Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

didn’t say anything, but her eyes narrowed. Her whole body tensed, as though she was getting ready to launch herself across the seat at the other woman. I reached down and put a hand on her thigh, warning her. Bria’s head snapped around to me, and I gave a small shake of my head.
No,
I was telling her.
Taking her on is suicide right now. Don’t do it. Don’t you dare.
My sister frowned, but she seemed to get the message in my sharp gaze because her body relaxed the slightest bit.
    “Aw,” Elektra pouted over the rim of her glass of gin. “I was really hoping that you’d be stupid enough to try something, detective. But don’t worry. I’m going to shock the fight right out of you, among other things.”
    Bria opened her mouth, but before she could let out another angry retort, someone’s cell started chirping.LaFleur rolled her eyes, then dug in her coat pocket, pulling out a small silver phone.
    “What!” she snapped into the receiver.
    I couldn’t hear the voice on the other end, but it had to be Mab by the way that LaFleur suddenly straightened up in the black leather seat.
    “I was just getting ready to call you with an update, Mab,” Elektra said, confirming my suspicion.
    My lips tightened. Damn and double damn. If Elektra told Mab she had Bria and me, the Fire elemental would probably want to meet the assassin wherever she was taking us just so she could watch Bria’s death in person. Just so she could be sure it had actually happened this time. And then we’d both get dead—in a hurry.
    I had to do something to prevent that from happening. Elektra and her giants would be hard enough to take out. I didn’t want to have to face Mab tonight too. Not when Bria was here in the line of fire with me.
    “Minion,” I said in a mocking voice just loud enough for the other assassin to hear. “You’re nothing but Mab’s little minion and Jonah’s little bitch. Who are you going to roll over and open your legs for next, Elektra? One of the giants here?”
    Bria frowned and stared at me, obviously wondering what I thought I was doing, antagonizing the other assassin. But I couldn’t think of anything else to do. Elektra had showed me her temper once before in the alley. It was the only real weakness I’d seen in her so far—one that I was desperately trying to exploit any way I could.
    Elektra’s green eyes narrowed, and she regarded me for a long moment. Then she straightened up. “You knowwhat, Mab? I’m getting rather tired of your constant need for updates. All you need to know is that I’m working on it. I’ll call you back when it’s done and not a second before.”
    Then she snapped her cell phone shut and tossed it down onto the seat between her and the giant. A moment later, it started ringing again. Elektra regarded it with a venomous look.
    “Aren’t you going to get that?” one of the giants rumbled. “Mab doesn’t like it when her calls get ignored. Trust me. I know. I had to have Air elemental skin grafts for a week after she got done with me.”
    Elektra snorted. “Fuck what Mab wants. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m busy doing her dirty work right now. So she can wait. Unless you’d like to answer the phone and tell her yourself? Although I have to warn you, it will be the last thing you ever do. Because I don’t like it any more than Mab does when people disobey me.”
    Lightning flickered in LaFleur’s green eyes, bringing the promise of death along with it. The giant swallowed and stared at the window. The phone rang five more times before Mab’s call went to voice mail. Elektra glared at it again before pouring herself some more gin.
    I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. One problem solved.
    Now I just had to figure out how to get my cuffs off, get Bria to safety, and kill LaFleur before Mab came looking for the other assassin.
    All in a night’s work for the Spider.

25
     
    We rode for about fifteen minutes, the limo twisting and turning through the downtown area like a large black beetle scuttling ever closer to its ultimate destination. Nobody said anything, but the giants kept their eyes on Bria and me the whole time, ready, willing, and eager to slap us around if one of us tried to do something stupid.
    Now that we were captured and officially on the way to our deaths, LaFleur seemed to have lost interest in us. The other assassin drank more of her blue gin and stared out the window the whole time.
    With every passing mile, I could feel Bria’s