By a Thread (30 page)

“It was solid silverstone,” Owen said. “A couple of good whacks across the back of the head, and the second giant went down.”

Not too long ago, I'd seen Owen take on a group of giants using a blacksmith's hammer, so I knew just how skilled a fighter he was. He could wield heavy, blunt weapons just as easily as I could knives.

“It was a thing of beauty, wasn't it, Owen?” Finn asked.

The two men exchanged a high five across the table. Bria rolled her eyes and shook her head at their antics.

“And while the boys were congratulating themselves on their awesomeness,” Bria said, “I grabbed another candlestick and took care of a third giant who'd snuck up behind them and
was about to squeeze Finn's head between his hands like it was an oversize lemon.”

Finn draped his arm over my sister's shoulders and pulled her close. “Something that I will be forever grateful for, cupcake.”

“If you don't stop calling me
cupcake
, I'll hit you with the candlestick next time,” Bria groused, but she couldn't hide the smile on her face.

“Anyway,” Owen said. “We came back here to the beach house to wait for you.”

“But I didn't show up.”

Owen's eyes met mine. “No, you didn't show up.”

Nobody said anything, but I could see just how concerned the others had been about me. Just thinking about what Dekes had done to me last night made their faces tighten with worry—even Bria's.

Owen cleared his throat. “So we got some more guns and some more weapons, and we went back out to Dekes's mansion. But everything seemed normal there. None of the guards looked worried, and there was nothing to indicate that anything out of the ordinary had happened. It didn't even look like there was much of a fuss being made over the giants we'd killed earlier. We didn't know what to think, and we were about to storm the mansion when Finn got a call from Sophia, saying you'd come here to the house after all. We got back as quickly as we could.”

I knew what had happened after that. Jo-Jo had healed me, and the others had tried to get some sleep while they waited for me to wake up.

By the time we all got caught up, the food was ready. Buttermilk fried chicken, hot, crusty cornbread, a baby spinach salad with diced
tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese, red onion, and crispy bacon crumbles, a roasted veggie medley of red potatoes, carrots, and zucchini. I even used the limes in a basket on the counter to make a tart, tangy limeade.

We fell silent as we ate, and I relished every single bite, enjoying the play of sweet and salty, hot and sour, on my tongue. I hadn't been kidding when I'd said I was starving, and I ate more than everyone else combined. But no matter how much I ate, it didn't quite fill in the hollow ache I felt deep down inside, in the place where my magic would normally be. Still, I stuffed myself, knowing I'd need the energy for the long night ahead—because Dekes wasn't living to see another sunrise.

Not when he had two women under his thumb and could kill them at any time. At first, I'd only wanted to protect Callie from the vamp, but Vanessa and Victoria needed my help as well. And after what had happened last night, things were personal between me and Dekes, and there was only one way they were going to end—with the vampire dead at my feet.

We'd just finished eating when a sharp rap sounded on the front door.

A second later, we were all in motion. Finn and Bria pulled guns out from against the smalls of their backs and took up positions close to the front door, while Owen and Sophia slipped into the rear of the house to see if there was anyone waiting to come in from that direction. Jo-Jo stood against a wall out of Finn's and Bria's lines of fire, her Air magic making her eyes glow a faint, milky white, ready to either attack or heal with her power. I grabbed a knife out of the
butcher's block in the kitchen and stood at an angle behind the front door.

The rap sounded again, a little harder this time. Whoever was outside knew we were in here and wasn't going to take no for an answer. Worst mistake they'd ever made, even if they didn't know it yet.

Finn looked at me and raised his eyebrows in a silent question. I nodded back, telling him I was ready. Finn put his gun down by his leg and opened the door, ready to smile and send whoever was outside on their merry way if they'd knocked on our door by mistake—or raise up his weapon and blast them if it wasn't a mistake. And if Finn didn't finish the job, I'd step up with my knife and make sure that they got the point.

But instead of Dekes or his goons, Donovan stood outside on the porch. The detective glared at Finn a second before shoving his way into the beach house.

Finn shook his head. “Stand down!” he called out so that Sophia and Owen would hear him in the back of the house.

“Where the hell is Gin?” Donovan muttered, moving deeper into the hallway inside the front door. “I know she's here, since this is the address where Bria told Callie you all were staying at. I need to talk to Gin—right now.”

I stepped out from behind the door. “Right here, Detective. Is there something I can help you with?”

Donovan whirled around in surprise. His eyes fell to the knife that I clutched in my hand, and his face hardened that much more.

“You're not as clever as you think you are,” the detective said in a harsh voice. “You never are.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“It means that Randall
Dekes is still alive and well.”

I shrugged. “So? If I remember correctly, you didn't want me to kill the vamp in the first place.”

“I didn't then, but things have changed.”

My eyes narrowed at his cold, angry, frustrated tone. “What happened?”

Donovan sighed and ran a hand through his black hair. “The bastard came to my house and took Callie.”

20

Donovan pointed his finger
at me, anger making his eyes glimmer like gold coins in his face. “Dekes took Callie, and it's your fault. He wasn't scared off by you at all. Instead, your little talk with him only made him that much more determined to get her restaurant no matter what, and the sooner the better.”

