11 Poison Promise (11 page)

“Why not?”

“Because I’m an assassin, Bria,” I snapped. “I kill people. The only testifying I do is with my knives.”

She waved her hand, as though my dark occupation and all the blood on my hands were of no concern. “We can work around that.”

I stared at Bria. Normally, she tried to keep our professional lives, so to speak, as separate as possible, although I knew that she would always have my back if I ever really needed her. But right now, she seemed perfectly willing to shine the uncomfortably bright spotlight of law and order squarely on me. It wasn’t like her at all.

Xavier shrugged his broad, muscled shoulders at me, as if to say
I told you so
. Max’s death must have hit Bria harder than even she realized, if she was willing to shove me in front of everyone just to get Benson. Surprise sparked in my chest, along with a little hurt that she wanted to use me this way. But she was hurting too, so I tried to reason with her.

“Really?” I asked. “And how are you going to work around the fact that I’ve killed just as many people as Benson has? Maybe more?”

Bria’s hands dropped to her hips, and she tapped her fingers against her gold detective’s badge. “I’ll think of something.”

“And what do you think will happen if you arrest Benson and your case actually goes to court?” I snapped. “Any halfway-decent lawyer has heard more than enough rumors and innuendos to totally discredit me. Assassins don’t exactly make the best witnesses. I bet Jonah McAllister would pay Benson to be his attorney just for the pleasure of cross-examining me.”

McAllister had been Mab’s lawyer before I’d killed her, and he’d tried to have me murdered multiple times since her death. Back in the summer, I’d finally taken a bit of revenge on McAllister, putting him on the hot seat with the underworld bosses by revealing his involvement in a
plot to rob them at the Briartop art museum. Ever since then, he had been staying out of sight and stewing in his Northtown mansion, but I had no doubt that he’d spent many long hours trying to figure out how to turn things back around on me. And something like this would be a golden opportunity.

Bria’s hand slid from her badge over to her gun, her fingers instinctively curling around the weapon. “You don’t understand, Gin. I have to get Benson. I
have
to. And you’re my best shot at that.”

For the first time, I noticed how tired my sister looked, the purple smudges under her eyes, the rigid set of her slender shoulders, the harsh slant of her mouth, as though she were disgusted with herself. Her blue eyes locked with mine, and I could see the pain shimmering in her gaze—along with the guilt.

“Look, if you want Benson taken out, just say the word, and I’ll start working on it,” I said, trying to find some way to help her and still keep what was left of my anonymity intact.

I knew that Bria wanted to do this herself, in her own way, within the black-and-white confines of the law, but Xavier was right. I’d do anything to protect the people I loved, and if I could help Bria by killing Benson, then I was more than happy to do it for her.

Especially since the vamp might decide to turn his attention to my sister if she kept pursuing him.

I drew in a breath. “It won’t be easy, and it may take me a few weeks, but I’ll figure out a way to get to him—”

“No.” She shook her head, her blond hair snapping around her shoulders before settling back down into
place. “
No.
I’m not going to ask you to do that. I’m not going to stoop to Benson’s level.”

“We’re talking about
my
level right now.” My voice was as cold as hers was hot. “And I can tell
exactly
what you think of that.”

Bria ground her teeth together, but she didn’t deny or contradict my words. Her silence shouldn’t have hurt me, but it did. I might not have a badge, but I fought for justice in my own way, and I helped people when I could. I thought that Bria understood that—that she realized that we were the same that way.

Apparently not.

“I’ll do it.”

We all turned to stare at Catalina. She’d been so quiet since Bria and Xavier had arrived that I’d largely forgotten about her. Catalina let go of Troy’s hand, got to her feet, and slowly walked over to us.

“I’ll do it,” she repeated in a stronger voice. “I’ll be your witness. I’ll tell everyone who will listen exactly what Benson did to Troy.”

8

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No. You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”

Catalina’s gaze cut to Troy’s body again. Her face hardened, and her hazel eyes sparked with anger. “I know what I’m doing, and I know what I saw.”

I moved closer to her. “You don’t owe Troy anything. No sort of loyalty whatsoever. Not after what he did to you last night. Not after what he was most likely going to do to you here tonight.”

Her fierce expression melted into a more melancholy one. “You’re wrong. I do owe him. He took care of me all those years ago. This is the last way that I can take care of him. I want to do this, Gin. I want to testify. I
have
to do it. So please don’t make this any harder than it already is. Okay?”

I could tell by the grim set of her lips that nothing I could say would change her mind, but I still felt compelled to try—

“If you want, we can take your statement right now,” Bria said, and stepped up beside us before I could protest. “Save you the hassle of going down to the station.”

My mouth dropped open, and I once again felt like a cartoon character whose face was stretched out to impossible proportions. Two minutes ago, she’d wanted me to march into the police station, right past all her fellow boys in blue, and now she was giving Catalina a free pass on that? Anger flooded my heart, replacing my earlier hurt.

“Excuse us, Catalina.” I ground out the words. “I need to speak to my sister, the detective.”

I grabbed Bria’s arm and pulled her away. Xavier stayed behind with Catalina, talking to her in a low, soothing voice. I marched Bria over to the far side of Catalina’s car, out of earshot of the others, then whirled around to face her.

