Chapter 45

45

“We’ll see you tonight at eight, full dark,” Charon said as the meeting with Poseidon came to a close. For once everything was working out the way it was supposed to.

Hades, Poseidon, and Charon stood in the back of Giuseppe’s, a restaurant Hades’s father had loved. Hades could remember playing hide and seek in this little room behind the kitchens with Chiara when he was little. Now he made war plans here. Speaking of.

“No reason your workers need to wait until then,” Hades added, addressing Poseidon. “The docks will be clear. Your men won’t have any trouble.”

“I appreciate your thought for detail, Mr. Ubeli,” Poseidon said. He was a tall black man, also bald. But that was where the similarities between he and Charon ended. Where Charon was large and built like a tank, Poseidon was slender, and quick to smile with his mouth full of bright white teeth.

He was whip smart and the power Hades held over New Olympus’s Underworld, Poseidon held over the Eastern seaboard’s black-market shipping lanes. Nothing came in that didn’t go through him. He’d had a relationship with Hades’s father and now for many years with Hades himself.

Hades knew he preferred working with those he knew and trusted. At the same time, Poseidon was a businessman and the bottom line couldn’t be ignored. But Hades had been fighting long and hard for this deal and now that the shipment was finally here, Poseidon had agreed to sell exclusively to him.

Two and a half tons of a new designer party drug, supposed to be more benign than coke but with an equal rush. When Hades had control over it, his hold on the city would be secure.

“See you tonight,” Hades said, shaking Poseidon’s hand. Poseidon nodded, then headed out down the hall the way he’d come in.

Hades looked to Charon and spoke in a low voice. “Get these troops out of here. I want everyone but Tony ready for distribution. Tell the capos.”

“Consider it done,” Charon said, and then he, too, moved down the hall.

As Hades moved out of the bathroom and into the kitchen, Giuseppe pushed through the swinging door that led into the main restaurant. “Your beautiful wife is here. I’ve settled her in the back booth and gotten her started with a glass of wine.”

Hades nodded, unsettled by the small leap of pleasure in his chest at knowing she was near. He’d been avoiding her, it was true. Cowardly? Maybe. Or maybe just efficient.

He’d needed to focus on the shipment and getting everything prepared so he could make the best case possible to Poseidon. And in the end, it had worked out. He’d secured the contract.

And apparently his wife had taken his neglect as indulgence to disobey his rules. When Charon had phoned earlier letting him know she’d snuck away from the shelter, Hades had been beyond livid. He’d almost walked out on the meeting with Poseidon before they’d begun, the meeting that had been a month in the making, before Charon finally called back and said he had her.

Hades pushed through the door to the restaurant, easily locating Persephone in the booth separated in a small room at the back.

The place was full, but only a few of the tables at the front held normal couples. Towards the back, a line of his Shades sat hulking at the little tables. Hades had taken all precautions to make sure the meet went off smoothly, including surrounding himself with his soldiers.

The restaurant had old world charm with mahogany-paneled wainscoting and dark leather booths. Hades slid into the booth seat across from his wife.

Her wide eyes blinked up at him, and even though he’d been about to immediately rip into her for ditching her guard, for a moment he was frozen, mesmerized by her beauty. Red lipstick highlighted her kissable lips and as always, her blue eyes entranced.

“Hey,” she said softly, then swallowed like she was just as affected by him as he was by her. Good. She better be. It was his one comfort in all of this.

And suddenly he couldn’t stand not having his hands on her. “Come here,” he commanded.

Her eyebrows went up. “Where?”

He gestured to the booth seat beside him.

Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“Now.”

She let out a small huff but scooted off her side of the bench and moved over to his side. She left about two feet between herself and Hades and he let out a small growl of impatience.

Then he moved over, hooked an arm around her shoulders, and cemented her body tight against his. And the fist that had been clenched around his lungs ever since Charon called earlier finally released. He hadn’t even realized until this moment that he carried the tension around for all these hours. And it pissed him off that she could still affect him this way.

He squeezed her shoulder. “I hear you’ve been a bad girl.”

Her head swung towards him. “Let me guess. You’re going to punish me for it.” Her eyes held a challenge. Like she dared him.

The wolf inside Hades growled. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? I haven’t played with you for a while so you decided to get my attention, is that it?”

With a gasp of disgust, she pulled away, or at least tried to. Hades wasn’t letting her go anywhere.

Her eyes flashed at him. “I’m not a toy you can take off the shelf and play with whenever you feel bored. I’m more than that.” She yanked harder and finally squirmed out of his grasp. “And to think, I wanted to talk to you about something real. Something that’s actually important.”

She’d pulled her body away from his and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all.

“Being reckless and putting yourself in danger is something I have to address,” he spoke through his teeth. “But yes, wife, we are going to talk about it and deal with it.” He scooted close to her, halving the distance between them. “And then you’re going to tell me everything going through that head of yours.”

“Because you own me?” She glared up at him.

His pants tightened as he went rock hard. Just like he always did when she challenged him. He caught her cheek and chin with his hand, forcing her gaze to lock with his. “Yes. Because you belong to me.”

Her mouth dropped open but no words came out. That delectable little fucking mouth. He wanted to do a thousand debauched and filthy things to that mouth.

Right now, though, a mere kiss would have to suffice because he couldn’t stand another moment without devouring her.

As he dropped his lips to hers, though, the room erupted with gunfire.