The crowd shuffled a little closer together, closing ranks so that everyone could see and hear the minister. My family and I stood to the left of the minister and coffin, at the nine o'clock position in the group of mourners who'd gathered here today.
Slowly, the crowd quieted down and gave the minister their full attention. Everyone might be relieved that Mab was gone, but this was still a funeral, an occasion deserving of respect. All the underworld figures might be here mixing with their mortal enemies, plotting against them with a passion, and gleeful Mab was dead, but we'd all behave ourselves at her funeral. More or less. We Southerners were a little funny that way.
As the minister began the service, I looked around, my eyes going from one face to another. I knew more than a few folks. Some I'd done jobs for as the Spider, taking out their enemies, their business partners, or whomever else they'd wanted out of their lives. Others were the friends and family of those I'd killed. And then there were people like Phillip Kincaid who I knew only by reputation. Altogether, more than five hundred people had shown up at the funeral, not counting the news crews who were stationed at the entrance to the cemetery. The media hadn't been allowed inside to cover the service, no doubt because of all the crime bosses here today. Ashland might be a corrupt city, but folks still wanted to keep up the appearance of being legitimate, respectable businessmen and -women.
I kept looking at all the faces around me, and more than a few folks stared back at me, curiosity and wariness gleaming in their eyes, their lips pulled back into toothy, predatory smiles. Finn had told me there were rumors going around the underworld about me and how I was really the Spider, the assassin who'd killed Mab. It looked like the rumors were a little more widespread than Finn had led me to believe, given all the calculating glances coming my way. But there was nothing I could do about that right now, so I kept scanning the crowd.
Eventually, I noticed a woman standing alone just beyond the semicircle of supposed mourners. She wore a simple but elegant black dress and looked to be about my age, although I couldn't really tell, because of the black pillbox hat and lacy veil that covered her face. All I could really see of her features were her crimson lips, but she wasn't smiling like everyone else here was. If anything, she seemed . . . thoughtful.
I frowned, wondering who the mystery woman might be. Another business associate of Mab's? Someone the Fire elemental had hurt? Or someone else entirely? I had no way of knowing, but her calm, relaxed stance and distance from everyone else roused my interest and suspicion. I doubted she could even see the coffin from where she stood, but she seemed content to watch from her position. I made a note to ask Finn if he knew who she was after the service was over. My curiosity almost always got the best of me like that.
Finally, my gaze met Jonah McAllister's. The lawyer glared at me, even though the minister was standing in front of him, talking about Mab and what an impact she'd had on Ashland. Well, that was one way of putting it.
The lawyer's brown eyes were as cold as mine were, and his wrinkle-free face tightened that much more as he glared at me. McAllister hated me for killing his son, Jake, who'd been stupid enough to try to rob the Pork Pit and then had threatened to rape and murder me. As far as I was concerned, Jake had gotten exactly what he deserved - better than what he deserved, actually, since his death had been relatively quick. He wouldn't have shown me the same courtesy if he'd had me at his mercy. No, I didn't have any regrets about stabbing Jake to death, despite the fact that Jonah had tried to have me killed more than once for that and all the other insults I'd hurled his way over the past several months.
I wondered what Jonah was thinking about as he sat at his boss's funeral . . . what he was feeling right now. I imagined it couldn't be anything good, especially not about me. . . .
Chapter Three
Jonah McAllister
I couldn't believe the bitch was still alive - and that she'd dared to show her face here today. Some people just had no class, no manners, and no respect, and Gin Blanco was one of them.
Gin Blanco. The assassin the Spider. It was still difficult for me to reconcile they were one and the same. The bitch had seemed so small and dull and ordinary the first time I met her in that run-down rattrap of a barbecue restaurant she ran downtown. Just another business owner I had to pay off because of Jake's stupidity in trying to rob her. I should have known there was more to her than met the eye when she refused my generous offer to compensate her if she dropped the charges against my son - and then smashed a plate of food into Jake's face when he'd charged at her. It wasn't anything I hadn't done myself - more than once, truth be told - but the action still surprised me. It seemed so violent, so vicious, so at odds with the calm mask she'd worn up until that point.
Oh, yes. I should have known there were hidden depths to Ms. Blanco from that very first day.
I warned Blanco what would happen if she decided to do the foolish thing and stand up against me, but she seemed almost delighted by the prospect of taking me on. Another clue I should have seen back then. Still, I wasn't too worried about her - until Jake's body was discovered in a bathtub at Mab's mansion.
