"So she could return to town one day in lavish style?"
He nodded. "And there's one more interesting thing about Salina and her hubbies. Here, see for yourself."
Finn grabbed the folder off the table and handed it to me. Curious, I opened it and started flipping through the pages inside. Most of the sheets were copies of newspaper and magazine articles about Salina's husbands that Finn had printed off the Internet. Business deals. Civic awards. Wedding announcements.
"Keep going until you see the obituaries," he said.
I did as he said. One, two, three, four. I skimmed through the obits, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about them, just a headshot of each man and some facts about his life and those he'd left behind. So I went through the pages again, slower and more carefully this time, studying each one of the headshots, and I finally realized what Finn was talking about.
Black hair. Blue eyes. Nice smiles. Rugged good looks. Every single one of Salina's husbands had the same coloring and the same features. They were so similar they could have been brothers - and they all looked more or less like Owen.
I sucked in a breath, but it wasn't enough to banish the cold, sick feeling that filled my stomach.
Finn gave me a sympathetic look. "They say you never really get over your first love. Seems like Salina's taken that to heart more than most. I'm sorry, Gin."
I stood there, absorbing the news, then grabbed some forks, napkins, and a large tray out of the kitchen drawers and cabinets, along with an ice pack from the freezer for Owen's black eye. I added a pitcher of milk from the fridge to my tray, along with some glasses. I reached for my Ice magic and used it to frost each one of the glasses, so the milk would stay nice and cold inside them, but I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing. All I could focus on was the four men Salina had married, and how they'd all appeared to be substitutes for Owen.
Still on autopilot, I carried everything into the den, with Finn following along behind me. Owen and Eva were exactly where I'd left them - him on the sofa staring at the television and her standing in front of the mantel.
"Eat up," I said, putting the tray on the scarred coffee table between them. "Because we need to talk."
Finn didn't have to be told twice. He sat in a chair, leaned forward, grabbed two of the apple pies and wolfed them down, along with a glass of milk. I ate a pie as well, although the buttery, fried dough and sweet apples failed to satisfy me like they usually did. Owen only picked at his before grabbing the ice pack and holding it against his bruised face. Eva didn't eat anything at all, although she did finally sit down on the opposite end of the sofa from her brother.
Chapter 13
After a few minutes, we all gave up the pretense of eating, except for Finn, who never let awkwardness get in the way of something as important as his appetite. He was finishing another pie when I wiped my hands on a napkin, turned off the television, and stared at Eva.
"Why don't you tell me how you know Kincaid, and why he said that Salina tried to kill him?"
Instead of answering me, Eva glared at her brother, her blue eyes cold and accusing. "Ask Owen. He's the one who brought Salina into our lives, and he's the one who always took her side over everyone else's - no matter how wrong it was."
I knew that Owen and Salina had been involved, but Eva made it sound like there was more to the story than just an old relationship - a whole hell of a lot more. I turned to Owen, letting him see the questions in my face.
My lover sighed, and his shoulders slumped, as if a heavy weight had just been yoked across them. He slowly lowered the ice pack from his bruised features and put it on the tray. After a moment, he drew in a breath and raised his eyes to mine.
"Salina was my fiancee," Owen said.
of the shelters where I took her to beg for food. He said we could do a lot better if we started working together. So we did."
"So the two of you hooked up and then what?" Finn asked. "It was mayhem on the mean streets of Ashland?"
Owen smiled, his violet eyes soft with old memories. "Something like that. We started small, stealing food and clothes, mostly. Some blankets and toys for Eva, things like that. Just enough to keep us from starving and freezing to death."
I could see them in my mind. Owen already tall and turning into the man he would soon become. Kincaid still a scrawny kid, but one who knew the score better than Owen did. The two of them with seemingly nothing in common but joining forces to survive. Desperation made for strange bedfellows, no matter how old or young you were.
