AFTER DESSERT CAME a long lingering wine session accompanied later by cheese and crackers. Byron jawed about some charity ambassadorship. Every word grated on her, which was maybe why Zeus showed so much interest. The delays were intentional. Control came in many forms.
“I can talk to my father on my own,” she said, cutting Byron off mid-sentence.
Zeus’s body language had blocked her from the conversation for a while. She didn’t mind, in fact, she was grateful. By all popular accounts, President Byron was a good man linked to a bunch of altruistic causes. Now knowing he was Zeus-whipped and tied to a covert organization, her belief of his public persona withered and died.
“No,” Zeus said, sucking in a breath as he liberated his wrist from his cuff to check his watch. “I’m sure they’ll be ready for us now.”
If Harry cared about her at all, he’d be eager to see her. Worried about her. The Vegas side weren’t the ones putting off the conversation.
The host finished his wine before standing up. As soon as he rose, Byron and Hugo did too. Tess acted with them, not because she was jumping to please Zeus, but because she wanted to see her father.
With her focus on the man in front, following him, it was difficult to subdue the urge to push him or tell him to hurry up. Hugo and Byron were behind them. All four of them went into what appeared to be a den. A couch and two armchairs were arranged to face the wall.
Zeus picked up a remote control and pressed a button. A section of the wall descended to reveal a television. As he turned it on, someone knocked at the den door.
“Come,” Zeus ordered.
A server came shuffling in with a trolley carrying a bottle of champagne on ice and four flutes. What was there to celebrate? Nothing. The prop was meant to rankle her father. Yet, Zeus expected them to be allies? The longer she stayed, the harder that was to believe.
“Sit down,” Zeus said, pointing toward the couch.
Byron and Hugo were already in the armchairs, leaving her no choice except to follow the instruction. If it would get them on the call faster, she’d play along. Various things flashed on the screen as Zeus went through the process of linking them to the desert house. She’d expected voice not video. Technology was a mystery, though she couldn’t deny being happy. Seeing was so much better than just hearing.
A series of dots crossed the center of the screen. The server handed out champagne, pushed the trolley to Hugo’s side, and then left. Alcohol was of no interest to her. Without drinking, she leaned across to put it back on the trolley.
The dots stopped, the screen flashed, and then they were looking at the Vegas house. Garrick, standing at the end of the table in the rounded boardroom near the front door.
“My old friend,” Zeus declared, walking past her to go stand at the back of the couch.
“This is some play, Ulysses.”
“It’s not a play,” Zeus said from his central position. “It’s a solution. Is it just the two of us? Times have changed if Harry has no concern for his child.”
Maybe Zeus’s ignorance that Harry was protecting her mother all these years would work in their favor. Could be that Harry didn’t care and wouldn’t rise to the bait. Maybe—
Garrick stepped back to reveal the rest of the room just as Harry came striding in with Daire not far behind. Her breath caught in her throat. Her instinct was to rise, to talk, to say something that might reassure him. At the last second, her muscles seized, gluing her in place. If she showed any hint that Daire was her primary concern, or he showed it in return, the game would change fast and not in their favor.
“You motherfucker,” Harry declared, storming past the table to close in on the screen.
Her Heart stopped at the other side of the table, further away, hanging back, protecting his superior and yet… He was looking at her too. Those eyes on her felt tangible. Her lips parted just enough to let a breath in. Imagining she could taste his breath on the prelude to a kiss, she fought to keep her eyes open. His hands, his heart, his bed… She wanted to be there again, lying against him, wrapped in him, safe, happy.
“Is that how you say hello to your oldest friend?” Zeus said with a hearty dose of smug pride.
“I don’t give a shit about you,” Harry said, pointing at the screen. “You shouldn’t say a fucking word.” His focus swung to Hugo. “You fuck, you’ve been planning this all along.”
“It wasn’t his plan,” Zeus said.
He liked to hold court. The only one standing on their side of the ocean, and in a central spot too. He projected his voice, betraying he enjoyed being in control.
