HER HEART WAS RIGHT there, angled chin tipped down, peering at her over the top of his aviators. The unimpressed expression on his face didn’t even really register. Tess was just… thrilled. Sucking in a breath, she dropped the letters and rushed to jump over Lenny. Except she couldn’t… her hands were tied, so she came to a screeching halt rather than throwing herself at her Heart like she wanted to.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice the joint being cased?”
“Baby,” she whispered, tears warming her stinging eyes. “I knew I would see you again.”
“What are you doing here?” he asked, tossing aside the black thing she hadn’t noticed in his hand until he was freeing himself of it. “What’s going on?”
When he closed the last of the space between them and tried to scoop his hands onto her face, she ducked back, suddenly aware of the camera in the top corner. He must have seen the movement of her eyes because he twisted to look over his shoulder in that direction.
“I have to get out of here,” she said, realizing that was the moment. The only moment. She needed to leave, and she needed to do it fast. “Thank you, Heart, I… Thank you.” There wasn’t a lot of time, so she backed up some more. “Z is in a suite at Hugo’s hotel. He won’t be there for long… He’s leaving as soon as I go back, except, I’m not going back… Oh God…” Breathing out, she rushed at him, overwhelmed by the need just to be near him. Pressing her face to his chest, she closed her eyes, freeing the tears from her lashes. “I love you so much…” It probably wasn’t right to say the words on the cusp of running out on him, but she couldn’t not say it anymore. Leaning back, she was pleased when he took off his shades to hook the temple into the neck of his shirt, even though he was scowling at her. “I’m sorry it took me so long to say it. I’m sorry if you ever thought for a second that I didn’t. I love you.”
“But I can’t kiss you,” he said. Of their own volition, her eyes flicked over his shoulder. “Why do you keep looking at that camera?” Shit. How did the guy do that? How did he just know her mind? “Little Red, what’s going on?”
“I have to leave.”
Before she got a step away, he grabbed her rope bound wrists through her jacket. “You think I missed this too?” His attention was on her. Being just that good at what he did was an understatement. He really saw everything. Using his curled forefinger, he moved her chin to tip her face toward the light. “Who hit you and where can I find him?”
“Baby,” she said, under the pressure of urgency. “I really have to go. Are any of my things upstairs?” Much as she didn’t want to, she forced herself to look at Leonard. “Leonard’s armed by the way. I’m guessing he won’t be out for long.”
“He’ll be out for as long as I want him to be out,” Daire said, the direction of his voice betraying that he’d gone toward the Beast. “You going to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
“I can’t,” she said, noticing her letter on the ground. “The clock is ticking. I really have to get out of here fast.”
Creeping around Leonard, she crouched to pick the letter up, almost dropping her jacket in the process.
As she straightened, Daire snatched her arm. Typical, she hadn’t heard him approach. “Long way to come for a letter,” he said, tossing her jacket over his shoulder to cut through the rope with the knife he’d obviously retrieved from the now open Beast. “He find out we were writing?”
“What?” she asked, enchanted by the length of his eyelashes.
Noticing such a ridiculous thing in such a crucial moment felt equal parts insane and vital. In London, she’d been sure they would see each other again. After leaving there, she wasn’t so sure they would.
“Zeus,” he said before putting the knife to his mouth and curling his fingers around her wrist to run the others up her arm, maybe checking for injuries.
The knife was in his teeth. Oh, wow, she closed her eyes, failing to believe she’d forgotten how proximity to her Heart aroused her. Every little detail. Every part of him. She’d missed him so much. Having him back, even for a brief spell was a fantasy come to life.
“Stop,” she whispered. The pressure in her chest increased when he put her hand on his hip and stepped closer to inspect the other arm the same way. “Oh, God, Daire, please…”
He released the knife to let it drop into his hand. “Please what, baby?” he murmured, his fingers floating down her cheek. “What does my Temptress need?”
Without thought, her eyes opened, her head swaying loose on her neck. “Only one thing in the whole wide world,” she whispered. Grief wet her eyes again and sharpened her next inhale. “The one thing I can’t have.” Against every instinct, she took his hand away from her face and lowered it to his side. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.”
With the letter still in hand, she snatched her jacket from his shoulder and turned to dash into the house. Whatever of hers that was left would cover her needs for a few days. It would be too dangerous to stay in town, and too dangerous to be seen in stores or obvious places where Z might find her.
