Black Widow by Jennifer Estep

with my heart.
    For the first time since I’d met her, a bit of uncertainty flickered in Madeline’s eyes. She’d deliberately coated the money and order ticket with her acid magic, another of her little traps, but I wasn’t reacting the way she had expected. She might play games, but so could I.
    â€œYou made a mistake,” I said in a calm tone. “Several, actually.”
    Madeline arched a dark, delicate eyebrow. “Really? And what would those be?”
    â€œYou dragged my friends and family into this. Roslyn. Finn. Owen. Eva. You shouldn’t have done that.”
    She shrugged, unconcerned by the ice in my voice. “It’s not my fault that your friends are having such . . . difficulties.”
    â€œOf course not. You would never stoop to actually getting your hands dirty yourself unless you absolutely had to. That’s why it took you so long to come at me. You had to set all your little cogs and wheels into motion to screwwith me and the people I care about. Like getting Dobson in your pocket, and having him browbeat that poor health inspector into going along with this sham here today.”
    â€œYou give me far too much credit, Gin. I might have made some new friends since I’ve been in town, but what you’re talking about sounds like a grand conspiracy. I’m just an employer who was concerned about a worker. That’s why I reported my maid missing this morning, nothing more. Emery was nice enough to contact Captain Dobson for me, since he was an old friend of her uncle Elliot’s. Dobson promised to look into things, and he drew his own conclusions from the information I gave him.”
    â€œSure he did.”
    But Madeline didn’t miss a beat. “I hate to point this out, darling, but you sound a bit . . . paranoid. As if the whole world is arrayed against you. Perhaps you should take some time off while the restaurant is closed. Talk to someone about these feelings of persecution you have.”
    â€œYou’re right,” I said, disdain dripping from each and every one of my words. “I have given you far too much credit. I thought that you would do something grander, more impressive. But this”—I waved my hand out at the restaurant—“this is nothing . Rather disappointing, actually. Mab would have been so much more direct about things. Why, your mama would have burned this place to the ground with her bare hands already. Not spent all her time and energy bribing, wheedling, and batting her eyes to get my restaurant shut down by a crooked cop.”
    â€œI am nothing like my mother,” Madeline snapped, her calm façade finally cracking at the mention of Mab. “She was a grand fool.”
    â€œMab was many things, but she was never, ever a fool. Not when it came to me. She once hired a whole squad of bounty hunters to come to Ashland just to hunt me down. And when she finally figured out who I was, well, she called me out herself, face-to-face, elemental to elemental, villain to villain. You could have done the same. You should have done the same. Challenged me to a duel and tried to kill me yourself with your acid magic.”
    I snorted and gave another dismissive wave of my hand. “But you? With your sly little schemes? You’re just a pale, weak imitation of her, sugar.”
    Madeline couldn’t stop herself from sucking in a ragged breath at my insult, but I wasn’t done yet.
    I leaned over the counter so that our faces were inches apart. “You should have killed me the second you had the chance. That’s the other mistake you made, and that’s the one that’s going to cost you— everything .”
    Madeline’s green eyes burned with anger, and I could almost see the gears grinding in her mind as she debated whether to reach for her acid magic and try to take me out, right here, right now, all her elaborate schemes be damned. But after a moment,