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The Goth dwarf grunted at me Jo-Jo nodded her head

"We know, Gin," Jo-Jo said "This isn’t the first ti"

I frowned "It’s not?"

The dwarf smiled "No We watched out for folks for Fletcher a tiain, there was thatout other people That secret part of him that I hadn’t known about I don’t knohy the thought unsettled e of thepeople, and here I was trying to save an old reedy miner - for free, no less I wasn’t sure what towas certain It was a hell of a lotthan my retirement had been so far

I left the dwarves to watch over Warren and stepped outside Violet waited with Finn on the porch Donovan Caine leaned against the porch railing, still brooding

"Take Violet straight to Eva Grayson’s house," I told Finn "No stops"

Finn pouted "Would I do so like that?"

"Yes"

He stuck out his lip a little reen eyes swept over her He grinned

"Shotgun, Finn," I un"

That dulled Finn’s ss could ever do that Finn had pulled his Cadillac over to the house He opened the passenger’s side door for Violet, who gave him another shy saze away frolance atin the back," he said in a very unapologetic tone

"I don’tto drive me home," I announced

Finn blinked "He is?"

"I am?" Donovan chihtened a little more in the darkness

Finn and Violet headed back toward Ashland, and Donovan and I did the saave him directions to Fletcher Lane’s house

We pulled up about thirty h the windshield at the ra, mismatched structure

"So this is where you live now?" he asked

"Yeah It was actually Fletcher’s house, the old man who ran the Pork Pit"

"Finn’s father, your former handler The one as tortured and

I stared at the detective, h planes of his face "You could coht With aze to mine Heat Desire Guilt

All that and more flashed in his eyes, but after a moood idea, Gin"

"Why not? A bed would certainly be lanced at the mud we’d left everywhere in our frenzy "Cleaner now, too"

He shook his head again "I’ inside, Gin"

"Why not? Is it because of what I plan to do to Tobias Dawson?"

Donovan ran his hands through his black hair "That’s part of it I still can’t believe I’ with that"

"And the other part?"

He blew out a breath "Do you reht in your apartment, before ent to the rock quarry to rescue Finn and Roslyn Phillips? Do you reles?"

"I re hih, I wanted to knohy you killed hi on my own"

I tensed Damn and double damn the detective and his tenacity

"A lotto do me favors after the Alexis James incident," Donovan continued He stared out the windshield at the rain instead of looking at uy orked vice was particularly helpful He told me that I should talk to a hooker, one of Roslyn Phillips’s girls, strangely enough"

Roslyn Phillips was the vahtclub that catered to the rich folks of Ashland and serviced their every need and twisted desire She was also one of Finn’s friends with benefits I’d killed Roslyn’s abusive brother-in-law severalniece to death Roslyn, in turn, had told one of her girls about et people dead, and Roslyn’s furtive whispers had eventually led to Fletcher Lane’s et - ever

But if Caine had talked to the hooker I had in mind, he knew exactly why I’d killed his partner - and what the bastard had done to the wohter

"I know Cliff raped and beat that girl," Donovan said, confir my suspicion "I know that’s why you killed hiirl"

No use denying it now "Yes That’s why I killed hiirl When did you find out?"

"Teeks ago"

Pain deepened the grooves on Donovan’s face The detective reical character out of one ofthe heavy, heavy burden of others’ evil, perverted actions upon his lean shoulders