EIGHT DAYS WENT BY. Eight days of rising and going through the motions. Seeing the city, exploring, learning her base. Like Daire said, expanding her contacts. Okay, so her super-agent skills weren’t up to much, but faces in the coffeeshop and mailbox store were becoming familiar.
A drop-in community learning hub was part of her daily routine. Among other things, they taught computer skills. Fighting her mother’s instinct, she embraced it, figuring it wouldn’t hurt to know the basics. Olympus was holding her; everyone knew where she was. The jig was up. The need to hide wasn’t top of the priority list anymore.
Learning the digital systems killed some time and provided her the opportunity to get to know people interested in helping others. Maybe she’d never need them, but maybe she would.
The highlight of her London trip had come that day. Daire wrote back. He’d received her letter and written back.
Damn, baby, you always find a way. Your strength still gets me. I don’t know how you do it. How you keep on going always so strong.
I told you what I’d do to get to you. I’m ready. I was from the second the sun sank in the sky and you weren’t at your post. Weren’t where I could see you. The only way you’ll be safe is in my eyeline. You were right.
I’m waiting for the word.
Give me an objective. They put you in the middle of this war. I didn’t see it, truly understand it until… I’d never known rage, not until they took you away from me. But it’s not all on them. I know that. I failed. Apologizing isn’t enough. I failed in my primary mission. I’m no good with failure. Never was. But it never felt like this. Failing you… there are no words.
Maybe I’d feel better if you needed me. If you called me to your side. The world would go to shit and the whole campaign would implode, but I’d be with you. I’m not sure anything else matters.
It’s certain no one touches the mail here until I give the go ahead. If anyone touched anything from your hands meant for mine, I’d slice both off and gut him. But you’re right, you have to be careful.
If you give me the word, I’ll be there, as fast as humanly possible, but I can’t be there in a heartbeat. If you get in trouble, if you’re scared or under threat, don’t write, call me, give me a signal on the video. Anything. I’ll be there.
Truth be told, I’m fighting not to take it out of your hands. When H said Z had you, when we were waiting for that call… I can’t do nothing. I can’t wait and hope, not when it comes to you.
Don’t ask me to be patient, Temptress. Give me the word. Please.
I told you it was too late, LR. Goddamnit, baby, it’s too late.
They had a line of communication. As soon as she’d absorbed his reply, she wrote a response.
Of all the times you’ve thrilled me, baby, today was the most exciting. Just getting your letter, knowing we have a link, it means everything to me.
I can’t deny that I liked reading Mr. Infinite Patience is struggling to sit still. I’m sorry, baby. I know you’d feel better if I asked you to be here, to change things, but you can’t. We can’t. You know why.
It’s difficult to tell you everything. You know how I got here and if P traced that call as Z said then you know where I am.
All he’ll tell me is he wants to put it back together. It seems like a long shot that they could trust each other again. But I listen for you. Because I know you want your home back.
He likes to talk, I’m not sure he listens. You know I don’t like to be ignored, that I tend to be too headstrong. Being civil isn’t always easy. The only reason I try is for you.
You like it when I’m stubborn. You don’t say it, but you don’t have to, I know my… Fuck, why do I flirt with you even when you’re thousands of miles away? It’s against the rules. Against my bravery. I should keep this professional. I’m your asset. Your gal on the inside. Pandora. Nothing else.
The apartment building has security, nothing you couldn’t handle if necessary. We have guys in uniforms who do whatever Z tells them. They’re like valets and servants and grunts all rolled into one. Not one of them would stand up to a threat. I’m telling you these things in case, survival, you know?
I don’t want you here. Don’t want you in harm’s way. Never. Not for me.
We’re going to get your home back. Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it. Give me a signal. I’m not good with subtle, but I’ll try. I want you to have your happiness. You belong to Olympus and I will do everything in my power to put you where you’re supposed to be.
We know the truth, Your Heart.
Keeping things professional wasn’t easy. Especially when she was so excited to read his words. Flirting with him, craving him, those were her default. Being restrained was more difficult. It would get easier to keep her emotional distance in time… wouldn’t it?
In under an hour, she was due back in Zeus’s apartment for dinner. After mailing her letter, she was in no rush to imprison herself in his walls while her mood was so high. Not that she ever was.
Instead of going back, she got another coffee and returned to her favorite bench in the park to ponder how long it might take the letter to reach Daire’s hands. In her hurry to mail it, had she written anything revealing? Being explicit could be dangerous.