"Eventually, we got bolder, and we moved on to bigger and better things. We started stealing from pawnshops. My elemental talent for metal let me get through most doors, locks, and windows, no matter how many bars they had on them. Phillip would be the lookout and watch Eva while I went inside and took whatever caught my eye. Guns, jewelry, knives, clothes, shoes, whatever. We'd take the stuff we stole to a different shop and pawn it for cash, using that as an excuse to case the place, then go back and hit that shop a week later."
Finn let out a whistle. "Nice scheme for a couple of teenagers."
Owen gave him a faint grin. "We thought so too, but it wasn't just us. There were other kids on the streets or in foster care, boys and girls Phillip knew, and sometimes they helped."
A thought occurred to me. "Folks like Katarina Arkadi?"
Owen nodded. "And Antonio too, although they were both more Phillip's friends than mine."
I wondered if that was why Salina had murdered them - if she'd wanted to hurt the casino boss by taking away the people he cared about before she killed him. That would explain why she'd gone after Antonio first tonight, instead of Kincaid. Cold. Very, very cold.
"Anyway, despite the stealing, it was still tough," Owen said. "Half the time, the three of us were on the verge of starving. Eventually, though, I got a job with a dwarven blacksmith, thanks to Fletcher."
Owen looked at Finn, who nodded. I'd told Finn that his father had taken pity on and helped Owen back in the day. Fletcher always had a soft spot in his heart for folks who were down on their luck. You couldn't get much lower or more desperate than living on the streets with a toddler to take care of.
"Things got better after that," Owen said. "The blacksmith's name was Cooper Stills. He was tough on me, but he was a decent, fair man. An Air elemental too. He took all three of us in - me, Phillip, and Eva - even though I was the only one who could work in the forge as long and hard as he did. He gave us food to eat and clothes to wear and put a roof over our heads, but it wasn't enough for me and Phillip. Not after what we'd been through, so we kept right on stealing and stockpiling our loot and money, just in case Cooper changed his mind and decided he didn't want us around anymore."
"I'm sensing a but in there," Finn said.
Owen drew in a breath. "But Cooper was and still is a renowned blacksmith. The dwarf can forge anything he puts his mind to, and all his pieces are works of art, whether they're weapons or fountains or sculptures. Back then, Cooper did a lot of work for a lot of rich people in Northtown, and he would take Phillip and me with him when he went out to meet with clients, take space measurements, or deliver commissioned pieces."
"Naturally, you saw that as an opportunity," Finn drawled. "I certainly would have."
Owen shrugged. "You might say that. So Phillip and I moved up to a higher clientele, as far as the stealing went. Jewelry, artwork, silverware. We took anything we could get our hands on - small things mostly, things we didn't think anyone would miss, at least for a few days. Then, when it was safe, we'd sell the items to someone who wouldn't ask too many questions about where they'd come from. For two years, everything was great."
"And then what happened?" I asked.
"And then he met Salina," Eva muttered in a dark tone.
Owen stared at his sister, but he didn't contradict her words. "And then I met Salina. By that point, Cooper was letting me make my own pieces, my own weapons and sculptures. Benedict, Salina's father, saw one of my designs for a knife and commissioned a similar piece. When it was finished, I delivered it to the Dubois house. That's how I met Salina."
He didn't say anything else, and I didn't ask what had happened next. Even now, it was obvious Owen had cared deeply about her.
That he had loved her.
Jealousy seeped through my body, venom poisoning me from the inside out, and a bitter taste filled my mouth, but I sat perfectly still, not betraying any of the turmoil I felt.
The Owen Grayson I knew wasn't the type of man who would propose to a woman if he didn't believe he was going to spend the rest of his life with her. His dedication to the people he cared about was one of the things I admired most about him, even as much pain as it was causing me right now to think about him being with someone else - loving someone else.
Owen cleared his throat. "Salina was . . . captivating. Beautiful, mysterious, charming, playful, whimsical, everything I thought I'd ever wanted in a woman. She had a wild streak, and it suited her just fine to take up with a poor blacksmith, even though her father didn't approve of me."
