Jennifer Estep - Heart of Venom

Once again, my heartfelt thanks go out to all the folks who help turn my words into a book.

Thanks go to my agent, Annelise Robey, and editors, Adam Wilson and Lauren Mckenna, for all their helpful advice, support, and encouragement. Thanks also to Julia Fincher.

Thanks to Tony Mauro for designing another terrific cover, and thanks to Louise Burke, Lisa Litwack, and everyone else at Pocket and Simon & Schuster for their work on the cover, the book, and the series.

And finally, a big thanks to all the readers. knowing that folks read and enjoy my books is truly humbling, and Im glad that you are all enjoying Gin and her adventures.

I appreciate you all more than you will ever know.

Happy reading!

What do you mean, I cant come?

I jerked my head down at the heavy weight swinging between us. Do you really want to talk about this right now?

I cantthinkof a better time, he replied, then dropped his half of the load onto the ground.

I let go of my half of the weight, put my hands on my hips, and rolled my eyes at the whiny, petulant tone in my foster brothers voice. You cant come because its a girls day at the salon. No guys allowed. That includes you.

Finnegan Lane sniffed, straightened up to his full six-foot-plus height, and carefully adjusted the expensive silk tie knotted around his neck. Yes, but I am not justanyguy.

More eye-rolling on my part, but Finn ignored me.

His ego was pretty much bulletproof, and my derisive looks wouldnt so much as scratch his own highfalutin opinion of himself.

Besides, he continued, Id get more enjoyment out of a spa day than you would.

True, I agreed. I dont particularly care how shiny my nails are or how well conditioned my hair is.

Finn held out his manicured nails, studying them with a critical eye, before reaching up and gently patting his coif of walnut-colored hair. My nails are good, but I could use a trim. Wouldnt want to get any split ends.

Oh, no, I muttered. We wouldnt want such a horror asthat.

With his artfully styled hair, designer suit, and glossy wing tips, Finn looked like hed just stepped out of the pages of some high-end fashion magazine. Add his intense green eyes, chiseled features, and toned, muscled body to that, and he was as handsome as any movie star.

The only thing that ruined his sleek, polished look was the blood spattered all over his white shirt and gray suit jacketand the body lying at his feet.

come on, I said. This guy isnt getting any lighter.

The two of us were standing in the alley behind the

Pork Pit, the barbecue restaurant that I ran in downtown Ashland. A series of old, battered metal Dumpsters crouched on either side of the restaurants back door, all reeking of cumin, cayenne, black pepper, and the other spices that I cooked with, along with all of the food scraps and other garbage that had spoiled out there in the July heat. A breeze whistled in between the backs of the buildings, bringing some temporary relief from the sticky humidity and making several crumpled-up white paper bags bearing the Pork Pits pig logo skip down the oil-slicked surface of the alley.

I ignored the low, scraping, skittering noises of the bags and concentrated on the sound of the stones around me.

Peoples actions, thoughts, and feelings last longer and have more of an impact than most folks realize, since all of those actions and feelings resonate with emotional vibrations that especially sink into the stone around them.

As a Stone elemental, I have magic that lets me hear and interpret all of the whispers of the element around me, whether its a jackhammer brutally punching through a concrete foundation, rain and snow slowly wearing away at a roadside marker, or the collective frets of harried commuters scurrying into an office building, hoping that their bosses wont yell at them for being late again.

Behind me, the brick wall of the Pork Pit let out low, sluggish, contented sighs, much the way the diners inside did after finishing a hot, greasy barbecue sandwich, baked beans, and all of the other Southern treats that I served up on a daily basis. A few sharp notes of violence trilled here and there in the brick, but they were as familiar to me as the sighs were, and I wasnt concerned by them. This wasnt the first person Id had to kill inside the restaurant, and it wouldnt be the last.

come on, I repeated. Weve had our body-moving break. You grab his shoulders again, and Ill get his feet. I want to get this guy into that Dumpster in the next alley over before someone sees us.

Dumpster? You mean the refrigerated cooler that Sophia hauled in just so you could keep bodies on ice close to the restaurant with at least amodicumof plausible de-niability, Finn corrected me.

I shrugged. It was her idea, not mine. But since shes the one who gets rid of most of the bodies, it was her call.

And why isnt Sophia here tonight to help us with this guy?

I shrugged again. Because there was some James Bond film festival that she wanted to go to, so she took the night off. Now, come on. Enough stalling. Lets go.

Why do I have to grab his shoulders? Finn whined again. Thats where all the blood is.

I eyed his ruined jacket and shirt. At this point, I dont think it much matters, do you?

Finn glanced down at the smears of red on his chest.

No, I suppose it doesnt.

He grumbled and let out a few put-upon sighs, but he eventually leaned down and took hold of the dead guys shoulders, while I grabbed his ankles. So far, wed moved the guy from the storefront of the Pork Pit, through the rear of the restaurant, and outside. This time, we slowly shuffled away from the back door of the Pit and down the alley.

Finn and I had moved bodies before, but the fact that this dead guy was a seven-foot-tall giant with a strong, muscled figure made him a little heavier than most, and we stopped at the end of the alley to take another break.

I wiped the sweat off my forehead and stared down at the dead guy.

Half an hour ago, the giant had been sitting in a booth in the restaurant, chowing down on a double bacon cheeseburger, sweet potato fries, and a big piece of apple pie and talking to the friend hed brought along. The two giants had been my last customers, and Id been waiting for them to leave before I closed the restaurant for the night. The first guy had paid his bill and left without incident, but the second one had swaggered over to the cash register and handed me a fistful of one-dollar bills.

Id counted the bills, and the second my eyes dropped to the cash register, hed taken a swing at me with his massive fist.

Please. As if no one had ever tried that trick before.

But such were the job hazards of an assassin. Yep, me, Gin Blanco. Restaurant owner by day. Notorious assassin the Spider by night. Well, actually, it was more like I was the Spider all the time now. Ever since Id killed Mab Monroe, the powerful Fire elemental whod owned a good chunk of the crime in Ashland, everyone who was anyone in the underworld had been gunning for me. I was a wild card in the citys power structure, and lots of folks thought that arranging my murder would prove their mettle to everyone else. Tonights giant was just the latest in a long line of folks whod eaten in my restaurant with the intention of murdering me right after sopping up the last bit of barbecue sauce on their plates.

Since Finn had been sitting on a stool close to the cash register, hed pulled a gun out from underneath his suit jacket and tried to put a couple of bullets into the other man, but the giant had slapped Finns gun away. The two of them had been grappling when Id come around the counter, palmed one of my silverstone knives, and repeatedly, brutally punched the blade into the giants back, sides, and chest until he was dead. Hence the blood that had spattered all over Finnand me, too, although my long-sleeved black T-shirt and dark jeans hid most of it.