Chapter 61

61

Gods, she was beautiful. No, it went beyond simple beauty, Hades thought as he stared at his wife sitting in one of her favorite coffee shops. She often came here to work on her laptop. Considering the state of things, Hades had a Shade assigned to her at all times. He didn’t care if she found it stifling. Her safety was nonnegotiable.

She looked to be working through her receipts, and each of her movements was so graceful, it was like an unrehearsed dance. Her fingertips glided along the laptop keys and her arms were fluid as she moved receipts from one pile to another. Her intelligent eyes were so focused, she seemed lost to the world. It was like that with everything she did. Even when she only volunteered at an animal shelter, she gave it her all. In friendships, she never held back.

And when she loved, she loved so effusively that being on the receiving end was the most incredible and addictive thing in the world.

Hades was just about to head her way when a young man, maybe college-aged, approached her and put his hand on the chair opposite. “Is this seat taken?” He flashed a smile that Hades wanted to shove down his throat.

“It’s mine,” Hades growled, covering the distance between them in only a few strides. The little prick turned and stiffened. He took one look up at Hades and showed he had an ounce of brains in his head by taking off without a word.

Hades sat down across from Persephone. A deep sense of relief and rightness washed through him at being so near her again.

“What are you doing here?” she hissed. Her flashing eyes had him smiling. He loved it when she was feisty.

“We need to talk.” Hades gave a gesture with his hand. Behind him in the coffee shop, his Shades moved, escorting customers out and even going behind the counter to send the green-aproned baristas into their own storeroom.

“What the—” Persephone watched his men clear the coffee shop and then snapped her gaze back to Hades “I told you I’d call.”

“This isn’t a social call.” His tone went grim as he remembered the not so subtle message that had been left in his bed. No one had been found in the apartment but his men also hadn’t discovered how anyone had been able to break in in the first place. The lock hadn’t been jimmied and nothing was broken. If they were able to get in like that, why not wait and try to assassinate him? Too many questions without answers. He didn’t like it.

“It’s business, not pleasure.” He tossed a black phone onto her bag. “When you do call me, make sure you use this.”

Persephone stared at the burner phone. “Is this really necessary?”

“I’m receiving death threats. Not the usual ones I get, either. These messages are…targeted. Serious. The kind that let me know the people sending them are knowledgeable enough to carry them out.”

Her eyes went wide. “Death threats?”

“I’m handling it. But you need to be aware.” He nodded toward the phone. “And take precautions.”

She stared at him for a moment. Her eyes dropped in the most beautiful submission as she reached for the phone. Hades couldn’t deny the triumph roaring through his chest.

“I got it,” she murmured as she slid the burner into her purse. “If I call you, I’ll use this.”

“When,” he corrected. If she thought she could retreat now, she was out of her mind. Not after giving that little taste reminding him of how delicious it was when she submitted.

“What?”

“When you call me.”

She glared at him and he couldn’t help his smile. “After this display I may not want to call you.”

He genuinely had no idea what she was talking about. “What display?”

“This.” She waved her hand around.

“Neutral ground.” He shrugged. “I chose a place where you’d feel comfortable.”

“Normally people come in and order drinks. But you come in and get your ninjas or whatever to scare off the barista and block the door with your bodyguards to keep out all the customers.”

Hades just looked at her. She threw up her hands, her voice rising. “You did a hostile takeover of this coffee shop.”

“You understand I’m here on your turf for your sake. But I also need to feel comfortable. My enemies won’t hesitate to target me.”

“I got that when we got shot up at the restaurant where we were having dinner.”

“We’re not speaking of that here.” Hades’s jaw went stiff. If he thought of that day, he’d need to break something.

“I thought you were here to speak to me. This is me talking.” She threw open her arms. “I’d hate for you to clear out a coffee shop for nothing.”

He bit back a smile. Gods, she was spectacular. She’d grown so much from the na?ve ingénue he’d first met. Now she was a firecracker. Bold. Explosive.

