Dimitri glared up at me, a mulish expression on his face.
I eased the pressure on the tire iron, even as I dropped one hand down to my side. I reached for my Ice magic, creating a dagger, then stabbed him in the thigh with it.
Dimitri screamed, and I yanked the dagger right back out again, making him scream even louder.
“Do you want to start talking now? Or should I make you my own personal pincushion?”
“I—I don’t know!” he screamed. “I don’t know what she’s up to! I swear!”
I scraped the cold, bloody dagger down his cheek, making him shudder. “So what do you know? What is she doing with Santos? What kind of uniform was he wearing?”
“It’s—it’s a security guard uniform!” Dimitri sputtered. “I import them for lots of businesses! That’s one of the reasons they came to me for supplies!”
“Which businesses? What was the name on his uniform?”
“I don’t know! It’s just a generic uniform! I never saw what name Santos had put on it or any of the others!”
I stopped, the Ice dagger right next to Dimitri’s left eye. “Others? How many uniforms did you give him?”
His eyes flicked to the dagger, so I bore down with it, digging the cold tip into his face, deep enough to draw blood.
“How many uniforms did you give him?” I asked again.
“A—about a dozen!”
“And what businesses employ guards with those kinds of uniforms?”
“Some jewelry stores, museums, the Posh boutique, all the downtown banks . . .”
Dimitri kept rattling off businesses, but he’d already said the magic word: museums.
As in Briartop.
I cursed. Deirdre was planning to rob her own jewelry exhibit, just like I’d thought. Of course she’d had an ulterior motive for getting all those gems in one place. But I still didn’t understand how she thought she was going to pull it off. Even if she had a dozen men, including Santos, there were twice as many museum guards, along with at least a couple of cops. The only thing the thieves were going to get was dead. Not that I had a problem with that, but it was such a big, stupid risk to take.
According to Silvio, Deirdre was skimming millions from her charity foundation. So why would she need to steal the jewelry? Sure, it was a big enough payday to tempt anyone, but everyone knew that Deirdre was the driving force behind the exhibit. Why make enemies out of all the people who’d donated their jewelry? Folks in Ashland had long memories and enough cash and connections to hunt her down and make her pay for stealing from them. And I still didn’t see how Finn fit in with all of this. Something else was going on here. Something I just didn’t see yet.
Dimitri’s hand crept across the concrete, his fingers inching toward the tire iron that I’d dropped earlier. I snapped up my Ice dagger and drove it all the way through his hand. He screamed, but I pressed the tire iron against his throat again. He swallowed down his screams, although tears streamed out of the corners of his eyes.
“Tell me about Briartop. When exactly are Santos and his crew planning to hit the museum?”
His eyes twitched, and his tongue swiped across his lips in a nervous gesture. “I—I didn’t say anything about Briartop. They don’t use those uniforms there.”
I shook my head. “I hate it when people lie to me, Dimitri. Makes me want to stab them. But since I’ve already done that to you, I guess I’ll just have to settle for this instead.”
I sent out a small burst of magic and shattered the Ice dagger still in his hand, making him scream again. But Dimitri was tougher than I’d given him credit for, because he surged up, grabbed the tire iron against his throat, and tried to wrest it away from me. Fool.
I thought about questioning him some more, but that would take precious time. It was enough that I knew where Deirdre was headed, so I decided to put Dimitri out of my misery. He didn’t even manage to get a good grip on the tire iron before I had formed another Ice dagger and rammed it into his throat.
The mobster fell back, his blood sluicing across the floor and mixing in with the greasy strands of his black toupee. He let out a few wheezing breaths before his head lolled to the side and he was still.
Silvio would have been proud of me. I’d finally scratched one enemy off my to-do list.
Deirdre Shaw was next.
*
Once I was sure Dimitri was dead, I rifled through his pockets, taking his car keys and all the cash in his wallet. I would have used his phone to call my friends and tell them what was happening, but it required a PIN code, so I tossed it aside.