“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, knowing 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.