In his correspondence, he was eager, desperate, to be at her side. He’d asked for a signal, stating he’d leave everything to come to her. She’d put it to him straight in her reply that she didn’t want him in Europe. If he rushed to her, their feelings wouldn’t stay a secret for long.
For her own selfish reasons, she wanted him in London. But it wasn’t what was best for him or for Olympus, so she’d told him to stay in Vegas.
Someone sat on the other end of her bench. In all the times she’d sat there, no one had joined her for more than a minute or two. Despite the brief duration, it always perturbed her. There were dozens of benches, probably hundreds in London, maybe thousands. Why did anyone have to encroach on the happiest place she’d found in the foreign city?
“You know, I was thinking, you could be like my mother.”
That was… was he talking to her? She glanced his way, then fixed her attention straight ahead. The sun was still up, apparently the crazies didn’t wait for dark in Europe.
“Thing about her?” he spoke again. “She’s just never satisfied.”
Maybe she was judging him too quickly. How did she extricate herself from this without offending him? “Uh…” she started, “excuse me?”
She didn’t turn, even when he shifted his body to face hers. “Why is it that we scream at each other?”
This guy was certifiable. If she got up and ran away, he might chase her. She was discreet about dropping her coffee cup in the trash and sliding to the front of the bench, intending to make her escape slowly.
“The world’s so cold…” he continued. “Are you gonna leave me standing alone?”
The loon was still talking. His tone plain and simple, conversational. Except… those words…Something about them was familiar.
She paused, still perched on the bench, the edges of her jacket clasped in one fist. With narrow eyes, Tess looked over her shoulder at him, trying to figure out why the words rang bells. Beyond the hood and the stubble, he wasn’t bad to look at. He was hot even. Fit. Clean. He didn’t look like a crazy street person or like he was strung out on drugs. If he was trying to pick her up, he definitely got the award for originality.
“You think I’m like my father?” he asked at a lower volume, his voice a fraction deeper.
Shit. Words. No. Lyrics. It snapped into place. Maybe he wasn’t so crazy after all.
“Too…” she said, “bold?”
The corners of his lips twitched. “You have a lot to learn, Pandora.”
“And you have a lot of explaining to do, Prince,” she said, sliding back in the seat again. “Who are you?”
Whoever he was, he scanned their environment. Even when his head didn’t move, his eyes did. Remaining alert, his vigilance screamed Olympus.
“You should vary your routine,” he said. “Vary your routes. Tracking you is way too easy. I don’t even have to follow you; I just wait for you to show up.”
“Who are you?” she asked again as he righted himself to put his spine against the backrest and check in the other direction. “If you don’t start talking, I’m leaving.”
“Why?” he asked. “You’ve got nowhere to be. Nowhere you want to be. You spend all your time walking or sitting here… or writing to my brother.” He brought his focus to her. “That is who you’re writing to, right?”
If anyone else asked that, she’d get up and go. Get up and run.
The word “brother” stunned her still. “Styx?”
“Listen…” he said. “I don’t know if I can trust you and we don’t have a lot of time for me to figure it out.”
“A lot of time for—”
“We don’t need time. You’re H’s daughter, so I’m taking the chance. Pay attention. Ask Z to take you out to dinner. Alone.”
“Why would I—”
“Next Saturday, ask him to take you to his favorite restaurant. Tell him you want to walk home after.”
“Why would—” she stopped, expecting him to cut her off again. When he didn’t, she waited a beat then kept going. “Why would I ask him to dinner? Why would he want us to go out alone?”
“He might be smart and more than three decades older than you, but he’s got an ego. Not many guys his age would refuse a chance with a woman in her twenties, and you’ve got the Lady’s look. Helen’s eyes. Hades says they were his downfall. Those eyes could make him do anything.”
The suggestion sickened her. “You want me to seduce Z?”
He scoffed out a laugh. “Tell him you wanna walk home. Through the park.”
The deliberate words were supposed to convey something, maybe, probably. It didn’t matter, she didn’t want to ask Zeus out or on a romantic walk through the park on the way back to his apartment… to his bed.
“I won’t let him touch me.”
Even if it was for the good of Olympus. Geez, Daire would go postal.
“You won’t have to,” he said. “He won’t be touching anyone after I break his neck… or drown him, I haven’t decided.”
Shocked, she didn’t blink. All she could do was sit there and absorb. The casual posture of the relaxed man at her side didn’t even hint he’d be capable of murder. Except if he was Styx, the man she’d heard Daire and Harry talk about, he was definitely capable of it. He’d killed his own father.
