THEY TALKED ABOUT VEGAS. About the weather and the differences between prepping for Arctic and desert missions. Tess enjoyed their rapport. When the barriers of soldier and superior were dropped, the two of them could bounce off each other.
It meant she didn’t have to say much, but that was fine by her. Seeing them in that environment helped her to understand their bond a little better too. Although Harry was the authoritarian, he also reveled in witnessing Daire’s knowledge and ability come to life. From just the way Harry looked at his protégé, she could tell that he was proud and that he cared. His admissions in the garage became clearer to her as well. He’d been saying sorry, in his way, for treating her like an employee. Sometimes his overbearing nature could come out, even while they sat in the booth at the burger place. Daire knew how to deal with it, how to still make his point even if Harry didn’t agree with it.
Daire wasn’t silenced. He didn’t bow and shrink in fear. He showed tremendous respect and patience, more than she would, but he still asserted himself.
“It’s getting dark,” Tess said, having noticed the stark contrast of bright lights against the darkening sky.
“I can bend my own rules.”
“Write that one down for me, old man,” Daire said.
“You should be nicer when you’re benefiting,” she said, smiling at the man next to her. “How was that burger?”
The side of his mouth curved. She loved his smile, he was only showing her one dimple, but it was enough that Tess wanted to nuzzle her face against his.
“Fair enough,” he said, shifting his focus to Harry. “Any chance of a beer?”
Harry slid to the end of his side of the booth. “You get a shake. I’ll order before I stop in the men’s room.”
He left the table and walked deeper into the restaurant. Before Tess had even breathed out all the way, Daire’s hand snaked to her inner thigh… high on her inner thigh, pushing her skirt out the way with his forearm.
His mouth buried itself in her hair. “Do you know how many times your arm’s been on my junk tonight?”
She looked down. Her hand really was on his leg, her arm resting against him. “I didn’t even know I was doing that.”
“And I don’t mind you getting fresh, but if the idea is to keep your father in the dark…”
After giving him a squeeze, she let go and slid herself closer to the window.
Daire thrust an arm behind her back to yank her nearer again. “Not so close to the window.”
Tess laughed. “Jealous?”
He sneered at her joke. “Harry’s got that angle and he’s not here.”
She glanced to the window, resting her weight on him. “You think someone out there might hurt me?”
“I think I want eyes on you at all times.”
“I don’t mind your eyes on me,” she said, straightening when a server brought over a tray of shakes.
Once both were down, the server left. Daire took the cherry from his shake. He licked the cream from it before holding it up for her to bite it from the stalk. Just like at the roller-rink.
“How can you not like cherries?” she asked, pushing the stone out of her rounded lips for him to liberate it from her suction.
“I do,” he said, tasting his shake. “But any time I can make that mouth suck for me…”
Daire was a flirt, he played with her, like Danny played with her. The serious Daire, the professional who understood urgency and cared about things… beyond how neat they were, he was nothing like Danny. But when he let loose, when he relaxed…
She kept saying she missed him. That was never truer than when they were alone. Cutting out all the BS, thoughts of their past gave her a forlorn craving for a simpler time.
“If you ever got shore leave… I know you don’t, but if you did…”
“You’re thinking about South America,” he said, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“If that guy hadn’t been looking over my shoulder…” Something occurred to her. “Was that you? Was he you?”
“If we didn’t leave then, I would never have let you go,” he said, opening his fingers in the length of her hair. “Only time I forgot who I was, what I was, was with you.”
Easing his hand down, she wound her little finger around his. “This is where I use my feelings for you to forgive you for duping me… again.”
“Comes in useful.”
He pushed her closer to the window and then eased her glass nearer the edge. A few seconds after she laid a questioning frown on him, Harry came striding up to the table. It amazed her how Daire could do that, how he could be aware of everything all the time.
Harry slid into the middle of the opposite seat again. “Better late than never,” he said. “Shakes for the kids. Only about twenty years too late.”
Daire laughed. Nice that someone could find that funny rather than creepy.
“You never took us for burgers and shakes, old man,” he said. “Talk about rewriting history.”
“We went out,” Harry said. “What about the place with the three-sided tables?”
“That was a strip joint,” Daire said, swiping up his shake.
“It was?”
Drinking from the straw, Daire nodded. “After our first successful joint mission.”
Harry’s smile burst with pride. “That’s right! You were what, sixteen?”
“I was sixteen. It was July.”
“So your brother hadn’t turned yet,” Harry said.
“I keep hearing about this brother,” Tess said, stirring the shake with her straw. “I wish I could meet him.”
“He’ll show up eventually,” Daire said.
The ease with which he could shrug off his brother’s safety surprised her given how he worried about everyone else.
“It’s the way they are,” Harry said, startling her. By the way he was looking at her, she guessed he’d noticed her confused surprise. “They spent more time sparring, trying to kill each other than they did playing ball.”
“That fuck can hit a ball.”