"Wait a minute," Finn interrupted. "Her father - you're talking about Benedict Dubois, right? The old mob boss? The one that Mab made such an example out of?"
Owen nodded. "Salina was his only daughter. She was there the night it happened, and so was I."
His words were like a key opening a lock in my head. Benedict Dubois. I'd thought the name had sounded familiar when Kincaid had mentioned it, just like I'd thought I'd seen Salina's mermaid rune before I'd met her at Underwood's. Now I remembered exactly where I knew the name and the symbol from - a scouting job Fletcher had taken me on years ago.
"Salina . . . changed after that," Owen said. "Witnessing her father's murder - it did something to her."
"Yeah," Eva piped up. "It made her even more of a heartless bitch than she already was."
Owen ignored her and looked at me. "After Mab killed her father, I felt even more of a connection to Salina. She had ended up just like the three of us - with nothing. Mab took everything that Benedict had - all his money, all his businesses, everything - and then she left his mansion to just sit there and rot. I'd been saving up enough money to get my own place, so I did, and Salina moved in with me, Eva, and Phillip. For a while, everything was perfect."
"I'm guessing we're about to get to the part where it all went wrong," Finn said.
Owen grimaced. "Something like that. Cooper finally found out we were using him to steal. He was a good man, and he really did care about us. He tried to convince me to stop, but I didn't want to listen to him. For the first time in a long time, I was having fun, and I didn't want it to stop. So I quit working for him, and I started making weapons and sculptures on my own. Then, when I went to deliver the goods, I would case my clients' houses and go back later with Phillip. We would take what we wanted just like we'd been doing all along."
Owen fell silent and paced across the den once more before going on with his story.
"For a while, everything was great, so great that I proposed to Salina, and she said yes. We were planning to get married just as soon as I could get my hands on enough money to pay for the kind of wedding she wanted."
I knew Owen had been involved with women before me - lots of women, given how rich, handsome, and successful he was. But it still jarred me to hear him talk about someone else, especially about how close he'd been to committing to Salina forever. Owen was really the first serious relationship I'd ever had. I'd opened up my heart to him in a way that I hadn't to anyone ever before, and I'd wanted to be the same thing for him. But I wasn't, and it hurt.
It hurt so much, this sharp, aching, bitter jealousy that burned and sputtered like a candle flame right where my heart was.
And that wasn't the worst part. Because even now, I could see something in his eyes, hear something in his voice, when he talked about Salina. Maybe it was just the fondness of first love or the good times they'd shared, or maybe it was something more serious, but it was there all the same - and it worried the hell out of me.
"So what happened?" Finn asked. "What went wrong with your life of love, loot, and larceny?"
Owen stared into space, not answering him. Eva let out a disgusted snort, which roused my lover out of his memories.
"Owen?" I asked. "What happened?"
Chapter 14
He sighed and looked at Eva before finally turning his gaze to me. "Phillip tried to rape and murder Salina."
the tense conversations we'd had these past few days was all the interaction I'd ever had with him, but the casino boss didn't strike me as a rapist.
Then again, a restaurant owner didn't strike most people as being the kind of woman who'd moonlight as an assassin either.
But I'd been fooled by people in the past. Maybe Kincaid was just better at hiding his true nature than most folks were.
"Tell me about it," I said, determined to keep an open mind.
"It was a typical night," he began. "Phillip and I had scouted a mansion in Northtown. The owners were supposed to be gone, so we figured it would be easy pickings. We left Salina behind to watch Eva, but Phillip said he was feeling sick and went back. I went on to the mansion, but when I got there, the whole place was lit up, and the owners were there. So I turned around and headed home."
Rage darkened his rugged features. "I heard the screams and shouts as soon as I went inside. I thought that maybe someone we'd robbed had decided to get some payback, but instead I found the three of them in the bathroom. Salina had been giving Eva her bath for the night, and Eva was still in the tub, dripping wet. But Phillip was on the floor, on top of Salina. Her face was cut and bloody from where he'd been hitting her. He was . . . he was still hitting her when I pulled him off."