Rather than lead with what could be a divisive hot button, she put it to him to prove his identity.
“How do I know you’re him?” she asked in a quiet rush. “How do I know you are who you say you are?”
He smiled again. “Suspicious? Good. There’s hope.” His head went back, so he could explore the sky. “How do I prove my relationship to two men you barely know?”
Tess had an idea. “How old were you when you completed your first successful joint mission?”
“Fifteen.”
“What month was it?
“July,” he said, still watching the clouds.
“How old was he?”
“Sixteen. There’s three months between us,” he said, casting his focus her way for a brief moment. “Anyone could know that.”
“How did you celebrate completing that mission?”
“Strip joint.”
“Anything significant about the place? Weird?”
With a curious edge, his attention drifted to her. “The tables were triangular, H didn’t like ‘em. D put two together, always a pleaser—he told you about that?”
She shrugged, then showed her resolve with another challenge. “How does your brother know you’re not dead?”
That brought a half-smile, glowing with feral satisfaction, to his lips. “Because I haven’t killed him yet.”
“Oh my God,” she exhaled, accepting he was Daire’s brother. “What the hell are you doing in London?”
“Following you,” he said, hooking an elbow over the back of the bench. “Less you than One.”
“You know Byron?”
“I knew Three would lead me where I wanted to go.”
It was all so confusing. “How did you know where Three was?”
“I was watching the desert when Albany brought you in,” he said. “Real coup when Hades and Ares showed up the next day. Thanks for that.”
“Why didn’t you show yourself? You were watching Garrick and the guys… Why didn’t you join them? He’s tracing everyone.”
“Using Zone, I figure,” Styx said, showing another flash of a smile. “I knew that project would fuck us all in the ass.”
Damn. Questions crowded her head. She didn’t care about being late for dinner but did worry what would happen if Styx decided to get up and walk away.
“Why did you hide?”
“I have a mission,” he said. “I don’t go back to base until it’s complete.”
“A mission? What mission?”
“I’ve answered your questions, Lady Pandora, now you answer mine.” She couldn’t remember a question, so waited for him to repeat it or come up with one. “What is the deal with you, my brother, and that trailer?” It was difficult not to react. Just trying not to, holding her expression still like stone, Tess feared she’d revealed too much. Damn her inability to bluff. “You trust him or you don’t? You go there. Seek him out… But you’re in there for a helluva long time… Ares doesn’t talk to civilians unless it’s part of a mission and there’s no way he’s screwing you, so what is it? What do you say to him? You’ve gotta be feeding him information, no other reason for the letters either.”
“I didn’t say I was writing to him.”
“You’re writing to someone. It’s him or H. Helen is dead… isn’t she?”
With her lips sealed, she nodded. Confirming her mother’s death wasn’t revealing any big secret. The Olympus factions on both sides of the Atlantic knew that fact.
“What does he have on you?” Styx asked, peering closer. “What game has he got you playing?”
“I won’t ask Z out,” she said, diverting the conversation. “Not just because the idea of spending any time alone with him is repulsive.”
“You’ve gotta be less particular in this game,” he said. “It’s a conversation over a meal. He won’t lay a hand on you. He’ll be dead before you get back to the apartment. We could do it before the meal, but he’ll be suspicious walking into the park with you before the wine… and the conversation. By the end of the night, he’s lubed, figuring out how he’ll maneuver you onto your back when you get inside.”
“Harry would love that,” she murmured.
“H,” he said, catching her eye. “You’ve gotta be careful in the field. You think it’s by anything other than design that I haven’t used real names out here?” She wasn’t a super-agent but should know better. “H’s feelings on the subject are just another reason Z will go for it.”
She shook her head. “You’re not listening. I won’t do it.”
“You don’t have to be afraid,” he said. “H would have my balls if anything happened to you. I’m at your back, you’ll be fine. Even my brother would tell you that.”
Maybe. Yet, the two men spoke about killing each other like it was one day inevitable.
“I’m not afraid,” she said.
“You’ve got a better plan, lay it on me,” he said. “I can get upstairs but prefer to work without witnesses… Collateral damage doesn’t bother me, but only an idiot would murder One and think it would go unnoticed.”
Yeah, the death of a former president, in suspicious circumstances, surrounded by other dead bodies, that would be international news. Styx could be exposed, sure, but so could Olympus.
“You can’t kill him.”
