Web of Lies

  “Gin.”

  “Detective.”

  We stood there, staring at each other. An invisible electric current hummed between us, firing off sparks of hot desire in every direction. I breathed in. The detective’s clean, soapy scent filled my nose, overpowering the cumin, red pepper, and other spices in the air. Donovan looked away and cleared his throat.

  “You want to tell me what happened?” he asked in a low voice.

  “You want to tell me why you’re here?” I countered. Donovan stared at me. “All right. I asked dispatch to let me know if there were any incidents at the Pork Pit.”

  “Why? Afraid I might take to killing people in my own place of business? You must not have gotten the memo, but I’ve retired, detective.”

  His black eyebrows drew together in surprise. “Retired?”

  I nodded. “Retired.”

  Some emotion flared in his amber eyes. It might have been relief or even hope, but it was gone before I could decipher it. “Well, good for you, I suppose.”

  Praise for Jennifer Estep and Spider’S Bite

  “Spider’s Bite is a raw, gritty and compelling walk on the wild side, one that had me hooked from the first page. Jennifer Estep has created a fascinating heroine in the morally ambiguous Gin Blanco—I can’t wait to read the next chapter of Gin’s story.”

  —Nalini Singh, New York Times bestselling author of Blaze of Memory

  This title is also available as an eBook Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 1

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  “Watch out world, here comes Gin Blanco. Funny, smart,

  “Karma Girl is hilarious and, an even better trick, real. and dead sexy.”

  We all know these people, but who among us can say we’d

  —Lilith Saintcrow, author of Redemption Alley seize our destiny the way brokenhearted Carmen does?

  “I love rooting for the bad guy—especially when she’s also Karma Girl kicks ass!”

  the heroine. Spider’s Bite is a sizzling combination of mys—MaryJanice Davidson, New York Times bestselling author tery, magic and murder. Kudos to Jennifer Estep!”

  of Undead and Unwelcome

  —Jackie Kessler, author of Hotter Than Hell

  “Jennifer Estep’s action-packed world of radioactive goo,

  “Jennifer Estep is a dark, lyrical, and fresh voice in urban alliterative aliases, and very hot-looking leather tights is fantasy. Brimming with high octane-fueled action, labyoutrageously entertaining. Jennifer Estep’s exciting new rinthine conspiracies, and characters who will steal your voice will leap into readers’ hearts in a single bound.”

  heart, Spider’s Bite is an original, fast-paced, tense, and

  —Rachel Gibson, New York Times bestselling author sexy read. Gin is an assassin to die for.”

  of True Love and Other Disasters

  —Adrian Phoenix, author of In the Blood

  “A big thumbs-up. Karma Girl had me laughing and

  “A sexy and edgy thriller that keeps you turning the pages. cheering to the end! Engrossing, sexy, laugh-out-loud In Spider’s Bite, Jennifer Estep turns up the heat and susfun. I want to be a superhero!”

  pense with Gin Blanco, an assassin whose wit is as sharp

  —Candace Havens, author of Dragons Prefer Blondes as her silverstone knives. . . . She’ll leave no stone un“A fresh, hilarious new voice. Karma Girl will have you turned and no enemy breathing in her quest for revenge. rooting for the good girls.”

  Spider’s Bite leaves you dying for more.”

  —Erin McCarthy, USA Today bestselling author of Bled Dry

  —Lisa Shearin, national bestselling author of the Raine Benares fantasy series

  Hot mama

  “Snappy and diverting.”

  Karma Girl

  — Entertainment Weekly

  “Chick lit meets comics lit in Estep’s fresh debut. . . . A

  “Smokin’. . . . Feverishly clever plotting fuels Estep’s overzippy prose style helps lift this zany caper far above the the-top romance.”

  usual run of paranormal romances.”

  — Publishers Weekly

  — Publishers Weekly

  “It’s back to Bigtime, NY, for more sexy, sizzling and off“Secret identities and superpowers take on a delightful beat adventures with those zany superheroes. Estep’s twist and humorous twist in Estep’s exciting debut. Fun and on the world of superheroes is kick-ass fun!”

  sexy. . . . Here’s hoping for more Bigtime adventures from

  — Romantic Times

  this impressive talent.”

  — Romantic Times

  Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 2-3

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  Also by Jennifer Estep

  Spider’s Bite

  An Elemental Assassin Book

  Jennifer Estep

  PoCKET BooKS

  New York London Toronto Sydney

  Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 4-5

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  Pocket Books

  A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  As always, this book is dedicated to my mom This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are and grandma for taking such good care of me. used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or And to Andre for doing the same.

  persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Copyright © 2010 by Jennifer Estep

  Thanks for always understanding when I have to disappear to do “book stuff.” Your love and support All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address means more to me than you will ever know. Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  First Pocket Books paperback edition June 2010

  PoCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com. The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. Cover design by TK

  Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  ISBN 978-1-4391-4799-3

  ISBN 978-1-4391-5544-8 (ebook)

  Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 6-7

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  Acknowledgments

  once again, this book would not have been possible without the help of many, many people.

