Benson almost seemed to nod his head in agreement. Then his body relaxed, his head lolled to the side, and his gaze fixed on something that only he could see.
The bastard was dead.
Good riddance.
28
I watched the blood dribble off Benson’s chest and start pooling in the spiderweb cracks in the pavement. All around me, the stone of the street, sidewalks, and buildings chattered with the violence that the vampire and I had just dished out to each other. But I didn’t mind the shocked sounds. They told me that I’d made it through another battle and had killed another enemy who had threatened me and mine.
But as I got to my feet and turned around, I wondered how much more trouble I’d just caused for myself.
Because folks stood two and three deep on the sidewalks in places, and everyone was staring at me—the curious gawkers, Benson’s guards, Silvio, my friends.
The silence grew and grew, and my gaze swept from one face in the crowd to another. People whispered to one another, their low muttering sounding remarkably like that of the blood-spattered stone under my feet.
“Um, Gin?” Finn said in my ear. “This might be a good time for you to say something.”
“You think?” I murmured back.
I stepped forward. Several folks in the crowd gasped and backed away from me, probably thinking that I was going to do the same thing to them with my knife that I had done to Benson. Some of them probably deserved it. The pimps who beat their hookers just because they felt like it. The dealers who sold drugs to kids just to make a few extra bucks. The gangbangers who hurt innocent people just because they’d had the misfortune to get in the way of their turf wars. These were not nice people gathered around me.
Then again, I wasn’t particularly nice either.
Still, for the most part, I had a live-and-let-live policy. As long as you didn’t come after me, I wasn’t going to go after you. So I decided to make that clear to everyone within spitting distance.
I stabbed my bloody knife toward Benson’s body. “The so-called king of Southtown is dead.”
“Long live the queen!” someone shouted in a voice that sounded suspiciously like Finn’s.
“I’m not the damn queen of anything,” I growled.
My angry glare was enough to get the crowd to shut up again, so I continued with my impromptu speech.
“Benson terrorized everyone who came into contact with him. Not because he needed to but because he wanted to. Because he liked it.”
Several people nodded in agreement, including many of Benson’s own guards.
“But I’m not Benson. I’m the Spider.”
Once again, the crowd gasped.
“I’m the Spider,” I repeated. “And despite the rumors you might have heard, I don’t treat people like shit just because I can. I don’t hurt or torture or kill them just because it amuses me.”
“So what are you saying, lady?” another voice called out.
“I’m saying that y’all are free to do as you please after I leave.” I stabbed my finger at Benson’s mansion. “I’m going in there, but when I come back out, it’s yours. Loot it. Cover it with graffiti. Burn it to the ground for all I care.”
A couple of folks in the back of the crowd starting high-fiving each other, already thinking about all of the shiny things they could spirit away from the mansion.
“I don’t want Benson’s mansion, and I sure as hell don’t want to take his place.”
“You’re just going to leave us alone?” someone else called out. “Really?”
I shrugged. “Sure.”
I started to walk away, but then I looked back over my shoulder, causing the crowd to tense up again. They were as used to double-crosses as I was.
I stabbed my bloody knife in their direction. “One word of warning. You cross me or you mess with me and mine in any way, and you’ll be like Benson there. You won’t know what hit you until you’re bleeding out on the pavement. Do we understand each other?”
Silence.
“Do we understand each other?”
I sent a little surge of Stone magic into the pavement at my feet, making the blacktop ripple, crack, and splinter in several places.
“Yes!”
“Oh, yeah!”
“Loud and clear, lady!”
“Good,” I said. “Don’t make this crazy assassin bitch come back down here and tell you again.”
Then I turned and walked away, leaving Benson’s bloody body shackled in the middle of the street for all to see.
• • •
I grabbed the knives I’d dropped earlier, then walked over to the two guards who still had Silvio propped up between them. The guards looked at me, then at each other, as if they were thinking about dropping Silvio in order to attack me.
“Really?” I asked. “Did you not just see what I did to your boss?”
They winced, knowing that I had an excellent point.
“Put Silvio down gently, then leave. Tell the rest of the men to do the same, if they want to live.”
This time, the two men didn’t hesitate. They eased Silvio to the ground, propping him up against the stone wall that marked the edge of Benson’s property, then scurried away as fast as they could to deliver my message. I stared down the other guards, but one by one, they all tucked their guns under their jackets, tiptoed past me, and disappeared into the still milling crowd.
Bria, Xavier, and Owen rushed over to me, each one hugging me in turn. A minute later, Finn and Phillip appeared at the end of the block and headed in our direction.
“Aw, man,” Finn said, coming up to stand beside me, a black duffel bag dangling from his hand. “I didn’t even get to shoot anybody.”
“Well, look on the bright side,” I drawled. “Your clothes didn’t get messed up. Neither did your hair.”
Finn perked up at my reasoning.
I crouched down next to Silvio, who was still slumped against the wall. His dull gray eyes slowly fixed on me.
“Catalina?” he croaked.
“She’s fine,” I said. “And you will be too. There’s an Air elemental healer we know. We’ll get you over to her lickety-split. But I need to ask you something first.”