He wanted to toss her laptop to the floor and lay her out over the table right here. One thing that had never changed, and Hades hoped never would, was the fact that her every emotion played out on her face.

And like always, he felt his desire reciprocated in the crackling electricity between them. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. So why was she denying it?

He leaned in. “I have to disappear for a while.” He registered the surprise on her face but kept going. “Come with me. A week of lying low. We’d be able to talk, see if we can work things out.”

Emotions darted one after the other across her face and she sputtered, “What? You can’t just…you’re asking me to…”

“I have no reason to believe you’re in danger. That’s why you have a choice. But I would like us to talk. Persephone, I want you back. I want us to be together.”

“Hades,” she began, and sighed. “I’ve started a life. I know it sounds stupid. It’s only been two months, but…”

She bit her lip in the way that drove him crazy. And she kept talking instead of shutting him out, which was progress. “I’ve started a business and I think it’ll work. Perceptions is more than a model placement service. I want to be an advocate for these young women. I know what this industry can do to them.”

“You know predators exist.”

She nodded and leaned forward. “I help get these women legitimate jobs. Maybe not the most glamorous or highest paying jobs, yet,” she admitted. “But it’s starting to come together. Young women come to make it in the big city and get sucked down and destroyed. Perceptions could be a life line.”

Of course she would make something like this her life’s work. And this was only the beginning, he had no doubt. Her heart had no bounds.

“And now I’ve got clients lining up,” she continued excitedly. “Hermes already gave one of the guests my number; he said the man was so impressed with what I’d done and Hermes told him about my business.”

“I’m proud of you.”

Her breath caught. She flushed and looked away.

“Which guest?”

She paused and for a moment he thought she wouldn’t tell him but she arched an eyebrow. “The big man in the white suit. Poseidon.”

What?

“Poseidon is asking about you?” Hades didn’t try to hide his fury. That bastard knew the Code. Families were left out of business.

“Um, yeah,” Persephone said, sounding less sure of herself. “He met me at the party and got my number from Hermes. He called me for a consultation?—”

Hades picked her phone up off the table and started scrolling. He saw Poseidon’s number and that he’d left a voicemail. Feeling even more pissed than when he’d found the dog’s heads in his bed, he pressed the button to listen to the message.

“Hey!” Persephone cried as he raised the phone to his ear. Frowning, he listened to Poseidon putting on a friendly voice as he asked for a consultation, as Persephone said. Hades swore.

“What are you doing?” she asked as he pressed more buttons. She made a move to reach for it and he halted her with a gesture.

“Blocked him.” Hades tossed the phone onto her bag. “If he tries to call again or finds another way, use the burner and contact the emergency number. It comes straight to me or Charon. You remember the emergency number?”

Persephone was still staring open mouthed at her phone. “I can’t believe you did that. You blocked my first real client.”

“Persephone, run from everything I’ve said today but understand this—” Hades reached forward and grasped her hand, ensuring that she was looking him in the eye. “You need to stay away from Poseidon. I’ll talk to Hermes, let him know the deal.”

But Persephone only looked pissed. “Oh, no,” she said, shaking her head and pushing her chair back from the table. “You don’t get to order me around anymore.”

She was cute. He smiled. “Don’t I?” But he stood up and sobered, coming around the table. This wasn’t something to be taken lightly. “I mean it, Persephone. I’m talking about bad shit.”

Persephone jerked her head back in surprise, probably at hearing him swear. He almost never did around her. His father had raised him better than to swear around women. But he had to get it through her head about Poseidon.

Hades moved around the table to where she stood. “He’s dangerous.”

“I can handle dangerous.”

Did she mean that as a challenge?

“Can you, Mrs. Ubeli?” He moved forward.

“Don’t call me that.”

“No, Persephone? Why not?”

“We’re separated right now. I don’t know if I want to be Mrs. Ubeli right now.”

Hades stepped into her space, only inches between them. Her breathing grew shorter, her bosom rising and falling in response to him.

