Authors: Jennifer Estep
11 Poison Promise (46 page)
We stared each other down, our stances casual and our features perfectly pleasant but with a deadly, dangerous coldness lurking just below the smooth surfaces.
“Anyway, I’m afraid I must be going,” Madeline said, breaking the silence. “I have another dedication to prepare for tomorrow. This one’s at the library downtown.”
“I’ll be there with bells on.”
“No,” she said in a pleased voice. “I don’t think you will. But I do thank you for coming out here today, Gin. As you said, it’s always so very lovely to see you.”
Madeline smirked at me, then pivoted on her stiletto and moved back toward the podium, shaking hands and
thanking everyone for their support and well wishes. Emery and Jonah each gave me one more hostile glare before they trailed after her. Soon the three of them were in the heart of the crowd, with Finn and me standing by ourselves underneath the maple.
“She really is something,” Finn said in an admiring tone, his eyes locked onto Madeline’s lithe, gorgeous figure.
Despite the fact that he was involved with Bria, Finn was still a shameless flirt who loved to charm every woman who crossed his path. He would never do that with Madeline, for obvious reasons, but that didn’t keep him from ogling her for all he was worth. I scoffed and rolled my eyes.
“What?” he protested. “She’s like a black widow spider. I can admire the beauty of such a creature, even if I know exactly how deadly it is.”
“Only you would think that being eaten during your postcoital bliss would be worth it.”
Finn shrugged, then flashed me a mischievous grin. “But what a way to go.”
He stared at Madeline another moment before looking over the rest of the crowd. He must have spotted someone he knew, perhaps one of the clients at his bank, because he waved, murmured an excuse to me, and headed in the direction of a wizened old dwarf who was wearing a large pink sun hat and an even larger diamond solitaire that could have had its own zip code. Finn never missed an opportunity to mix business with pleasure, and a moment later, he was attached to the dwarf’s side, having winked and wiggled his way past the female giant serving as her
bodyguard. Finn gave the elderly woman a charming smile as he bent down and pressed a dainty kiss to her brown, wrinkled hand. Well, at least he was an equal opportunity flirt.
But I continued to watch Madeline, who was still shaking hands and was now standing directly below the arch that bore her family’s name. Maybe it was the way the sun was hitting the metal, but the word
Monroe
seemed to flicker and gleam with a particularly intense, sinister light, as though it were made out of some sort of black fire, instead of just sturdy old iron.
Madeline noticed me staring at her and gave me another haughty, pleased smirk before turning her back and ignoring me completely. Emery and Jonah did the same, moving to flank their boss again.
All I could do was stand there and watch my enemy have a grand old time, basking in the warm glow of everyone’s collective, attentive goodwill.
Maybe I was wrong when I told Finn that being eaten was the worst part.
Maybe waiting for the black widow to kill you was the real torture.
PHOTO © ANDRE TEAGUE
JENNIFER ESTEP
is a
New York Times
and
USA Today
bestselling author prowling the streets of her imagination in search of her next fantasy idea.
Spider’s Bite, Web of Lies, Venom, Tangled Threads, Spider’s Revenge, By a Thread, Widow’s Web, Deadly Sting, Heart of Venom
, and
The Spider
, along with the e-shorts
Thread of Death, Parlor Tricks
, and
Kiss of Venom
, are the other works in her red-hot
Elemental Assassin
urban fantasy series. Jennifer is also the author of the
Mythos Academy
young adult urban fantasy series and the
Bigtime
paranormal romance series. For more on Jennifer and her books, visit her at
www.jenniferestep.com
and
@Jennifer_Estep
.
FOR MORE ON THIS AUTHOR:
authors.simonandschuster.com/Jennifer-Estep
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
B
OOKS IN THE
E
LEMENTAL
A
SSASSIN SERIES BY
J
ENNIFER
E
STEP
Spider’s Bite
Web of Lies
Venom
Tangled Threads
Spider’s Revenge
By a Thread
Widow’s Web
Deadly Sting
Heart of Venom
The Spider
Poison Promise
Black Widow
E-SHORTS
Thread of Death
Parlor Tricks
(in the
Carniepunk
anthology)
Kiss of Venom
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Jennifer Estep
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First Pocket Books paperback edition August 2014
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ISBN 978-1-4767-7150-2
ISBN 978-1-4767-7152-6 (ebook)