Deadly Sting

by Jennifer Estep

  “Of course you are.”

  Red hightailed it over to the jewelry case, where the other saleswoman, a well-endowed blonde, was leaning over and showing Finn the diamond bracelet he’d been admiring earlier—along with all of her ample assets. Red stepped up next to Blondie and not so subtly elbowed her out of the way. Blondie retaliated by shoving her breasts forward even more. The two of them might as well have filled up a pit with mud and settled their differences that way. That would have been far more entertaining than the petty one-upmanship they were currently engaged in.

  I rolled my eyes. Finn was the only man I knew who could inspire a catfight just by grinning. But it was a show that I’d seen many times before, so I stepped into the fitting room, closed the door behind me, and started trying on the dresses. The sooner I picked something, the sooner I could get back to the Pork Pit.

  Too tight, too short, too slutty. None of the garments was quite right, not to mention the fact that Finn had chosen more than one strapless evening gown. My cleavage had never been all that impressive—certainly not on par with Blondie’s—but of more importance was the fact that strapless gowns were not good for knife concealment. Then again, Finn didn’t particularly care about such things. He didn’t have to. He could always tuck a gun or two inside or under his jacket, which suited him just fine, as long as the weapons didn’t mess up the smooth lines of the fabric.

  I was just about to take off the latest fashion disaster—this one in that awful canary yellow that definitely wasn’t my color—when I heard a soft electronic chime, signaling that someone else had come into the store. I wondered how long it would take Red and Blondie to tear themselves away from Finn to see to the new customer—

  A surprised scream ripped through the air, along with a sharp smacking sound. The pain-filled moan that followed told me that someone had just gotten hit.

  “Don’t move, and don’t even think of going for any of the alarm buttons,” a low voice growled. “Or I’ll put a couple of holes in you—all of you. Maybe I’ll do that anyway, just for fun.”

  Well, now, that sort of threat implied that the person making it had a gun—maybe even more than one. I perked up at the thought, and a genuine smile creased my face for the first time today. For the first time in several days, actually.

  I cracked open the fitting-room door so I could see what was going on. Sure enough, a man stood right in front of the jewelry case. He was a dwarf, a couple of inches shy of five feet tall, with a body that was thick with muscle. He wore jeans with holes at the knees and a faded blue T-shirt. A barbed-wire tattoo curled around his left bicep, which looked like it was made of concrete rather than flesh and bone. He held a revolver in his right hand, the kind of gun that could definitely put a large hole in someone, especially if you used it at close range.

  Since it didn’t look like the dwarf was immediately going to pull the trigger, my gaze went to the other people in the boutique. Blondie was the closest to the gunman. She had one hand pressed to her cheek, probably from where the dwarf had reached across the counter and slapped her, while her other hand was clamped over her mouth to hold back her screams. She wasn’t entirely successful at that, though, and a series of high-pitched squeaks filled the air, almost like a dog whimpering.

  Finn stood about ten feet away from the dwarf. He must have been talking to Red when the gunman entered the store, because he’d put himself in between her and the dwarf. Red had the same stunned, horrified expression on her face that Blondie did.

  Finn had his hands up, although his eyes were narrowed, assessing the dwarf and the danger he presented, just like I was.

  The first thing I did was look past the gunman and through the boutique windows, just in case he had a partner waiting outside, but I didn’t see anyone loitering on the sidewalk or sitting in a getaway car by the curb. A solo job, then.

  The second thing I did was study the dwarf to see if it looked like he was searching the store for someone else—me, Gin Blanco, the assassin known as the Spider.

  By killing Mab, I’d inadvertently made myself a popular target in the underworld, and more than one of the crime bosses had put a bounty on my head, hoping to establish themselves as Ashland’s new head honcho by taking me out. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility to think that the dwarf had followed Finn and me to the boutique on someone’s orders.

