Page 66 of V for Vengeance

“Looking to get on Grams’s shit list?” I laughed, taking the proffered cup.

Jo sat down next to me with the mug Grams swiped at a local thrift shop and peered out the window. “I’ve met some terrifyingpeople, but that Hunter takes the cake. She hasn’t gotten any less dangerous in her advanced age, has she?”

“Advanced age? Oh, you’d get your ass handed to you for uttering that phrase around her,” I teased, my throat still tight.

“You’re right. I’ll be careful,” Jo said, smirking. “If there was one Hunter I was afraid of, it was her.”

“You knew about Grams?”

Jo gave me a sassy little eyebrow. “Come on, V. Your grandmother is a goddamn legend. Even though those assholes have extra abilities she doesn’t have, she was just as lethal, if not more so. The problem is, they’ll never be as clever as she is. Your grandmother is a tactical genius, and she’s cutthroat. She killed mercilessly. She never failed to get her guy. She might’ve been on the wrong side of history for a while, but I admire that about her. No one on this side wanted to be her target if they could help it.” Her endless respect for Grams dripped from every word.

“So, did you ever fight her?”

Leaning back, Jo stared at the ceiling. “No, she was one of the few Hunters I stayed clear of. But I definitely knew about her. It was…surprising to say the least when I found out you were her granddaughter.”

“Why? Because I’m not as good as she is? Or really as pretty? Don’t worry. I’ve seen pictures. I’m not even a little bit surprised Grams had a list of people pining after her and she never struggled to…well, you know. She was a heartbreaker before Gramps.”

I wouldn’t even touch on how weird it was for me to talk about my grandmother’s booty call history. I’d already spent way too long cringing after she encouraged me to be a ho-ho.

“No. That’s the thing, though. You are. You’re unbelievably clever, chick. You’ve just had the unfortunate luck of being surrounded by men who think you need to be saved instead oflistened to. They underestimate you all the fucking time, and you can’t let them.”

I didn’t expect the lecture, so I went quiet, grief’s unyielding fingers still a tight hold on my throat.

Jo cursed and touched the hand not holding my cup. “Sorry. That was shitty of me to say. I…fuck, I’m not good at this stuff. But I didn’t mean—”

Smiling gently, I nodded and interrupted her before the poor woman could spiral, “Don’t worry. I appreciate what you’re trying to say, and I do agree with you. I’m just…young. I hate it, and it’s not an excuse, but it always shows when they talk to me. I’m still learning how to assert myself. I might know how to shoot a crossbow while in a constant state of motion, or take down an enemy with no weapon at all, but I’m still barely navigating adult relationships. This stuff is still pretty new to me. I don’t always know what I’m doing.”

After Nigel died and my relationships had been thrown into chaos, Jo had shown a side I never expected to see. Human. It was an odd way to describe her, but that was the only word I could think of that fit. It was the first time I’d seen her be something other than brilliant and mysterious.

When it came to comforting me, she was rough around the edges, but Jo clearly cared. She’d ramble and try to offer her own version of support, but it was evident she hadn’t been in that sort of position for a long time. She didn’t know what to say, and it often led to these spiraling moments.

Jo took a sip of her coffee and grinned. “That makes two of us.”

“What, you? Relationship inept? No way. Aren’t you incredible at anything you do?” I balked in mock surprise.

Rolling her eyes, Jo crossed her legs on the couch and bumped my knee with hers. The men in the kitchen were busy arguing, so I let her fingers slide between mine for an electric second. Her lips tilted as her fingers traced my palm, carefully testingsomething we’d been toying with since we met. My cheeks burned by the time her hand slipped away.

“I’m a beast when it comes to fighting, but even I have things I’m not good at.” Our eyes met. “Things I’m afraid of.”

“Bullshit,” I teased her with a smirk.

Her grin broadened, and I could’ve sworn she bit her lip, but Cash’s shriek stole our attention before I could investigate or overthink everything about it.

“Must you brutes micromanage everything I do?!” I heard Cash complain, back to his usual antics. “Get out, or I’ll slap you around with this spatula!”

“Try it, Fae. See what happens,” Phillip growled.

“That’s enough, children. My kitchen, my rules. If you have time to hover, you have time to train,” my grandmother admonished, next to Cash at the stove.

I couldn’t believe the first day Cash offered to do anything helpful. He cooked a meal for me. He insisted. Weirder still, it was pretty fucking tasty, and I’d devoured it so quickly I worried I’d get a stomachache. I’d never seen him look so satisfied. Now, Grams had him helping her every morning. They’d even started to wear matching aprons. It was both the cutest and most terrifying thing I’d ever seen my grandmother do.

I was worried she’d put poison in his food to destroy him because most of the poisons the rest of us were immune to. Was this her plan all along? Was she getting ready to kill the Dark Fae? Had Phillip convinced her he was a danger to me? I couldn’t be sure, so I hadn’t stopped watching the two since the first day they talked like old friends.

It was suspicious.

Shaking my head, I took a sip and smirked when it was extra sugary instead of the traditional alcohol-flavored kick. “Thought you said this was Irish?”

“Like you said, your grandmother is terrifying,” she sassed, edging a little closer to me after making sure no one was looking over at us. “I don’t do ooey-gooey girl feelings very well, but…how are you feeling?”

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