Warren lapsed into silence again, and his glossy eyes dulled with old memories. After a minute, he shook his head and came back to himself. “Anyway, I know I don’t deserve it, but I appreciate your help, especially for Violet’s sake. She would have died last night if not for you.”

I shrugged. “I would have done the same for anyone else.”

Warren shook his head. “No, I don’t think you would have. You know there are some people who just deserve killing. Something Donovan hasn’t realized yet. Something he won’t ever be able to admit to himself. His father was the same way. He tried to help me out with Dawson some years back, but it didn’t take.”

“So that’s how you know Donovan. You knew his father.”

Warren nodded. “Daniel Caine, a fine man. Donovan is too. But he’s not the one for you.”

He was more observant than I’d given him credit for. I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

Warren glanced over his shoulder, but Donovan Caine was still talking on his cell phone, so he turned back to me. “I mean you and Donovan are on opposite sides. Always have been, always will be. He’s not going to change, and he’ll never accept what you are, what you’ve done. It’s just not in his nature, no matter how much he might want to.”

“And you’re telling me this because…”

“Because Donovan’s a good man, and you’re good too, in your own way. At least you should be if Fletcher raised you right,” Warren said. “At the very least, you’re good at what you do.”

“The best. I was the best at what I used to do,” I corrected him. “But I’m retired now.”

Warren snorted. “Right. Just remember what I said. Don’t get too attached to Donovan Caine. Because it’s not going to end the way you want it to.”

His eyes didn’t glow with power, and I didn’t sense any magic trickling off him, which meant Warren T.

Fox didn’t have an Air elemental’s sense of precognition.

Whether Warren had any magic or not, he was still observant enough to recognize the conflict between me and Donovan Caine.

Finn murmured something, which made Violet giggle.

Warren’s head snapped around at the sound. He shuffled off to glower at Finn and put an end to the younger man’s flirting with his granddaughter. This time, I could have offered him the advice of not bothering. Short of shooting Finn with the shotgun, there was nothing Warren could do. Flirting with the opposite sex was as natural and necessary as breathing to Finn.

I looked past the trio to where Donovan Caine paced back and forth on the floorboards. The detective saw me watching him, frowned, and turned his back to me. Shutting me out once again.