  But the only thing the dwarf was interested in was the jewelry. His eyes glinted, and his mouth curved up into a satisfied smile as he glanced down at all the expensive baubles. So this was nothing more than a simple robbery, then. Plenty of those in Ashland, even up here in the rarefied air of Northtown. Really, if the Posh owners were going to keep all those diamonds around, then they should have at least hired a giant or two to guard them.

  “Move!” the dwarf barked, pointing his gun at Blondie. “Over there with the others. Now!”

  Blondie, who’d been behind the counter, hurried around it and stopped next to Red, putting the other woman and Finn between her and the robber. Well, at least she had a good sense of self-preservation. Red knew it too; she gave her coworker a hostile glance over her shoulder.

  I turned my attention back to the robber, wondering if he might have any magic to go along with his inherent dwarven strength and the hand cannon he was sporting. But the dwarf’s eyes didn’t glow, and I didn’t sense anything emanating from him. No hot, invisible waves of Fire power, no cold, frosty blasts of Ice magic, and nothing else to indicate that he was an elemental. Good. That would make this easier.

  “Give me the key!” the dwarf snapped at Blondie as he moved behind the counter. “Now!”

  Blondie stepped around the others and over to the robber, pulling a set of keys out of her pants pocket and holding them out to him at arm’s length, her hands shaking. The dwarf grabbed the keys and used one of them to open the lock on the jewelry case, instead of just smashing the glass and setting off the alarms. He threw the keys down on the floor and started shoving bracelets, rings, and necklaces into his jeans pockets.

  I looked at the knives I’d piled on the bench inside the fitting room alongside my clothes. Normally, I carried five silverstone knives on me—one up either sleeve, one against the small of my back, and two in the sides of my boots—but I’d removed them when I’d started trying on the dresses. I couldn’t exactly go outside with a knife in my hand, since that would ruin whatever element of surprise I had, and there was no time to change back into my regular clothes. Cursing Finn under my breath, I hiked up the long skirt of the dress I was wearing and opened the fitting-room door.

  “Darling!” I squealed, rushing into the front of the store. “Isn’t this dress just the most divine thing you’ve ever seen?”

  I twirled around and managed to put myself in between Finn and the robber. With the yellow dress, I might as well have been a mother duck, watching over her little ones.

  “‘Darling’? I thought you said she was your sister!” Red hissed.

  A dwarf had threatened to shoot her and was now robbing the store, and Red was still more worried about Finn’s marital status than all that. Someone’s priorities were a little skewed.

  Finn winced and gave her an apologetic shrug, but he never took his eyes off the dwarf.

  The robber’s head snapped up at the sound of my voice, and the gun followed a second later. He stepped to the end of the counter and grabbed hold of my bare arm, his fingers digging into my skin as he pulled me next to him. His hot breath wafted up my nose, reeking of onions and garlic. I hoped he’d enjoyed whatever he’d had for lunch today, because he was going to be eating through a straw soon enough.

  “Who the hell are you?” he growled, shoving the gun in my face. “Where did you come from?”

  “I was . . . I was . . . I was in the back, trying on some evening gowns,” I said in the breathiest, most terrified and helpless voice I could muster. “I don’t want any trouble. Please, please, please, don’t shoot me!”

  The dwarf stared at me for seve
ral seconds before he lowered his gun and let go of my arm.

  “Just so you know, that’s the ugliest damn dress I’ve ever seen,” he said. “You look like a daffodil.”

  He shook his head and reached inside the case to grab another handful of jewelry. The second his eyes dropped to the diamonds, I stepped forward, yanked the gun out of his hand, and drove my fist into the side of his face.

  With his dense, dwarven musculature, it was like smashing my knuckles into a cement block. My punch didn’t have much effect, except to make him stop looting the jewelry case and focus all his attention on me, but that was exactly what I wanted.

  “Stupid bitch!” he growled, stretching his hands out to grab me. “I’ll kill you for that—”

  I pistol-whipped him across the face with the gun. My fist might not have had much of an impact, but the sharp edges and heavy, solid weight of the weapon did. His nose cracked from the force, and blood arced through the air, the warm, sticky drops spattering onto my skin.

