Owen loaded me into the front of his SUV and drove me over to Jo-Jo's. Once we got there, Finn took his own Aston Martin back to the train yard, to keep an eye on Bria from a discreet distance and see how the cops and Mab Monroe reacted to the latest strike by the Spider. I wanted someone that I trusted nearby in case things didn't go as Bria thought they would. If worse came to worse, Finn would charge in and get my sister out of there-whether she wanted to go or not.
Owen put his arm around me again and helped me up the three steps to Jo-Jo's wraparound porch. Before he could use the knocker to bang on the door, I grabbed his arm. I tilted my head back and stared up at him.
"You didn't have to come with Finn, tonight," I said.
Owen looked down at me, his violet eyes flashing like amethysts in the semidarkness. "Yes, I did. Because I care about you, Gin. A lot. "
He didn't use the L-word, but there was a catch in his voice that told me that he was thinking about it. Maybe Eva had told him that would also be too much, too fast. I smiled at the thought.
"What's so funny?" he murmured.
"Nothing. Nothing at all. "
His arms tightened around me, and I felt the warmth of his body sink into my own. It felt good. It felt right. For a moment, I just stood there and wondered at the soft concern filling his face. I didn't know how or when or even why it had happened, but Owen truly cared about me, bloody knives and all. He'd shown it to me over and over again these past few days, but for the first time, I let myself believe in him-and us.
"There's nothing I can do that's going to drive you away, is there?" I murmured.
Owen flashed me a sly grin. "Finally figuring that out, are you?"
I nodded.
His grin deepened. "Well, it sure took you long enough. "
We stood there on the porch
another moment, just holding on to each other, before Owen helped me inside and back into the salon. Jo-Jo was there waiting, along with Sophia.
I sat down and leaned back in one of the cherry red salon chairs like I'd done so many times before. Jo-Jo raised her hand, and her Air elemental magic filled the room as she started to heal me. For some reason, it didn't bother me as much as it had before. Oh, her magic still felt like she was pricking me with thousands of sharp needles all at the same time, but it didn't make me grit my teeth the way it usually did, and the silverstone scars on my palms didn't itch and burn nearly as much.
Maybe my nerves had been fried a little more than I'd thought by LaFleur's electricity. Or maybe it was because anything would have felt good in comparison to the jolts that the other assassin had given me tonight. LaFleur might be dead, but I'd remember the crackling power of her magic forever, another little scar on my psyche to go along with all the others that were already there, all the other people I'd managed to kill by skill or magic or sheer luck, like Alexis James, Tobias Dawson, and Elliot Slater.
"There," Jo-Jo said about three minutes later and dropped her hand. "All done. "
"That's it?" I asked, surprised it hadn't taken her longer to patch me up. "That's all?"
The dwarf shrugged. "You weren't beat up as bad as you usually are. Those electrical burns were nasty, but not nearly as deep as they could have been. "
I frowned. "But what about LaFleur's magic? She blasted me with her electrical power over and over. I thought she was going to kill me with it. "
"And you used your Ice magic to counter it," Jo-Jo said, her colorless eyes boring into mine. "She might have got a couple of good licks in on you at first, but then you wised up, and your magic blocked most of hers. I've been telling you all along that you're strong, darling. When are you finally going to believe me?"
For once I didn't shiver at her ominous words. Instead, I sat there in the chair and thought about things. Maybe when I killed Mab Monroe and lived to tell the tale-maybe then I'd believe the dwarf and her claims about just how strong my elemental magic was. But there was a lot more story to be told before then. Many more things needed to be put in place before Mab and I had our final dance. Tonight I was just happy the other assassin was no longer a threat.
An hour later, Jo-Jo, Sophia, Owen, and I were in the kitchen, while Vinnie and Natasha were sound asleep upstairs. Neither one of them had heard Owen bring me in, and I'd asked Jo-Jo not to wake them. They needed their rest.
Jo-Jo had just finished making us all some hot apple cider when Finn came strolling in through the kitchen door. He, of course, turned his nose up at the cider and opted to pour himself a cup of chicory coffee instead.
"So how did things go at the train yard?" I asked. "Is Bria okay?"
"I was actually surprised," Finn said, taking a sip of his coffee and leaning against the nearest counter. "The po-po had already arrived by the time I got back to the train yard, instead of taking their sweet time like they usually do. Anyway, the cops were there, lights blazing, guns drawn, sweeping the area for evidence, and blah, blah, blah. Bria talked to them for a long time, showed them all the bodies, the usual drill. "
"Was Mab there?" I asked.
Finn nodded. "She showed up about an hour after Bria called it in. Since it was her property, they let her look at the bodies. They were her giants, after all, members of her security force. "
My hands tightened around my mug of cider. "Then what did Mab do?"
Finn shrugged. "Not much. Like I said, she poked around for a little while, then she left. Bria was still there talking to the other investigators so Mab couldn't get to her. At least, not without killing twenty cops along with her. And, of course, the press had also shown up by that point, and all the reporters were clamoring for interviews with Bria, since she was the latest person to be saved by the Spider. "