“I know,” Styx said. “I just said that. We can’t wait for intelligence that he’s moving on, that could be months of waiting.”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “Not Byron. Z. You can’t kill Z.”
His frown was quick. The anger behind was tinged with confusion and maybe more than a little frustration too. “Shit. He turned you already? You been working with him all along? No way my brother—”
“I’m not on Z’s side. I don’t want you to spare him because he’s my boss or I care about him.”
“Then why?”
Styx may have decided to trust her. Tess wasn’t sure if she could trust him. His plan was to murder Zeus, which worked for her on a selfish level. Except she’d promised to help Daire get his home back.
Her lips dried as she said the word, “Olympus.”
As his expression relaxed, he sank back against the arm of the bench. “Damn, you’re a conformist…” Styx frowned again. “How the hell did that happen?”
“I’m not a conformist,” she said. “And I’m not afraid. Damn, you like to throw around labels, don’t you? You don’t know the first thing about me.”
That raised his brows. “I know more about you than you do.”
“You weren’t at Olympus when I was.”
“No,” he said, not showing any hint he was surprised she knew about her imprisonment at the beta site. “I know you were born on my brother’s birthday. I know six months later H went AWOL. At six years old, Ares was ready to commit his first murder… you.” Daire’s hatred of her was no newsflash. “I know when you were sixteen you started running away. Want to know how many times I was the one tracking you? Shit, Pandora, you about cost all of us our lives.”
Daire hadn’t told her anything about that. “H told me…” Confusion changed the direction of her thoughts. “You knew they were writing to each other.”
Daire didn’t know it, so how could Styx?
“Not exactly,” he said. “Though it doesn’t surprise me.”
“What do you mean ‘not exactly’? You knew they were writing or you didn’t.”
“Then I didn’t,” he said. “Knew they were screwing though.”
No chance of even thinking about a poker face when shock impacted her. “What?”
His head bobbed. “Went on for a few years.” As the questions cascaded through her mind, he shook his head and straightened up. “We don’t have time to talk about this now. I’ve gotta get out of the country.”
“No,” she said, shoving closer to the middle of the bench to grab his forearm. “You don’t have to go.”
“If you’re in Z’s pocket, I need to regroup and come up with another strategy,” he said, meeting her eye. “But when you’re telling him this story, make sure you tell him loathing death doesn’t save him from it.”
“I won’t tell him,” she whispered, determined not to lose an ally. “I won’t breathe a word of this… if you stay.”
“My mission is to take him out,” he said. “Patience is the greatest asset of an operative… Took me a long time to learn that.”
“Then isn’t it best to stay? What if I change my mind? I can get to him, I’m close to him.”
“If you’re protecting him, you’re my enemy.”
“I’m your sister,” she said.
It didn’t sound weird to acknowledge they were family. The reason why hit her quick. If Tess married Styx’s brother, then she would be his sister… in-law.
“You want my protection?” he said. “That includes eliminating threats. I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but my target is a threat to you.”
Quickly shaking her head, she needed to get his agreement soon. “Z wants to put Olympus back together. H didn’t know that Three was bringing me here. The night we got here, Z put in a call to P and H… Ares was there too. Z wants them to figure it out. To put everything back to how it was.”
“He thinks he can trust H again?”
Tess licked her lips. “I don’t know. I thought the same thing, but what’s the alternative? Ares said it to H, if they take Z down, H won’t be far behind. That’s why he refused Operation Zulu three months before it was offered to H.”
“Damnit,” he mumbled, his attention snapping forward. “They offered it to him first.”
You know, for all the love the three men had for each other, they didn’t communicate very well. Daire had told her in bed that he and his father didn’t talk. Turned out the brothers had their secrets as well.
“Why would H loop you in and keep Ares in the dark?”
“Ares is Olympus born and bred,” he murmured. “It birthed him. It’s his mother.” And his connection to his biological mom who was an Olympus agent too. “It’s him, isn’t it? You want Olympus to have a chance because Ares wants it.” Digging her teeth into her lip, she didn’t reply. The way he exhaled betrayed her lack of words was answer enough. “Ares can get just about anyone to do just about anything. Charm, persuasion, violence, he has a lot of tools at his disposal. H taught him well, taught me well too. If you’re putting yourself on the line for them, I’ve gotta tell you there’s a chance whatever you think is going on isn’t real. There will be a larger play.”
Like Daire pretending to be someone he wasn’t in order to get close to her?
“It doesn’t matter why I’m doing this. You have to think about you. Olympus rises again, you’ll have your home back too. You’ll be with H and Ares again.”
