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Sierra frowned, like she thought I was just drunk and spouting nonsense. Maybe I was, thinking about how Gin held my heart in the palm of her hand. Either way, I gently unwound Sierra's other arm from around my neck.
"Thanks for the dance, but I really have to go. "
"If you change your mind . . . " Her voice trailed off suggestively.
"I won't. "
After a moment, she shrugged. "Your loss, sugar. "
She pressed a soft kiss to my cheek, her vanilla perfume tickling my nose. She gave me one more sly, flirty smile before she danced away to the next man.
I watched her glide away for a moment before glancing back over at the bar. Instead of talking to each other or shooing away the peacocks, Gin and Bria were both watching me. From the angry, pinched set of Bria's mouth, she'd seen the whole scene with Sierra - and so had Gin. Her face was completely blank, but her fingers slowly curled around her drink, as if she wanted to smash the glass against something - my face, most likely.
I grimaced. Once again, I'd upset Gin without even trying, just like I had when I'd brought Jillian Delancey to the Briartop art museum a few weeks ago. It had been a total fluke, Jillian being in town and wanting to see the exhibit of Mab's things. Since I'd had an extra ticket, I'd figured it wouldn't hurt to bring her along with Eva and me.
I just hadn't realized that night would cost Jillian her life.
That hadn't been my fault, any more than it had been Gin's. No, the blame for Jillian's death rested on the dead shoulders of Clementine Barker, along with Jonah McAllister, who was regrettably still very much alive. But I couldn't help but feel guilty all the same. Not only because Jillian was dead but because when I'd seen Gin at the gala, I'd forgotten all about Jillian, even though the two of them had been wearing the same dress. And then, when Clementine had thrown a body into the middle of the crowd, crowing about how she and her men had finally killed the Spider, I'd been so shocked, so horrified, so convinced that it was Gin, that I hadn't even realized that Jillian wasn't in the rotunda with the rest of the hostages. Once again, I'd failed a friend.
Oh, I knew that I couldn't have done anything to save Jillian, that she'd been killed before Clementine and her giants had taken everyone prisoner, but I still felt the weight of her death - and Salina's too. They were dead, and I wasn't, and I wasn't sure how to move forward from that cold, inescapable fact.
Someone bumped into me, snapping me out of my thoughts. Gin was still staring at me. I hesitated, then waved at her. I pointed toward Phillip and then at the front doors of the club, as if I was getting him and we were leaving and going home for the night.
We were going home - eventually. I just had a little problem to take care of first. Two of them, actually.
After a moment, Gin returned my wave, before swiveling around on her seat and facing the Ice bar. Bria glared at me a few more seconds before doing the same.
I sighed, knowing that I'd screwed up again without even meaning to. But there was nothing I could do about it, so I waded over to where Phillip was still boogying the night away. Now his two dance partners were practically draped over him, one on each arm, and the grin on his face told me exactly how much he was enjoying their attention.
I waved my hand, catching his eye, and jerked my thumb toward the doors. Phillip started to protest, but he must have seen the tension in my face, because he smoothly kissed one woman's hand, then the other, before murmuring some excuses and regretfully leaving them behind.
He followed me to the edge of the dance floor. I risked a glance over my shoulder. Gin was still sitting at the bar, her back was to me, and she was chatting with Bria again.
"You know, you could always go over there and buy her a drink," Phillip murmured. "I thought that things had gotten a little better between the two of you after the Briartop heist. "
"They are better," I said. "I just don't know how to get them back to where they were, to where we were before . . . "
"Before Salina. "
I shrugged. Phillip knew the rest of the whole sad, twisted story as well as I did.
"You should make some grand romantic gesture," he said in a confident, knowing tone. "Women love that. Flowers, candy, jewelry. "
I didn't tell him that I'd already done that
- sort of - by giving Gin the rune necklaces that had belonged to her mother and her older sister. The snowflake and ivy-vine pendants had been among Mab's things at the Briartop museum. Mab had murdered Gin's family when Gin was thirteen and had kept the necklaces as some sort of sick trophy.
I'd noticed Gin staring at the necklaces and had realized what they were before Clementine and her men had taken everyone hostage. After the crisis was over, I'd found the rune pendants stuffed into a garbage bag with some of the other jewels that the giants had taken off the partygoers. It had taken me a couple of days and a lot of hard work to clean up the runes and make the silverstone shine again, but it had been more than worth it to see the look of amazement and wonder on Gin's face when I'd given the necklaces back to her at the Pork Pit -
"Flowers, candy, jewelry," Phillip repeated in a firm voice. "Those three things have gotten me out of more sticky situations than any gun ever has. "
I shook my head. "That's because you're so utterly charming that you convince every woman who crosses your path that she's going to be Mrs. Phillip Kincaid. Naturally, they get upset when that doesn't happen. "
For a moment, his face grew somber. "There's only one woman who's going to be Mrs. Phillip Kincaid. "
I knew that he was talking about Eva. I could see it in his eyes, but I made myself snort, as though I didn't care one way or the other about the burgeoning relationship between the two of them. "If she wants you. "
"Oh, she'll want me," Phillip said with a confident grin. "Everyone does. "
