Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies by authors_sort Page A

from me drinking a cup of chicory coffee. Finnegan looked every bit like the smooth-talking, money-swindling investment banker he was. A fitted gray suit draped
    “I’m going to kill this person,” I said in a cold voice. over his solid frame, along with a matching wool coat. His
    “Slowly. Painfully. Really make it hurt. Really make him starched, tailored sage shirt brightened his eyes, which feel it.”
    were the slick green of a soda pop bottle. His walnutI slapped the morning edition of the Ashland Trum- colored hair curled over the collar of his coat. His thick pet down onto the empty space beside the cash register. locks had a sexy, stylish, rumpled look that had taken There it was, on top of the B section. A story detailing the Finn at least ten minutes, two mirrors, and several squirts attempted robbery at the Pork Pit last night, along with of product to obtain.
    a file shot of the outside of the restaurant. The headline In addition to being my money man, Finnegan Lane read “owner, cook thwart restaurant robbery” and ran was also the son of my mentor, Fletcher. Finn was like a all the way across the damn page in fifty-four-point type. brother to me and one of the few people I trusted since I drew in a breath, but the grease and spices that flathe old man’s murder. Finn was also my handler now, for vored the air from the morning’s cooking didn’t soothe lack of a better word. He didn’t like my decision to reme the way they usually did. I stared at the newspaper tire, as it robbed him of his lucrative fifteen percent hanagain, wondering how I’d been so sloppy as to get the dling fee, but he understood why I’d done it. That I was Pork Pit plastered across the front of it. honoring Fletcher’s wishes. Besides, Finn had plenty of Publicity was one thing I didn’t need. The very last other less-than-legal schemes to keep him busy—when thing I needed. I hadn’t advertised my services when I’d he wasn’t out fucking anything in a miniskirt or attending Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 48-49
    12/17/09 9:32 PM
    50 JENNIFER ESTEP
    Web of Lies 51
    some high-society function and rubbing elbows with his cue fix on, and the phone ringing off the hook with takeclients who were even more devious, crooked, and danout orders. Instead, a lone woman huddled in a booth in gerous than he was.
    the back of the restaurant, out of sight of the storefront
    “Besides,” Finn continued in a matter-of-fact voice. windows. A young girl who looked all of eighteen, nine“You can’t kill the reporter. Nobody wants him dead, teen, tops.
    ergo, there’s no one to pay your rather substantial fee. Nobody else sat at the long counter or in the booths. Remember what Dad said—never work for nothing.”
    Not a single person stood outside staring in through the Finn took another sip of his coffee. I drew in a breath, windows, and no one had called for takeout. Not even letting the rich caffeine fumes fill my lungs. Fletcher my Tuesday regulars. Hell, nobody besides the girl had had drunk the same chicory coffee when he’d been alive, come in all morning, not even the mailman. He’d just and the familiar roasted smell comforted me better than slid the day’s bills through the mail slot and scurried on a warm hug. Finn was right. I couldn’t kill the reporter to the next stop on his route as though this were a house for doing his job. No matter how much trouble he’d just of lepers.
    caused me with his story.
    “And you wonder why you don’t have any customers,”
    “All right, so I won’t kill him,” I said. “How about Finn murmured. “Jonah McAllister’s put the word out you ruin his credit instead? Call in his mortgage or somethat you are persona non grata. And I’m sure the story in thing?”
    the newspaper didn’t help matters, either. Nobody wants
    “Mortgages,” Finn scoffed. “Dime a dozen in this city, to eat someplace where they might not have cleaned up penny ante, and not worth the trouble.”
    the