A CLOCK ON THE NIGHTSTAND read twenty-one oh three. She hadn’t noticed it earlier, so couldn’t tell how long was left to wait.
When there was another knock, she pounced up to go to the door rather than calling out. Some guy in uniform… the same guy? Maybe. She couldn’t tell. Apparently, tiredness blurred her memory… or dulled her observation skills.
The man stepped back and gestured down the hall. “The dining room is this way.”
She half expected a “milady.” The uniform was snazzy, pressed and starched. Perfect. She wouldn’t compliment Zeus, so decided the manners and get up were building management decisions rather than his.
The whole apartment was decorated to within an inch of its life. Too cluttered for her liking; too many failed attempts to flaunt taste. The cold greys and blacks could work. Maybe. But it was all too hard and masculine for her. That wasn’t fair, it wasn’t too masculine. It just… tried too hard. Whoever was responsible had been given a specific remit: power. Make me powerful and intimidating… Again, she looped back to failing at the intended endeavor.
They stopped in a room with a long central table. Only four places were set. The head of the table. Two places at one side. One at the other. Of course, the uniformed guy directed her to the single spot and pulled out a chair for her. The silverware, the linens, everything was perfect. Not a thread out of place.
She scanned the statues and vases and pictures and all other kinds of clutter, getting about halfway before Byron and Hugo appeared.
“Tess,” Byron said. “You look lovely.”
The compliment was hollow; her apparel wasn’t worth commenting on. It couldn’t be that they were uncomfortable, certainly not Byron, he’d dined with kings.
Given his previous role, it stood to reason he’d take the place at the head of the table. Except he didn’t. Byron went to the seat opposite hers and Hugo sat next to him.
Wow. The positioning was so telling. Sure, they were in Zeus’s home, or his temporary lair, whatever it was, but Byron and Hugo bankrolled Zeus’s life. More than just the revelation of Zeus’s attitude to these men, it revealed theirs to him. On the plane, Hugo commented on Zeus’s God complex. Yet, there they were, all of them, putting themselves beneath Zeus.
She’d bet it was his will that brought her to that new table in the foreign country. Byron and Hugo were running his missions for him? It was incredible.
“Did you settle in?” Hugo asked.
“I want to know why we’re here. I want to know when we’re leaving…” Even though her next demand could come across as bratty, she declared it anyway. “I want to talk to my father.”
“Your father is expecting our call.”
That statement didn’t come from either of the men at the table. Turning in the direction of the voice, Tess watched a man glide into the room. Tall, fit, brown hair, he was almost mesmerizing. Not because he was over the top attractive or physically striking. It was something in his aura. Confidence. Intelligence.
Zeus had knowledge far beyond any of theirs. His life had been Olympus since before the three at the table knew it existed.
Though her eyes were still wide, and her awe apparent, she wasn’t going to simper. “Zeus,” she said.
A sly yet satisfied smile spread on his lips. “Pandora.”
“She prefers Tess,” Hugo interjected.
Approaching the table, Zeus waited for the uniform guy to scurry in and pull out his chair before he sat down. “I heard,” he said, shaking his napkin open to lay it across his lap. “She was a precocious infant. It’s pleasing to know she didn’t lose that quality.”
The man knew things about her. Things she didn’t. Her time at Olympus, when she was two, was still a mystery.
“I’m not here to please you, Mr. Sherwood.”
His smile flared again, though he didn’t aim it at her. He raised a hand. The uniformed guy dashed out of the room, a tension about him suggested he was to be quick without being improper.
“You were cunning too,” Zeus said. “I always thought you’d make an exceptional agent.”
“Is that why I’m here? My father has no interest in training me.”
His chin rose, like she’d said something significant. The last thing she wanted to do was provide intelligence. Daire could pick out things as important that meant nothing to her. There was no reason to assume Zeus couldn’t do the same.
“Why do you think you’re here?”
As her shoulders dropped, she sank into her chair. “I am not going to play this game.”
The server came in with three just like him. They went to stand behind each of the diners and put their shallow bowls down in sync. Soup of some kind. Tess was still examining it when the other three started to eat.
She didn’t know much about proper etiquette but didn’t care about offending the host. Sitting around eating felt like an acceptance of the situation. She didn’t want to accept and wasn’t going to make the guy at the head of the table think she’d simply comply.
Still, hunger strike wouldn’t do much for her position. Answers were her goal. She had to give Zeus an opportunity to provide them. If for no other reason than details would help Daire. They would see each other again. They would.
