Black Widow (43 page)

Phillip snickered, while Silvio rolled his eyes.

The three of us were sitting at a long conference table that had been dragged out onto the deck of the
Delta Queen
, the luxe riverboat casino that Phillip owned. Normally, slot machines, poker tables, and roulette wheels would have been set up on the deck in preparation for
the night's gambling, but today the riverboat was serving as the site of a meeting between some of Ashland's many underworld bosses.

Supposedly, this meeting was to be a peaceful mediation of an ongoing dispute between Dimitri Barkov and Luiz Ramos, two of the city's crime lords, who were currently disagreeing about who had the right to buy a series of coin laundries to, well, launder the money that they made from their gambling operations. Not that there was anything peaceful about the way that Dimitri and Luiz had been standing nose-to-nose and screaming at each other for the last five minutes. Their respective guards stood behind them, fists clenched tight and shooting dirty looks at each other, as though they would all love nothing more than to start brawling right in the middle of the deck.

Now,
that
would be entertaining. I grinned. Maybe I should just let them have at each other. Winner take all. That would be one way to settle things.

Silvio nudged me with his elbow and narrowed his gray eyes at me, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.

“Pay attention,” he murmured. “You're supposed to be listening to the facts so you can be fair and impartial, remember?”

“I could be fair and impartial in stabbing them
both
.”

Silvio gave me a chiding look.

I sighed. “You always ruin my fun.”

“That's my job,” the vampire replied.

I palmed one of the silverstone knives hidden up my sleeves and flashed it at my friends under the table, out of sight of the other bosses and their men.

“C'mon,” I whispered. “Just let me stab one of them. Surely, that will shut the other one up too.”

Phillip snickered again, while Silvio let out a small, sad sigh. He wasn't crazy about my managerial style. Couldn't imagine why.

My friends turned their attention back to Dimitri and Luiz, who were still yelling and pointing fingers at each other, each trying to shout the other man down. But instead of listening to them, I looked at the third boss who had shown up for the meeting—Lorelei Parker.

Unlike Dimitri and Luiz, who were both dressed in slick business suits, Lorelei was sporting black stiletto boots, dark jeans, and a black leather jacket, just like I was. Her black hair was in a French braid, and her blue eyes were focused on her phone, since she was busy texting. Only a single guard stood off to her side: Jack Corbin, her right-hand man. He too was dressed in boots, jeans, and a leather jacket, but his cold blue eyes continually scanned the deck and everyone and everything on it.

Corbin realized I was watching him and tipped his head at me before sidling a little closer to his boss, ready to protect her from everyone on the deck, including me. I nodded back at him. My deceased mentor, Fletcher Lane, had a thick file on Corbin in his office, so I knew that he was far more dangerous than he appeared to be.

Then again, so was I.

Lorelei was here because she actually owned the coin laundries in question and was more than willing to sell them—to the highest bidder, of course. I didn't know if she'd approached Dimitri and Luiz about buying the
front businesses or if they'd come to her, and I hadn't had the chance to ask any questions, since the gangsters had been screaming at each other the entire six minutes that I'd been on the riverboat. Either way, the men just couldn't agree on who was getting what, and things had escalated to the point that Dimitri and Luiz were about to declare war on each other. That would mean shootings, stabbings, kneecappings, and lots of other messy crimes.

Don't get me wrong. As the Spider, I'd made plenty of bloody messes in my time. It was sort of my specialty.

But a few weeks ago, I'd taken down Madeline Magda Monroe, an acid elemental who'd declared herself the new queen of the Ashland underworld, following in the footsteps of her mother, Mab.

Just as I had done to her mother several months ago, I managed to kill Madeline with my Ice and Stone magic, and with no more Monroes left to try to take control of the underworld, the other bosses had made me their de facto leader. At least until they started plotting how they could murder me and one of them could seize the throne that they all coveted so very much.

I almost wished that one of them would succeed in putting me out of my misery.