“Anything.”
“Where did Benson keep his notes? The ones on his experiments?”
“Most of it was in the ledger I gave you,” Silvio rasped. “But there’s more. In the safe. In the lab.”
I grimaced, but I listened as he told me the combination to the safe. I got to my feet and stepped back, while Xavier bent down and gently picked up Silvio, cradling the vampire in his massive arms as if he weighed no more than a child. He probably didn’t, given all the blood and emotions Benson had drained out of his body.
Owen touched my arm. “We’ll be back soon.”
“Okay.”
He hugged me again, pressing a soft kiss to my forehead, and then he, Xavier, and Phillip got into the sedan and left with Silvio.
Finn rubbed his hands together in unrestrained glee. “Oh, boy. It’s looting time.”
I rolled my eyes. “Go on in if you want to. Go see what else Benson had in his safe.”
Finn jerked his head at Bria, who was standing over the vampire’s body. “What about you guys?”
“We’ll be there in a minute.”
Finn nodded, hopped over the wall, and crossed the lawn, heading for the mansion. I went over to Bria.
My sister stared down at Benson, her gaze moving from his frostbitten face to the crude shackles on his arms and legs to the blood that had filled in all the cracks around him. Her features were blank, but she kept rubbing her fingers over the gold detective’s badge on her black belt.
“Are you sorry that it went down like this?” I asked. “That you weren’t able to arrest him?”
She chewed her lip a moment. “Yes and no. Part of me wanted to bring him in, to do things my way.”
“But?”
“But after seeing what he did to you, kn
owing how he tortured you . . .” She sighed. “Part of me just wanted him dead. And now he is, thanks to you.”
Bria fixed her gaze on me. “But most of all, I’m glad that you’re okay, Gin. I hope that you can forgive me for dragging you into my war with Benson.”
“There’s nothing to forgive. It was my war too. It has been for months now, ever since the underworld bosses started trying to kill me. I just finally decided to do something about it.”
She nodded, then reached out and hugged me, so tightly that I felt the primrose rune around her neck press into my collarbone. I hugged her back even tighter, telling myself that the cold, hard touch of the silverstone symbol against my skin was what was making me blink back tears. Yeah. Right.
“C’mon,” I said, pulling back. “Let’s go see what’s in the safe before Finn steals it all for himself.”
Bria nodded and linked her arm through mine. Together, we turned and walked away, leaving Beauregard Benson behind for good.
• • •
Bria and I entered the mansion, which was eerily quiet, and headed down to the basement. The drug den was empty of the addicts I’d seen before, although those thick wads of incense still burned in the corners of the room. I didn’t know where all the people had gone, if Benson had gotten rid of them or if they’d left on their own. But wherever they were, I hoped they’d get some help.
Bria and I walked through the basement and into the lab. Everything looked the same as I remembered it—the refrigerators in the back, the metal table with its vials of powders and scientific instruments, the chair sitting in the middle of it all like a giant white spider.
Sweat beaded on my forehead as I stared at the chair with its shackles, and I could have sworn that I could hear my own screams echoing through the room. But those were just my memories. I’d survived the chair, I’d survived Benson, and I’d survive my memories too, along with the nightmares they were sure to bring with them.
But I had to move forward, because things weren’t over yet—not between me and the person who had supplied Benson with his Burn pills.
So I moved past the chair and went over to Finn and Bria, who were standing in front of the safe. Finn ran his hands over the metal and let out a low whistle of appreciation.
“Benson wasn’t messing around when it came to this,” he said. “I’m glad you got the combination from Silvio, or we’d be here the rest of the afternoon trying to crack this sucker.”
I rattled off the numbers, and Finn spun the dial, opening the safe. The first thing he pulled out was a brick of cash. He let out another whistle, this one more cheerful than before.
“Nice,” Finn purred, and he tossed the cash into his open duffel bag on the floor.
I looked at Bria. “See what I mean?”
She laughed.
Money, guns, drugs. We found all that and more in the safe, along with dozens of notepads. Only these didn’t contain Benson’s formulas, the names of his clients, or the money he had coming in and going out. They were records of all his twisted experiments on people, including elementals like me.
Finn let out another low whistle, then showed me the entry that Benson had made in his notepad yesterday, after he’d forced that Burn pill down my throat.
Shows immediate, violent reaction to drug. Indicative of subject’s own extreme elemental power, Benson had written in an elegant script. Subject experiencing effects of drug in rapid, accelerated succession. Further tests are definitely needed to test limits of subject’s tolerance and endurance of this and other formulas.
My stomach twisted as I thought of all the pain I’d experienced because of the drug. Once again, my own screams echoed in my ears, but I squashed the phantom sounds. This was the reason I’d asked Silvio where Benson’s notes were. I hadn’t wanted anyone to find the vamp’s observations about me. I didn’t want anyone to know my weaknesses.
And especially not my fears.
So I ripped those pages out of the notepad and handed it back to Finn. He took it without a word and put it with the others he’d collected.
