Chapter 70

70

Hades sat, tense and on edge inside the back of the SUV outside the mayor’s office waiting for Persephone. He glared up at the building.

“She’s been in there too long,” he growled.

Charon glanced back at him in the rearview mirror. “Only been 45 minutes. And you know Zeus. He probably had her wait outside an extra half hour because he could.”

“I’ve had about enough of Mayor Zeus Sturm flexing his muscles. It’s time to remind him of who is really in charge of this city.”

Charon raised a brow. “Maybe don’t declare war on the mayor’s office until you heard what he’s gotta say. And maybe when you don’t got a target on your own forehead.”

Hades grumbled under his breath and glared back out the window.

Finally. There she was. Persephone was pushing through the exit. Hades took a deep breath, the first it felt like he’d taken in 45 minutes.

He should never have let her go in there alone. Never again. He didn’t care what sort of sense it made. It was his job to be her shield and he couldn’t do that if he was outside waiting in the Fucking car.

She hurried down the steps, looking as beautiful as ever in her sharp, knee-length pencil skirt and tailored vest that was buttoned to accentuate her narrow waist and womanly curves. She’d been wearing a coat on the way in. Probably a good thing because if he’d seen that outfit, no way would he have even let her out of the car.

Charon jumped out and moved around swiftly to open the door for her.

She slid gracefully into the car, staying near the door as Charon closed it. As if she thought Hades would allow her to put distance between them. After last night? He didn’t think so.

He quickly disabused her of the notion by grabbing her around her tiny waist and sliding her across the seat until she was flush by his side.

She let out a little squeak but that was her only protest.

“How’d it go?” asked Charon from the driver’s seat.

Persephone frowned, still wiggling to put distance between herself and Hades. “Not well. He won’t help us.”

Hades was far from surprised. There was a reason Zeus had been ducking meetings with him. Something was wrong. Either Zeus had double-crossed him and sold the shipment to someone else—a fatal mistake, Zeus would soon find if Hades discovered it was true—or something else had happened that Zeus was trying to hide. Either way, Hades would get to the bottom of it. With or without the mayor’s help.

“Tell me what he said. Don’t leave out a single detail.”

So Persephone did, replaying the conversation blow-by-blow. She looked nervous as she came to the end of her story, like she expected Hades to lose his shit. She ought to know him better by now. He valued control far too much to lose it over someone like Zeus Sturm.

“It’s okay, babe.” Hades patted her thigh. “We’ll get the shipment back; we have other ways.”

She didn’t look convinced. “What if you don’t by the end of the week? What will Poseidon do?”

“Worried about me?” Hades grinned.

She sniffed and looked away. “Making sure that I get alimony.”

Hades laughed and, hooking her close, kissed the top of her head. He cupped her cheek and slowly turned her face back toward his. “But things are getting serious now. I need to go back to the safe house. And you need to come with me.”

Her head immediately started shaking no.

Not this again.

He lifted his other hand so that now he cupped both cheeks, holding her face still as he dropped his forehead to hers. “Stop denying what we have. Who you are. You are my wife and you belong by my side. Last night proved that. You said it yourself.”

She pulled back from him, quick enough that he lost hold of her. “Last night didn’t change anything. It was…” She shook her head and threw her hands up in the air. “Okay, well, I don’t know exactly what last night was. A timeout from the real world. Two adults blowing off steam, I guess.”

What. The. Fuck?

A timeout? “Blowing off steam?” He got right in her face. “You saying that you’re mine forever and begging me to claim your pussy and your ass was blowing off fucking steam?”

Her cheeks went pink and she tried to look away but he cupped her face, forcing her to look at him. “Why did I know you were gonna try to pull this shit?”

“Hades, I wasn’t myself. I’d taken some sleeping medication and?—”

“What the hell are you taking sleeping medication for? And who prescribed it? Because they should lose their license. It was irresponsible and?—”

“Stop it. Stop it!” She jerked away from him. “You don’t get to control every little thing in my life anymore. I’m my own person. I can go to whatever doctor I want to. You don’t own me. I can do what I want, when I want?—”

Hades glared at her, his chest in a vice, her words from the night before ringing in his ears about how any cock would do. “You better not be blowing off steam with any other adults.”

“Of course I’m not!” She looked appalled and his stomach unclenched, but only a little.

“Then come with me.”

“No. How many times do I have to tell you that it’s over?”

He got right in her face again. “As many times as it takes for you to get it through your head that it’ll never be over between us. And deep down, you know it too. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have ended up on my doorstep at two in the morning begging me to fuck you.”

Her head jerked quickly back and forth in the negative. “I— I wasn’t— That wasn’t like me. I couldn’t sleep and I was in bed and I got to thinking about you?—”

“Please, do go on.”

Her cheeks flushed and she stopped, her lips hardening into a thin line. “You know why I’ll never go with you? Never be with you again? Because you’re an ass!”

“You certainly seemed to like my ass last night,” he leaned in and hissed in her ear, “the way you were grabbing it and demanding, ‘harder, Hades, fuck me harder.’ I have the fingernail scratches to prove it.”

If he thought her cheeks were bright pink before, they were nothing to the cherry red they went now.

“I did not.”

“I’ll turn around and drop my drawers right here, right now. It’s nothing Charon hasn’t seen before.” It was true, since Charon had once helped to dig fragments from a ricochet bullet out of Hades’s ass. Hades would be proud to add Persephone’s marks to his other scars.

“Don’t you dare,” Persephone bit out, her tiny hand batting at his bicep.

He grinned at her. “So it’s settled. You’re coming to the safe house with me.”

“Charon?” Persephone knocked on the glass partition Charon had raised once they’d gotten on the road. “Charon!” Persephone yelled when he didn’t respond at first.

Hades could imagine the wary sigh as Charon finally pushed a button and the partition began to retract. “Thanks Charon. Could you drop me off at my apartment?”

Okay, now she was really pissing him off.

“This isn’t a game, Persephone.” Hades gripped her thigh. “People have died.”

Her head spun his direction. “You think I don’t know that?” She said it so forcefully, almost like she was accusing him of something.

It felt like being doused with ice. Was she thinking of his mother? Of Chiara? Was she thinking of how women in his family had a habit of dying, because of their proximity to Ubeli men?

My father always kept my mother out of it.

And look how well that turned out for her!

Hades sat back hard in his seat. Was she right? Was the safest place for her far away from him?

“You heard her,” Hades barked to Charon. “Take her to her apartment.”

He ignored her surprise. Charon merely said, “You got it, boss,” and turned the SUV to go uptown instead of toward the south side.

Persephone didn’t say a thing for the ten-minute drive it took to get there and neither did Hades. He did feel her eyes on him occasionally. He wanted to growl at her to keep her eyes to herself because he was three seconds away from changing his mind, dragging her to the safe house with him, and chaining her to a bed again. Every mile they drove it sounded like a better and better idea.

Finally the SUV stopped in front of her apartment building. She paused before opening the door and Hades clenched his fists to stop himself from reaching for her.

“Hades—”

“Don’t,” he cut her off. The only way he was making it out of here at all was if he left right this second. “Stay safe. Don’t go anywhere without the Shades.”

He didn’t wait for her acknowledgment. The second she’d stepped from the car, he ordered Charon, “Drive.”