Working around Harry’s things in the master closet, she stuffed her piled-up clothes into a gym bag. There were a bunch of bills in a drawer too. Her father might be mad at her for stealing from him, but she had no choice.
Making sure to put Daire’s letter and her jacket in the bag too, she caught sight of herself in the mirror and paused. The redness on her cheek was growing, it would bruise for sure. Swelling at the corner of her eye didn’t bode well… Except the blur in her vision wasn’t caused by any kind of pain. Not physical pain anyway. Saying goodbye would be torture. She couldn’t stay. She just couldn’t. Zeus could come for her… or he’d make the men there pay for harboring her.
Rushing back down the stairs, she went to the kitchen and grabbed some bottles of water from the fridge and power bars from a drawer. God only knew when she’d be able to stop again. Leaving Daire was bad enough; doing it without answering questions was almost cruel. Loitering could cost them all. If Harry came back and decided to talk it out with Zeus, she’d be found out.
Zeus thought the keys were there, he’d tell Harry that. If she had to admit that they weren’t there and never would be, the next step would be telling them who really had them. She wouldn’t do it and definitely didn’t want to put her father in the position of ordering his men to torture her. And Daire, how would…
What the…? On entering the garage, tossing the strap of the bag over her head, she expected to see Daire. And Leonard. And the Beast. She was oh for three.
“What in the…” Crossing the space, that was so much bigger without the Beast in it, the glint of silver on the street brought her attention around. “Oh my God…”
Striding down the driveway, she held up her arm to shield her eyes from the sun, ignoring how her ribs ached. There it was, the Beast, on the street, attached to the truck that Daire was leaping out of.
“We said early!” he called out, smirking.
Glad that someone could smile, she stopped to shake her head. “No,” she said. “You can’t.”
“I say what I can do,” he said, coming over to take her hand. “We in a hurry?”
“What about Leonard?”
“Bagged and tagged,” he said, leading her down the driveway and around the hood of the truck.
“You killed him?”
He smiled but seemed to be watching her feet… or maybe her legs. “No, just tied him up and put him in an empty closet. Harry will find him eventually.”
“Eventually,” she muttered as he opened the passenger door and gestured for her to get in. “We can’t… You can’t…”
“Remember what happened the last time you tried to ditch me?” he said, taking the strap of the bag off over her head. “Didn’t regret that did you?”
“No,” she said, but resisted when he tried to urge her into the truck. “Things are different now. I won’t be coming back here. I can’t, I… My Heart…” He paused to meet her eye. “Olympus isn’t my home.”
“Tess,” he said, taking her waist to angle her his way as he bent his knees to descend to her eye level. “You go, I go.”
Swallowing, his certainty was overwhelming. It didn’t even seem to be a choice that required any consideration. Tearing him away from his life, like Harry had tried to, should be wrong. Except there wasn’t a flicker of doubt or anger in his gorgeous brown eyes that, in that moment, were completely open to her.
“I have no expectation of you,” she said, feeling it necessary to ensure he understood he wasn’t obliged to do anything. “None, baby. I love you wherever you are.”
“Right back attcha,” he said, throwing the bag past her into the back seat. “Can we hit the road now?”
As she turned, Leonard’s car snagged her focus. After a beat, she asked, “Can we check his trunk?”
“What’d you do? Bring a body?” he asked, walking across the street to pop the trunk. The moment it opened, he exhaled and shook his head. “Gotta love the professionals, right?” He held her carpet bag up. “This what you’re looking for?”
Her grin widened and she nodded, hopping into the truck and closing the door while he used the end of his tee-shirt to wipe his prints from the trunk lid. When they were both discovered as missing, it wouldn’t be a leap for anyone to figure out who had retrieved her bag. Still, her Heart actually was a professional and didn’t leave evidence… apparently.
Daire came around to get in the driver’s side, handing over her bag. “What you got in there that’s so precious?”
She opened it up and reached inside to pull something out. “Your shirt is in here.”
“My shirt?” he asked, glancing her way as he put on his shades and started the engine. Smiling, she rubbed it against her cheek. He laughed. “Okay.”
Putting it back into the bag, she closed it up and tossed it in the back with the other one. His shirt wasn’t really the reason she wanted it. Other than just wanting her own things, there was money in that bag. British money, but still, they could convert it if they found themselves in a pinch.
“Will you get in trouble for running away with me?” she asked.