“Something wrong?”
Glancing at Zeus and then around the table, Tess found the men poised, watching her.
“No,” she said, picking up the soup spoon to taste the food.
After she’d eaten some, the others returned to theirs. A different server came in to pour wine. Starting with her and ending with the man at the top.
“You won’t be used to having a staff,” Zeus said. “You don’t have to worry; they will attend to your needs. When no one is here, they’re not allowed in. Everything is safe. You are safe here.”
If he wanted to think the staff were the problem, she wasn’t going to correct him.
“You are rather quiet,” Byron said like he knew her.
“You must have questions, Tess,” Zeus said.
Too many of them. Except tipping her hand would be dangerous. Intimidating people was no doubt a skill he applied daily; it wouldn’t work on her.
“The first one would be, is abduction the only way you can get women to your dinner table?”
He finished his soup and put two fingers to the stem of his wine glass to draw it closer. “As far as I understand it, you got on the plane willingly.”
Details. Semantics mattered to this guy. She had to remember that.
“Misinformed,” she said. “Under false pretenses… I shouldn’t be out of the country; I didn’t show a passport to anyone.”
“Don’t worry yourself about details like that,” Byron said.
Typical rules didn’t apply to former presidents. Or he had the connections to dispense with formalities like customs and immigration.
“I don’t care about how I got here,” she said, trying to keep the venom from her tone, though it wasn’t easy. “I care about going back.”
If she had the ability, she might kick up more of a fuss about how they’d brought her to another country illegally and against her will. But if she had limited time in front of these men, bitching wouldn’t be an optimum use of the opportunity.
“You will,” Zeus said, sipping his wine. “We don’t intend to keep you here forever.”
“She can’t stay here forever,” Byron said.
Zeus agreed with a nod and then drew his focus to her. “You’re not afraid of me.”
That might not be exactly accurate. Just because she wasn’t blubbering or pleading, didn’t mean she was ignorant to the man’s ruthlessness.
“Ditto.”
He smiled. “Why should I be afraid of you?”
“I could ask you the same question. From what I understand, your role in Olympus wasn’t one of action. You’re not a deadly force. You give orders and…” Tess made a point of scanning the room. “I don’t see anyone here capable of murder.”
Zeus’s expression became harder and less impressed. “You don’t know what we are capable of.”
Putting down her spoon, she laid a hand on the table to lean closer to him. “I don’t know everything about you or Olympus,” she said in a low growl. “But I know you were the one they wanted to erase. You were the target.”
“Because I threatened them.”
“Maybe.”
He smirked. “Not because I was useless or ineffective, I’ve been in my role at Olympus for decades. Olympus belongs to me.”
Although she checked for some reaction in Byron and Hugo, she didn’t read any. They were afraid of him. Yes, they were relaxed, eating dinner, drinking wine like nothing was wrong. But they should feel something upon being told they were less than the man they paid to command their dirty work.
“If it does, why are you here? Shouldn’t you be there, defending what is yours?”
“Olympus is not a place. It’s a mission,” Zeus said. “It’s been my mission longer than it’s been anyone else’s.”
“Longer than anyone living,” she said because the distinction was relevant. To her anyway.
“Unless you know the details of its inception, there’s no way for you to be sure,” he said, narrowing discerning eyes. “What has your father told you about Olympus?”
Her father? As little as possible. Her Heart? Well, that didn’t matter. Zeus hadn’t asked that question. If he could be pernickety, so could she.
“If all you wanted was to ask questions, you could’ve done that on the phone.”
He almost laughed. “Because I’m sure you would’ve rushed to talk to me.”
Something occurred to her. Something not about Zeus, but about another man at the table: Hugo. “Did Garrick know this was your plan?”
In her own mind, she had already decided Harry didn’t know about her journey to London. Hugo was a liar. Garrick, the third principal, had used her to lure Harry and Daire to the desert house. Were they planning to try the same trick again?
“Garrick has been busy this week,” Hugo said and glanced at Zeus. “Distracted.”
Nothing was secure. Everything that had occurred in Vegas, between the men, or in discussions with the Six, Tess had to assume all of it had been relayed to Zeus.
“That doesn’t answer my question, Hugo,” she said. “I guess you’ve been scampering back to your master, filling him in on every little detail. You’ve provided this man a courtesy you didn’t extend my father.”