“Even if Olympus rises, I’ll still kill Z.”
Astounded, she asked, “Why?”
“It’s my mission. Until he stops breathing, I haven’t accomplished it.”
“Maybe H wants to do it himself.”
Styx inhaled. “If he did, he wouldn’t have given it to me. Killing is my thing… if it’s with my bare hands, all the better.” Probably registering her horror, he shrugged. “Death’s a part of life. I got a taste for it young.”
Yeah, by killing his own father.
“In Vegas, you were close, right there. Why didn’t you reach out to Ares?”
“I don’t know where his head’s at. The sparring is one thing, we trained every day, all day, for hours, days, weeks at a time. We’ve taken each other to the brink of death, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose.”
“On purpose?”
“Boys will be boys.”
If Daire said that, she’d smack him and tell him not to be glib about his brother’s life. Doing the same thing to a man who’d just admitted his favorite hobby was committing murder wouldn’t be a great idea.
“You didn’t approach him because you thought he wouldn’t keep your secret or because you thought you might try to kill him?”
“With the way it went down… what he thinks or assumes… if I approach him and he wants to kill me…”
Hanging in the air with her mouth open, she waited for him to finish, but got to the end of her patience. “If he wants to kill you, what?”
“I’ll let him.”
A shot of something went through her stomach. Alarm? Fear? Sorrow? She didn’t know, it was just such a raw truth.
“You’d let him kill you?”
He nodded. “He deserves to, for the way things went down, the Exodus… We left him vulnerable, we’re not supposed to do that.”
“Out there on his own, you mean? He’s capable.”
“More than capable,” Styx said. “He was always better at the mission crap, the patience, figuring things out, strategy, tactics… I was kill now, ask questions later. I can be unpredictable, volatile. Put him on edge… Guess hanging with me taught him how to process and put up with it on post, but he didn’t like it in the field… He put up with a lot of crap from me, took more than one beating for me, a bullet or two, a blade here and there… But politicking wasn’t us. We saw how it was at the top, what H put up with. We were each other’s backbone. No secrets, not within our ranks…”
The wistful quality to his words drew her in. He was sorry, maybe even hurting, over the way the Exodus happened. Harry had trusted Styx with Zulu, with what the Six were planning, he’d given him the mission. Daire had been in the dark. His father and brother knew what was going on, maybe even anticipated it going wrong. In fact, H, at least, definitely anticipated it going wrong. He wouldn’t have stashed the Scepter if he hadn’t.
“He forgave H,” she said, giving his forearm a squeeze, snapping him out of his daze.
Styx shook his head. “It’s not the same… We expect H to screw us over every once in a while. Keeps us thinking, on our toes, always ready… You’ve gotta learn how to take deceit, process it and shrug it off.”
“He’s got some odd teaching techniques.”
On an exhale of a laugh, he pushed to the edge of the bench. “You’re telling me.”
“I want to meet again,” she said. “Please.”
He considered her for more than a few seconds. “Guess I don’t have anything to rush home for. Tomorrow… go to your coffee place at eleven. Order takeout.” As she did every day. “I’ll be walking out in front of you. Follow me, don’t make it obvious. Don’t approach me or talk to me. Just follow and do what I do. If I disappear, it means you’ve got a tail. Abort and come back to your bench.”
Thinking about being followed made her uneasy. But if Styx could do it without her noticing, there was no reason Zeus couldn’t hire someone else to do the same thing.
“I’ll be there.”
“One more thing,” he said. “You want to be on my team? You tell no one.”
She frowned. “No one? I don’t understand.”
“You don’t breathe a word about me, don’t even hint that we met or talked or did whatever we did. If I think you’ve opened your mouth, I’ll be gone. No goodbye. Just gone. Understand me?” She nodded. “Not to Z, the Six, P, H, Ares, no one.”
Lying to Daire wouldn’t be her default. In fact, it would be damn near impossible. Still, complying meant an ally, refusing meant isolation.
“No one,” she said.
“Good. Now go to dinner, don’t be late… and don’t look back… don’t ever look back, Pandora. Your focus is what’s straight ahead.”
He gave a slight shallow nod, so she copied to show her understanding. Loathed to leave when there was still so much to say, she only got up to do as he said to prove herself trustworthy. Not looking back was hard, she wanted to check if he was still there or if he’d vanished already. But he’d told her not to look back, so she kept on going, eyes front, to return to the apartment.