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"No, I don’t want to start a ith the McAllisters"

Finn raised his eyebrows in disbelief "C’uys and showing everyone exactly how strong and capable you are You always have That’s why you pushed the McAllisters so hard today"

"All right, all right," I muttered "Sothan I thought it would be So ood to knock Jake’s nose out of joint when heto rob me Maybe it felt even better to do the saht, I’d have a dozen Jake McAllisters in here today, all thinking they could knock over my joint for a quick wad of cash You know it Ashland’s all about survival of the toughest It always has been Word gets out you’re weak or an easy mark, and you’re finished, no reeive in to the McAllisters now, they’ll think they own htenedin here all the time, just to lord it over me He’d think the restaurant was his own personal little fiefdom, take my money, and terrorize my customers

And I just couldn’t stand that Not in Fletcher’s restaurant

Not when he worked so hard for so long to keep frohed "Besides, it’s too late for all that noay I pissed off Jake McAllister again, e to forget that He’s going to kill me - or at least try He has to, or he’ll never have his father’s respect again What little of it there was to start with"

"And then what are you going to do?" Finn asked

"You kill Jake, and Jonah will coet Mab Monroe involved at that point"

A feeeks ago, soer power play against Mab Monroe, to try to wrest control of Ashland away froht in the middle, which meant I was already more involved with the Fire eleht of that piece of paper in the file Fletcher had compiled about my family’s murder, the one with Mab’s name on it Maybe I’d always been involved with the Fire elemental - I just hadn’t known it "I’ll deal with Jake McAllister when he ain, but I held up h talk," I said "We have other people to deal with today, reet Violet and see what Grandpa has to say for hi mess and headed over to Jo-Jo’s to pick up Violet Fox Finn had called ahead to say ere on our way, and the two of the chairs that creaked and cracked with every pass back and forth Jo-Jo had dragged Rosco’s basket outside, and the fat, lazy basset hound sat at the dwarf ’s feet, snoozing in a patch of sunlight that sliced across the porch slats

Sophia irl was dressed in a pair of black jeans and aT-shirt with an enorure, the clothes sagged off her frame Sophia Deveraux had quite a bit more muscle on her than Violet did

Jo-Jo wore one of herof pearls that were each as big as a giant’s tooth

Her bleached white-blond hair was arranged into its typical helmet of curls, and perfect makeup covered her face

As usual, the dwarf ’s feet were bare, despite the Nove socks Said they made her feet hurt

Finn and I stepped up onto the porch Violet stood up, but Jo-Jo kept rocking in her chair

"Sleep well?" I asked

"As well as could be expected, I suppose But Jo-Jo re- ally ave her hostess a shy s"

"Say hello to Warren for me," Jo-Jo told Violet "Tell him I’ll be up that way for some more honey real soon"

Violet nodded "Thank you For everything"

Jo-Jo smiled at her "No problem Co"

Violet frowned, and her hand crept up to her frizzy blond locks "What’s wrong witha hot-oil treat can’t take care of"

Violet’s confused frown deepened, but I grabbed her arm and pulled her off the porch before she could think too hard about her split ends Finn followed us, and alked out to his car Since ere going to be tooling up into the ed Cadillac Escalade instead of his Aston Martin

Violet stopped in front of the SUV and looked at us

"What about ht?"

Finn and I exchanged a look Driving Violet Fox’s car to a safer location had been the last thing onlot," I said "We wereyou patched up than what to do with your car"

Violet’s face paled "Youlot? All night?"

Her concern was hborhood was just begging for trouble By now, the vehicle had probably been stripped of everything but the cigarette lighter Hell, somebody had probably taken that too Barracudas couldn’t pick a corpse any cleaner than the white trash and gangbangers in Southtown

"It ht be okay," Finn replied in a hopeful tone "It’s just a Honda Several years old at that It’s not like I left ht Violet chewed her lower lip

"You have insurance, don’t you?" I asked

Violet nodded

"Then you can worry about your car later Right noe need to go see your grandfather You still want us to help the two of you, right?"