Deadly Sting Read Free Page B

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 several 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