Contrary to popular belief, being the head of the Ashland underworld was not a bed of roses. It wasn't even a bed of thorns. It was just a giant
headache
—like the one throbbing in my temples right now. I'd thought I'd been a popular target before, but now the bosses sought me out more than ever before. And they actually wanted to
talk
to me.
Incessantly
. About business deals and treaties and who was letting their gang members spray-paint rune
graffiti in someone else's territory. As if I actually
cared
about any of those things. But being the big boss now, it was apparently my job to listen. At least, according to Silvio.

I would have been happy to stab people until they got the message to shut up, solve their own problems, and leave me alone already.

Lorelei was the one who'd requested this meeting, although she'd actually approached Phillip about settling the dispute instead of me. Apparently, Lorelei didn't want to acknowledge my new authority or involve me in her affairs. That, or she just hated me for some reason. Didn't much matter either way, since I had as little regard for her as she did for me.

But Phillip was my friend, and he'd told me about the meeting. So here I was, about to mediate my first big dispute as Gin Blanco, the Spider, new queen of the Ashland underworld. Yeah, me.

Still, I would have been perfectly happy to skip the meeting and let Dimitri and Luiz duke it out until one of them killed the other, but Silvio had correctly pointed out that if I resolved their feud today, they wouldn't show up at my restaurant, the Pork Pit, tomorrow. Since I didn't want the criminals scaring my customers, I'd decided to be a good boss and show up at the meeting.

Everyone had been sitting at the conference table when I walked on board with Silvio. But at the sight of me, Dimitri and Luiz had immediately shot to their feet and started shouting accusations at each other, as if they thought that I would side with whoever yelled the longest and the loudest.

Now Dimitri was cursing at Luiz in Russian, and Luiz was returning the favor in Spanish. Since it didn't look like they were going to stop anytime soon, not even to take a breath, I tuned them out as best I could and looked out over the brass railing.

The Aneirin River flowed by the white riverboat, the swift current causing the enormous vessel to sway ever so slightly. The November sun glinted off the surface of the blue-gray water, making it sparkle like a sheet of diamonds, while a faint breeze brought the smell of fish along with it. I wrinkled my nose at the wet stench. A few crimson and burnt-orange leaves clung to the trees that lined the far side of the river, although the breeze would soon send them spiraling down to the ground—

Something flashed in the trees directly across from me.

I frowned, leaned to the side, and focused on that spot. Sure enough, a second later, a small flash of light caught my eye, the sun reflecting off something hidden back in the trees—

Silvio nudged me with his elbow again, and I realized that Dimitri and Luiz had stopped their shouting and were staring at me with expectant faces, their arms crossed over their chests. On either side of the deck, their guards wore similarly hostile expressions, their hands still clenched into fists.

“Well, Blanco?” Dimitri demanded in a low, gravelly voice. “What is your decision?”

“Yeah,” Luiz chimed in, his tone much higher. “Who gets the laundries?”

I looked back and forth between the two of them. “Um  . . .”

Dimitri frowned, and anger sparked in his dark eyes. “You weren't even listening to us!”

“Well, it was kind of hard to follow,” I admitted. “Especially since I don't speak Russian, and my Spanish is rudimentary, at best.”

Dimitri threw his hands up in the air and let loose with a string of Russian words, many of which sounded like curses.

Phillip leaned over. “I think he just insulted your mother.”

I groaned, but I held my hands up, trying to placate the Russian mobster. “Okay, okay. That's enough. Stop. Please.”

Dimitri finally finished his cursing, but he still gave me a disgusted look. “I knew this would be a waste of time. I should have just killed Lorelei and taken the laundries for myself. Just like I should have put a bullet in your head the night of Madeline's party and taken control of the underworld myself. Just like I should do right now.”

Silence descended over the deck, and the only sound was the steady
rush-rush-rush
of the water flowing alongside the riverboat.

I put my hands flat on the table, then slowly got to my feet. The
scrape-scrape-scrape
of my chair against the deck was as loud as a machine gun.

I stared at Dimitri. “That was exactly the wrong thing to say.”