We finished cleaning out the safe, stuffing all the contents into Finn’s duffel bag. Then the two of us headed over to Bria, who had opened all of the refrigerators in the back of the lab. My sister had her hands on her hips and a pensive look on her face as she stared at the racks full of pills, powders, and other illegal substances.
“You know, there are millions of dollars’ worth of drugs in these right now,” I said. “It would be a big win for you, Bria, turning all this stuff over to the police.”
“Oh, yeah,” Finn said. “You’d totally get a promotion out of it. Maybe two.”
Bria smiled at his efforts to cheer her up, but the expression quickly slipped from her face.
“Benson cared more about all of this than he did about anything else,” she murmured, reaching out and snagging a plastic bag of red Burn pills from inside one of the refrigerators. “He murdered Max and Troy and was willing to do whatever was necessary to kill Catalina. And for what? This?”
She shook the bag, making the pills rattle around inside, before tossing it back into the refrigerator. “No matter how long I’m a cop, and all the bad things that I see, sometimes I think that I will never truly understand people.”
I shrugged. “Benson was a monster. No one is arguing that.”
Bria looked at me, her eyes dark and haunted. “But I was a monster too. Because I was willing to risk Catalina to get to all of this. No matter how dangerous it was to her or anyone else. And I did risk you, and I almost lost you. I won’t make that mistake again, Gin. I promise you that.”
She held out her hand, and I took it and squeezed it.
“I know,” I said, my voice rough with emotion.
Finn cleared his throat. “I hate to interrupt the sister-bonding moment, but we need to do something with all of this. If we don’t, this place will be looted and picked clean. Not that I blame the folks outside. I’d be eager to come in here and get my fair share of loot too, after Benson had put the squeeze on me for so many years. So what do you want to do with it?”
“Let’s burn it all,” Bria said. “I know it goes against procedure, but these drugs are dangerous, and I want them all destroyed, right here, right now. Not locked up in evidence where some dirty cops can and probably will get their hands on them and put them right back out on the streets. What do you say, Gin?”
“Burning it is fine with me.” I pointed to the chair in the middle of the lab. “As long as we start with that.”
29
After taking Silvio over to the riverboat so he could be reunited with Catalina and healed by Jo-Jo, Xavier, Phillip, and Owen returned to the mansion. They appeared just in time to help me, Finn, and Bria carry Benson’s stash of drugs outside and throw them onto the front lawn.
Most of the crowd from earlier had drifted away, although a few folks hung out on the corners across the street, checking their phones and waiting for us to leave so they could enter Benson’s mansion. A brutal fight, a bloody death, and an afternoon of looting and larceny. Just another day in Southtown.
I dumped the last bags of Burn pills out of a cardboard box I’d grabbed from the lab, then stepped back to admire our handiwork.
The torture chair sat in the middle of the pile, although you could hardly see the white cushions now for all the plastic bags we’d piled on top of it. Phillip had nosed around in the mansion and found a can of gasoline, which he sloshed all over everything. I’d grabbed a box of matches out of the supplies in Finn’s duffel bag, and I handed it to Bria.
“Why don’t you do the honors?”
“With pleasure,” she murmured.
Bria plucked a match out of the box and struck it against the side. She stared at the flickering fire a moment.
“For Max,” she whispered, then tossed the match into the center of the pile.
WHOOSH!
And just like that, what was left of Beauregard Benson’s empire went up in flames.
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• • •
The guys went back into the mansion to check and make sure we’d found all the drugs, but Bria and I stayed on the lawn. We’d been watching the drugs burn for about ten minutes when I noticed the vehicle—a black Audi with tinted windows.
I was really starting to hate the sight of that car.
It was parked on the street about fifty feet away from the entrance to the mansion, giving the occupants a clear view of me, Bria, and our bonfire of drugs. I knew exactly who was inside. I had known ever since I saw the name of Benson’s Burn supplier in his ledger last night on the riverboat.
I also knew that my enemy would come find me soon enough. She’d be too curious not to.
So I stood by Bria’s side and kept an eye on the car until the occupants got bored and drove off. I waited a few minutes, but they didn’t circle back around, and I realized that my friends and family were safe.
At least for today.
• • •
But my relief was short-lived. About five minutes after the Audi left, sirens started wailing in the distance. I looked out over the river and spotted a couple of cop cars headed in this direction, their blue and white lights flashing as they crossed the closest bridge.
The others heard the noise too, and we all gathered around the bonfire, which was still going strong.
Finn picked up his duffel bag of loot and slung it over his shoulder. “Well, I would say that’s our official cue to leave. I’ll go get the car. Fellas?”
Owen and Phillip moved off with him. That left me standing with Bria and Xavier.
“How are you going to explain things this time around?” I asked.
Bria and Xavier exchanged a look, and then my sister shrugged.
“Probably that we got a tip about a drug war gone wrong between Benson and some unknown assailant. We were first on the scene and found Benson dead in the street and all his merchandise going up in flames.”
“You think that will work? You don’t think someone in the crowd will rat me out?”
Bria and Xavier exchanged another look.