Elemental Assassin 03 - Venom

pain. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of screaming and begging for mercy. Not again.
    Let Slater drag me off the boat and into one of the alleys that surrounded the riverfront. He’d be in for a nasty surprise. So would McAllister, if the lawyer decided to tag along and watch the show. Because I was tired of tiptoeing around them. Mab Monroe too. I wanted to kill the Three Musketeers and proceed with things—namely getting Roslyn Phillips some help for the brutal trauma she’d been through and figuring out a way to tell Bria who and what I really was.
    Killing McAllister and Slater tonight would at least solve a few of my problems. More than that, though, it would just be
fun
. Unlike other assassins that I’d run into over the years, I didn’t kill people because it brought me any great pleasure. I did it because it was a job that I happenedto excel at. But even the most consummate professional could be excused an indulgence or two, and I was thinking about making McAllister and Slater mine.
    “Come on,” Slater said. “Let’s go.”
    Jonah McAllister stepped aside, and Elliot Slater pushed me down the walkway toward the front of the riverboat. I didn’t make a sound. Didn’t scream, protest, or try to jerk my upper arm out of the giant’s grip. Mainly because I didn’t want Slater to move his hand any lower and find the silverstone knife nestled against my forearm. Besides, screaming would be useless. No one would come to my aid. Everyone knew Elliot Slater worked for Mab Monroe. And with the Fire elemental in attendance here tonight, no one would dare question why the giant was strong-arming me—or what he might do to me once he got me off the boat.
    “It’s a shame you’re just not willing to learn, Ms. Blanco,” Jonah McAllister said in a conversational tone. The lawyer walked behind me. “That you just can’t accept the way things work in Ashland.”
    “Learn? Accept?” I looked over my shoulder and glared at him. “What you really mean is you don’t understand why I’m not cowed by you and yours, why I don’t just roll over and let you do whatever you want to me.”
    McAllister shrugged. “Call it what you like. But every time you forget, you’re going to get another reminder, like the one at the community college. Until you either remember to pay us the respect we’re due, or until you’re dead. Either option is perfectly acceptable to me.”
    We rounded the corner and stepped back out onto the main deck. Elliot Slater was a hard man to miss, and morethan a few people looked in our direction. But once they realized the giant had his hand clamped on my arm like a vise, folks quickly went back to their drinking and gambling.
    Everyone except Roslyn Phillips. Even though she was fifty feet away from me, I could see the vampire’s face tighten. Roslyn thought I’d been caught trying to assassinate Slater. She didn’t realize that I’d just had the bad luck to run into Jonah McAllister, who still suspected I had something to do with his son, Jake’s, death.
    Luck. Capricious bitch. She’d gotten me into trouble more times than I cared to think about.
    Finn also spotted Slater holding on to me. Our eyes met for a second before I cast my gaze down and shook my head a tiny bit.
No,
I was telling him. Don’t interfere. Not yet. Finn’s hand tightened around the handle of the slot machine he’d been pulling down, but he didn’t move. I knew he’d be there when I needed him, though.
    Slater bent down to murmur in my ear. “Do yourself a favor and don’t make a scene, Blanco. Or I’ll hit you even harder when we get off the boat. Just because.” His breath reeked of onions, which made his threat that much fouler, so to speak.
    Oh, yeah. I was going to enjoy stabbing the giant to death. Just because.
    But I played the part of the cowed victim and let the giant push me toward the gangplank on the opposite side of the deck. Slater crooked his finger, and his two giant minions left Roslyn’s side to come over and flank me. Of course. Slater would need someone to hold me up while he beat me again. Because doing it himself would be such a
bother.
    Jonah McAllister nodded his head in satisfaction, then strolled to the center of the deck, where Mab Monroe was still holding court. Elliot Slater strong-arming me toward the exit had also caught the Fire elemental’s interest, and her black eyes tracked me across the deck. McAllister reached her side and whispered