Chapter 82

82

“Who’s that?” Aphrodite craned her head after greeting Persephone, obviously having caught sight of Hades, or at least the shape of him through the hallway window. Persephone’s shy smile must have told her the rest. “Hades. You two back together?”

Persephone nodded, and lifted a bag. “Fresh t-shirt, jeans, underwear, the works.” She rummaged around and held up a bright yellow makeup bag.

“Thank you,” Aphrodite sighed.

“When are you getting out?”

“Soon. Today. My producer friend is actually coming by to pick me up.”

Persephone nodded. “So everything’s still okay with the movie? Even though you’ll have to go back to work with?—”

“Max Mars,” Aphrodite grimaced. “Don’t remind me. He’s been calling and texting nonstop.”

Persephone glowered. “If he’s not getting the message, Hades can?—”

Aphrodite waved her hand. “No, it’s fine. I can handle him.”

“And your attacker? What did the police say is happening to him?”

“He’s still in lockup.” Shadows played across Aphrodite’s bruised face. “Apparently Mars pulled some strings so he’s not getting out on bail. It’s something, anyway. They say he could serve up to five years for assault and battery.”

Swallowing hard, Persephone took her friend’s hand. The bastard deserved worse than five years. She couldn’t think of anything more despicable than a man hitting a woman or child. “And the movie? What do you want to do?”

“I’ve wanted to be an actress all my life. I dragged my mom around to auditions, practiced for hours in front of a mirror. It’s all I ever dreamed about.” Aphrodite closed her eyes, her forehead creasing.

“There are other movies, other directors.”

“Other asshole actors?” Aphrodite grimaced, shaking her head. “Not for me. You don’t get it, Persephone. There’s a time limit to my success. I need to break out now, while I’m young, and beautiful enough to let my looks make up for my lack of experience.”

“If Mars doesn’t back off or if he gives you a hard time in any way?—”

“I’ve been taking care of myself a long time. I promise I’ll be fine.”

“But if you aren’t, we can?—”

“I said I’ll be fine.”

Persephone backed off at Aphrodite’s sharp words, not wanting to upset her any more. But no way was she letting her deal with this alone. She was family now.

Aphrodite set her jaw and even bruised, her face was still lovely in a cold, untouchable way. When she spoke, Persephone had to listen hard to hear. “I’m going to do it. I’ll do the movie and make my career. And then…”

“And then?” Persephone prompted. Even though she was looking straight at her friend, she saw a totally different woman.

“No one will ever touch me again.”

A nurse stopped in, and the burning intensity in Aphrodite’s eyes disappeared as she smiled and spoke charmingly to the woman.

When Persephone left the hospital room, she found Hades standing in the hall.

“All good, babe?”

Crossing the hall to him, she leaned close and took a deep breath.

“Babe?”

“Can your guys keep an eye on Max Mars? And…maybe send him a message to leave Aphrodite alone?”

Hades nodded. “He bothering her?”

“She broke up with him after what happened. But he’s having a hard time taking no for an answer.” She hurriedly added. “But he needs his face for the movie. So…”

“Got it.” She thought she could see the ghost of a smile hovering around his mouth. “Anything else?”

“No.” She came forward, put her arms around his suit-clad body, and pressed her cheek to his strong chest. He held her, while a few orderlies passed by and averted their eyes.

“Love you, babe.”

She sighed, so content it hardly felt real. “I love you too.”

“Well, if it isn’t the two love birds. Marriage ain’t killed your romance yet?”

Persephone jerked her head around to see a familiar figure in a dirty coat.

Pete. The cop who’d betrayed her.

He approached slowly, at a slight angle, as if he expected Hades to attack if he came at them straight on.

Which was exactly what he’d done when Persephone had last called him—he’d come in sideways and found Hades’s weak spot—her. Pete had played her. And let a woman die so he could make his big bust. She wanted to claw his eyes out but she held back. Hades didn’t know and he couldn’t find out, not this way.

Pete slouched against the wall, tilting his shaved head towards them. “What’d you get her for an anniversary, Ubeli? The rest of Ajax’s dead body? I hear his head showed up in a gang zone in Metropolis. Right on the Titan’s doorstep, so to speak.”

Persephone couldn’t help it; she gasped, and Hades’s arms got tighter. “Let’s go,” he muttered.

“Aww, what’s the matter? No respect for the man who busted ya?” Pete flashed his badge and smirked. “How ‘bout you, Persephone? Haven’t heard from you in a while.”

“I’ll thank you not to address my wife informally,” Hades said to the man over her head. “Or at all.”

“Let’s go,” Persephone said, ducking her head as her husband steered her away.

Pete loped along next to them, keeping his distance but staying close enough that Persephone could hear him plainly. “Last conversation I had with her, she was real friendly.”

Hades stopped dead, but Persephone stepped between him and the detective. “You’re despicable,” she snapped.

“Your friends get in a bind again, you can always call me.” Pete gave a mirthless smile and Persephone realized he was almost as tall as her husband.

Whirling, she tucked herself into Hades’s side and marched with him down the hall. Hades’s arms squeezed her a bit tighter, but other than that, he didn’t acknowledge the man watching them retreat.

Persephone slid into the backseat of the car, feeling sick to her stomach. The nerve of the detective, after he didn’t offer any backup. He didn’t care about the women in need, about Eurydice dying on his watch, just his own career enhancement.

It took a while to realize there was stony silence coming from the other side of the back seat.

“Hades?”

Her husband stared out the window. “How does that dick know you?” he asked, voice deceptively quiet.

Persephone felt her heart drop out. “I—uh—met with him once. Well, twice. The first time, he cornered me with Aphrodite. He knew her. The second time…I asked him to help me find Eurydice. Orpheus’s fiancée.” Persephone could still see the picture of the lovely young woman and the angelic looking singer, both dead now. Two beautiful lives snuffed out.

