“All right, all right,” I muttered. “So maybe my retirement’s been a little more boring than I thought it would be. So maybe it felt good to knock Jake’s nose out of joint when he made the stupid mistake of trying to rob me. Maybe it felt even better to do the same to his old man. But if I’d let Jake go that night, I’d have a dozen Jake McAllisters in here today, all thinking they could knock over my joint for a quick wad of cash. You know it. Ashland’s all about survival of the toughest. It always has been. Word gets out you’re weak or an easy mark, and you’re finished, no matter what business you’re in.”

Finn shrugged his agreement.

“Besides, if I give in to the McAllisters now, they’ll think they own me, that they actually frightened me today.

Jake would start coming in here all the time, just to lord it over me. He’d think the restaurant was his own personal little fiefdom, take my money, and terrorize my customers.

And I just couldn’t stand that. Not in Fletcher’s restaurant.

Not when he worked so hard for so long to keep from paying protection money to anyone.” I sighed. “Besides, it’s too late for all that now anyway. I pissed off Jake McAllister again, embarrassed him in front of his father. He’s not going to forget that. He’s going to kill me—or at least try. He has to, or he’ll never have his father’s respect again. What little of it there was to start with.”

“And then what are you going to do?” Finn asked.

“You kill Jake, and Jonah will come down on you like a ton of bricks. Hell, he might even get Mab Monroe involved at that point.”

A few weeks ago, someone had set me up to be killed as part of a larger power play against Mab Monroe, to try to wrest control of Ashland away from her. I’d gotten caught in the middle, which meant I was already more involved with the Fire elemental than I’d ever wanted to be.

I thought of that piece of paper in the file Fletcher had compiled about my family’s murder, the one with Mab’s name on it. Maybe I’d always been involved with the Fire elemental—I just hadn’t known it. “I’ll deal with Jake McAllister when he makes his move.”

Finn opened his mouth again, but I held up my hand to cut him off.

“Enough talk,” I said. “We have other people to deal with today, remember? Warren T. Fox. So let’s go get Violet and see what Grandpa has to say for himself.”