you and Owen come first, agreed?"
"Agreed," Eva said, somewhat mollified. "Thank you, Gin. "
"Now go back to bed," I said, sidestepping her thanks. "Try to get some sleep. "
Eva nodded, slipped out of my bedroom, and closed the door behind her. Through the walls, I heard the floor creak and the bed frame squeak as she walked down the hall and crawled back under the covers in the bed in the guest room.
I let out a breath and lay down. As much as I would have liked to, I couldn't fall asleep. Too much had happened, and I'd learned too many things for my thoughts to quiet down. So instead, I stared at the ceiling, wondering just how much the devil's bargain I'd made with Eva was going to cost me in the end.
Chapter 17
Breakfast the next morning was a tense, quiet affair.
I made chocolate chip pancakes, smoked maple bacon, cheesy scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast with homemade apple butter, and a sparkling grapefruit punch for Eva and Owen. We gathered around the wooden table in the nook that branched off the kitchen.
The three of us ate in silence, except for the rattle of our dishes and polite mutters to ask someone to please pass the bacon. For the most part, Eva ignored Owen's attempts to talk to her. I kept my thoughts to myself, not wanting to sink any deeper into the sibling quicksand. I was already up to my neck in it.
We finished breakfast and split up. Owen had to get to his office, Eva had to get to class, and I had to get to the Pork Pit.
"I'll come by for a late lunch today, and we can talk some more. Okay?" Owen asked as we stood on the front porch. The morning sunlight highlighted the faint bruise around his eye from his fight with Kincaid.
I nodded, not sure what to say to him, not sure what I could say without making things worse. We kissed goodbye; then he got into his car, with Eva already sulking in the passenger seat. She gave me a pointed look through the window, and I knew she was thinking about the promise I'd made to her last night. That look did not make me feel better about anything.
I waved at Owen as he put the car in gear and steered it down the driveway, but my hand dropped to my side the second the vehicle was out of sight, and I started brooding once more. I was just about to go back inside and finish getting ready for work when I heard a car churning through the gravel at the bottom of the ridge.
I paused, wondering if Owen had forgotten something and returned, but instead, a familiar sedan appeared at the top of the driveway. The car stopped, and Bria slid out of the driver's seat. She was wearing sensible black boots and a pair of dark jeans topped by a white, button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Her gun was clipped to her belt, along with her gold detective's badge. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and the silverstone primrose rune around her throat glinted in the sun as she walked across the yard.
"Hey, there, baby sister," I said, leaning against the porch railing. "What brings you up here so early?"
Bria smiled at my warm, easy greeting, but her blue eyes were serious. "I thought you'd want to know about the chat I had with Salina Dubois this morning. "
I nodded. "Well, come on in then. No use delving into the unpleasant on an empty stomach. "
I led Bria back into the kitchen and warmed a plate of food for her. In between bites, she told me how she and Xavier had spent the night tracking down Salina. It hadn't been hard, since Salina hadn't made any attempt to hide. Instead, the water elemental had been ensconced in bed at her family's mansion when Bria had come knocking on her door in the wee hours of the morning.
"You should have seen her, Gin," Bria said. "She floated down the stairs like she was Scarlet O'Hara on her way to a debutante dance - despite the fact she was wearing a blue silk negligee instead of a ball gown. "
I thought of the way Salina had strolled into Underwood's and caught the attention of everyone there. "That sounds like her. What did she say?"
"Well, first of all, she just had to offer us some hot tea and coffee," Bria said. "She even woke up her personal chef and had the poor man fix us strawberry scones and cucumber sandwiches. "
I raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not kidding you. Strawberry scones and cucumber sandwiches at three in the morning, as if we were having a nice little garden luncheon instead of talking about a murder. " Bria snorted. "And when we did finally get around to discussing Antonio, she was nothing but sympathy and alibis. "
"What alibis?"
Bria shrugged. "That she'd been home all evening, that her giant bodyguards would vouch for her, all the usual. She also went on and on about what a horrible thing it must have been, a man being murdered in such a brutal fashion. She shuddered and everything. It was all very ladylike. "