“No shit,” Harry said, shaking his head. “This has you written all over it. That fuck is too weak to take a piss without your permission.”
“Perhaps,” Zeus said. “Doesn’t mean he was wrong.”
When something touched her hair, she recoiled, ripping her focus from Daire to whirl around. Zeus’s fingertips receded. Closing her mouth, she inhaled rage through her nose. He didn’t have any right to touch her, anywhere, ever, but especially not in front of her father… not in front of Daire.
“You want my compliance, you keep your hands off,” she hissed under her breath.
If her father heard, whatever. If Daire heard… He wouldn’t like anyone’s hands anywhere near her. Much like she didn’t enjoy being on the wrong side of the Atlantic powerless to help or support him.
“What do you want?” Harry snapped. “Murder? Suicide? Money?”
“Now you see why they hired me for the big picture,” Zeus muttered with enough of a snicker to boost her annoyance.
Folding her arms, she didn’t want to make the fraught situation any worse with an outburst. On the screen, Daire’s hands curled over the back of the chair in front of him. He squeezed and released, squeezed and released, each time his knuckles going whiter for just a little longer.
Her Heart. Losing her would mean grief. Harry vented his emotion with anger. Her Heart was angry too. Silently he stood there seething. His frustration was palpable. The only way to ease it was to be at his side. Keeping quiet was hard on her. It would be harder for him. She was in his eyeline, but he couldn’t protect her.
Her father opened his mouth to take a measured, calming breath, and then spoke with less fury. “What do you want?”
“Nothing,” Zeus said. “Through our associates, I understood you were concerned for your child. As you can see, she’s fine.”
Harry’s attention switched to her. “I want to hear that from my own daughter. Tess?”
“I’m fine,” she said because saying anything else would enflame tensions further. “I’m rested. We’ve eaten. We’re in London—”
“He knows that,” Zeus said. “Garrick will have tracked the call to this very room… I have been patient and kind given the circumstances.”
“The circumstances,” Harry sneered. “You kidnapped my daughter… again.”
“She got on the plane willingly.”
“Without knowing where it was going,” she said. “I played along.” Using Daire’s words was deliberate. “Hugo also told me you were aware of our plans.”
“I wasn’t,” Harry said, glaring at Hugo. “Tell me why I shouldn’t rip your limbs off the minute I next lay eyes on you.”
“Because without him, Olympus will be further delayed… We have to put our past issues behind us and move forward.”
“While history repeats itself,” Harry said. “You took Tess before because you wanted something.”
“Your attention. Your commitment. I want both again.”
“So you keep her while I run your errands?” Harry said, shaking his head once. “No. We know exactly where you are. No reason we shouldn’t come over there and take her back ourselves.”
“Something I understand you and your protégé were planning as soon as you realized she was gone,” Zeus said.
She could believe it but didn’t like to think of the urgency they must have experienced as their concern grew to critical mass.
“You made a plan, so did they,” she said. Byron and Hugo were staying quiet. Docile wasn’t her nature. “You told me not to be hostile, I’d say what you did was hostile. If this is all for the good of Olympus, lay it out for them.”
“All in good time,” Zeus said.
“You want things the way they were?” Tess asked. “Start with honesty.”
“This is a courtesy call. Proof of life. No one here will harm you.”
“Unless I abuse your kindness,” she said, reminding him of what he’d said at dinner. “Maybe you should be explicit. I’m better with direct than implied. I can also be pretty headstrong when I want to be.”
“Are you threatening me?” Zeus asked with a curl of humor that made her twist to peer up at him. “You’ll get along just fine, Tess. You fit in at Hugo’s place.”
“I had allies there.”
“You have allies here,” Zeus said. “We are allies. We choose Olympus.”
That took some of her gusto. Brought to a screeching halt, her gaze dropped to the floor.
