Elemental Assassin [9] Heart of Venom Read Free

up. No worries.”
    “Speaking of Jo-Jo’s, I still say that I should get to come to your little soiree,” Finn said. “Especially after I was so helpful here tonight.”
    I narrowed my eyes. “You start up with that again, and
    I’ll be dealing with three bodies instead of just two.”
    Finn gave me a wounded look, but after a moment, he sighed and holstered his gun. “Well, at least this one’s already halfway to the cooler,” he grumbled.
    I grinned at him. “See? We’re nothing if not efficient.”
    Finn muttered some choice words under his breath, but he reached down and took hold of the dead giant’s shoulders, and I grabbed his ankles again. We lugged the two men over to the cooler to await Sophia and her body disposal skills.
    Not the first body dump we’d done—and certainly not the last.

     

Chapter Two
    Two days later, Saturday, the dead giants were still on ice in the cooler, but I found myself in much nicer, warmer confines: a beauty salon.
    The salon took up the back half of an old plantation house, and the area had a homey and welcoming, if cluttered, feel. Tubs of nail polish and lipstick sat on a counter, along with bottles of hair dye, shampoo, and conditioner.
    Nestled in between the tubs and bottles were brushes, combs, curlers, rollers, scissors, and every other item you could think of that would untangle, tease, straighten, curl, kink, or cut your hair. Stacks of beauty magazines covered the small tables scattered here and there in the room, the models on the slick, glossy covers beaming as if they approved of all the beauty ministrations that could be had there.
    I was relaxing in one of the cherry-red salon chairs when something warm, wet, and slightly rough touched my foot. I leaned to one side, and Rosco, Jo-Jo’s basset hound, licked my toes again, then gave me a hopeful woof . I stretched out my foot and rubbed it against his side. Rosco let out a loud, contented sigh and collapsed in a wrinkled puddle of black and brown fur, perfectly happy to let me rub his round tummy for as long as I would.
    “Hold still, darling,” Jo-Jo drawled as she put another coat of paint on my fingernails. “I’m almost done.”
    Rosco and the salon were the pride and joy of Jolene
    “Jo-Jo” Deveraux, the dwarven Air elemental who healed me whenever I got banged up or almost shot, stabbed, beaten, or magicked to death as the Spider. Given my current notoriety in the Ashland underworld and the legion of would-be murderers targeting me, I was over here more days than not. Then again, I would have been over here anyway, since Jo-Jo was a mother figure to me and part of my extended family.
    Since we were having a girls’ day at the salon, I’d forgone my usual long sleeves, jeans, and boots in favor of a red tank top, some white cutoff shorts, and a pair of black sandals that immediately got kicked off over into the corner when I’d first arrived an hour earlier. Jo-Jo, however, enjoyed dressing up, and she had on one of her prettiest
    pink dresses, along with her usual strand of pearls. Her
    white-blond hair was curled just so, her soft, understated
    makeup would have put any beauty queen to shame, and
    her bare feet showed off the perfect raspberry pedicure
    that she’d just given herself.
    “You know, you really don’t have to give me a manicure,” I said. “You should be relaxing today too.”

     
    Jo-Jo raised her head and gave me an amused look.
    Laugh lines fanned out from the corners of her clear, almost colorless eyes. “You did all the cooking, darling.
    That’s more work than this is. Besides, I like pampering you, Gin. You don’t take nearly enough time for yourself.
    Especially not these days.”
    “I know, I know,” I said. “But it’s a shame that you’re doing up my nails so neat and pretty when they’ll probably be chipped by this time tomorrow. Or probably before I leave here today. I never seem to be able to keep the polish on them