It didn't surprise me that my son would die in such a sudden, violent manner. Jake never could keep his mouth shut or stay out of trouble, and it was only a matter of time before the spoiled brat pissed off the wrong person. But the location was certainly shocking. I thought Mab was going to kill me right there in the bathtub, along with Jake, for bringing such embarrassment to her. Murdering someone inside Mab's mansion . . . well, only she was allowed to do that. Everyone in Ashland knew that you stayed on your best behavior whenever you were at Mab's. But Blanco didn't seem to care. I never figured out if she'd killed Jake just for spite or if my son had threatened her again in some way that night. Probably both.
I immediately suspected Blanco had had something to do with Jake's death, given his problems with her, although I couldn't figure out how she had gotten past security and into the mansion. She certainly wasn't the sort of person who normally got an invitation to one of Mab's parties. Despite my suspicions that she was somehow involved, no one believed me and no one listened to me - not Mab and not Elliot. But I knew in my heart who had killed my son, and I was determined to get my revenge. I might not have particularly cared for Jake - might have always found him to be a bitter disappointment, a small-minded buffoon with no self-discipline or real ambition - but he was still my son, and nobody messed with the McAllisters.
Ever since then, planning Ms. Blanco's death was an amusing pastime of mine. I was quite happy when Elliot finally beat and questioned her about Jake's death one night at the community college. But Blanco's fake whimpers, crocodile tears, and ragged whispers of fear fooled the others, and Mab didn't let Elliot kill her then the way I wanted him to. Now the giant was dead - blasted to hell with a shotgun, thanks to Blanco - and so was Mab.
I stared at the portrait of the Fire elemental. Even in death, her face was as familiar to me as my own. Sometimes it felt like I'd spent a lifetime intensely staring at Mab's features, trying to interpret what the slightest quirk of her mouth or the faintest lift of her eyebrow really meant. I'd had to, in order to keep her happy without getting burned myself - in more ways than one. Mab had never been shy about showing her anger - and magic - to those who displeased her.
In some ways, I was relieved she was dead. I'd been her father Marcus's lawyer first, and when Mab killed him in an elemental duel and took over his business interests, I quickly swore my allegiance to her in the name of self-preservation. I think it amused her to keep me on, knowing that I would do anything to please her - and anything to save myself from her fiery wrath.
Still, it was never easy working for Mab. More than once, I went into a room with her wondering if I would live to walk out of it again. And more than once, I saw her use her Fire magic to its full and deadliest effect. I never quite got used to the stench and sizzle of burning flesh, but those things might as well have been Mab's perfume and anthem, as often as I smelled and heard them over the years.
The stress of working for her father and then Mab herself took its toll - aging me before my time. I was gray by the time I was thirty and looked sixty when I was forty - at least until I started a strict regimen of diet, exercise, and Air elemental facial treatments. I kept the silver in my hair, though. It gave me a gravitas I enjoyed.
Despite the stress, I was smart and shrewd and most important I was a survivor. More than once, I blamed my mistakes on someone else, even planting the evidence to back up my charges, if necessary. Mab then took out her fiery rage on the other party accordingly, instead of me. If she knew I was really the one who'd screwed up, well, she either didn't care or she liked watching me dance to her tune too much to murder me. Dance, Jonah, dance. At least, that's what I told myself.
But now the reality of the situation, of a life without Mab, was staring at me - hundreds of eyes, in fact, all staring at me.
Everyone who was anyone in the Ashland underworld had turned out for the funeral, as well as those in legitimate business circles in the city and beyond, but I paid attention only to the other crime bosses. Folks like Ron Donaldson with his bad comb-over and bulging belly; the always mysterious Beauregard Benson; and Lorelei Parker, her soft, lush body at odds with her ruthless nature.
I greeted them all in turn as they arrived, shaking hands and exchanging meaningless pleasantries, but I heard the not-so-subtle whispers as soon as I turned my back to them.
"Not so high and mighty these days, is he?"
"Not without Mab. "
"Poor Jonah. It must be hard to know how irrelevant he is now. "
Yes, all the other bosses were there supposedly to pay their respects to Mab, but really they were all just sizing each other up and plotting how they could take the Fire elemental's place. Now they were all staring at me, sitting alone in the front row, without Mab beside me.