Everyone could hear the chill in my words and see the ice in my wintry gray eyes.

Dimitri swallowed, knowing that he'd made a mistake, but he wasn't about to back down in front of everyone
else, so he raised his chin and squared his shoulders. “I don't think so. There's only one of you. I have three men with me.”

I smiled, but there was no warmth in my expression. “That's because you need guards. I don't. I never have. So if I were you, I'd start apologizing to me. Pronto.”

Dimitri wet his lips. “Or else?”

I shrugged. “Or else your men will be dragging what's left of you off this boat, and Phillip will be sending me the cleaning bill.”

Dimitri sucked in a ragged breath, but anger stained his cheeks a bloody red. “Nobody threatens me.”

“Oh, sugar,” I drawled. “It's not a threat.”

Dimitri kept staring at me, his breath puffing out of his open mouth like he was a bull about to charge me. Beside me, Phillip and Silvio both got to their feet.

“Try to show a little restraint,” Silvio whispered as he passed me.

Restraint
wasn't a popular word in my vocabulary, but I nodded, acknowledging his point. If I killed Dimitri and Luiz, it would just convince the other bosses that I wanted them all dead and they would probably start trying to murder me again. I'd fought hard for my relative peace and quiet, and I wasn't going to throw it away on a couple of minor mobsters.

Even if I did feel like stabbing both of them. Violently. Viciously. Repeatedly.

Phillip and Silvio moved over to where Lorelei Parker was still sitting at the far end of the table. Lorelei had quit texting and was now staring at me, but she remained in her seat, with Jack Corbin still standing by her side.
The two of them weren't dumb enough to take me on, at least not face-to-face, but the same couldn't be said for the other two bosses.

Dimitri wasn't brave enough to fight me on his own, so he turned to Luiz. “You help me with Blanco, and I'll let you have the coin laundries. All of them.”

Luiz narrowed his eyes. “I want the laundries
and
that deli you own on Carver Street.”

Dimitri sighed and nodded his head.

I rolled my eyes. A minute ago, they would have been happy to murder each other, and now they were going to work together to try to kill me. Well, at least Luiz had the good sense to try to squeeze everything he could out of the other gangster. Had to admire him for that. Even if he'd picked the wrong side.

Dimitri and Luiz shook hands, sealing their hasty deal, then they both turned to face me, with their guards standing behind them, glaring at me and cracking their knuckles in anticipation of the beat-down they thought they were going to give me. Fools.

“Now what are you going to do?” Dimitri sneered. “Against all of us?”

“Me? I'm finally going to have some
fun
. I certainly deserve it, after listening to you two whine like a couple of kids fighting over the same ice-cream cone.”

Apparently, my insult was the last straw, because Dimitri's cheeks burned even hotter, and he stabbed his finger at me.

“Get her!” Dimitri roared.

“Kill Blanco!” Luiz yelled out.

The two bosses and their guards surged toward me,
with Dimitri leaning over the conference table and reaching out with his hands, as though he wanted to strangle me to death.

I kicked my foot into the table leg, making the whole thing slam forward, right into the Russian's potbelly. He gasped and doubled over, causing his very bad, very obvious, very shaggy black toupee to almost slide off his head.

But I was already moving on to the next threat. I leaned down, snatched up the metal chair I'd been sitting in, and slammed it into the face of the closest giant guard. He yelped and staggered away, clasping his hands over his bloody broken nose. He lurched past Silvio, and the vampire stuck his foot out and tripped him. The giant's head hit the top part of the railing, and the brass let out a loud, pealing note, as if it were a bell that had just been rung. The giant slumped to the deck unconscious.
Ding.
Down for the count already.

Silvio flashed me a smile and a thumbs-up. I grinned back at him, then turned to the next guard.

Phillip had had the good sense to make sure that no one had come onto the riverboat armed, except for me, so I wasn't worried about getting shot. Even if someone had managed to sneak a gun or knife on board, I could always use my Stone magic to harden my skin and protect myself from any bullets or blades.