AS PROMISED, STYX DEPARTED her coffee shop just after eleven a.m. Keeping him in her sights, she relied on his super-agent skills, not hers. Following wasn’t so tough, though he’d made her paranoid someone could be behind her. If they were, he would vanish. Trusting that, she didn’t look back… which had also been his advice.
They went up and down different streets, walking an indirect route to wherever they were going. There was so much distance between them that she almost missed his turn into a doorway.
In her haste to catch up, she didn’t think about where they were walking into. It was a lobby, a hotel. Not the most upmarket place, but no slum either. He was at the elevator, waiting with a couple of other people. She timed her walk to ensure arrival after everyone was inside.
Styx was in the opposite corner and when the doors opened, he wasn’t the only one to exit. That made her following less obvious. The others from the elevator went left while Styx went right along the hallway. Using the wall for balance, she feigned fixing the strap of her shoe to allow the others to go into their rooms. Styx unlocked a door and paused to glance at her before going inside.
Only once he was gone did she go after him. The door wasn’t all the way latched, she went inside and closed it behind her. Getting there was a relief. Learning no one was following her was another.
“Not bad for your first time out.”
She passed what she assumed was the closed bathroom door and the closet to enter the body of the room. The bed was made, but that was the first and last nod to neatness. There were food boxes and empty bottles on every surface, clothes were dumped on a chair in the corner. Styx was standing in front of the window facing into the room though his attention was on the open bag on the desk.
The room wasn’t a complete pigsty, though it did put one thought in her head. “My God, you must drive him insane,” she muttered.
Styx laughed. “My boy? Yeah, always better to be on a mission with him. He’s better with details.”
Danny wasn’t as fastidious as Daire. The latter was much neater and more particular than the former.
“Guy doesn’t even trust me to do dishes,” she said, putting her coffee down to take off her jacket.
“Yeah, he’s a control freak too,” Styx said, still looking in the bag. “Which I guess makes sense. Hades puts a lot of pressure on him in the field. He takes his responsibilities seriously.”
She picked up her cup again and exhaled. “Something you don’t have to tell me.”
“Take a seat,” he said, nodding at the bed. “You tell Z about our conversation?”
“Nope,” she said, tossing her hair out of her face as she sat. Resting her back against the wall, her legs stretched across the width of the bed. “When I got in, he, One, and Three were having a secret video meeting with Garrick, Harry, and Daire.”
Styx took something from the bag. When she noticed it was a weapon, she boosted her back off the wall.
He pressed a button to release a clip and checked the ammunition.
“You don’t know if this place is bugged,” he said. “Should never come into an asset’s territory and assume it’s clean.”
“Record me,” she said, more wary of the gun than any listening device. “Everyone knows the meeting happened.”
“I don’t,” he said, pushing the clip back into the gun and putting it on the desk. “Assume I’m the enemy of any of the men in that meeting. How would they feel about you looping me in?”
“You want me to tell you what happened or don’t you?”
“Just trying to prep you, Lady,” he said, leaving the desk to approach her. “You have to be careful who you trust.”
That she knew. “I know all about trusting the wrong people,” she said, pulling her legs up, folding them in front of her as he dropped down to sit at the pillows. “I was thinking about this in bed last night.”
His lips curved. “You were thinking about me in bed?”
Unimpressed, she drew her eyes off him. “There are only really two sides to this, Hades side and Zeus’s. The men might hate each other, but they both ultimately want the same thing. Olympus back on its feet. You already told me you wanted to kill Zeus. Even if that was a bluff, I refused to help you. And let’s be honest, Zeus could have you or any of his people put me down any time.”
Styx frowned. “I was thinking about that too… Has he threatened to hurt you?”
She shook her head. “He seems pretty adamant that he doesn’t intend to hurt me. Keeps talking about us being allies.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” he said, his lips hardly moving as his scrutiny intensified.
Why was he suddenly so suspicious? “What? I’ve accused him of using me to hurt Harry. But I also told Harry if someone threatens to hurt me unless he does something, he shouldn’t do it.”
“You did?”
She enjoyed surprising him. “I did. I don’t need saving… Yeah, I’m the most clueless and the most vulnerable, but Olympus is important. It has to be prioritized over everything else.” A flash of her time in the Beast with Daire came to mind. A specific time… The last time they’d made love and her telling him Olympus won. “My life is nothing in the big picture. If it has to happen to ensure the organization survives, so be it.”
“Wow,” he said, drawing out the word. “Ares really got you good, didn’t he? You’re like a female mini-me.”
Teasing didn’t seem appropriate. “If you’re Zeus’s ally then I can’t tell you anything new. All I know is what’s happened right in front of me. I haven’t listened in or overheard anything.” She relaxed against the wall again. “To his credit, Zeus has been surprisingly honest.”
“Or so you think,” Styx said. “He needs something and it’s not about keeping Hades in line.”
“Why not?”
“Two reasons. If it was, he’d be flaunting you to Hades a lot more… and you’d have more bruises.”
“And the second reason?”
