Fangs and Fennel (The Venom Trilogy #2)(3)

“Oh.” I glanced down at the papers in my arms and the short black skirt I wore. “No, I’m here to finalize my divorce.”

“Really?” The man in the suit perked up even more and held out his hand. “Name is Bradley Froat, lawyer, specializing in divorce. I could help you be free of your husband in no time at all. I could open you up to move on to . . . other things.” He winked at me and made a not-so-subtle kissing motion with his lips.

I glanced at his hand and took a step back, thoroughly disgusted. Did he really think that his attempt at smooth talk and a kissy face was a turn-on? “Well, I’d say it was nice to meet you, Mr. Froat, but that would be a lie.”

“You aren’t even going to shake my hand? Didn’t your mother tell you it isn’t polite to walk away when someone else is talking?” He raised both eyebrows at me, as if I’d insulted him. Well, okay, I had, but that wasn’t the point. He’d started this.

I pinched my lips together, irritation sharp and zinging through my blood. The old Alena would have apologized and begged forgiveness. Probably would have given him a coupon for her bakery.

Not anymore.

“Three things, Mr. Froat: one, I am going to be late if I don’t hurry; two, my mother is the last person you should bring up in conversation with me; and three, I am not the nice girl you think I am, so don’t irritate me, and don’t make kissy faces at me.” I turned away from him. “May I also point out you’re as big a jerk as my brother for not even offering to help a lady who has her arms full of papers before you try and make a move on her.”

“Hey,” Tad barked, “you’d say no if I did ask.”

I rolled my eyes. “And this is why you were single for so long, and why if you aren’t careful, Dahlia will dump you. You have to ask, even if you know I’m going to say no. Give me the option.”

I hurried toward the courthouse, already putting Mr. Froat and his rude come-on from my mind. Tad, though, wasn’t moving on so easily.

“You are still the nice girl, Alena, even I know that,” he said softly.

“I’m not.” Too much had happened in the last couple of weeks for me to believe I was a nice girl anymore.

For starters, I’d killed people. Bad people, to be sure, people who would have killed me, but the thing is, nice girls don’t kill people. Ever.

And I’d kissed someone other than my husband before the divorce was final, which in some ways was worse. Because I’d wanted to kiss those lips that still hovered in my thoughts. I hadn’t wanted to kill anyone—that had been sheer self-defense. Even my mother couldn’t completely deny that I’d been fighting for my life.

Thoughts of said kiss warmed me from my toes right up to the tips of my ears in a flash of heat that had me struggling to breathe normally. I drew in three long breaths as I tried to cool my body and my thoughts down. But the remembered touch of Remo’s lips on mine was hard to banish. I fanned a few papers at my face, trying to cool myself.

“How can you be hot in this miserable weather?” Tad asked as we hurried through the building’s main doors.

I was not about to tell him that my face was flushed from my memories of a kiss that would have melted the ironclad panties off a nun.

Finally breathing at a more usual pace, I managed to get my heart rate and mind back to some semblance of normal. I needed to focus, not fantasize.

Ahead of us was a swell of bodies, people coming and going in the wide hallway and lined up against the walls, whatever chairs there were filled to the brim. Everyone was here for some form of justice, just like me.

I paused and shivered. The smell of body odor lingered heavily in the air along with stale smoke, bad breath, and too much cologne and deodorant applied in an attempt to cover it all up. I coughed and Tad shot a look at me, his eyes wide as he grabbed one of my arms.

He dropped his head so it was close to mine. “Are you sick?”

“No.” I coughed again, wishing I could cover my mouth with something, anything. With my arms full of paperwork, it was all I could do to tuck my face against the sheets. “It’s the smell. This many bodies stink.”

A grunt at my shoulder spun me around. The faint musk of bear rolled up my nose, making the Drakaina in me tighten in prep for a strike. The bear shifter nodded at me. “Humans do stink in large numbers. You’ll get used to it, though. Just don’t breathe deep.”

I nodded. “Thanks. I’ll try that.”

Normally finding any Super Dupers on this side of the Wall was rare, never mind all in one place like the courthouse. But with Oberfluffel gone and his team of enforcers in shambles, any serious cases were being shipped to the local human courthouses. Of course, no one had told the humans.

Two more Super Dupers passed us, their eyes carefully averted. One was a vampire I didn’t recognize, and I overheard him thank the court registrar for scheduling his date for after dark. I glanced at my watch. It was closing in on five in the afternoon, the end of the day for the court, the end of the sun for fourteen hours, and the start of a vampire’s day. Which of course made me think of Remo and that smile of his. Dang, I had to get that man out of my head.

Tad relaxed his hold on me, and his words brought me back once more to the here and stinky now. “The smell isn’t too bad. Can’t be worse than family dinners with Auntie Janice and her crew.”