“How about you just tell me where we’re headed?”
Oh, boy, God knew how he’d react to news of their destination.
She opened the glovebox, trying to be discreet about staying low. “I’m not sure I’m ready to do that,” she said, peeking at him when he frowned her way. “We have to go to Miami.”
The frown faded as he realized she wasn’t withholding, she was teasing.
“Are you playing with me?”
“No, we really have to go to Miami.”
His focus went back to the road, though his eyes were hidden behind the glasses. “For old time’s sake or because you’re going after the Scepter? That’s where Harry said he stashed it.”
Cutting right through the bullshit. Seemed only right if he was doing it, she should too.
“Don’t need to hunt for something I already have,” she said, prompting a double take as she twisted. “Mom still here?” Popping open the center console, Tess found her mom’s urn untouched. “Thank you for looking after her.”
“Back up,” he said. “You have the Scepter? How did that happen? I thought you were in London.”
“It’s a long story,” she said, her eyes rising to their top corners. “I guess the Scepter story isn’t so long. I found it in my mom’s bedroom before we left town together the first time.”
“And you never told me you found it?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t know what it was until after our family reunion in the beta site control room. I was mad at you after that. It hasn’t been the number one thing on my mind either.”
“Until now,” he said. “If you have it, why are we going to Miami?”
Sliding even lower in her seat, she combed her fingers through her hair to cover her face. “Maybe I should be in the back.”
“Why do you want to be in the back?”
Passing other vehicles, anyone could spot her, and she might not even know it. “We’re not invisible. If Ulysses sees me…”
“If he sees you… what?”
“He’s not gonna be happy.” She shifted more to her side. “He thinks I stole from him.”
“Did you?”
Valid question and one that shouldn’t be difficult to answer. After thinking about it for a second, her confused cringe became a grimace. “Maybe… sort of. Not really, but… yes.”
“What does that mean?” The lines of his brow and the set of his jaw betrayed his frustration. “Babe, you have to tell me what’s going on. I will protect you. I’ll do whatever it takes, but I have to know what the threat is.”
“Zeus is the threat.” She took a deep breath. “About four days ago, One and Three left London. They were going to meet with the new Two and Five, Six will be there too.” He just listened and kept on driving. “After that, it was just me and Ulysses in the apartment. A couple of days ago, we were out for dinner and had a good night. We talked and I think… I thought we came to an understanding.”
“But you didn’t?”
“No, because when he woke up, he obviously checked on something and discovered it wasn’t there.”
“Checked on what?”
She winced. “Bolt and Trident.”
A few seconds of silence passed, which was fine, he needed that time to process. “Are you telling me that while you were being kept in a foreign country against your will, you somehow managed to acquire every key required to steal Minotaur?”
“That’s not why I did it,” she said in her own defense. “And don’t say it like it’s some kind of huge incredible feat, two of them were in the same apartment.”
“And the third you’ve been hiding in secret since before we met.”
He didn’t sound mad, but he definitely wasn’t full of glee either. “Not before we met, I found it like a day after, but… yeah… It’s complicated.” Because Styx specifically asked her not to tell anyone about him. Given his abilities, she couldn’t take for granted that he wouldn’t know if she revealed all to Daire. Breaking her promise could mean Styx wouldn’t be in Miami and she’d be screwed. “I told Zeus I mailed them here, to Hugo’s house. There was no one he could send to retrieve them. I said my mail was kept in a separate place because I was getting a bunch of business stuff.”
“But you didn’t mail them here? So why get him to bring you back to Vegas?”
“I needed to get the Scepter and I wanted to see you again… You can’t blame me for that, can you? I thought if I just vanished that you might worry. I needed to get out of London, I wanted to be closer to you and here I have options. Options I didn’t have in London.”
“You went from reaching an understanding to the guy baying for your blood. That’s risky, babe. Too risky. He could’ve killed you and I wouldn’t have been there… Damnit, I knew I should’ve just walked out and got on a plane.”
Shaking her head, she twisted further toward him. “No because he needs me, Zeus needs me alive.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know exactly,” she said and licked her lips. “He got pissed off at Byron for something he said to me. I overheard them.”
“What did he say?”
“When he was leaving—” She stopped and raised her head.
Her sudden stop drew his attention. “What?”
“There’s no chance there’s any bugs in here, are there?”
