Chapter 21

21

Hades sat at a table in the back of Paulie’s with Charon and several of his lieutenants. They did not have good news for him.

Angelo, a junior lieutenant, was animated as he spoke. “They hit us in the Westside, all at different parts of our business. One dealer was hit, two men approached him to take over his corner. He got away. A truck was targeted; we found it empty and abandoned on the Ape.”

The Ape, or Appian Way, was the main highway that linked New Olympus to Metropolis.

“Obviously, it was the Titans,” Hades said. “But you got anything more specific for me?”

“We’re looking for the driver now. Could be that fucker defected. But the worst hit was Santonio’s girls’ incall house.”

Shit. The incall house—as opposed to when the girls met clients at a hotel or on an outcall—was usually filled with muscle to protect them. “What happened?”

“Two guys came in separately and booked overnights. Drugged the girls and then snuck out of the rooms and set the house on fire.”

Hades got very still. “Casualties?”

Angelo shook his head. “Guys downstairs smelled the smoke and got everybody out in time, but the two girls are in the hospital for smoke inhalation. And one of the guys did some things to the girl while she was out. We’re still waiting for her to wake up.”

Prostitutes worked illegally but they lived in the Underworld and were therefore under Hades’s protection.

“Santonio’s putting double protection on his stable.”

“They weren’t after the girls,” Charon spoke up, moving forward from the side of the room. His gaze met Hades’s across the table.

Hades nodded. Charon slept at the incall house a few times a week. Always with different girls. If he wasn’t there, he was at a different incall house, but this one was his favorite.

He didn’t even have a place of his own. If the man liked sleeping next to a warm body at night, who was Hades to judge? But the fact that the Titans were targeting Hades’s right hand man?

“They’re getting bolder,” Hades said.

Angelo nodded, eyes locked with Hades. “They hit us, we gotta hit back ten times as hard.” He smacked his fist into his hand.

“How we gonna strike, boss?” asked Carlo.

Hades could feel the energy from his lieutenants all around the room. This was a war they’d all been waiting for.

Hades most of all.

But now that it was here?

Hades felt uneasy. Those girls who’d ended up in the hospital tonight? They were just the beginning.

And while they might not be innocents in the eyes of the public, they were to him.

How much collateral damage would an all-out street war cause? How many innocents would have to die?

And for what?

All because he’d had to have his revenge and capture Persephone. They’d been at an uneasy détente with the Titans for almost a decade now. He’d been the one to turn a Cold War hot again.

He hadn’t even considered any other options at the time. He got the report that Demeter Titan was back in the city and he had to see for himself.

But of course it wasn’t her. It was her daughter. And as soon as Hades had seen her, he’d had to have her.

Chiara would finally be avenged.

It was all he could see. Only now, months later after having gotten to know Persephone, had he started for the first time in years to remember Chiara’s life and not just her death.

He thought he’d been honoring her memory by avenging her death, but all of this… More war? More death? It was the last thing she would’ve wanted.

“It’s time to make our play,” Angelo said when Hades stayed quiet. “We send them the video Hades took on his wedding night. We put the bitch up for ransom to draw the leadership out. Ambush those motherfuckers and kill every last one of them.”

Only years of discipline stopped Hades from throwing himself on Angelo and beating his face in for calling his wife a bitch.

Noises of assent came from all around the circle at Angelo’s words. Clearly it was a popular idea.

It had been Hades’s idea in the first place and he’d shared it with his lieutenants when he first began courting her.

“Can’t,” Hades said sharply. “I fucked it up when I tried to transfer the video to my computer. The file got corrupted.”

Angelo stared at him, obviously confused. “So make another one.”

But the place he and Persephone were at now, Hades couldn’t imagine doing anything that would make her cry like she had after he’d said that stupid shit.

And he’d lied to his lieutenants just now. The file hadn’t gotten corrupted. He’d deleted it.

He’d been watching it, about to email it, and it made him sick to his stomach. For the first time in years, he heard Chiara’s voice in his head. Hades, what are you doing? Do you think this is what I want?

Before he could think better of it, he’d trashed it and emptied the trash.

“Hades?”

Hades glared at Angelo. This little shit was getting too big for his britches. He was only a junior lieutenant and he had a lot of nerve, questioning Hades and throwing his balls around like he had any say.

“I’ll think on it and get back to you.”

Angela looked at him like he’d grown a third head.

“But, boss?—”

Hades had had enough. He jerked Angelo up from his seat and shoved him back until he was flat against the wall, his hand against Angelo’s throat. “It would behoove you to respect your elders. You’ve been in the organization what? Eight years? Everyone else at the table has fifteen years on you. So don’t speak unless you’re spoken to. And Persephone might be a Titan but she’s also my wife and as such she deserves respect. Do you hear me?”

Hades pulled out his weapon and put it to Angelo’s forehead. “Tell me you hear me.”

Angelo’s body started to tremble underneath Hades’s hand at his throat. “I hear you,” he whispered shakily.

“Good,” Hades said with one last shove.

He turned back to the table and holstered his side arm. “The Titans will be dealt with. Their violence will not go unanswered. But we do it smart. Tiny, Fats, find out who their major supplier in Metropolis is. Double up the Shades’ presence on the Westside. No more Titans get in our city that we don’t know about. No more surprises. And find that godsdamned driver, see what he knows. Meeting adjourned.”

There were nods all around and the guys stood up and hurried off. Smart. Most people knew not to mess with him when he was in a mood. Angelo skittered off with his tail between his legs. Hades would have to watch that. Angelo had a big ego and he was ambitious. That could be a dangerous combination.

Marco glanced at his watch. He knew he was old school, not staring at his phone every godsdamn second, but people were on those things too much.

He looked to Charon. “Everything considered, it might make sense for you to lay low for the time being.”

Charon nodded and left without another word.

Probably why the big man was his closest friend, if the term applied to anyone. He knew when it was best to keep his mouth shut.