The Lady in Pink - Deadly Ever After 2 Read Free

next to her. “Not what we heard.”
    I winced. Had one of my electrified one-night stands been talking out of turn? “And just what have you heard?”
    The first Fern sat straighter on her stool, downed the brown liquor in her glass, and smiled with satisfaction. “Many things,” she whispered as she waved the bartender over. “A bottle of your finest mead and I’ll tell you a story.” She paused, licking her thin lips. “About a certain boy with a price on his blue-haired head.”
    Fern finally had my complete attention. I strode to her stool and leaned down so she could hear my every word. “You better not be playing me.” I emphasized my warning by rubbing my hands together, generating glowing blue sparks of electrical current.
    Neither Fern seemed overly worried at my threat. Instead both women cackled with humor. “Relax your pretty little head,” the closer Fern replied. “We wouldn’t want you to strain yourself.”
    I studied the Ferns, debating. One on hand, the Ferns were known for pulling any scam they could for free booze. Then again, someone had just tried to electrocute me in my own apartment. I pictured James’s charred corpse and called to the bartender, “Give them a bottle each. And a whiskey for me. The good stuff.” I tossed forty bucks on the bar.
    The bartender snatched the money and then slid our drinks across the bar. The Ferns gobbled theirs up as if the liquor might disappear as their youth had. I lifted my own whiskey, swirling it around as I considered what the Ferns might know. Bars were excellent for gleaning information. Get someone a little liquored up and you’d be amazed at what they would admit. Which was why I limited my bar drinking to half a bottle and under.
    Once the Ferns finished their drinks, I focused on the one closest to me. “All right. Let’s hear it.”
    She straightened on her stool, her cheeks flushed pink with alcohol-infused delight. “Fern and I, well, we sometimes hear things.”
    “Uh-huh.” I’d used their intel a time or two to solve a case; after all, the Ferns knew every drunk in the city. Men and women willing to sell whatever bit of information they had for another drink. “What did you hear about me?”
    Fern frowned, her thin lips all but disappearing in her face. “I’m getting to it, Blue Boy. You’re so impatient, always wanting what you shouldn’t have. One day someone is going to show you your place.”
    My eyes narrowed at her commentary, but I stayed quiet. She would get to the point. Eventually. I just hoped I lived long enough to hear it. I let out an annoyed sigh.
    She shook her head at the sound. “This is exactly what I’m talking about.”
    “Can you please get to the point?” I snapped.
    Face tight, she finally did what I asked. “Fine. Fern and I were at Pixies the other night when we . . . umm . . . overheard a conversation about you. About a contract on your life.”
    Considering Pixies Bar & Grill was a Fairyland institution, my question of exactly who wanted me dead was easy enough to figure out. Fucking fairies. Those little demons sure could hold a grudge. “Who was talking?” I think I knew the answer to that question too—Izzy’s uncles, Clayton and Peyton. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d tried to off me. Then again, I’d thought we’d moved past outright murder after Izzy and I became partners. So much for affected loyalty.
    “Two people.” She paused, her eyes growing squinty. “Both were hidden in the shadows. So neither of us got a good look.”
    “Was there anything about the men you can remember? Their voices? Or what they ordered? Anything that can help me?” I growled, thinking about the hundreds of thousands of fairies who lived in Fairyland, not to mention the other seven million nonwinged suspects living in New Never City. “Got anything else to go on?”
    Fern shrugged her willowy shoulders. “I think one of them might’ve been a woman.”
    “A woman?” Damn, that let