Bitter Bite (Elemental Assassin #14)(93)

into the middle of all that glittering elemental Ice. Deirdre studied the bars

a second, then flicked her fingernail in the same spot again.

Tink.

More spiderweb cracks spread through the metal, zipping through the entire

vault door. Deirdre leaned forward and flicked her fingernail against that

same spot a third time.

Tink.

With a roar, all the elemental Ice shattered, crushing the silverstone bars

and the keypad. It fell to the floor in one cold wave, and left a clear, open

path into the vault.

Deirdre looked at Santos. “What were you saying about getting the show on the

road?”

The giant ignored her gloating and reached into a duffel bag sitting on the

floor. He grabbed a crowbar out of it, then stepped into the vault. He had

moved out of my line of sight, but the screech-screech-screech of metal filled

the air as Santos dug his crowbar into the first safety-deposit box, then the

next. His giant strength let him pop the heavy metal boxes out of the wall as

easily as I could crack a can of soda.

“So the bank vault was your endgame all along,” Finn said, his voice

brimming with bitterness. “But why go to all this trouble? You could have

just stolen the jewelry from the armored truck. You could have had Santos do

that, collected the insurance money, and kept your cover intact. So why rob

the bank too? Why blow your contacts and everything else you set up in

Ashland? Why take such a big risk?”

“Big risk, big reward. You should know that. Every money man does.”

Finn glared at her, but she laughed, reached out, and patted his cheek. She

put a bit of Ice magic into the gesture, making him hiss with pain and jerk

away from her cold, cold touch.

“Don’t worry, Finnegan, honey, and don’t look so glum,” Deirdre crooned.

“Soon you won’t have to worry about me or anything else. In fact, you won’t

feel a thing. I promise.”

She patted Finn’s cheek a final time, then headed into the vault to collect

her bounty.





26

Deirdre stepped to one side of the vault and moved out of my line of sight,

just like Santos had. A second later, blue-white flashes of light started

appearing in the vault, as she used her Ice magic to crack open the safety-

deposit boxes just like she had the silverstone bars. Meanwhile, Santos kept

up his own steady assault with his crowbar. Looked like they were going to

force open all the boxes first before they started rifling through the loot

inside them.

“Now what?” Bria whispered. “The second they see us coming, they’ll kill

Finn. One blast of Ice magic from Deirdre would be more than enough. All she

has to do is step out into the center of the vault, and she can hit him.”

“Now we do some shock and awe of our own,” I whispered back. “This way.”

Bria and Owen followed me back to the men’s bathroom. Owen gave Bria and me a

boost through the hole we’d created, then we reached down and helped him

climb up. Together, the three of us left the first-floor bathroom and stepped

back out into the lobby.

Silvio was standing by the front doors, his phone in one hand and a gun in the

other. He hurried over when he saw us. I marched to the center of the lobby,

which was directly on top of the basement vault, and the others gathered

around me.

“What are you going to do?” Bria asked.

I studied the floor, listening to the low, dark mutters of violence that had

sunk into the marble from the thieves taking over the bank and killing the

guards, along with me cracking through the bathroom floors.

“I’m going to bust through the floor and drop down right on top of Deirdre

and Santos in the vault. If I’m lucky, I’ll bury them in the rubble and kill

them outright. But even if they survive, they’ll be too surprised and too

busy dealing with me to worry about anything else, including Finn. It should

give you, Owen, and Silvio enough time to get him to safety.”

Bria gave me a worried look. “You saw what Deirdre did. She blasted through

those vault bars like they were made out of paper. And she still has plenty of

magic left.”

We could all hear exactly what she wasn’t saying—that Deirdre might very

well kill me with her Ice magic.

“I know, but this is our best chance to rescue Finn—our only chance. We have

to take it, or Deirdre will kill him as soon as she and Santos are done

looting the vault.”

Bria didn’t like it, but she nodded her agreement. So did Silvio and Owen.

Silvio made sure that our watches were all still synchronized, and then he,

Owen, and Bria hurried over to the bathroom to slip through the hole in the

floor and back down to the basement.

I gave them three minutes to get into position, just like we’d planned, then

closed my eyes a moment, gathering my thoughts and my magic. Big Bertha was

the most secure part of the bank, encased in marble and silverstone, and I