  The robber howled with pain, but he reached for me again. I tightened my grip on the gun and slammed it into his face once more. And I didn’t stop there. Again and again, I hit him, smashing the weapon into his features as hard as I could. The dwarf fought back, wildly swinging his fists at me. Despite the blood running into his eyes, he was a decent fighter, so I grabbed hold of my Stone magic and pushed the cool power outward, hardening my skin into an impenetrable shell.

  Good thing, since the dwarf’s fist finally connected with my face.

  Given his strength, the blow rocked me back, and I felt the force of it reverberate through my entire body, but it didn’t break my jaw like it would have if I hadn’t been using my magic to protect myself. Still, the dwarf took it as a sign of encouragement that he’d finally been able to hit me.

  “Not so tough now, are you?” he snarled, advancing on me again.

  “Tough enough to do this,” I said.

  I waited until he was back in range, blocked his next blow, and then used the gun to coldcock him in the temple. His eyes widened, taking on a glassy sheen, and then rolled up in the back of his head as he slumped to the floor.

  “You know, Gin, you really should warm up before you tee off on somebody like that,” Finn murmured, leaning across the counter and staring down at the dwarf. “Wouldn’t want you to pull a muscle or anything.”

  “Oh, no,” I sniped, letting go of my Stone magic so that my skin would revert back to its normal texture. “We wouldn’t want that. Have I told you how much I hate shopping?”

  Finn just grinned and pulled out his cell phone from his jacket pocket to call Bria and report the attempted robbery. I used the long skirt of the dress to wipe my prints off the gun and then put the weapon down on top of the jewelry case.

  I’d just started to head to the fitting room to change back into my own clothes, when the two saleswomen blocked my path. They both looked at me with serious expressions. They were probably going to thank me for saving them—

  “You know you have to pay for that,” Red said.

  “Oh, yeah,” Blondie chimed in. “That’s a ten-thousand-dollar dress you just got blood all over.”

  Blood? There hadn’t been that much blood. It wasn’t like I’d sliced the dwarf’s throat open with one of my knives, which is what I usually did when bad folks crossed my path.

  I had opened my mouth to respond, when I caught sight of my reflection in one of the mirrors on the wall. Dark brown hair, gray eyes, pale skin. I looked the same as always, except for the flowing yellow dress—and the blood that covered my hands, arms, and chest. Actually, being covered in blood pretty much was the same as always for me. But the robber had bled more than I’d thought, and the fancy gown now looked like it had come straight out of a horror movie where everyone dies at the big dance.

  I started to push past the two women, but they crossed their arms over their chests and held their ground. Apparently, the sight of a ruined dress was more offensive than the fact that I had bludgeoned someone unconscious right in front of them.

  “I saved your snotty little store from getting robbed, not to mention that I kept that dwarf from probably killing you both, and you actually think you’re going to charge me for it?” I stepped forward. “Keep talking, and this dress won’t be the only thing in here with blood on it, sugar.”

  Red paled. After a moment, she stepped aside. I turned my cold gaze to Blondie, who sucked in a breath and stepped aside too.

  I stomped past them, went into the fitting room, closed the door behind me, and peeled off the gown. I put it on its hanger and hung it on the back of the door. Now, instead of being canary yellow, the top of the dress had taken on a bright crimson color, and blood had also oozed down the full skirt, giving the whole garment a garish, tie-dye effect.

  Still, as I stared at the disastrous dress, I couldn’t help but smile.

  Finn was right.

  Yellow really wasn’t my color—red was.

  2

  I grabbed some tissues out of a box in the fitting room and spent the next ten minutes scrubbing the dwarf’s blood off my skin. After peering at my reflection in the mirror to make sure I’d gotten as much of it as I could, I put my own clothes back on, tucked my knives into their appropriate slots, and slipped on my boots.

  That electronic chime sounded again, telling me that someone new had come into the store. So I stepped out of the fitting room and went into the front of the boutique.

