Blood Will Tell by Dana Stabenow Read Free Book Online Page A

scowl deepened. Without answering he seated his date, a brunette with a face so artificially smooth you could skate on it and eyes so opaque it was hard to tell their color. There was a wide gold band on her left hand, the only thing about her that surprised Kate. The oil man sat down next to the brunette without introducing her, folded thick arms across his chest and glowered at Lew Mathisen beneath lowered brows.
    "And Kate, too, by God," Lew Mathisen said, "how'd we get so lucky, ha HAH!" He reached out and Kate gave him a bright smile across a full fork, thereby occupying both hand and mouth so she would have to neither shake his hand nor reply.
    "Hello, emaa," Axenia said from behind him, her smile containing only a trifle less wattage. "Sorry we're late. Hi, Kate." "Axenia," Kate said,
    "hi. I didn't know you were coming." "I called her this afternoon,"
    Ekaterina said.
    "Hey, babe," Lew said, and gave Axenia an exuberant kiss. "What are you doing here?"
    "I'm meeting my grandmother for dinner." She put her arm around his neck and kissed him back with interest, when she was done looking a clear challenge first at her grandmother, then at her cousin. Kate thought if Ekaterina stiffened any more she might snap in half where she sat.
    A short, stout man with a moon face and shiny black hair beamed over Axenia's shoulder. "It's my fault, Ekaterina. Axenia said I'd get a free meal if I tagged along, so I made her wait for me. Hi, Kate."
    "Hello, Billy." Billy Mike had succeeded Ekaterina in the position of tribal chief of the Niniltna Native Association only because Ekaterina had refused to run for a fourth five year term. He was also one of the four surviving Niniltna board members. Ekaterina, then Harvey, now Billy. Kate wondered when Enakenty was going to show up.
    "And Billy, too, great to see you again!" Mathisen smacked his hands together. "Well, isn't this great, ha HAH! Can we buy you nice folks a drink? Honey, bring my good friends here a bottle of whatever they're drinking. And another one for us while you're at it." As if the idea had just occurred to him, he said, "Say, why don't we push our tables together? Make a party of it, ha HAH!"
    "No, thank you," Ekaterina said clearly.
    Johnny, who had inherited his brains from his father, began shovelling in pasta in a manner reminiscent of a steam shovel excavating a gravel pit.
    "Oh, hey, Lew," Jack said, "ah, we're already halfway through our dinners here, let's save it for another time, okay?"
    "Well, hell, you can drink, can't you, ha HAH? Honey, can we slide these tables together, what do you think? Ha HAH!"
    Kate leaned over to whisper in Ekaterina's ear. "Would you like to leave?"
    Ekaterina, straight-backed in her chair, looking neither to the left nor to the right, conveyed a healthy portion of lasagna to her mouth without replying.
    "Since they're almost done," Axenia said, "maybe Billy and I should join you instead."
    "Well, if you're sure," Mathisen said, disappointed. "Honey? Honey?
    Could we have a couple more chairs and place settings here? Fine! Well, great to see you, Ekaterina, we'll be seeing you all at the convention, ha HAH!" He waved a hand at Ekaterina's table and went back to his own.
    Billy, smarter than Axenia, or perhaps just less in need of proving a point, declined the invitation to join Mathisen's party and pulled up a chair between Ekaterina and Kate.
    The waitress arrived with two bottles of Chianti. Behind her came the couple who would be taking the table on the other side of Jack's party.
    "Oh fuck," said Jack under his breath.
    "Oh fuck," said Johnny, way under his.
    "Hello, Jane," said Kate, and wondered why very thin people always looked so peevish. Probably hunger.
    The tall towhead's skin matched the color of her hair. The lids of her blue eyes were weighed down beneath thick layers of shadow, liner and mascara, only emphasizing the malevolent expression in them. She responded to Kate's greeting by snapping at Jack, "Is she staying