Free Widow's Web (Elemental Assassin) by Jennifer Estep Page A

help them spend as much of their money as quickly as possible.
    Violet drew in a breath. “Anyway, we’d finished shopping, and we’d decided to get coffee and dessert in this café. Eva saw Phillip sitting by himself having an espresso and insisted that we go over to him. I thought she was out of her mind, wanting to talk to someone like him, but he actually smiled at her, like she was a friend he hadn’t seen in a long, long time. The two of them started talking, and one thing just sort of led to another—”
    “Until we all wound up on the riverboat tonight,” I finished.
    Violet nodded.
    I looked at Kincaid, who was still murmuring to Eva. Whatever he was saying was working, because her sobs had died down to faint sniffles.
    “How does Kincaid even know Eva to start with?”
    “Eva’s been sort of . . . vague on the details. She just said that she knew him from when she and Owen were living on the streets.”
    Well, well, well, the surprises just kept coming and coming tonight, and my eyebrows shot up once again. If they kept doing that, there were going to get permanently stuck there.
    Violet’s words made me once again think about Mab’s funeral back in early March. The whole underworld had turned out for the service, and everyone had been looking at and speculating about me and my role in the Fire elemental’s death. Kincaid had gone so far as to smile at me that day, which had been strange enough, but I’d also seen him talking to Owen after the service was over. I’d been distracted by other things—namely, the dwarves who’d tried to kill me at Mab’s coffin—and I hadn’t thought much of it at the time. Owen had brushed off my questions, saying that the two of them had just been exchanging idle chitchat, but it was clear there was more between them than I’d ever suspected.
    “And let me guess,” I said, looking at Violet again. “Eva told you not to mention Kincaid to me. And, I’m guessing, especially not to Owen.”
    A guilty look filled her dark brown eyes, which was all the confirmation I needed.
    Kincaid drew back from Eva and whispered somethinginto her ear. She wiped the tears off her cheeks and nodded. I scanned the rest of the deck, taking in the kids, the giants, the ruined remains of the fund-raiser, and the body sprawled in the middle of it all.
    What a fucking mess. But there was nothing to do now but deal with it—starting with Eva.
    I pulled my cell phone out of my jeans pocket and called Owen. He answered on the third ring.
    “Hey,” his low, sexy voice rumbled in my ear. “Done with your catering job already?”
    I stared at Antonio’s still-wet wing tip peeking out from underneath the tablecloth. “You might say that.”
    “Where did you say it was again?”
    I hesitated. Eva wasn’t the only one who’d keeping secrets. I hadn’t told my lover that I was catering an event for Kincaid. I hadn’t been sure what game Kincaid had been playing, and I hadn’t wanted him to worry. Besides, Owen and I hadn’t seen much of each other these past few days, except for when he’d come to the Pork Pit for a quick lunch.
    We’d both been busy with work, but that wasn’t really the problem. Ever since our dinner at Underwood’s, there had been this distance between us. I kept waiting for him to open up about what was bothering him, to tell me about Salina and all the ghosts she’d brought back to Ashland with her, but Owen hadn’t said a word about her. Now, that awkward talk had morphed into a necessity—for all sorts of reasons.
    “Gin? Are you still there?”
    “Yes, I’m still here.” I drew in a breath. “I’m on the Delta Queen, and Eva’s here with me. She’s fine, butthere was an . . . incident. Someone tried to kill Phillip Kincaid.”
    Silence. Then—
    “I’ll be there just as quick as I can,” Owen said, his voice as cold, dark, and furious as I’d ever heard it. “Whatever you do, you keep Eva away from Phillip. The man is dangerous—more