Harry smiled again; she’d never seen him so loose. “He had to learn fast when you kept pitching at his head.”
That was almost funny. “I didn’t know you played baseball,” she said.
“You don’t know a lot of things about him,” Harry said. “He had to be proficient in all positions of all sports. Best way to get him inside before he hit puberty.”
“You were using him in missions when he was a kid?”
“I’m right here,” Daire said.
“I can’t imagine sending a child into battle.”
“Best way to train him,” Harry said. “I didn’t send him overseas or into war zones.”
“But he did go overseas eventually,” she said. “And you went with him.”
That’s what the letters said. Harry’s smile faded. At her side, tension radiated from Daire.
“That was a long time ago.”
“He came so I didn’t end up dead,” Daire said.
“I thought he trained you half to death.”
“I did. But he’s always had a habit of putting others ahead of himself,” Harry said. “He has a problem…”
“Valuing himself,” she said, getting it.
With every new detail, her view of the inner Daire became so much clearer.
It wasn’t just that he’d been trained and constructed into a powerful Olympus asset, his mindset had been shaped to believe he was worth less than the whole.
That wasn’t how she felt. It took all of her restraint not to take his hand in hers.
“Can we stop with the psychobabble?” Daire asked. “Let’s talk about Harry’s inability to say anything positive or supportive.”
The comment offended her father. “I gave you the nod for bettering your sprint time this morning.”
“To his daughter,” Daire said, enunciating the words. “I don’t need your nods, old man.”
“Really, I don’t care about that,” Tess said, looking from one man to the other.
Daire leaned her way. “Harry’s not so good at softening things for the ladies.”
Harry scoffed. “Everything you know about women, you learned from me, junior.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Daire said, amused. “Tess is low maintenance most of the time. With her, it’s not about what you say, it’s how you say it.”
“Oh, you think you know so much?” she asked, leaning back to twist toward him.
His shrug didn’t hide his arrogance. “Yeah.”
Harry explained. “People who don’t share our training don’t realize how thoroughly we study them and adapt to best harness the asset.”
“I already know he played me. He knew what he was doing, I admit that,” she said, enjoying her milkshake. “He was exactly the right person I needed at exactly the right time.”
“And in your grief…” Harry said, “you ignored any suspicions.”
Stirring and stabbing at the thick liquid, Tess replayed that time in her mind.
“Suspicions?” Daire said, deflecting for her. “Proof I’m better at what I do than you.”
“Shouldn’t we get back?” she asked, looking outside again. “It’s getting dark.”
“You shouldn’t be afraid of the dark,” Daire said with a brow bob. “The dark’s afraid of me.”
And she believed him. Her Heart.
“We can go back if you want,” Harry said, switching a discerning eye from her to Daire. “Three will be annoyed we stole his toy.”
Tess gasped. “Oh my God, we were supposed to have dinner.” She pressed a cool palm to her forehead. “I didn’t even cancel. Oh, I hope he’s not mad at me.”
“He won’t be mad at you,” Harry said.
“Yeah,” Daire muttered. “He values his life too much.”
Her father read people for a living. She couldn’t believe that he missed Daire’s protective attitude toward her. Though, if what Harry had said about Daire in the field was any indication, maybe he was that way with everyone.
“Three can be flamboyant, likes to throw his cash around,” Harry said. “But he hangs back when things get serious, knows when he’s out of his depth.”
“Nothing he hasn’t said to Three’s face,” Daire said.
The two men exchanged a look. Daire had said that to cover Harry’s ass, but there was something else.
“You invited me here,” Tess said, disliking the implication that she might traipse back to Hugo to share whatever had been said at the burger joint. “You don’t want to talk about Hugo, don’t talk about him.”
She’d told Daire that she’d tell him anything. Stupid to think that things were as different for him as they were for her. Telling him something, trusting him, wasn’t even close to doing it with Hugo. Perhaps her feelings had clouded her judgment on that score too.
“You’ve been spending a lot of time with him,” Harry said.
She couldn’t believe it. In fact, for a few seconds, Tess was incredulous.
Whether they were worried about her relaying their conversation with Hugo or not, it seemed they were happy for her to provide them with information. Maybe they were trying to groom her to extract that information in a more intimate way. Either Daire played her or he didn’t have the balls to stand up to Harry when it came to Olympus matters.
It was nuts. She’d offered Daire information in the trailer and he’d told her to be careful, that they shouldn’t be talking about it. As soon as Harry was around, suddenly he was the dutiful operative again. He didn’t have to manipulate her if he wanted something. It pissed her off that it seemed to be the only way he knew how to conduct himself.
“God, I’m an idiot,” she said dropping her straw into her shake and pushing away what was left of it.
“What are you—”
“Move,” she said to Daire. When he didn’t immediately do as asked, she shoved him. “Get the hell out of my way.”
“You go, I go,” Daire said without budging.
“Why are you angry?” Harry asked.
