Heart of Venom

Chapter Thirty-two

A little more than a week after Harley Grimes had first stormed into Jo-Jo’s house, I found myself back in the salon. Only this time, I wasn’t getting my nails done. Instead, I was the one painting.

I stepped back, my eyes tracing over the wall and making sure that I hadn’t missed any spots. Since the salon had been so damaged during Grimes’s attack, Jo-Jo had decided to do a little remodeling. That meant a fresh coat of white paint everywhere.

However, not everyone was happy about being on paint duty instead of being pampered, like we’d first planned.

“Oh, sure,” Finn muttered, dabbing his brush at the wall a few feet away from me. “Now you let me come. Now that there’s work to be done and not just sitting around in your pajamas, drinking mimosas, and eating bon-bons.”

I gave him an amused look. “Less whining, more painting. Jo-Jo wants to reopen the salon next week, remember?”

Finn let out another huff, but he leaned forward and started some trim work around the doorframe.

“Well, I agree with Finn,” Owen drawled from the opposite side of the salon, where he was working on another wall.

“I could do with less painting and more pampering myself.”

Beside him, Bria snorted. “Men. And they think that we’re the weaker sex. At least we don’t whine about every little thing, now, do we?”

Finn turned around and stabbed his paintbrush toward her. “I will have you know that I don’t whine about every little thing. I only whine about the important things, my own comfort being chief among those.”

Bria snorted again. I grinned and went back to my own painting.

Among the four of us, it didn’t take long to finish painting the salon. Once we were done, I led everyone into the kitchen. While they settled themselves around the butcher-block table, I rustled around in the cabinets, coming up with plates, forks, napkins, and a large knife.

Then I reached into the fridge and pulled out the key lime pie that I’d made early that morning.

Finn’s eyes lit up. “You didn’t tell me that there was pie.”

“You would have quit painting and come in here.”

“Absolutely,” he agreed, grabbing the knife off the table and using it to cut into the dessert. “Why paint when you can eat pie instead?”

“Well, I can think of some things that are better than painting or eating pie,” Owen rumbled.

He slid his arms around my waist and pulled me back against his chest. That old, familiar electricity arched through my body, and my heart thrummed with desire— and love. Owen pressed a kiss to the side of my neck before stepping away from me. With everything that had been going on the past few days, we hadn’t been able to spend a lot of time together, but the moments that we had shared had been wonderful. We weren’t out of the woods yet, but I’d felt that we’d finally turned a corner and that we would come out stronger on the other side.

I turned around and tapped him on the nose. “Well, you’ll have to tell me all about these mysterious activities later. Perhaps even give me a demonstration.”

“It would be my pleasure,” he agreed in a husky voice.

“Mine too,” I murmured back. “But for right now, be a good boy, and eat your pie.”

Owen made a face, but he took the plate that I offered him. I laughed.

Once Bria had gotten a piece of her own, I took what was left, along with some more plates, forks, and napkins, and stepped out onto the front porch, where Jo-Jo and Sophia were.

Jo-Jo was perched in a rocking chair, going through a brown cardboard box that was full of makeup, with Rosco snoring in a patch of sunlight at her feet. Sophia was sitting on the steps, her right index finger moving back and forth in a steady, deliberate pattern, carefully using her Air magic to dissolve all of the blood that had spattered there—Jo-Jo’s blood.

“Y’all ready for a pie break?” I asked, and put everything down on a table next to Jo-Jo’s elbow.

Jo-Jo grinned at me. “I don’t know that I’ve done enough work to have earned myself dessert already, but I won’t pass it up.”

I grinned back at her. “Good. Because I made that key lime pie that you love so much.”

I cut her a big piece of the tart, tangy dessert. Sophia reached a stopping point and joined us, digging into her own slice. Rosco cracked open an eye, but when he realized that we weren’t going to share, he huffed and continued snoozing at Jo-Jo’s feet.

“You know,” Jo-Jo said, after she’d finished her slice, “I don’t think that Sophia and I ever said thank you for everything that you did on the mountain and everything that you’re doing here now too.”

I reached over and squeezed her soft, warm hand.

“There’s no need for thanks. Family takes care of family. Simple as that.”

“Still, darling, you went above and beyond,” Jo-Jo said. “I don’t think that you know how much it means to Sophia and me.”

“So much,” Sophia rasped. “So very much.”

I reached over and squeezed her hand too. “Well, I don’t think that you know how much you guys mean to me. I’d take on Harley Grimes all over again for you—for both of you.”

Both of their faces darkened at the mention of the Fire elemental, and for a moment, I wondered if I’d ruined the day. Jo-Jo and Sophia hadn’t said much to me about Grimes, although more than once, I’d heard them whispering late into the night at Fletcher’s house.

But after a moment, Jo-Jo looked at Sophia. They both grinned, and the mood lightened once more.

“Actually, I’m glad that we’re finally getting started on fixing up the salon,” Jo-Jo said. “I just got in a new order of makeup that I’m dying to test out on all my regular customers.”

She bent over, rummaged through the cardboard box

that was sitting at her feet, and came up with a bottle of scarlet nail polish, that deep, vibrant red that was so my color.

“It’s called ‘Heart’s Desire.’ Don’t you just love the shade?”

“I think that it’s just perfect,” I said, meaning it. “What other plans do you have in store for the salon besides new makeup?”

Jo-Jo grinned at me. “Well, darling, I’m glad you asked, because . . .”

I sat back in my rocking chair and took another bite of my pie, letting Jo-Jo’s words wash over me, enjoying the day and being with some of the people I loved most in the world.

My own heart’s desire.