  Thanks to Annelise Robey for her unwavering support, and to Megan McKeever and Lauren McKenna for all their editorial advice and encouragement. Thanks to Kathy Still, who answered my questions about coal mining and more. Any mistakes are mine, not hers.

  And finally, thanks to all the readers out there. Knowing that folks enjoy my books is one of the things that makes it all worthwhile.

  Happy reading!

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  1

  “Freeze! Nobody move! This is a robbery!”

  Wow. Three clichés in a row. Somebody was seriously lacking in the imagination department.

  But the shouted threats scared someone, who squeaked out a small scream. I sighed. Screams were always bad for business. Which meant I couldn’t ignore the trouble that had just walked into my restaurant—or deal with it the quick, violent way I would have preferred. A silverstone knife through the heart is enough to stop most trouble in its tracks. Permanently.

  So I pull
ed my gray eyes up from the paperback copy of The Odyssey that I’d been reading to see what all the fuss was about.

  Two twentysomething men stood in the middle of the Pork Pit, looking out of place among the restaurant’s blue and pink vinyl booths. The dynamic duo sported black trench coats that covered their thin T-shirts and flapped Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 10-1

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  2 JENNIFER ESTEP

  Web of Lies 3

  against their ripped, rock star jeans. Neither one wore a demands. Not many folks to look at. Monday was usually hat or gloves, and the fall chill had painted their ears and a slow day, made even more so by the cold bluster of wind fingers a bright cherry red. I wondered how long they’d and rain outside. The only other people in the restaurant stood outside, gathering up the courage to come in and besides me and the would-be robbers were my dwarven yell out their trite demands.

  cook, Sophia Deveraux, and a couple of customers—two Water dripped off their boots and spread across the college-age women wearing skinny jeans and tight Tfaded blue and pink pig tracks that covered the restaurant shirts not unlike those the robbers sported. floor. I eyed the men’s footwear. Expensive black leather The women sat shocked and frozen, eyes wide, barbethick enough to keep out the November cold. No holes, cue beef sandwiches halfway to their lips. Sophia stood no cracks, no missing bootlaces. These two weren’t your next to the stove, her black eyes flat and disinterested as typical desperate junkies looking for a quick cash score. she watched the beans bubble. She grunted once and gave No, they had their own money—lots of it, from the looks them a stir with a metal spoon. Nothing much ever bothof their pricey shoes, vintage T-shirts, and designer jeans. ered Sophia.

  These two rich punks were robbing my barbecue restauThe first guy raised his hand. A small knife glinted in rant just for the thrill of it.

  his red, chapped fingers. A hard, thin smiled curved my Worst fucking decision they’d ever made.

  lips. I liked knives.

  “Freeze!” the first guy repeated, as if we all hadn’t heard

  “Chill out, Jake,” the second guy muttered. “There’s him before.

  no need to scream.”

  He was a beefy man with spiky blond hair held up I looked at him. Where his buddy was blond and beefy, by some sort of shiny hair-care product. Probably a robber number two was short and bone-thin. His wispy little giant blood in his family tree somewhere, judging hair stuck up due to uncontrollable cowlicks instead of from his six-foot-six frame and large hands. Despite his an overabundance of product. The locks were a bright twentysomething years, baby fat still puffed out his face red that had probably earned him the nickname Carrot like a warm, oozing marshmallow. The guy’s brown eyes at some point. Carrot shoved his hands into his holey flicked around the restaurant, taking in everything from pockets, shifted on his feet, and stared at the floor, clearly the baked beans bubbling on the stove behind me to the wanting to be somewhere other than here. A reluctant hissing french fryer to the battered, bloody copy of Where sidekick at best. Probably tried to talk his buddy out of the Red Fern Grows mounted on the wall beside the cash this nonsense. He should have tried harder. register.

  “No names, Lance. Remember?” Jake snarled and Then Beefcake turned his attention to the people inglared at his friend. side the Pork Pit to make sure we were all following his Lance’s bony body jerked at the sound of his own Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 2-3

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  4 JENNIFER ESTEP

  Web of Lies 5

  name, like someone had zapped him with a cattle prod.

  “Lance!” Jake jerked his head at the injured woman His mouth dropped open, but he didn’t say anything. and Sophia. “Watch those bitches!”

  I used one of the day’s credit card receipts to mark my Lance wet his lips. Pure, uncomfortable misery filled place in The Odyssey. Then I closed my book, straighthis pale face, but he stepped around his friend and trotted ened, slid off my stool, and stepped around the long over to the injured woman, who had pushed herself up to counter that ran along the back wall of the Pork Pit. Time her hands and knees. She shoved her wild tangle of blueto take out the trash. black hair out of her face. Her pale blue eyes burned with The first guy, Jake, saw me move, out of the corner of immediate hate. A fighter, that one.

  his eye. But instead of charging at me as I’d expected, the But Lance didn’t see her venomous look. He was too half giant moved to his left and jerked one of the girls up busy staring at Sophia. Most people did. The dwarf had and out of her booth—a Hispanic girl with a pixie hairbeen Goth before Goth was cool—a hundred years ago or cut. She let out another squeaky scream. Her thick beef so. In addition to her skull collar and matching T-shirt, sandwich flew from her hand and spattered against one of Sophia Deveraux sported black jeans and boots. Pink lipthe storefront windows. The barbecue sauce looked like stick covered her lips, contrasting with the black glitter blood running down the smooth, shiny glass. shadow on her eyelids and the natural pallor of her face.