The servers came back to clear the plates and serve the entrée, brought in under silver. The formality was a joke given her disdain for the host. Ceremony wouldn’t win her over.
“I don’t want this to be hostile,” Zeus said, to which she scoffed. He frowned. “You have been given every courtesy. A flight on a private plane, cars to transport you. This is an exclusive block in a sought-after area of the city. You have your own room; everything has been provided for you.”
“Except free will,” she said. “I don’t care how pretty the prison is, it’s still a prison.”
Zeus shook his head. “Harry assumes the worst of everyone too. You must get that from him.” He sighed. “Tess, this is not your prison. I plan to provide you an allowance, you will be allowed to roam the city.”
“Because you know I can’t go anywhere,” she said. “Even if I could find the embassy, I doubt they’d believe I was dragged here by an ex-president against my will. I don’t have ID; I can’t prove my identity.”
“You don’t have an identity. You can be anyone you want to be… We can make that happen.”
Suspicious, she didn’t like the sound of that. “Are you threatening me?”
“No,” he said, taking the time to explore his plate before picking up his cutlery.
Only after he cut some steak and took it to his mouth, did the other two men at the table begin eating. They’d been waiting for him. Because it was correct etiquette or because he had them whipped? For the first time, she was glad Daire wasn’t present. Seeing him defer to Harry irritated her sometimes, but she understood the obedience was rooted in respect. If he was to be as soft with Zeus as the two men opposite, she couldn’t imagine stomaching that in silence.
“You were brought here for your benefit,” Hugo said. “We want to help you.”
“Oh God,” she groaned. “I didn’t ask for your help. If you think I’m going to fall at your feet because I’m just so grateful, you need better intelligence.”
“I don’t want intelligence on you,” Zeus said, gesturing to a server who came rushing over to top off the wine. “I want to get to know you… and for you to get to know me.”
“Which is just firsthand intelligence.”
“Yes,” he said, dabbing his semi-smile with his napkin as he waited for the server to finish with the wine. “You’ve made assumptions about me. That’s natural. I have tried not to make them about you. Olympus can be a severe organization. There are times we are forced to deal in absolutes… to do what’s unpleasant.” That was no revelation. “But we do, when we can, approach others with care and consideration. I can be your friend. Your ally. There’s no reason not to be.”
No reason…? All her knowledge about the man came from others. While he was right that assumptions had been made, one truth was undeniable… as far as she was concerned.
“You put me and my mother in danger,” she said. “Repeatedly… If that wasn’t enough, you kidnapped me, extorted my mother, and forced my father into an impossible position.” The letters also gave hints on his capabilities. “You used me against him. Any time he stood up to you or you got annoyed with him, you threatened me and my mother.”
“Leverage is valuable.”
“Yeah,” she said, ignoring the food. “Why should I trust a man who sees me as a tool? As leverage to be applied against someone else? Isn’t that exactly why I’m here? You need something from him and I’m what you plan to use to get it.”
Rather than be humble or contrite, he raised his chin higher. “We can be allies, Tess. Think about that.”
“What does that mean? I can help you take advantage of my father?”
“You and Harry have never been close.”
“Because of you.”
“Perhaps,” he said, quick to shrug off that truth. “You can blame me for the past, but your father did nothing to change it. He did nothing to change the status quo. Even the notion of eliminating me didn’t come from him.”
She glared. “I’m sure he thought about it.”
“Yes, he probably did. I’m not suggesting you do anything to hurt your father. The opposite actually. If Olympus is to function, we need to find a way to return to how things were. To work together… Trust is going to be extremely difficult to forge.”
In Harry’s position, she wouldn’t trust Zeus again. But she doubted trust had existed between the principals for a long time. Zeus had been the intended target of Operation Zulu, the assassination plot. If Tess was in his shoes, trust wouldn’t come easy… it would be a miracle.
“There was talk of two branches,” Hugo said. “Zeus would work from one site, Hades from another.”
With Garrick somewhere in between or splitting his time? It didn’t matter, the idea didn’t appeal.
“No,” she said, rejecting it after little thought. “You put space between the men and the one giving them orders, they will become fodder. Figures on a screen. Putting them into harm’s way should be a balanced, considered choice. Putting them out of sight makes them abstract.”
“Interesting,” Zeus muttered. There was something curious behind his stare. “You care about the men.”