She’d never chosen Olympus for her… Raising her chin slowly, her attention was drawn to the man in the center of the screen. In the background, silent and brooding. He was all she wanted. As they’d proven in the Beast, more than once since she’d found out the truth, they weren’t so good at remembering they didn’t belong to each other.
He belonged to Olympus. She’d released him from any obligation to their love, accepting the cause was his home, his world. Zeus wanted to piece the organization back together, maybe for the same reason, or maybe he just liked the power. Whatever Zeus’s reason, it didn’t matter. Daire wanted the same thing. If there was a chance to make it happen for him, she had to give it a shot.
“Okay,” Tess said, doing her best to quell emotion. “How do you suggest we put it back together?”
As worried as she’d be about Harry and Daire under Zeus again, once they figured out a way to work together, they could go back to how their life had been before the Exodus. And she would be able to do the same.
“That’s a conversation for later,” Zeus said. “We will have to take this slowly.”
Always eager to be in charge, he made the decision for everyone. Having just told herself not to be led by emotion, it wasn’t a good sign that it threatened to take over again already.
“You’re insane if you think me and my men would work shoulder to shoulder with you again,” Harry growled.
Daire’s chin rose, just the tiniest fraction, but it drew her eye. No doubt his thoughts matched Harry’s.
“We’ll have to figure out a way to make it happen,” Zeus said. “Because until we do, the ocean will remain between you and your child… There’s so much I haven’t told Tess, so much I can’t wait to share.”
“You drip your poison into her. Do it. I don’t care,” Harry snarled. “She’s smarter than that.”
Did her father believe that she was smart enough to pick fact from fiction? She’d once told him that if he died without telling her all the truths, only his enemies would remain to give her answers. With how tumultuous their interactions had been thus far, neither could have faith that trust or loyalty existed between them.
Confidence was necessary. He’d told her that being anything less than assured around the Six and Zeus was a sign of weakness and one they wouldn’t hesitate to exploit.
“Tess is part of us now, she will be part of Olympus,” Zeus said. “She adds an extra layer of protection for all of us. She’s old enough now… And I know how you enjoy taking in orphans to nurture them. No reason I shouldn’t do the same.”
Daire’s focus didn’t flinch, but he startled everyone by picking up the back of the chair and slamming it down. Her Heart was close to his limit. Something she’d never seen before, not in this way. She’d seen him on the edge of desire, tasted the desperation of his need. But the man on the screen with the tight jaw and lowered brow was dangerous… terrifying in the intensity of his concentration.
“Ares, my boy,” Zeus said. “We didn’t forget you. You will be home soon. We’ve lost enough time already; I know how you despise things being missed.”
“Working together would minimize the problems that come with dismantling the old site,” Garrick said, the calm voice of reason.
From his words, it didn’t seem Zeus noticed just how Daire hummed with fury. Maybe being in the room with him, Garrick got a better sense of the pressure building in him and how disastrous it would be if it were to explode.
“Minotaur is less of a problem than JARR,” Zeus said. “I appreciate someone acknowledging the larger issue. I shouldn’t have to remind any of you that I wasn’t the one plotting against you. Acting like the injured parties is in bad taste. I should be reluctant, given that my life was the one threatened. I haven’t heard any apologies, yet I am forgiving your sins.”
Like a truly benevolent god. The comparison was sickening but seemed to be what he was going for.
“I am considering all contingencies,” Garrick said.
“Good. I am doing the same and have many ideas for upgrades…” Zeus said. “Especially in regard to security.” That seemed premature. The men were at odds. It wasn’t guaranteed they’d be able to work together again. “Tess and I have discussed avenues for reconciliation. I suggest all of you do the same.”
“My men won’t work with you,” Harry said.
Zeus laughed, though the sinister sound quickly faded into the back of his throat. “Yes, they will. They do what you tell them. Didn’t you prove that by looping them in on… what did you call it? Operation Zulu? All except Ares, I understand you couldn’t trust him not to come to me.”
“That’s not what happened,” Harry asserted, anger polluting his words.