  “Leave her alone, you bastard!” the other woman Today, the color motif extended up to her hair. Pale pink shouted.

  streaks shimmered among her cropped black locks. She jumped to her feet and charged at Jake, who But Jake wasn’t so dumbstruck. He pulled the first backhanded her. He might only have been a half giant, woman even closer, turned her around, held her in front but there was still enough strength in his blow to lift the of him, and raised the knife to her throat. Now he had a woman off her feet and send her careening into a table. human shield. Terrific.

  She flipped over the top, hit the floor hard, and gave a But that wasn’t the worst part. A bit of red sparked low groan.

  in the depths of his brown eyes, like a match flaring to By this point, Sophia Deveraux had become a little life. Magic surged like a hot, summer wind through the more interested in things. The dwarf moved to stand berestaurant, pricking my skin with power and making the side me. The silver skulls hanging from the black leather scars on my palms itch. Flames spewed out from between collar around her neck tinkled together like wind chimes. Jake’s clenched fingers, traveling up and settling on the The skulls matched the ones on her black T-shirt. knife. The blade glowed red-orange from the sudden

  “You take right,” I murmured. “I’ve got left.”

  burst of heat.

  Sophia grunted and moved to the other end of the Well, well, well, Jake the robber was just full of surcounter, where the second woman had been thrown. prises. Because in addition to being a petty thief, Jake the Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 4-5

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  6 JENNIFER ESTEP

  Web of Lies 7

  half giant was also an elemental—someone who could So I held up my hands in a placating gesture and kept control one of the four elements. Fire, in his case. the cold, calm violence out of my gray eyes as best I could. My smile grew a little harder, a little tighter. Jake

  “I’m the owner. Gin Blanco. I don’t want any trouble. Let wasn’t the only one here who was an elemental—or very, the girl go, and I’ll open the cash register for you. I won’t very dangerous. I cocked my head, reaching out with my even call the police after you leave.”

  Stone magic. All around me, the battered brick of the Mainly because it wouldn’t do me any good. The cops Pork Pit murmured with unease, sensing the emotional in the southern metropolis of Ashland were as crooked as upheaval that had already taken place inside and my dark forks of lightning. The esteemed members of the po-po intentions now.

  barely bothered to respond to robberies, especially in

  “I said nobody fucking move.”

  this borderline Southtown neighborhood, much less do Jake’s earlier scream dropped to a hoarse whisper. His something useful, like catch the perps after the fact. eyes were completely red now, as though someone had set Jake snorted. “Go ahead. The police can’t touch me, two flickering rubies into his baby-fat face. A rivulet of bitch. Do you know who my father is?”
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  sweat dripped down his temple, and his head bobbed in In addition to being a Fire elemental, Jake was also time to some music only he could hear. Jake was high on a name-dropping prima donna. A wonder he’d survived something—alcohol, drugs, blood, his own magic, maybe this long.

  all of the above. Didn’t much matter. He was going to be

  “Don’t tell them that!” Lance hissed. dead in another minute. Two, tops.

  Jake snorted and turned his red eyes to his buddy. “I’ll The red glow in Jake’s eyes brightened as he reached tell them whatever I want. So shut your sniveling mouth.”

  for his magic again. The flames flashing on the silver

  “Just let the girl go, and I’ll open the cash register,” I blade flared hotter and higher, until they licked at the repeated in a firm voice, hoping my words would pengirl’s neck, threatening to burn her. Tears streamed down etrate Jake’s magic high and sink into his thick skull. her heart-shaped face, and her breath came in short, His red eyes narrowed to slits. “You’ll open the cash choked sobs, but she didn’t move. Smart girl. register, or the girl dies—and you along with her.”

  My eyes narrowed. It was one thing to try to rob the Pork He jerked the girl back against him, and the flames Pit, my barbecue restaurant, my gin joint. Down-on-theircoating the knife burned even brighter, taking on an luck elementals, vampire hookers, and other bums strung orange-yellow hue. The silverstone scars on my palms—

  out on their own magic and jonesing for more could be the ones shaped like spider runes—itched at the influx of excused that stupidity. But nobody— nobody—threatened magic. I tensed, afraid he was going to do the girl right my paying customers. I was going to enjoy taking care of here, right now. I could kill him—easily—but probably this lowlife. As soon as I got him away from the girl. not before he hurt the girl with his magic. I didn’t want Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 6-7

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  8 JENNIFER ESTEP

  Web of Lies 9

  that to happen. It wasn’t going to happen. Not in my like Jake weren’t above leaving their friends twisting in the restaurant. Not now, not again.

  wind—or stuck on the edge of my blade.

  “Jake, calm down,” Lance pleaded with his friend. Jake licked his thick, chapped lips. “How much? How