“I care about human life,” she said and nodded at Hugo. “Even he said that Olympus couldn’t function with a green team. If you don’t hesitate to put the men out there, fewer and fewer of them will remain over time. You don’t want a high turnover either. A covert organization can’t run with strangers in the ranks. Eventually some will say no and may begin to ask questions.”
“Threats to Olympus are eliminated,” Zeus said.
Refusing the gig shouldn’t be enough to get someone killed. Like he’d said, Olympus sometimes had to deal in absolutes.
“It wouldn’t work for you either,” she said. “The concern you have is that the men Harry trained will be loyal to him above you. I assume you’re hoping they’ll be smart enough not to ask questions if Olympus rises again. If there’s space between them and you, you will never know if another plot is being hatched.”
“You’re not wrong,” he said again, suggesting he didn’t like to admit someone else was right. “It creates security concerns too. Minotaur was not designed to be decentralized.”
Garrick would have the real power in that scenario. Whoever he sided with, if it came to a choice, would be in an advantageous technological position. System process could be changed, people locked out, anything he wanted. It wasn’t so easy to do that with a centralized Minotaur designed to take one key, on top of security measures. To be in two places would double the chance of sabotage or revolution.
“So it was discussed and rejected,” she said. “What was the next idea? Elevating someone to Emperor God?”
Zeus laughed, but she just sneered. “If I thought Harry would go for that, I’d have done it years ago… You’re eager to be snide, to dislike me, maybe Byron and Balfour too, but…” He said the word then paused, letting the possibility of what would come next linger. “We are sitting here, offering you a way to help us help everyone. If we cannot come up with a solution, someone must die… maybe several someones.”
“I might be okay with that.”
“I’m sure you would,” he said, their eyes locked. “If you rate your chances of making that happen, take a shot.” He nodded toward her steak knife. “In the right hands, that’s enough to kill someone… Imagine how proud daddy would be.”
His reaction to even the hint that she might do Olympus work was extreme. Murdering Zeus could make things easier for those at the desert house. Trouble was, she didn’t rate her chances. Zeus was decades older than her, but nothing about him suggested feeble or incapable. If she picked up the knife and even got close to him, he’d turn the tables fast. Acknowledging that didn’t make her feel good, but it was smart. And useful. If things in London got to be too much or they kept her too long, she’d have a quick way out.
“I don’t want to kill you,” she said.
“I would hope not,” he replied. “Because I’m the only way you get out of this country… Like I said, I will allow you to have freedom while you’re here… providing you don’t abuse my kindness.”
Tess didn’t want to like him. The truth boiled down to that one simple fact. The hearsay and tall tales about Zeus and his actions flavored her feelings for him. Being emotional, reacting with that emotion, could be dangerous and wouldn’t be measured. She should enter a situation with a new person in a neutral position. But she didn’t have her mom to support her anymore. Didn’t have Daire to watch her back if things went wrong.
Her Heart’s love saved her from ending up dead the last time she’d trusted someone she shouldn’t. The same wouldn’t happen again.
“You said Harry was expecting my call.”
Picking up his cutlery again, he returned to his food. “Our call. We have things to discuss… I thought it was better to do them as a group.”
In the desert house, she wasn’t a part of discussions or decisions. It seemed doubtful that Zeus was including her out of any sense of fairness or respect. Harry would want to know that she was alive. Zeus would enjoy dangling her in front of him from across the ocean. She was a tool to them, just like she’d said.
“It’s rude to keep them waiting.”
“Vegas is eight hours behind us,” Zeus said, firm in his impatience. “They’ve barely finished lunch… I told them not to expect our call before two. There’s plenty of time for you to finish your meal.”
The food she hadn’t touched. It was rude to ignore it. The soup had tasted nice, and she would need her strength. The tension in her stomach, the worry and anger, filled her so much that food wasn’t high on her priority list. Still, she did her best to eat what she could.
Hugo talked business. Byron and Zeus didn’t often interrupt or comment. They probably weren’t listening. She sure wasn’t. Still, someone had to fill the air. His prattling saved her from opening her mouth and starting a fight.
The entrée was taken away, more wine poured, and dessert served. If they were going to eat like this every day, she’d need to find a gym… What a devastating thought. That she might be in the area long enough to need a routine.
If Zeus planned to be on the call to Harry with her, did that mean someone would be on the other end with her father? Garrick would be the obvious choice, though it was doubtful the three men would be ready to make plans just because she’d switched continents.
Would it be too much to hope?