“You don’t have to worry about me coming between you and Ares, I suspect you’ve done enough to damage that relationship yourself. Your other boy…”
Something much darker and malevolent crept into his voice. The dramatic change drew her attention to him. The air that had attracted her interest in the dining room was no longer magnetic, in fact it was the opposite. The blackness of it repelled her gaze and, for the first time, gave her a real sense of how dangerous the man could be.
Then it was Harry’s turn to laugh. “You’d never get near him.”
“Underestimating me cost you before,” Zeus said, still shrouded in malice. “Don’t let hubris be responsible for you losing someone else you love.”
Harry actually stepped forward, like he expected to leap through the screen to take Zeus down. Garrick got in front of him to block his way. Maybe her father just expected to rip the screen from the wall for quick-fix relief. Not smart or a long-term solution. The bad blood between the men was dangerous and threatened to trump good sense.
“We shouldn’t be attacking each other,” Byron said, speaking up for the first time. “We have to be professionals.”
“Yes,” Zeus said. “Everyone here is willing to do that. I suggest you take some time to decide if you want to do the same. We progress as allies, or we destroy each other as enemies… We pledged ourselves to Olympus. Destroying ourselves, destroys the mission.”
The decision to assassinate Zeus wouldn’t have been taken lightly. But if the man had thought himself above everyone else before that decision, he’d be worse after recovering Olympus.
Garrick inhaled. “Ulysses—”
“Take some time to think about it,” Zeus said. “We’ll be in touch.”
The screen went black. Just like that, in a blink, they were gone.
Byron and Hugo switched their attention to the man behind her seat.
“What do you think?” Byron asked.
“That they’re going to do a lot of talking… and a lot of shouting over the next few days.”
“Ares didn’t say a word,” Hugo said.
There was a pause before Zeus spoke. “That worries you… He is who you are most afraid of.” Apparently, the principal didn’t share their concerns. “His loyalty is to Olympus. We don’t have to worry about Ares doing what’s right.”
“Providing he believes you are what’s right,” Byron said. “Hades’ men are loyal to the one who sweats with them. Harry protects them, he’s nurtured them, but Ares is the one they look to in the field. The one at their side when the bullets are flying and adrenaline’s high.”
Everyone was so sure that the Olympus men would march in time to Harry’s beat. What Byron was saying made perfect sense too. Some of the men, maybe not all of them, would be inclined to look to her Heart for direction, for permission to do whatever needed to be done.
“Ares is no pushover,” she said before even realizing the words were going to come out of her mouth.
“You don’t think he’ll do what’s best for Olympus?” Zeus asked.
“That’s not what I said,” Tess said, looking up at the man who strolled by to put himself in front of the TV. “I think assuming he’ll automatically follow your lead is shortsighted.”
“She’s right,” Byron said. “You were sure he blamed Hades for how things went down, but he didn’t come to you, he went to the man he sees as his father.”
“Ares was in the wind for almost a year,” Zeus said like that somehow corroborated his belief. “He tracked down Pandora.”
Everyone knew that, though didn’t know the chain of events. Did they think he literally found her one day and took her to her father the next?
“Because no one else would’ve been capable,” Hugo said. “That’s what you said.”
“We don’t know why he did it,” Zeus said. “We also shouldn’t assume he’s at his father’s side out of loyalty.”
“You think he has a larger play going?” Byron said. “Something that will hurt Hades?”
Zeus just shrugged.
The implication disgusted her. “This isn’t about getting everyone together for the good of Olympus,” she said. “It’s about ensuring you’re in the perfect place to take over after others do your dirty work.”
“We have to monitor every party,” Zeus said, his words slow and deliberate. “This is not going to be an easy transition.”
Infuriation wasn’t far away. “Loyalties are strained, I know, you already told me…” Tess said. “You’re so quick to judge the men who worked beside you at Olympus. You seem to have forgotten that this directive, Operation Zulu, came from higher in the food chain…” She glanced from Byron to Hugo. “Isn’t that right? Hades didn’t go rogue and decide to obliterate Olympus for fun. It was his home too. It wasn’t something on the side for him like it is for the Six. Like it or not, my father respects the chain of command. Why would he put up with all he and Zeus went through, the decades of hostility and blackmail, only to turn on him after I was grown?”