Yeah, I'd fucked up and underestimated Dekes, but the detective's self-righteous tone still grated on my nerves. Donovan had no idea what I'd been through in the last few hours—and the horrors that were in store for Callie if we didn't get to her in time.

“Actually, Dekes and I didn't do much talking,” I snapped. “Since he already knew who I was and that I was coming for him.”

My sharp words penetrated some of Donovan's anger, making him frown. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that Dekes used my neck
like it was his own personal blood bank last night,” I said. “Jonah McAllister tipped him off that I was an assassin, that I was the Spider, so Dekes and his men were waiting for me. I barely got out of his mansion alive.”

I didn't tell Donovan all the gory details about Dekes's frenzied attack on me. There was no point in it. The detective would secretly think I'd gotten exactly what I'd deserved, and it would only make him worry that much more about Callie. As convoluted as my feelings were for Donovan, Callie didn't deserve what was going to happen to her at Dekes's hands, and I wasn't going to paint the detective a picture just to get back at him for all the hurt he'd caused me. I might be a coldhearted bitch, but I tried to keep my pettiness in check. Most of the time, anyway.

“You know, Donovan, you look exceptionally well for a man whose fiancée was kidnapped,” Owen drawled, walking over to stand by my side.

Sophia slipped into the room behind Owen, and Jo-Jo came in from the kitchen. The two dwarven sisters sat down on one of the couches while Finn and Bria moved to stand behind them, guns down by their sides.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Donovan snapped.

“It means that you don't have a mark on you, Detective,” Owen said in a soft voice. “Not a single scratch. Some of us fight back to protect the people that we love. But somehow, you never seem to.”

The detective's face tightened until his lips were just a thin white slash against his bronze skin. Owen wasn't just talking about Callie,
and we all knew it—especially Donovan.

“I wasn't there when it happened,” Donovan ground out the words through clenched teeth. “I got called out on a case this morning. Vandalism and broken windows at an empty vacation home on the other side of the island. Now I know it was obviously a ruse to lure me away. When I came back, the front door was kicked in, the house was a mess, and Callie was gone. She wasn't in the house, she wasn't at the restaurant, and she wasn't answering her cell. One of the neighbors finally told me that she'd seen a couple of giants drag Callie out of the house kicking and screaming and shove her into the back of a black town car—and that Dekes got inside after her.”

The detective's hands curled into fists, and he glared at Owen, daring him to say another word. Owen's violet eyes narrowed in response, and his lips quirked up into a hard smile, a clear indication that he was ready to rumble. I stepped in between the two men and held up my hands.

“Oh, cut the macho bullshit,” I said. “Fighting among ourselves won't do a damn thing to help Callie, and we all know it. Rescuing her is what's really important, especially after what happened last night.”

Donovan glared at Owen for several more tense seconds before turning his gaze to me. “And what was that? What did Dekes do to you?”

I shrugged. “The usual. Crowing about what a badass he was. Threats of torture. Some other assorted violence before I made good my escape.”

My words were light, but Donovan must have realized there was more that I wasn't telling him. For a moment, I almost thought I saw a flicker
of concern in his eyes, but his face hardened once more, smothering the soft emotion.

“Gin's right,” Bria said. “Dekes has Callie. We should be focusing on how we're going to get her back, not wasting time pointing fingers at each other.”

“
We're
not going to do anything,” Donovan growled at her. “Callie's
my
fiancée. I'll get her back on my own terms. I don't need your help, and I especially don't want Gin's so-called help. You're a detective, Coolidge. You should man up and act like a real cop instead of just pretending to care about the law whenever it suits you.”

Bria stiffened, and anger blazed in her blue eyes—more anger than I'd ever seen her show before, except maybe when she'd first realized that I was the Spider. Her hand tightened around the gun that she was still holding, and I got the distinct impression that my baby sister would love nothing more at that moment than to raise up the weapon, pull the trigger, and put a few bullets into Donovan's chest. Instead, she shoved her gun at Finn.

“Hold this,” she growled.

Bria stalked around the couch and walked up until she was standing nose to chest with Donovan. The detective glared down at her, still spoiling for a fight.

“Callie might be your
fiancée
, but she's my
friend
,” Bria spat out the words. “She's my best friend, and I love her like a sister. Now she's in the hands of a very bad man, and instead of asking us for our help to get her back, you're bitching at me about the fucking
law
. What the hell is wrong with you?”

For the first time since he'd stormed into the beach house, uncertainty filled
Donovan's features, and some of the anger in his eyes dimmed.

“You're a cop,” he said. “You should understand where I'm coming from.”

Bria drew in a breath, trying to get her temper under control. “I do understand, and most of the time, I'd agree with you. But Randall Dekes doesn't play by the rules, and he couldn't care less about the law. So I say we forget the rules and do whatever we have to in order to rescue Callie before Dekes kills her.”

Donovan shook his head. “You know, you might pretend to be a cop, but deep down, you're no better than Gin is, always thinking that murdering someone is the only way to solve a problem.”