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I arched an eyebrow "He only got five thousand dollars to try and take me out? I’m rather insulted I didn’t realizeat least five ed ed to take , and she didn’t crack a s, her face darkened at theat

"We’ll look at his phone calls and backtrack the bullets and the sniper rifle" Her voice trailed off, and she shrugged

I knehat she meant "But you doubt either one will lead you anywhere"

"We both kno easy it is to get any kind of gun and ammo you want over in Southtoith no questions asked, and these burner phones are even more popular," Bria said "Sorry, Gin, it looks like whoever hired the dwarf to crash the funeral covered his tracks pretty well"

This tied "Well, you know me: I prefer to handleon the police"

Bria’s features hardened a little more at that One of the uniforot to her feet and went over to hi spikes into the grass I knew Bria was still trying to come to terms with the torture she’d suffered at Mab’s hands, but it was starting to feel like she thought the attack today was my fault Hell, maybe it was No matter how hard I tried to avoid it, trouble just seelad neither she nor any of the others had been hurt today

Part of o after Bria, to say that I hadn’t planned any of this, but I didn’t know that it would do any good So I turneddown beside his body But there were no more clues to be found Someone had cut open his shirt, probably one of the paramedics who’d arrived with the cops I couldn’t even begin to count the nuh his round-up sausage meat

Still, I had to admire the cleverness of the person who’d hired hiuards, the dwarf had never had a chance of getting out of the ceed to kill me or one of the criuards - probably would have gunned him down after the fact So I would have been dead, the sniper would have been silenced, and whoever had planned this whole thing would probably have been whistling as he walked out of the cemetery

I just wondered who had hired the dwarf - and how long it would be before he or she decided to try again

It didn’t take the police and coroner’s office as long as I’d thought it would to put the dwarf in a black body bag, cart hiuess because what had happened had been so cut-and-dried - and seen by so many witnesses

Chapter Six

No one asked ive a statement The lower the profile I kept, the better It was bad enough every cri toward the sniper I didn’t want the cops to focus their attention on ain, they didn’t really have a reason to, since I hadn’t actually killed anyone today - for a change

Still, I stayed in the cemetery, with Owen and Finn by lued to his cell phone, calling nu if any of his many spies and snitches had heard any chatter about the sniper at the funeral Just about the tiation, Finn did the sa," he said "Nobody heard sothis afternoon Whoever hired the dwarf to a at the other bosses, toowell, it’s got everyone plenty pissed right now They all want blood At least, ured as iven the lack of evidence Bria had found on the body, but I nodded atanyway"

"I wish I could tell you more, Gin," he said "This worries ed hiure it out This isn’t the first time someone’s tried to kill me, and we knoon’t be the last But we’ll be ready for theht us to be Capisce?"

Finn grinned "Capisce"

He hugged s up with Xavier and Roslyn Finn was going to catch a ride back into the city with the three of the by ourselves We were the last two people in the cemetery Even thewith Jonah McAllister, although the lawyer hadn’t been able to resist giving otten into his car and driven away

I shifted back and forth onI had to do - so I didn’t want an audience for

Owen picked up on my mood "I’ll be by the car if you needas you need"

I nodded, grateful that I didn’t have to put ave s I loved about hiood-bye to Mab, and he was going to give me the tioing back to his car, vanishing fro me alone in the ceotten bored and disappeared, probably digging another grave while they waited for the cops to finish up here at Mab’s

When I was sure I was alone, I drew in a breath and walked over to her casket

The coffin had been spared frounfire that had erupted earlier, and its ebony surface was so smooth and shiny that I could see my reflection in the expensive, polished wood - and in the large golden rays that made up the sunburst runes on the sides

Up close, the rune was bigger than I’d realized, even larger than the necklace Mab had alorn I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that the Fire elemental’s rune was featured so prorave markers sported the symbols of the elementals, vampires, and others ere buried beneath theer before wandering over and exa the flowers that had been set up at the foot of the casket, right next to Mab’s portrait

There were only two sprays of flowers: a very big and showy arrangement of white roses that bore Jonah McAllister’s name, and another, smaller one that featured crimson-colored orchids A card said the orchids had come from some floral shop over in Cypress Mountain, but I didn’t see the naht about theoutside the ring of mourners Maybe they were from her, whoever she was I’d told Finn about the mystery woman, and he’d pro that had happened here today, I wasn’t holdingabout her<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>