“He’s given you freedom, a reason to trust him. Showing respect, especially for outsiders, isn’t Zeus’s style, unless it’s important to his cause. You’re important to his cause.”
“I don’t see how,” she said. Styx had already dismissed controlling Harry as the primary reason for her being at Zeus’s side. “Anything I know about Olympus, I’ve learned in the last two and a half months. I didn’t even know it was a thing before then.” Although she hadn’t so much as heard the name until after meeting Harry. “How can I be a part of any bigger plan?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “But I’ll figure it out. You don’t have to know you’re a part of it. Maybe he needs something… do you have something he needs?” Sitting there, wide eyed, she puffed out her cheeks, coming up with nothing. “Anyone send you anything? Give you anything? Tell you something?”
That made her eyes roll. “How the hell would I know? I seriously hope not. You all better hope it too, I’m terrible with subtle.”
“So if someone did tell you something, you might not even know it’s relevant.” She shrugged. “Ares can’t be the source; he won’t spill secrets even under torture… Hades wouldn’t put you in that position.”
“Or trust me to be smart enough to handle it,” she said, to which he tilted his head in question. “My father treats me like I’m still two years old.”
His chin rose and dipped, his head bobbing in understanding. “Hades has a thing about protecting you and Helen… He’s passionate about it. You’re his only weak spot.”
She raised her arms. “I didn’t ask to be born.”
“No and I guess it was shitty to know nothing about what was going on. Your mom didn’t tell you, did she?”
Something various people liked to remind her. “Even in death.”
Because the clues that led her to Harry had been planted by Daire.
“What happened at the meeting last night?” he asked. “What were they talking about?”
Narrowing her eyes, she didn’t know why he’d tell her to assume the place was bugged then ask for secrets. “None of your business.”
“Better,” he said with impatience. “But with someone else. You want an ally? Someone to help figure out what’s going on? You don’t have a choice. Like I said yesterday, we don’t have time to do the usual dance. You’re Hades’ daughter. I’m the second closest thing he has to a son, makes us family, right?”
Harry wasn’t why she’d called him her brother the previous day. Trusting him with Olympus things wasn’t close to trusting him with the truth of her relationship with Daire. They knew the truth. No one else could. Not ever. Being dubbed Harry’s weakness was one thing. Her father would know when a sacrifice had to be made, even if that sacrifice was her.
Daire? She wouldn’t trust him to make that same decision and couldn’t be the reason for the world falling apart. More than her own guilt, she couldn’t let him live with that responsibility. No one could ever know what they meant to each other because she would not be used against him. She wouldn’t let it happen. She’d take her own life before ever letting him languish in that torturous position.
She took a deep breath. “They were talking about getting Olympus back on its feet. Zeus wants Daire leading the Gamma setup and Garrick in the field tracing operatives.”
He scowled. “That’s damn dangerous. Any of the rest of us would have more obvious loyalties. Poseidon’s could go either way. If the guys think he’s running Zeus’s errand, which he kinda is, chances are he ends up dead. Without him, Olympus grinds to a halt.”
Which would be a shame. Garrick might be the guy in the middle with no set-in-stone loyalty to either Hades or Zeus, but no one deserved to die for indifference.
“He sorta made that point,” she said. “Zeus wants him to do the tracing, and to call Hades to do the approach.”
His expression hadn’t relaxed. “Do they have enough guys to do that? I only counted five operatives, Ares, Hades, and Poseidon.”
“That’s all they have. Harry said the same thing. Zeus gave him forty-eight hours to come up with a plan.”
“A plan to make it work?” Styx said and exhaled. “What’s the bet that plan involves Ares being in two places at once?”
Although he’d asked the question aloud, she didn’t get the impression he wanted an answer. Tipping his face toward the window, he ran a hand over his hair.
“Maybe if you’d joined them…” she said, leaving the idea to linger.
“Hades won’t expect me back until the mission is complete. Besides, I’m a lazy leader. I’m not as motivated as the overachiever of our family. If Hades tells Ares to be in two places at once, he’ll do it. He’s the only one who ever could. Disappointing Hades is his kryptonite, he can’t handle it, punishes himself for every little mistake.”
Didn’t that just grind salt into the wound that was their relationship… former relationship. Her guilt wasn’t rooted in her love, it was all for her Heart. Loving her went against everything he’d been raised to be. Everything he’d strived for.
He valued everyone and everything over himself. Accepting that was difficult; he was her whole world. Her guiding light. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for him. No person, no item, no thought or idea could ever be worth more to her than the man who owned her soul.
A spasm of need and sorrow clenched her gut, forcing her to pull her legs closer to her body. She missed him. Needed to be near him. But it wouldn’t be fair.
The longer this went on, the more precarious the situation became. It also grew increasingly clear that Olympus couldn’t be her future. Being in Vegas or trying to maintain any kind of relationship with her father would only torture her Heart. Any time she was in his orbit, his focus was split. That would lead to mistakes. As Styx just said, Daire would punish himself for being distracted, for being less than perfect, for giving less than a hundred and ten percent at all times.