  Finn was once again standing in front of the jewelry case, but he’d been joined by my sister, Bria Coolidge. Bria wore her usual black boots and dark jeans, along with a light blue button-up shirt. A silverstone primrose rune rested in the hollow of her throat, and her gold badge was clipped to her black leather belt, along with her gun.

  Red and Blondie stood against the wall behind the case, arms crossed, eyes narrowed, glossy lips puckered with displeasure. They were none too happy about my sister’s arrival. Even in her cop clothes, Bria was quite lovely, with her shaggy blond hair, rosy skin, and vivid blue eyes. Not to mention the adoring way Finn looked at her. He might flirt with every woman who crossed his path, but Bria was the one who made his eyes soften and his face brighten in that warm, special way. She was the one who had his heart, and Red and Blondie could see it just as easily as everyone else could.

  But Bria hadn’t come alone. A giant who was around seven feet tall reached down and hauled the dwarf to his feet before slapping a set of silverstone handcuffs on the robber. The giant’s hair, skin, and eyes were all a rich shade of ebony, while his shaved head gleamed in the afternoon sunlight streaming in through the windows. Xavier, Bria’s partner on the force, was another member of my makeshift extended family.

  Xavier finished securing the cuffs, then put one hand on the robber’s shoulder to keep the much shorter man from falling over. The dwarf’s eyes were slightly unfocused, and blood still dripped from the cuts I’d opened up on his face when I’d pistol-whipped him. Still, he surged forward at the sight of me.

  “You bitch!” he screamed. “I’ll kill you for this!”

  “Sure you will,” I said in an easy voice. “Take a number and get in line.”

  Xavier tightened his grip on the dwarf’s shoulder, holding him in place, and let out a deep, rumbling laugh. “I’ll say this, Gin. There’s never a dull moment when you’re around.”

  I winked at him. “I do my best to keep y’all employed—and entertained.”

  Xavier laughed again and took the would-be robber outside, where a dark sedan with flashing blue and white lights waited by the curb.

  I went over to the others. Finn leaned against the case, his elbows on the glass and his face propped up in his hands. He stared dreamily at Bria as she crouched down and examined some of the diamond jewelry scattered on the floor. Red and Blondie were still standing against the wall, although they’d now focused their laser-hot glares on Finn. Not that he noticed; Finn excelled at ignoring little unpleasantries like that.

  I
elbowed him in the side. “I think you’ve officially lost your fan club.”

  “Hmm?” Finn said, unabashedly admiring Bria’s ass. “What did you say?”

  I elbowed him a little harder and jerked my head at the two women. He finally deigned to glance in that direction.

  “Oh, them? No worries,” he murmured.

  Finn straightened up, adjusted his tie, and plastered a smile on his face. Then he squared his shoulders and swaggered over to them with all the confidence in the world, even though anger still pinched their faces. But that was Finn for you—always ready, willing, and eager to tame the savage female beast. Or beasts, in this case.

  “Ladies,” he said. “Have I told you both how very brave you were? Why, it was just amazing the way you both kept your cool when that horrible thug stormed into the store . . .”

  And he was off, telling the saleswomen just how much he admired their levelheaded gumption in the face of such terrible danger and other such nonsense. He only stopped talking long enough to draw in a necessary breath here and there, dazzling them with smile after toothy smile.

  While Finn soothed their ruffled feathers and bruised egos, I stepped around the display case.

  “Hey there, baby sister,” I said.

  Bria smiled and got to her feet. “Hey there yourself. You know, when Finn told me that he was taking you shopping this afternoon, I didn’t imagine things would turn out quite like this.”

  My gaze dropped to the bloodstains on the thick gray carpet. “Me either.”

  “Still, you made my day a little easier,” she continued.

  “How so?”

  She gestured at the store windows, through which I could see that Xavier had stuffed the dwarf into the backseat of the sedan and was now leaning against the side of the car. He had his sunglasses on and his head tilted back, enjoying the warm, early June sun.

  “By catching the bad guy for me.” Bria paused. “Or, rather, knocking him unconscious.”

  I grinned. “You know me and my methods.”