“Because I am not a secret spy. I don’t know whether you don’t trust me or if you want to use me. Why is it we can’t have a conversation without Olympus taking over?” she asked her father, then flipped around to address Daire. “And you encourage him. You don’t get to treat me like I’m an asset to work. Stop working me!”
Daire opened a hand like he meant to touch her face. He stopped himself before she could pull away. He wouldn’t touch her, not in front of his superior. Daire wasn’t allowed a life. He wasn’t allowed to feel, not anything that wasn’t Olympus sanctioned and approved.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on,” she said. “Whatever this is, I don’t want any part of it.”
Sliding her butt toward the window, she planted her feet on the bench and stood to step up on the table. Walking across it, she jumped down to the floor to stalk across the restaurant. Freedom came in more than one form.
Those two men had a bond that allowed them to bank and draft in time with each other. Fine. They read each other’s signals and nuances. She didn’t care. She’d believed her father wanted to work on their relationship not cultivate her as an asset. Bringing Daire was supposed to provide a buffer, as far as she was concerned anyway. Harry hadn’t invited his ward because he knew both of them, he’d brought him because he needed a wingman.
Throwing the door out of the way, she didn’t care about the noise of the party bus stopped in the parking lot. She didn’t care about the limo rolling down the street opposite the diner. Tess didn’t even care about the dark or who might be out there ready to take her down. What was there to live for when she kept turning down the wrong path?
“Tess,” Harry called at the same time Daire slid in front of her, stalling her progress.
Stopping dead, she held up both hands and backed away to redirect and go another way. Her plan wasn’t to run. She intended to go back to Hugo’s but couldn’t stand to look at Daire and Harry. Falling for the ploy once meant shame on them, falling for it again would be shame on her.
A hand locked around her arm, pulling her to a halt. The familiar grip wasn’t hard to identify, that didn’t mean she wanted to look at its owner.
The heat of his form moved in close to her.
“You go, I go. You know it, Little Red.”
She thrust her elbow into his gut. It wouldn’t have hurt his super-agent self, and he didn’t move, not until Harry strolled around in front of her. Only then did the man, who didn’t mind touching her as long as no one was watching, retreat.
“You are my daughter and my…” Harry stopped himself and glanced at Daire. “Ares.”
Somehow, by the way Harry said his name, Daire knew to back away. He went at least twenty feet, though didn’t turn his back on them. Widening his stance, he stood with his fists at his side, like a soldier.
“Tess,” Harry said, bringing her focus back around to him. “You’re my daughter and I love you. I worry about you. With Three… With all men.” She opened her mouth to respond, Harry got there first. “I know you said that you know men. Three is not just any man.”
“Your problem is nothing to do with the fact he’s a man. It’s nothing to do with the fact he might have a romantic interest in me.” She stepped closer. “You’re worried about Olympus. That one day loyalties will shift, or a decision will have to be made. You’re worried that one day we’ll end up on opposite sides… And you’re not worried about that because I’m your daughter. You’re worried because, God pity you for it, some part of you still loves mom.”
For a moment, Harry processed. Tess didn’t have a clue how he’d react to her observation. She just waited, giving him time to decide whether or not to lie.
“There is no part of my being…” he said, pacing his words as he flexed and curled his fingers at his sides. “Not a single atom in my body that isn’t full with the deepest love for your mother. I adored her, craved her, needed her. Death doesn’t change that although…”
“It still doesn’t feel real,” she said, familiar with the sensation.
“No,” he breathed out, “it doesn’t.”
“I don’t know if tonight was a genuine attempt to get to know me or if this is all part of some larger play.”
“Tess…”
She stepped away when he tried to touch her arm. “I can’t trust anyone right now, not with my confidence, not with my secrets.”
“You can trust me.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to say anything else. I have to be at Hugo’s house and he tolerates me better than the rest of you. You’re busy anyway. You want to get to know me? Fine. But it’ll be one step at a time.”
“We both have love for your mother,” Harry said. “We have that in common.”
“I would like to know more about your relationship with her.”
“I can tell you about it, though you won’t be able to understand most of it… You can’t know a relationship like that unless you’re in it.”
That was probably true. Tess wanted to bean Daire with something hard to show him just how good her pitching arm was… and that she didn’t like his games. Yet her father’s obvious love for her mom, and his need to protect it, prompted her to put that desire on hold.
“It’s late. I’m tired,” she said.
It wasn’t late by Vegas standards or most people’s standards, but Tess needed to apologize to Hugo before retiring for the night.
“Then we’ll take you home,” Harry said, opening his arm toward where the truck was parked.
Tess went to it knowing her father and Daire would follow. She’d told Daire more than once that loneliness plagued her. Spending so much time separated from him and dealing with the plotting even when they did see each other, was tiring. Without her mom, she was alone. Sometimes Tess was so sure of her feelings for Daire. Other times, she feared stumbling into another of his traps.