“You have no idea what you’re doing,” I hissed. “You’re going to get that girl killed. And for what? Just so you can collar Benson? Even if you arrest him, the chances of him spending any time in jail are slim to none. He has too much money, too much power, and too many connections for that.”

“It’ll be fine,” Bria insisted in a stubborn tone. “Xavier and I can protect Catalina.”

“From Benson? And the dozens of vampires who work for him? I doubt that. The second Benson hears that there’s a witness to Troy’s murder, he will do everything in his power to find and kill Catalina—and anyone else who gets in his way. That includes you.”

Bria crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m a cop, Gin. I can take care of myself.”

“Yeah, you can, but you’re being awfully cavalier with Catalina’s life. Xavier’s too.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t tell you how to kill people, so why don’t you give me the same courtesy and quit telling me how to do my job?”

My whole body stiffened, and I had to work very hard to keep my face blank, as though her verbal knives had slid right off my skin, instead of burying themselves deep in my heart.

Bria winced, and she opened her mouth, almost like she was going to apologize. But then her gaze flicked to Troy’s body, a shadow passed over her face, and her lips mashed down into a hard, flat line. She wasn’t going to back down, so I decided to try another approach.

“Look, Xavier told me about your informant, Max,” I said, trying to rein in my own temper and ignore the hurt I felt.

Her angry gaze shot over to the giant. “He had no right to do that—no right
at all
.”

“I know you feel responsible for what happened to Max.”

“I
am
responsible.” Guilt and bitterness roughened her voice. “
I’m
the one who wanted info on Burn.
I’m
the one who pushed him to get in deeper with Benson’s crew. Max did exactly what
I
wanted, and now he’s dead. And
I’m
the reason why.”

“Bringing down Benson won’t change what happened to Max.”

“No,” Bria agreed, rubbing her thumb over her detective’s badge. “But at least I’ll know that the bastard will never do that to anyone else.”

“Except Catalina, when he finds out about her.”

Bria stiffened, and her hands balled into fists. Yeah, it was a low blow on my part, but that didn’t make it any less true.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to take my witness’s statement,” she snapped. “I’m also going to call in the scene. Since you’re so worried about being identified, it’s probably better if you’re not around when everyone else shows up.”

Bria pushed past me and went back over to Catalina and Xavier. She gently put her hand on Catalina’s arm, escorted her over to the sedan, drew a notepad and a pen out of the back pocket of her jeans, and started writing down Catalina’s statement. Xavier gave me another troubled look, then went to stand next to Bria. He didn’t like it either, but it was his job to back her up, and he’d do it, just like always.

Catalina started talking. I didn’t hear her words, but I didn’t need to. I’d seen the whole thing for myself. Instead, I watched Bria. The longer Catalina spoke, the more eager my baby sister’s expression became, and a twinkle shone in her eyes, almost as if she was enjoying hearing about a young man’s murder.

But the thing that bothered me the most was Bria’s smile—a cold, cruel, satisfied expression I’d never seen her wear before.

But one that I’d sported all too often as the Spider.

•  •  •

Even though Bria had made it abundantly clear that I wasn’t welcome here anymore, I stayed in the garage until she finished taking Catalina’s statement. Bria moved off
and started talking on her phone, notifying the rest of the po-po about the murder. Catalina drifted back over to Troy’s body, saying her good-byes, while Xavier walked over to me.

“I’m going to follow Catalina home, then come back and help Bria,” he said. “Bria’s agreed to keep Catalina’s identity under wraps for as long as possible. She’s not going to tell anyone who Catalina is until she absolutely has to. Neither will I.”

“Benson will still find out. You know he will.”

Xavier shrugged. He couldn’t deny it. He reached out, squeezed my arm, then went over and got into the sedan. Catalina bent down over Troy’s body and touched his hand a final time before straightening back up. She wiped a few tears away and came over to where I was leaning against her car.

“Thank you for being here tonight,” she said. “For saving me.”

My heart twisted. I hadn’t saved her so much as I had signed her death warrant. I should have found some way to sneak her out of the garage instead of letting her witness Troy’s murder. Now Benson was going to kill her as soon as he found out that she’d seen what he’d done.

“See you at work tomorrow?” she asked.

“Sure.”

I handed over her keys. Catalina gave me a shaky smile, more tears pooling in her eyes, then slid into her car and cranked the engine. She backed up and followed Xavier in the sedan out of the garage.

Bria was still talking on the phone, pointedly not looking in my direction. Maybe I should have tried to make
nice with her, but right now, I was too angry and disgusted to bother.

So I went over to the stairs and plodded down them to the first level, my soft footsteps like a steady heartbeat against the dirty concrete. I stood in the shadows by the entrance, staring out at the street. The lights spaced along the sidewalks continually flickered, the weak, worn-out bulbs humming in warning that they could go dark at any second. The sputtering glows made it seem as though the graffiti runes spray-painted everywhere were moving, like roaches skittering along the street and up and down the building walls. Most of the cars that had been parked here earlier were gone, and I didn’t see anyone schlepping down the sidewalks, not even a couple of hookers trolling for clients.

I sighed. It didn’t matter if anyone was watching or not. The cops would be here soon enough, their blue and white lights flashing and drawing everyone’s attention to the garage. And when word got out about exactly how gruesome Troy’s murder had been and that there had been a witness to the crime, well, that would only make folks more interested in things, especially Benson in finding and eliminating Catalina.