“If you don’t want to be Mrs. Ubeli,” he said in a voice dangerously low. “Why are you still wearing your wedding ring?”

She blinked, but before she could tear her eyes away from his gray ones, he took her left hand, and raised it slowly to his lips and kissed her cold fingers, without taking his eyes from hers. The diamonds sparkled between them, the more subtle garnets flashing red.

She tried to snatch her hand back, but he gripped it harder. Her breath caught and she swallowed hard. “I was cleaning last night…I don’t remember.”

A visible shiver went through her and gods, her response drove him crazy. He wanted her. He wanted her so badly that sometimes he couldn’t sleep at night but for the wanting and the memory of her body beside his in the bed.

“I’ve decided I want a divorce,” she whispered, finally taking a step back from him.

He laughed.

“It’s not funny.”

“All right.” He shrugged. “I can grant you a divorce.”

She stared, obviously not believing.

“You want a divorce, I’ll give it to you.”

“Just like that?”

“Whatever you want, on one condition.” He held up a finger. “You talk to me, really talk. And we try to make it work first.”

“Hades…” She lifted a hand to her head like he was making her dizzy.

“Persephone, you’re still running. You wanted space, I gave it to you. You want my money? I’ll give every cent and work harder for more.” He closed the distance she’d put between them.

“What are you doing? Hades.” She backed up as he came forward, crowding her into the wall beside the coffee bar. All his Shades had wisely disappeared and taken up an outside perimeter. It was just the two of them in the entire shop.

He stopped her with a finger to her lips. “Whatever you want, I can get it. All I want is you.”

“You can’t have me.” She shook her head but her eyes were full of confusion and, if he wasn’t wrong, longing. “I don’t want to lose myself in you. You’re too…powerful.”

“Is that what you want? To be powerful?” The small space between them was magnetic, drawing her closer to him. He hoped his gaze seared her the way hers did him. It was his only saving grace—that the obsession wasn’t his alone. As much as she tried to deny it, he knew she felt it too.

“What you didn’t understand was that you had the power. All along.” He lifted her hand. “Together we could be more.” He kissed her palm.

Her breaths grew even shorter and finally she whispered, “I’m afraid of you.”

He quirked an eyebrow at her.

“I’m afraid of how you make me feel. I’m afraid of us. You swallow me up.” And then she leaned in as if she couldn’t stop herself from breathing him in. She halted only an inch away and when she shook her head ever so slightly, their noses brushed.

“My feelings,” she murmured, “my attraction to you, they overwhelm me.”

He nuzzled his nose against hers. Even this simplest touch felt life-giving. “Isn’t that just life? Being afraid and acting anyway?”

She closed her eyes as if to ward him off even as their foreheads touched.

“You can’t manipulate me, Hades. Not anymore. Not after everything I’ve proven to you. Proven to myself.”

“Why do you have to prove yourself to me? Who told you that you’re not enough?”

She pulled away from him, pain welling up in her eyes.

“There it is,” Hades said. “That’s why you push me away, even though we have something good. Something amazing. You don’t think you deserve it.”

Tears spilled, sliding down her cheeks. She was hurting and hurting deeply. Why wouldn’t she talk to him?

“Come with me,” he tried one last time.

She shook her head and swiped at her cheeks. “I can’t.”

Hades offered her his handkerchief.

“Thank you.” She used the white square of fabric to dry her eyes but didn’t look at him.

As much as it killed him and as much as he wanted to throw her over his shoulder, pushing her right now wasn’t going to get him anywhere. A little longer. He could give her a little longer.

But he wasn’t giving up either. “This isn’t over.”

“So bossy,” she sniffed, and laughed.

“That’s right, Mrs. Ubeli.” He leaned in and kissed her temple. She closed her eyes, her entire body relaxing into him.

He slid a finger along her jaw and stepped away, breaking her trance.

“My men will be tailing you from now on. Don’t try to slip away.”