Bitter Bite (Elemental Assassin #14)(71)

pounding in my head didn’t make it any easier. Time and time again, my picks

slipped out of the lock.

“Come on,” I muttered. “Come on.”

If Finn were here, he would have already opened the lock, stuck his hands into

his pockets, and been whistling while he strolled away. The thought made me

smile and redouble my efforts.

Finally, the picks hit the necessary sweet spots, and the lock clicked open. I

started to pull it off the door so I could open it and get out of the cage,

but voices sounded outside the warehouse, along with several beep-beep-beeps,

as though someone was punching in a security code.

So I put the lock back together as close as it would go without actually

snapping it shut. It wasn’t my most brilliant plan, but as long as I was

still in the cage, I could hope no one would do more than glance at the lock.

I also reached up and probed my left temple. A goose egg had formed there, and

I could feel the slash of a long cut that was still oozing blood. I dipped my

fingers in the blood and smeared it down the side of my face. Then I leaned

wearily against the cage bars, as if I were more seriously injured than I

really was.

A giant guard opened the door, and Deirdre strode into the warehouse. She had

changed out of her silver party dress and was now wearing a neon-purple

pantsuit and matching stilettos. Her blond hair was sleeked back into a low

bun, and her icicle-heart rune glinted under the lights. No doubt, the peacock

was here to strut her stuff and crow about capturing me.

Tucker entered the warehouse next, dressed in a navy suit, although it was the

two people trailing him who caught my attention: Dimitri Barkov and Rodrigo

Santos.

Dimitri stopped in front of the cage and smirked at me. He was still wearing

his tuxedo from the museum gala, although he’d ditched his bow tie and jacket

and rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt. Despite the styling grease on

his toupee, pieces of his fake black hair had curled up in all directions, as

though he’d sprouted a dozen devil horns on his head.

Given his sneers at the museum earlier tonight, it had been obvious that

Dimitri was plotting something against me. Of course he would have aligned

himself with Deirdre. She wouldn’t have even had to offer him anything other

than my death to make it happen. I could have smacked myself for not realizing

it sooner.

But Santos was the far bigger surprise. I’d thought that Deirdre might have

had a hand in the bank robbery, but her genuine shock when Santos shot her had

made me back-burner that theory. Just one of the many things I’d been wrong

about lately.

Either way, it seemed as though Santos had been hiding out with Dimitri this

whole time, which was why Silvio hadn’t been able to track him down. But

Santos and Dimitri weren’t going to be problems for much longer.

And neither was Deirdre.

Santos also smirked at me. Instead of his usual dark, anonymous clothes, he

was wearing a long, expensive black overcoat and shiny black boots. The front

of his coat was open, giving me a peek at the dark gray clothes he wore

underneath, although it seemed more like a uniform than a suit. Weird.

Tucker kept his distance from the cage, texting on his phone. Deirdre eyed me

a moment, making sure that I was exactly where she wanted me, then turned to

Santos.

“Is everything set?” she asked, her voice clipped and much colder than her

usual syrupy-sweet drawl.

Santos nodded. “My crew and I are ready. Everything will go according to

plan. Don’t worry.”

She gave him a flat look. “Well, perhaps this time you can manage not to

shoot me.”

“I had to make it look good, didn’t I? Shooting Lane and slapping you around

wasn’t going to cut it after Blanco started playing hero. Besides, you got

the added bonus of saving your dear son. I got him to trust you, just like

that.” The giant snapped his fingers.

So the whole point of the bank robbery had been about Deirdre ingratiating

herself with Finn. No wonder she’d seemed genuinely upset. Santos shooting

her hadn’t been part of the plan, but he’d done it anyway. Too bad he’d

only grazed her instead of putting a bullet through her chest.

Deirdre’s red lips puckered, and anger filled her eyes at his mocking tone.

It was obvious that there was no love lost between the two of them. Perhaps

the giant would double-cross and kill her for me. Yeah, right. No way could I

ever be that lucky. Besides, I wanted to end Mama Dee myself.

“Oh, yeah, the bank job went so well that you had to shoot your own men and

leave with nothing,” I sniped, slurring my voice to add to my weakened

appearance. “What are you going to do for an encore? Swipe some poor kid’s

lunch money on the playground? That seems to me like that’s about all you can

handle, Rod.”

Anger stained Santos’s cheeks. He opened his mouth to snipe back at me, but