Nice Guys Bite

Note: This contains some major spoilers for Unraveled. So if you absolutely do not want to be spoiled, skip reading the excerpt below.

Chapter One

“You work too much.”

I ignored the teasing drawl and swiped through another screen on my tablet, reviewing our schedule and wondering if I could squeeze in a meeting today. Or, rather, if I could get her to squeeze in a meeting today. Probably not. Getting her to agree to them in the first place was always a struggle, and she would be even more reluctant now, given how badly the one yesterday had gone.

But mid-level underworld boss Liam Carter had called me earlier, asking for a sit-down in hopes of smoothing out a territorial dispute before it turned any bloodier than it already was. He’d actually been quite polite with his request, calm and respectful, unlike so many of the other bosses who went straight to bellowing and bullying.

As if such things would intimidate me. As a personal assistant, I highly valued politeness, especially when it was directed at me, and I really wanted to accommodate Mr. Carter—

“Silvio, please put your tablet down.” The voice sounded again, this time with a little more emphasis. “Before I take it away from you.”

I looked up from the screen to find my boss, Gin Blanco, staring at me. She was sitting on a stool next to the cash register, but for once she wasn’t ringing up orders or running credit cards. Instead, a pair of scissors glinted in her hand, and red, white, and green construction paper covered the counter in front of her, along with glue sticks, pots of glitter, and an assortment of ribbons.

I nudged a couple of the curling ribbons aside with my index finger so that they wouldn’t further encroach on my work space, which was the only clear patch of counter left. But of course, the ribbons slithered right back to where they’d been, like tiny snakes determined to infect me with their holiday cheer.

“Tell me again why you’re doing arts and crafts?” I asked.

Gin held up the sheet of red paper that she’d been snipping with her scissors for the last few minutes, took an end in either hand, and unfolded it like an accordion, revealing a string of, well, let’s just say unusual snowflakes.

She beamed at me, her gray eyes bright in her pretty face, proud of her crafty creation. “Because the holiday party is in a few hours, and what says ‘Merry Christmas’ better than pig-shaped snowflakes?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I said in a dry tone. “Anything other than pig-shaped snowflakes?”

Gin rolled her eyes and set her string of snowflakes down on the counter. “You’re no fun.”

“You don’t pay me to be fun. You pay me to be your assistant.” I waved my tablet at her. “So why don’t you let me get back to actually assisting you?”

“Because you’re supposed to take the afternoon off, just like everyone else, remember? Now, be a nice assistant, and put that thing down.” She brandished her scissors at me. “Before I stab it to death—literally.”

With anyone else, I would have considered it an idle threat. But not when my boss was Gin Blanco, the assassin the Spider. I’d seen her kill men with her bare hands . . . trash can lids . . . loose bricks . . . even a fork once. Give her anything sharp and pointed, like the silverstone knives she always carried, and she was lethal. Not to mention her Ice and Stone elemental magic, which gave her even more deadly power.

I was a vampire and pretty deadly myself, but I knew when I was beaten. So I sighed, turned off my tablet, and set it on the counter next to my phone.