Donovan Caine stalked back and forth down the store’s aisles, his cell phone stuck to his ear. The detective had begrudgingly offered to help Finn get background info on Tobias Dawson, although he’d made it clear he still wasn’t on board with my plan to assassinate the dwarf.

Still, it was a baby step in the right direction. Because I was killing the dwarf whether Donovan Caine liked it or not.

While the others worked, I stared out the store’s front windows and kept an eye on the crossroads outside. Tobias Dawson might have said he wasn’t returning for a couple of days, but I didn’t put it past him to double back—with even more men. Which is why I also took the precaution of pulling out my cell phone and calling Sophia Deveraux at the Pork Pit. The phone only rang twice before she picked it up. Despite my instructions to the contrary, the Goth dwarf was still at the barbecue restaurant.

“Hmph?” Sophia answered with her usual, monotone grunt.

“It’s Gin. This is going to be a bit more difficult than I’d originally thought. I need you to close the restaurant for the day and come up here. Might as well put a sign on the door saying we’re closed the rest of the week, while you’re at it.”

“Problems?” Sophia rasped.

I glanced at Violet, who was now handing Finn a cold bottle of Dr. Enuf, and Warren, who was still glowering at him. “Not so much a problem as a concern. I need to go do some recon work on Tobias Dawson, and I don’t want to leave Violet and her grandfather alone in the store while I go do it. I don’t want Dawson and his men coming around behind me and doing something stupid, like burning down the store with the Foxes inside. So you’ll be on bodyguard duty, along with Finn. Think you can handle it?”

“Numbers?”

“He brought two giants with him and two other guys who looked like half giants. I don’t know exactly how many men Dawson has at his disposal, but I imagine he could strongarm his whole payroll, if he really wanted to.”

Sophia thought about the odds for a few seconds.

“So are you coming?” I asked, although I already knew what the answer would be. Sophia liked a challenge just as much as I did.

“Um-mmm.” Yes, in not-so-many words.

“Good,” I said. “We’ll be waiting.”

We hung up, and I slipped the phone back in my pocket. The wooden floorboards creaked, and Warren T.

Fox came to stand beside me. He too stared out the front windows of the store. Two cars zoomed by, barely slowing long enough to make the left turn at the crossroads before heading toward the interstate.