Whether Harry let Zeus exploit his love for her mother, and whether that love included her, didn’t matter in that moment. These men believed Harry didn’t stand up to Zeus all those years because he feared for her safety. To consider assassination on his own would be madness and something he’d have done when she was a child if he intended to follow through.
“This is exactly why we need you,” Zeus said, approaching to sit at her side. “You can speak for your father while he is not here… but you’re sensible too, you see things from all sides.”
She might be able to see them from all sides, but that didn’t mean she understood or respected every side.
“Your cancer didn’t come from within the Olympusphere,” she said, “not at your home, it grew in those who fund your campaigns.”
“And we have eliminated the instigators.”
Two and Five were dead, she hadn’t forgotten. Just like Daire wanted to take down Six for betraying the mission, Zeus had taken action to eradicate the disease which threatened his life.
“What about Harry’s men?” she asked, since he’d brought up killing people. “How many of them are gone?”
“Only the five that came for me… that I know of.”
Five. That was a quarter. There were twenty men under her father, not including Daire and Styx, the boys he’d adopted and nurtured into adulthood. The trio didn’t share DNA but were still family.
“That you know of?” Tess asked. “You think others have come for you?”
“Others could be on their own missions to find me right now,” he said. “But I meant that I only know of five who are dead. Terrible fates can befall a man. Sometimes of their own making… sometimes by accident.”
Accident? Like her mother’s accident? Zeus couldn’t be responsible for that. Even if he had men under his authority, Olympus men or new recruits, they couldn’t have tracked their location. Daire was the only one capable; people kept stating that as fact. Also, if Zeus’s man was responsible for Anne’s death, the murderer would have known where she was too. Would’ve probably been able to track her and Daire on their road trips. Wouldn’t the tracker have come for her if his objective was to eliminate Harry’s family?
Zeus would know about her mother’s death. Somehow everyone knew. Was he playing on her paranoia? There were plenty of external threats to focus on, she didn’t need an internal one too.
“How long should we wait?” Byron asked. “Before reaching out again? A few days? A few weeks?”
The latter suggestion made her stomach drop.
“We’ll have to see how things go at this end first,” Zeus said, his interest hadn’t swayed from her. “And reports of how things are going on the other side of the ocean.”
Reports? Someone was feeding intel to Zeus. Knowing how Hugo had aligned himself, she wasn’t surprised he’d been reporting back to Zeus. But he wasn’t in his home anymore. None of the Six were.
Harry wasn’t the mole. He wouldn’t have been so mad if he knew this was coming. And, oh yeah, he couldn’t stand the guy sitting beside her. It wasn’t Daire either; he’d have told her if he was in contact with Zeus. That left Garrick and the five men who’d trained under her father. No appealing prospects.
“Well…” Byron said, drawing in a breath and pushing back in his seat. “We’re in it now.”
Yes, they were. Her included.
“Tess, you look tired,” Zeus said. “All of us should get some rest, take some time to reflect.”
Or they wanted to talk more and didn’t want her eavesdropping. Zeus pressed a button, which summoned a uniform guy, and instructed him to ensure her needs were met. If the trio were going to talk about her, they were going to do it one way or another. Choosing her battles would be critical if she wanted to survive her first European trip.
Playing along, she didn’t fight being excused and escorted back to her room. Being by herself was better than being around Zeus. She needed to make plans, to figure out how she was going to get through being Zeus’s reluctant houseguest.
For that moment, rather than stress or grieve, she chose to see the video call and potential future as a positive. She’d seen Daire, he was mad but safe and, at least for now, out of harm’s way.
The future that Zeus wanted to build was the same one her Heart wanted. Would they secure the future of Olympus, or would the situation be the end of them all?