Elemental Assassin 03 - Venom

“Until you are begging me to stop the pain, to just end you. Now, you’re going to tell me exactly why you were at Coolidge’s house that night, and why you’re so fucking interested in my business.”
    The giant didn’t have to add an
or else
to his threat. He and Finn already knew how to play the game—and they both realized that Elliot Slater currently held all the cards. Except for one. Me. The queen of spades.
    Finn’s head rolled back and up as he tried not to choke on his own blood. I scooted forward just a bit, so that the edge of my knife caught the light and flashed silver. Finn saw the gleam. His green eyes widened for a second before he shuttered them and slowly lowered his head.
    “All right,” Finn mumbled. “I’ll tell you why I was there. Because I know about Bria Coolidge. Because I know who she really is.”
    That got Slater’s attention. The giant’s whole body stilled. He didn’t even blink. “And just who is she, Lane?”
    Finn looked up at him. “Her real name is Snow. Bria Elizabeth Snow.”
    Elliot Slater didn’t react. Didn’t move, didn’t flinch. Hell, he didn’t even take a breath. Then the giant abruptly turned away from Finn and walked around the stone column, moving out of Finn’s line of sight. I drew back into the hallway so that Slater wouldn’t see me lurking on the balcony above. The other two giants maintained their positions below me, watching the show with detached interest. They looked like the same two goons who had held me up for Slater that night at the community college. Didn’t much matter. They were getting dead regardless.
    But what I didn’t understand was what Finn thought he was doing telling Elliot Slater that he knew who Bria really was. Did he want the giant to kill him before I could take Slater out? Had the giant’s blows scrambled Finn’s brains even more than they already were? Because Finn was dangerously close to singing not only his swan song but mine too. To telling Slater everything about us, what we did, and why.
    Finn coughed up some more blood and spat it on thecarpet. “Come on, Elliot,” he said in a friendly voice. “You’re not going to deny it, are you? That’s hardly sporting, considering that I’m the one in cuffs and you’re not.”
    The giant finished his circuit around the stone column and stopped in front of Finn once more. “So what if Coolidge’s real name is Snow? That doesn’t mean anything to me.”
    “Sure it does,” Finn countered. “Because that’s why you were there to kill Bria. That’s why your boss, Mab Monroe, wants her dead. Because she’s Bria Snow, and because Mab murdered her family seventeen years ago.”
    Silence.
    Slater held his position, as still and quiet as the stone column before him. But Finn wasn’t finished dropping bombs on the giant—or me.
    “You’ve been working for Mab a long time now, haven’t you, Elliot?” Finn murmured. “Twenty-five years by my calculation. You’ve been her right-hand man from the very beginning. Which means you were there that night. You were there the night that Mab murdered the Snow family.”
    I flashed back to that night, to my frantic run through my burning house, to the giant’s fist slamming into my face. I’d only seen him a second before he’d punched me. Just long enough to notice how pale he was. Almost… albino.
    Slater didn’t say anything, but a muscle twitched in his chalky cheek. All the confirmation that I needed. My breath rushed out of my lungs as I realized what Finn was up to. My foster brother was trying to get some answers for me—answers about what had really happened thenight that Mab Monroe had murdered my mother and older sister. And I’d be damned if I had the willpower to stop him right now.
    Elliot Slater recovered from his shock, and a cruel smile spread across his face. “You’re a smart guy, Lane. Figuring all that out for yourself.”
    Finn shrugged again. “Not too hard. I’ve had the file on the Snow family for a while now. Mab’s one of the few Fire elementals who had enough magic—then or now—to do what she did that night.”
    The giant circled around the column once more. This time, Finn’s green eyes flicked to the other two men standing in front of him. They stared at him without expression, and Finn turned his attention back to Slater, who stopped in front of him once more. Finn didn’t look up at me. He knew that I’d make my move when I was ready.
    “What do you want,