Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

handed each one of them a menu and took a step back.
    “What would you like to drink?” I asked in a flat voice.
    “I suppose it’s too much to hope you have any sort of wine here,” Jonah sneered again. “I imagine it would just be cheap swill anyway. Or worse, some sort of home-grown moonshine.”
    “Jonah will have an ice water with lemon,” Elektra interrupted him in a smooth tone. “And I’ll have a strawberry lemonade.”
    I raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised that she was ordering for him—and that he didn’t dress her down for having the nerve to do it.
    Elektra reached over and started tracing small circles with her fingertips on the back of McAllister’s smooth hand. She gave him a sly smile, which he returned, before his cold brown eyes dropped to what he could see of her cleavage through the undone ribbons on her green shirt. A knowing smirk curved his tight face, like he knew exactly what was underneath the slick fabric.
    Oh. So that’s how it was. An interesting development. I wondered if Mab Monroe knew that her lawyer was fucking her assassin. I was willing to bet no. The Fire elementalwould frown on that kind of fraternization, if only to make sure that her minions stayed loyal to her alone. Not that I imagined that McAllister and LaFleur had any kind of real love connection, but still, people would do a lot of crazy things for sex. Like kill for it.
    “I’ll be back in a minute to take your orders.”
    Jonah waved his hand at me, a clear indication that I was dismissed. Anger filled me at his arrogance, but I didn’t act on it. Instead, I put the emotion aside for now. It would only motivate me that much more later, when there was no one around but me, McAllister, and my silverstone knives.
    I stalked away from their booth and went back behind the counter
    “Call Finn,” I said in a low voice to Sophia as I grabbed a couple of glasses and filled them with ice. “Tell him that LaFleur is here and will probably be here for at least the next hour. Tell him to park out on the street and follow her and McAllister when they leave. The two of them just might lead us to Natasha. And tell Finn to bring whatever supplies he might need to finish things. I want to end this—tonight.”
    Sophia grunted her acknowledgment and kept stirring her beans.
    I finished fixing the drinks. Then I grabbed my order pad and pen, along with the glasses, and walked back over to their booth. I plunked down the drinks, not caring that McAllister’s water slopped over the side and spilled onto the table.
    And neither did Elektra LaFleur.
    A drop of water landed on her skin, and a green sparkimmediately sizzled to life there.
Bzzzt
. The water crackled against her flesh as though she was a real-life bug zapper, and since one of my hands was down in the water on the table, I felt the shock of it zip through the liquid and up into my body. To my surprise, it
hurt,
like I’d just stuck my finger into a socket and gotten a bad jolt—one that made my teeth clench and my heart race. Startled, I looked at her.
    LaFleur gave me a soft, warm smile, her eyes a much brighter green now, more electricity sparking in her gaze. She knew that she’d zinged me with her power, and she’d liked the fact that I’d felt it and that it had hurt. Maybe she’d even sensed my surprise and discomfort, given her elemental magic, the way that I could hear murmurs in stone. And I suddenly knew that’s why she electrocuted people when she assassinated them, instead of using a knife or a gun. LaFleur enjoyed feeling other people’s pain. She probably got some kind of high off it, like so many elementals did when they used their magic. Sadistic bitch.
    “I hate winter, don’t you?” Elektra said in a bored tone. “All this static electricity in the air. I’m always getting a jolt. Aren’t you?”
    “Sure,” I muttered. “Happens all the time. What’ll it be?”
    Jonah McAllister ordered a cheeseburger and fries, while Elektra LaFleur opted for a barbecue pork sandwich with baked beans, French fries, and a side of coleslaw. The woman had a healthy appetite, that was for sure. I wondered where she was going to put it all on that lean frame of hers. Then again, I supposed she needed a lot of juice to fry people alive with her electrical magic.
    I went back over to the counter. Sometime while I’d been talking to McAllister and LaFleur, Sophia had disappeared into the back of the restaurant. A moment later, the Goth dwarf