Thread of Death Read Free Page B

business partners, or whomever else they’d wanted out of their lives. Others were the friends and family of those I’d killed. And then there were people like Phillip Kincaid who I knew only by reputation. Altogether, more than five hundred people had shown up at the funeral, not counting the news crews who were stationed at the entrance to the cemetery. The media hadn’t been allowed inside to cover the service, no doubt because of all the crime bosses here today. Ashland might be a corrupt city, but folks still wanted to keep up the appearance of being legitimate, respectable businessmen and -women.
    I kept looking at all the faces around me, and more than a few folks stared back at me, curiosity and wariness gleaming in their eyes, their lips pulled back into toothy, predatory smiles. Finn had told me there were rumors going around the underworld about me and how I was really the Spider, the assassin who’d killed Mab. It looked like the rumors were a little more widespread than Finn had led me to believe, given all the calculatingglances coming my way. But there was nothing I could do about that right now, so I kept scanning the crowd.
    Eventually, I noticed a woman standing alone just beyond the semicircle of supposed mourners. She wore a simple but elegant black dress and looked to be about my age, although I couldn’t really tell, because of the black pillbox hat and lacy veil that covered her face. All I could really see of her features were her crimson lips, but she wasn’t smiling like everyone else here was. If anything, she seemed . . . thoughtful.
    I frowned, wondering who the mystery woman might be. Another business associate of Mab’s? Someone the Fire elemental had hurt? Or someone else entirely? I had no way of knowing, but her calm, relaxed stance and distance from everyone else roused my interest and suspicion. I doubted she could even see the coffin from where she stood, but she seemed content to watch from her position. I made a note to ask Finn if he knew who she was after the service was over. My curiosity almost always got the best of me like that.
    Finally, my gaze met Jonah McAllister’s. The lawyer glared at me, even though the minister was standing in front of him, talking about Mab and what an impact she’d had on Ashland. Well, that was one way of putting it.
    The lawyer’s brown eyes were as cold as mine were, and his wrinkle-free face tightened that much more as he glared at me. McAllister hated me for killing his son, Jake, who’d been stupid enough to try to rob the Pork Pit and then had threatened to rape and murder me. As far as I was concerned, Jake had gotten exactly what he deserved— better than what he deserved, actually, since his death had been relatively quick. He wouldn’t have shown me the same courtesy if he’d had me at his mercy. No, I didn’t have any regrets about stabbing Jake to death, despite the fact that Jonah had tried to have me killed more than once for that and all the other insults I’d hurled his way over the past several months.
    I wondered what Jonah was thinking about as he sat at his boss’s funeral . . . what he was feeling right now. I imagined it couldn’t be anything good, especially not about me. . . .

Jonah McAllister
     
    I couldn’t believe the bitch was still alive—and that she’d dared to show her face here today. Some people just had no class, no manners, and no respect, and Gin Blanco was one of them.
    Gin Blanco. The assassin the Spider. It was still difficult for me to reconcile they were one and the same. The bitch had seemed so small and dull and ordinary the first time I met her in that run-down rattrap of a barbecue restaurant she ran downtown. Just another business owner I had to pay off because of Jake’s stupidity in trying to rob her. I should have known there was more to her than met the eye when she refused my generous offer to compensate her if she dropped the charges against my son—and then smashed a plate of