Bitter Bite (Elemental Assassin #14)(110)



nothing to gain by lying.”

I cleared some of the raspy emotion out of my voice. “Whether everything he

said was true or not, there’s something going on here, and I’m going to get

to the bottom of it.”

Finn reached over and placed his hand on top of both of mine. “We’re going

to get to the bottom of it.”

I tightened my fingers around his. “You’re damn right we are.”

*

Just before noon the next day, I was standing in Jo-Jo’s kitchen with Finn

and Owen. The dwarf had healed me, and I’d spent the last several hours

resting and recuperating. Jo-Jo had packed up her supplies to go help a client

who was in a beauty pageant, and Sophia was covering the Pork Pit for me. Finn

and Owen were sitting across the butcher-block table from each other.

“I said I was sorry for everything I said to you at the Pork Pit that day.”

There was a wheedling note in Finn’s voice. “What more do you want from me?



Owen crossed his arms over his chest and glared at my brother.

I rolled my eyes. Finn had been apologizing to Owen for the last five minutes,

and Owen had been pointedly holding a grudge. I ignored them and went back to

layering pasta sheets, spicy marinara sauce, and mounds of mozzarella and

Parmesan cheese in a large casserole dish for my homemade lasagna.

Finn snapped his fingers. “Ah. I know what you want.” He got to his feet,

went around to Owen’s side of the table, and held his arms out wide.

“C’mon, Grayson. I’ll give you a free shot at me. Surely that will make you

feel better.”

Owen frowned, but he made no move to take Finn up on his offer. Finn waggled

his eyebrows in invitation, and Owen huffed in response.

“Fine,” Finn muttered. “If that’s how you want to be—”

Owen surged off his stool and plowed his fist into Finn’s jaw.

Crack!

Finn staggered back against the counter, a dazed look on his face.

“You’re right,” Owen rumbled, shaking out his hand, even as a smile quirked

his lips. “I do feel better.”

I rolled my eyes again. “Boys.”

I reached into the freezer and grabbed two bags of frozen peas. I tossed one

to Owen for his bruised knuckles and the other to Finn for his jaw. The two of

them settled back down at the table, the silence between them far more

companionable now.

Forty-five minutes later, I’d just taken the lasagna out of the oven and

started dishing it up, along with a Caesar salad and garlic breadsticks, when

the front door slammed open and Bria strolled into the kitchen.

“That smells amazing,” she said, shrugging out of her jacket and placing a

manila folder on the counter.

“Sit down, and tell us what you found,” I said.

We all gathered around the table and dug into our food. I breathed in,

enjoying the scents of cooked tomatoes, melted cheese, basil, oregano, and

other spices that rose from the lasagna, which tasted even better than it

smelled. It was the perfect warm, hearty dish to chase away the phantom chill

of Deirdre’s Ice magic that still lingered in my mind. Lasagna was also great

comfort food, and we could all use a little comforting after everything that

had happened.

Bria took several bites of her lasagna and sighed with appreciation before

starting her story. “Xavier and I found Deirdre’s body in the shipping yard,

right where Finn shot her.”

“But?” I asked.

“But the rest of the place was clean. All the papers and files had been

cleared out, all the computers had been smashed, and Xavier found a dozen cell

phones torched in a trash can. Whoever Tucker really is, he was certainly

thorough. We’ll follow up and chase down all the leads, of course . . .”

“But you don’t expect to find anything,” Owen finished.

She shrugged. “Probably not.”

We finished our food in silence. Bria was the first to push her plate away,

and she grabbed the folder she’d brought off the counter and placed it on the

table. Owen cleared the dishes, and we all gathered around the table again.

Bria looked at me. “Remember when I told you that I had seen Deirdre’s rune

somewhere before?”

“Yeah . . .”

“Well, I finally remembered where, thanks to those photos Mallory gave you.”

She opened the folder and drew out a photo. It was another shot of that long-

ago cotillion ball, just like the one Mallory had shown me several days ago.

But instead of a group of girls, this photo showed only two: Deirdre and our

mother, Eira. Both of them were smiling and holding out their rune necklaces

toward the camera.

Finn let out a low whistle, and Owen tilted his head to the side. All I could

do was stare at the photo.

Bria tapped her finger on the picture. “Mom had a photo just like this one. I

remember her pulling out a whole album of photos and looking through them with

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