He nodded at the stereo. “There’s a jammer in the back of the stereo that interferes with anything that tries to record or transmit, so no bugs and no trackers.”
That relaxed her again. “Good.”
“Since when do you care about bugs?”
Since Styx told her she shouldn’t assume anywhere was clean. “Didn’t you say in your letter that Hugo rigged his place before he left? Maybe he did it in your truck too.”
“Three’s not that smart. And I check the truck and Beast every day. It’s habit.”
“You check them every day? You didn’t do that when we lived together.”
“Didn’t I?”
Daire was more than a highly trained operative, he was elite in his field. Sometimes, when she was mooning over him, the professional was easy to forget.
“Harry will hate me,” she said, bringing her knees onto the seat.
“For what? Not telling him you have the Scepter?”
“For stealing you.”
“You didn’t steal me; I came of my own freewill. Now go back, what did Byron say to you in London?”
But she wasn’t done talking about her father. Sitting up straighter, she set Daire in her sights. “We just have to agree, right now, we’ll be really strict. You’re here for physical back-up, that’s it. We’re completely platonic, colleagues… nothing intimate. Just tell Harry it was a split-second strategic decision, that it was easier to monitor me and report back if you were with me.” She winced. “Right?”
“Right that’s what I’m doing or what I’ll tell Harry?”
“Daire,” she whined.
With a smile on his face, he reached over to squeeze her knee. “What did Byron say?”
“He said the next time we’d see each other was at the beta site and sort of implied that would be in a max of two weeks… Though that last part might just be my interpretation.” As Styx pointed out. “Ulysses wasn’t happy that Byron said so much.”
“He didn’t want you to know that they were going to the beta site or that you’d be back in the country within a couple of weeks?”
“No, he shuttled me off to my room. I overheard him saying if I knew, I had power, but then…” She paused for a second to ensure his full concentration. “He said my blood had to be living.”
He glanced at her. “Your blood had to be living? Z said that your blood had to be living?”
Nodding, she pressed both of her hands onto his, stroking him, pushing his palm into the denim of her jeans. “He said he couldn’t just slit my throat and that my ignorance meant less resistance or something.”
Though he was facing front, she could hear his curiosity. “He needs your blood at the beta site.”
“I didn’t tell anyone else I heard that,” she said. “I don’t know what it means or if knowing it causes problems for you.”
She wasn’t all that sure he was listening because his thinking face didn’t react. When he exhaled and his expression relaxed, she guessed he’d figured something out.
“Goddamn Asclepius.”
Scooping his hand up, she sandwiched it between hers. “Jeremiah Landyn?” Again, she managed to surprise him. On a shrug, she smiled. “Hugo told me about him.”
“He worked with Garrick on developing biological elements to technological security.”
She nodded. “Hugo mentioned that too.”
“Remember I told you there was a screw up when they were securing JARR?” he asked, though he didn’t wait for a reply. “That was right around the time you were living at Olympus’s pleasure.”
Taking a turn at surprise, the shock sank in. “They need my blood to access JARR?”
“I don’t know for sure,” he said. “But it’s the only thing I can come up with. It’s probably not the only element, they wouldn’t let just one person have that amount of control. If Byron said you’d be at the beta site, and Zeus said he needed your living blood, it’s the thing that makes most sense. They don’t give a damn about demo. They will give a damn about the extraction of Minotaur and JARR. They are the essence of what makes Olympus, Olympus.”
“Well, how much do they need?” she asked, feeling a little sick. “Are they gonna exsanguinate me just to pick up a hunk of junk? Is that all I’m worth to Olympus?”
Wearing another smile, he took his hand out of hers to squeeze her knee again. “I’m here, LR. No one will touch you without permission.”
“Okay,” she said, her head dropping against the seat as a yawn overtook her.
“Good enough for you?”
“Good enough,” she breathed out, stroking the back of his hand and his wrist.
“If he thinks you have the keys, he’ll think you’re on your way to the beta site, which works for us since we’re going the opposite way… Unless he knows Harry stashed the Scepter in Miami, ‘cause from how he’s talked, not even Harry knows you have it. Does he?”
“No one knows about the Scepter or that I know they need my blood,” she said, closing her eyes. “Only you and me.”
“Only you and me,” he said, slipping his hand out of her loose ones. “You feel safe?”
“Mm,” she mumbled, trying her best to show him a smile.
“Just relax. I’ve got you now. I’ve got you, baby.”