Page 98 of Viper

“Who?” Ella tracked her mother’s gaze to see Jocelyn stood outside nattering amiably withMaxine. Her inner demon glared at the harpy, rather unpleased to see her.

“Jocelyn is still friends with her?” asked Mia, astonished.

“Not quite,” replied Melodie. “Like us, she feels there’s a good chance that Maxine befriended her for the wrong reason.But she won’t find out for sure if she doesn’t give the harpy the opportunity to pump her for information, so she accepted Maxine’s invitation to go for lunch.” Melodie smiled as both women entered the store. “Maxine, how lovely to see you. I was just wondering how you’d feel about letting me test some new products on you.”

The harpy’s polite smile faltered. “I’d prefer not to, if it’s all the same to you.”

“Can’t say I blame you,” muttered Jocelyn.

“Where did you go for lunch?” asked Melodie.

“The sushi place not far from here,” replied Jocelyn. “The food was amazing.”

Maxine looked from Ella to Mia, her eyes briefly flashing with something not very pleasant. “Girls.”

Not ‘Ladies’ this time, Ella noted as she telepathically reached out to her sister.

Yeah, that greeting was a condescending slap if ever I’ve heard one, said Mia. “How’s Dionne?”

Maxine’s strained smile turned brittle. “She’s fine. Well, I’ll be off now. I’ll touch base with you again next week, Jocelyn.”

Once the harpy had flounced out of the store, Ella turned to her aunt. “Well?”

“She asked me less questions than usual, as if being careful not to bump my radar,” said Jocelyn. “She also bemoaned how a mysterious someone went to Knox ‘falsely’ claiming she uses Dionne as a plant. Maxine monitored meverycarefully when she revealed that little tidbit.”

Mia hummed. “So she suspects that it was one or more of us.”

“I’d say so. I played clueless and feigned horror on her behalf.” Jocelyn’s brow furrowed. “I was initially surprised that she asked me to lunch, but I suppose she has to continue on as normal or she’ll otherwise look guilty of what Knox accused her of.”

“Move, idiot,” a female voice hissed, drawing their attention to the couple making their way toward the counter.

Ella felt her lips curve up. She knew Larkin, sincethisharpy was part of Levi and Piper’s circle of friends. Larkin’s mate, Teague, was someone who most demons in Vegas would recognize on sight. He regularly raced in the Underground hellhorse racing stadium, and he’d never been known to lose. Or to be anything close to sane.

Teague gave his mate a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry, am I bothering you?”

Larkin glared up at him. “Areyou actually sorry, though?”

He considered it for a moment. “No.”

The harpy growled, which made his smile widen.

“Here, let me carry your shower gel,” he said, all solicitous.

She held the bottle tighter. “It’s shampoo.”

“Semantics.”

Reaching the counter, Larkin drew in a centering breath, smiled politely at Ella and the others, and plonked the bottle down. “Just this.”

“No conditioner, today?” asked Mia.

“Still got some left,” replied Larkin. “I shampoo twice, so I run out of that sooner. I don’t usually care about brands, but since Piper convinced me to sample your stuff, I won’t use anything else.”

Having rung up her purchase, Ella bagged it. “I’ll have to thank her for being our product-pimp.”

Teague courteously took the bag. “I’ll carry the soap.”

Larkin’s eyelid twitched. “It’s shampoo.”

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