Bitter Bite (Elemental Assassin #14)(72)

Deirdre held up her hand. “Don’t be an idiot. She’s just baiting you.”

I snorted and leaned a little more heavily on the cage bars. “Sugar, from

where I’m standing, it looks like you’ve surrounded yourself with idiots.”

“Mmm.” Deirdre’s noncommittal murmur had Dimitri and Santos eyeing her with

suspicion. “Regardless, they were clever enough to capture the great Spider.

Interesting nickname Fletcher gave you.”

I shrugged. “He thought it was appropriate.”

“Just like his name, the Tin Man.” Deirdre paused, her eyes gleaming with

sly satisfaction. “Do you know why he decided on that particular moniker?”

I shrugged again. I had no idea what she was getting at.

She smiled. “He told me it was because he didn’t have a heart anymore. That

I had ripped it right out of him. I always liked the idea of him never

forgetting what I did to him.”

I gripped the bars. “What did you do to Fletcher? What’s the real story with

you two?”

She glanced at her watch. “I suppose I have time to indulge you in this one

last thing. Before I let Mr. Barkov dispose of you. He’s been so very helpful

these past few weeks. He should be rewarded, don’t you think?”

Dimitri sneered at me again, his whole body puffing up with self-importance.

He actually started cracking his knuckles, as if the thought of him beating me

would frighten me. Idiot.

I focused on Deirdre again. “So what happened with Fletcher?” I didn’t even

try to keep the eagerness out of my voice. This might be my last chance to get

the truth out of her before one of us killed the other, and if I had to grovel

to do it, then so be it.

“Just a typical story of a girl rebelling against her parents. We never got

along. They thought that I should be a prim, proper prude like they were, with

no more ambition than catching a rich husband to prop up the Shaw family

fortune.” Deirdre shook her head. “But I had other plans. I was supposed to

get my trust fund when I was eighteen, but my parents realized that I was

going to leave Ashland the second I got the money. They changed the terms so I

couldn’t access it until I was twenty-five. Even then, I realized that they’

d just keep putting it off. My parents had already blown through their

fortune, and they were going to spend mine too.”

“So?” I asked, not seeing her point.

“So I decided to stop them.”

“This is about your trust fund? Seriously?”

She shrugged. “Are you really that surprised? You’re an assassin, Gin. You

know better than anyone else what people will do for money.”

She had me there.

“Once I realized that my parents weren’t going to give me my money, I

decided to do whatever I wanted. Smoking, drinking, boys.” She grinned, but

it was a sharp, predatory expression. “Lots of boys.”

“What about Fletcher?”

“Another boy took me to the Pork Pit, where I met Fletcher. He was quite

handsome, charming too. Even better, I knew that my parents would never

approve. He ran a barbecue restaurant, which was about as low-class as you

could get, according to them. So I decided to have a little fun. I seduced

Fletcher, made him think that I was this sweet young girl who totally adored

him, and he fell for it. He was totally in love with me. It was amusing enough

while it lasted.”

Deirdre paused, her gaze distant, as if she were seeing Fletcher as he had

been back then. Her hand crept up to her icicle-heart necklace, her fingers

stroking over the rune.

“So what happened? What changed?”

“I got pregnant.” Her nostrils flared with disgust, and she dropped her hand

from her necklace. “I didn’t want the baby, but Fletcher was over the moon

about it. He thought that we were going to get married and be this perfect

little family. He was wrong.”

I thought back to the casket box full of mementos. “Fletcher gave you an

engagement ring. I found it in a box of old photos. What did you do with the

diamond from it?”

“I hocked it, of course, the day after he gave it to me, and had the diamond

replaced with a glass chip. Fletcher didn’t know the difference until it was

too late.” She chuckled.

The mocking sound made me grind my teeth, but I wanted to hear the rest of her

story, so I forced my voice to stay steady. “What about Finn? Why did you

keep him?”

“The idea of a baby put Fletcher even more under my spell, so I went along

with it. I could see how useful it was going to be in the end.”

Her voice and face were cold, flat, and emotionless, as if she were reciting

some history lesson she’d memorized long ago. It was such a complete change,

such a total role reversal from the warm, over-the-top persona she’d shown

until now. I’d thought all along that Deirdre was coldhearted, but seeing her