Her husband breathed in hard through his nose. “That all?”

Persephone breathed out as her eyes fell closed. Now or never. She couldn’t sit here and continue to lie to him. Honesty. He’d asked her for complete honesty only this morning and there was no more putting it off. “I may have called him before I went to find Aphrodite and Eurydice.”

“I see,” Hades said.

“I was trying to do the right thing. I never meant for any of it to?—”

Hades raised a hand and she fell silent. He leaned forward and ordered the driver, “Crown Hotel. Now.”

“Hades, please?—”

“Enough.”

Persephone jumped at the barked word. They drove on in silence for five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen.

Hades stared out the window. Why wouldn’t he say anything else? What was he thinking? She wanted to explain it all. The words were tumbling inside her, spilling over one another to get out. If she could just explain it right, she could make him understand.

Her stomach twisted in knots as they arrived at the Crown and Hades took her elbow in a vice-like grip as he led her up to the penthouse.

The whole time, she prayed silently. He had to forgive her. He had to.

Finally, they were in the apartment and the door slammed behind them.

Someone had removed the flowers that usually graced the foyer without bothering to replace them. Even though the place was clean, the shades were drawn over the tinted glass, making the place dim and stuffy, a shell instead of a home.

Hades went and poured a Scotch, neat, and now studied the amber liquid. “I think you better tell me what happened the night you ran. Starting with when I left, please.”

Her eyes darted around the penthouse. She wanted to look anywhere but at him. Instead, she forced her gaze to meet his.

The truth had weighed heavy as a lead ball in her stomach for months, stealing her sleep, sullying her dreams. She had to tell him everything and hold nothing back, even if, when she was done, he hated her.

“You said you went to find Aphrodite and Eurydice?”

“Y-yes,” she whispered, hating the tremble in her voice. “Ajax took them. Eurydice and Aphrodite. He called me and said if I didn’t come with the ransom money right away, he’d kill them and?—”

Shit, she wasn’t explaining this right. “I wasn’t going to go like he ordered. I knew it was a trap. But Athena had cracked Eurydice’s phone and we had his address. You were gone and I thought I could get ahead of Ajax, surprise him at his safe house and have the police with me to bust him—” She broke off, hating how stupid and na?ve she sounded. It had all seemed like such a brilliant plan at the time. Fail proof.

She took a deep breath. If she didn’t get it all out now, she never would. “When I got there, I was supposed to go inside, to offer myself in exchange for Aphrodite and Eurydice, and as soon I said the safe word, the cops were supposed to come in and bust Ajax.”

Hades studied the empty glass in his hand. He still hadn’t looked at her, she realized, not since the car. “You gambled with your life.”

“I knew Ajax would be too afraid of you to hurt me. And the cops were right there,” she broke off, swallowing hard. She outlined what had happened when she reached Ajax’s house.

“But the cops didn’t come to the rescue?” Hades was at the bar, refilling his drink. Persephone still hadn’t moved from the small landing in front of the door.

“They were listening in but when they heard Ajax call you, they obviously decided they wanted a bigger bust. I used the safe word over and over but it didn’t matter.” Persephone’s voice cracked. “They let her die. They left Eurydice to die, right in front of me.”

“So let me get this straight. You left the Estate of your own volition. You called a cop, thinking he’d keep you safe from a psycho who’d already taken two women.”

Persephone licked her lips, staring at her husband’s dark silhouette.

“Is that right?” Hades prompted.

“He had a SWAT team with him,” she offered weakly. “I tried to take as many precautions as I could.”

“Except at no point did you tell me, your husband!” He put his glass down hard, not violent enough to break it, but she jumped when it clunked against the cabinet. “At no point did you share.”

“You were busy with the shipment?—”

“You didn’t trust me. My own wife.”

“I’m sorry,” she cried. “Gods, I’d change it if I could. It’s my fault the cops came. It’s my fault…” She couldn’t finish, thinking of the way the blood poured from Eurydice’s wound. How her eyes went vacant as her soul left her body.

“This is why you ran. You were afraid to tell me.” She couldn’t see Hades’s expression in the shadows.

“Yes,” she whispered. She’d lied to herself about it—his violence had given her an excuse—but ultimately, this was why she’d run.

“It’s getting late,” he said. “I got things to do. I’ll get someone to take you back.” Already his phone was out.

Persephone’s heart thudded slowly, painfully. “Back where?”

“Your apartment.”

“Hades, I’m sorry.” The words burned in her throat. Everything she’d wanted to say, but couldn’t bring herself to. “I never should have gone to Ajax. I should’ve trusted you.”

She wanted to go to him, to convince him, to beg him to believe her. But he was now standing by the windows, drink in hand, and her feet were rooted to the spot. “I’ll tell Poseidon it was my fault the cops were there. It was an accident.”

“You stay away from Poseidon,” Hades whirled and snarled so violently her feet came unstuck and, even though she was across the room, she took a step back. “It’s over. You’ve done enough.”

The door opened behind her, startling her, and a Shade walked in, glancing back and forth between the two Ubelis, before focusing on the one who gave him orders.

“Yeah, boss?”

“Please escort Ms. Persephone back to her apartment. Or anywhere she wants.”

“Yes, sir.” The Shade held the door open, waiting.

“Hades,” Persephone whispered.

“Ma’am,” the Shade called. He was obviously picking up on the tension in the room and thought it wise to give her a hint.

With one last look at her husband’s straight back, Persephone took her exit.

In two days, time would run out. They didn’t have Poseidon’s shipment. At least Hades finally knew the truth. The fact was cold comfort. Especially when it hit her, in the car halfway to her place, that Hades had called her Ms. Persephone.

Not Mrs. Ubeli.