Elemental Assassin 03 - Venom

don’t even know. Xavier’s worked for me for almost five years now. Maybe it was this thing with Slater, maybe it was something else. But one day, I looked up and it was just there. I just cared about him more than I have anyone in a long time. And now I can’t do anything about it.”
    “You know he loves you too, right?” I asked.
    Roslyn nodded. “I do.”
    I thought about what the vamp had said. “So if you told Xavier that you had an arrangement with Slater, why did he tell the giant to leave last night?”
    Roslyn sighed. “At first, Xavier was too hurt to question my arrangement with Elliot, which was exactly the way I wanted it. Xavier thought I was just seeing the giant because I wanted to. But two nights ago, Elliot told me I didn’t show enough…
enthusiasm
when he was kissing me. So he hit me, backhanded me with that diamond pinkie ring he wears. Xavier saw the cuts and bruises before I could get myself cleaned up and healed.”
    “And he realized that you were with Slater against your will.”
    Roslyn nodded. Weariness made her features sag. “And so here we are.”
    “Here we are,” I murmured.
    Silence.
    I stared at Roslyn, who kept her gaze on the tabletop. The vamp had spilled her guts to me, held nothing back, but there was still one more thing I wanted to know.
    “That first time when Elliot Slater came to question you about the party invitation, why didn’t you tell him that it was me?” I asked. “Why didn’t you give me up? Why did you really keep quiet?”
    Roslyn lifted her eyes up to stare at me. “I didn’t tell Elliot it was you because I made a promise to you, Gin. I opened my mouth about what you do once before, and Fletcher Lane died as a result of it. Finn told me how Alexis James tortured Fletcher before he died. Finn was sick over it. So were you. I know that’s why youthreatened me the way you did at Fletcher’s funeral. He was a good man, and once I’d realized what I’d done, how I’d helped cause his death, I was sick over it too.”
    “Still,” I persisted, not quite ready to let the matter lie. “If you’d told Slater, they would have come after me. They might have even gotten to me before I figured out what was going on. Then at least our arrangement would have been at an end.”
    Roslyn shrugged. “Finn and I have had some nice times together, and I know how important you are to him. How much like a sister you are to him. Call me sentimental, but I didn’t want to hurt Finn again.”
    Finn and Roslyn were what I referred to as good-time buddies. They often got together for a little evening delight when they were between relationships—or when their current paramour was off doing something else. But more than that, Finn and Roslyn had a real friendship besides the sex. They genuinely cared about each other, much to my amazement.
    “So I’ve answered your questions.” Roslyn hesitated. “I know—I know I don’t have the right to ask it, not after what happened to Fletcher. But I don’t have anyone else to turn to, Gin. I thought maybe if I just put up with Slater for a little while, that he’d get bored with me and move on. But he hasn’t. And he won’t. Not until he kills me.”
    Tears gathered in Roslyn’s eyes again, but she blinked them back. “I don’t care so much about myself and what Slater will do to me. But I’m worried about Catherine and Lisa, what will happen to them if I’m not around to protect them. Lisa looks a lot like me, and Slater, he… he might…”
    Roslyn’s voice faded away as she thought about what the giant might do to her younger sister, Lisa, and Lisa’s daughter, Catherine. The vamp clasped her hands together, trying to contain her emotions, trying to stop the tremors that shook her body and present her usual calm facade.
    I didn’t ask Roslyn if she’d gone to the cops about what Elliot Slater was doing to her. She knew as well as I did that the large majority of the Ashland po-po could be bought for a song. Since Slater worked for Mab Monroe, his pockets were a lot deeper than Roslyn’s to start with. Not to mention the fact that the giant could just use the Fire elemental’s influence and connections to get everyone to look the other way. Unless someone decided to stand up to him. Unless someone decided to stop him.
    Unless I stopped him.
    This was it. The moment of truth. Up until now, all my talk about getting even with Mab Monroe for murdering my family had been just that—talk. I