Chapter 10

Chapter

Ten

DAPHNE

It’s dark outside, really dark, but I can still make out the shapes of the cars below. I don’t see him.

Not yet.

Being in the heart of downtown Seattle means outside is loud and active, but the walls of the hotel snuff most of the city sounds. The ringing of my ears and the pounding of my heart are all that remain.

Hiding in the hotel is temporary. I know this. You can’t hide from Gods. And Zeus himself confronted me tonight. I can't walk away from this unscathed because Troy Godwin knows what I did. They all know what I did. But I need time. I need to think. I need to plan; or maybe I need to hide.

Looking down on the street below, I wonder if Apollo will come for me or if it will be Troy. Maybe neither. Now that Ares is dead, they can’t send the family hitman, so they have to handle me themselves. Maybe I’m not worth their time and they will simply hire someone to take care of me. A nameless and faceless employee to take out the trash.

My eyes flutter closed, then open, then closed again as I try to wash away the memories of the funeral. The way Apollo looked at me as his father informed him of what I did…

I’ve never seen what a man betrayed looks like. Now that I have…

Fuck. I wish I could take it all back. I wish I could go back in time and talk down the hurt woman on a mission for revenge. It isn’t worth it. The pain won't go away. It won’t take away the demons. Don’t do it. Don’t do it!

Why did I do it? Why?

My phone rings, interrupting my desire to turn back the pages in this dark, macabre book. Walking over to the table, I utter a groan when I see it’s my sister. I’m half tempted to not pick up—fearful that she’ll notice the fear in my voice and want to help—but I also know Ani’s relentless and will keep trying all night until I take her call.

“Hi, sis,” I say as I sit down on the couch. I try to even my voice to disguise just how terrified I am, but my sister knows me better than anyone. My best option is to say as little as possible in this conversation.

“How was the funeral?” she asks.

“Hard,” I reply, not wanting to lie to her ever.

“I wish I could have been there for you. I wish I?—”

“I understand why you weren’t,” I cut in. Although I hated the reason why. Her asshole husband would never allow her to leave Heathens Hollow. Not even to support her sister and help with a family death. There is never a reason to leave him. Ani is to forever be by his side unless he wants to go off and drink and do drugs with his buddies.

“How’s Apollo doing?” she asks.

Should I tell her that he may want to kill me. He may want me dead. The rest of the Godwins do. “I think he’ll have a full recovery,” I say instead.

“I have news.”

Please tell me you’re leaving your husband. Tell me he’s finally done something that went too far and you’re asking for a divorce. Please let this be the call where you ask for help and allow me to get you out of that awful situation. Let it be a call of sanity. Of reason.

“I’m pregnant,” she announces.

I swallow down a deep sigh that struggles not to erupt from my body. “Are you sure this is what you want? Are you sure?—”

“Of course I want the baby!” she interrupts.

“I’m not talking about the baby. That’s amazing news,” I quickly clarify. “Of course it is. I just mean… Are you planning on raising the baby with him?”

“He’s the father, Daphne.” I hear her sigh, but I’m not sure it’s directed at me or the fact that my question is only reminding her of the turmoil she’s had inside her since finding out she’s going to have his child.

“You could come here. With me. We can raise the baby together. Ani, you don’t need him.”

“You and I both know it’s not that simple.”

“But it could be.”

There’s a long pause and then she asks, “What do you mean when you say we could raise the baby? What about Apollo?”

I don’t answer right away. I don’t know how to respond or what the answer even is. Ever since the accident, I feel like I’m a blind woman feeling my way through a maze. Things aren’t so black and white as they were before. Nothing makes sense anymore. Nothing is clear.

“Are you finally divorcing him?” Ani asks.

“You and I both know it’s not that simple,” I parrot her earlier statement. “Besides, it’s not about Apollo or Mark. This is about the baby. You and I could do this. We don’t need anyone but us.”

There’s a long pause. Silence on the other end. But silence is good. Silence means that Ani is thinking about the offer. She’s considering what her future would look like if she broke away from her abuser.

“He’d never let me go.”

“We won’t ask,” I say, not wanting to lose the conversation but already feeling her slipping away to her life of acceptance.

I hear Mark’s voice in the background. “I need to go,” she says in a low tone. “But I wanted to share the good news. I’ll try to call in the next day or two.” She hangs up the phone before I can say another word, but it’s not something I’m unfamiliar with.

This is how our conversations go. She uses the hidden cell phone I gave her when her husband’s not around. Our conversations are quick, secretive, and always end with me wanting to rush to her far away tower and save her from the monster.

There’s a knock at my door. “Housekeeping.”

It seems I’ll never get used to the fact that high-end hotels like this turn down the bed for you. Not wanting the nightly service, I open the door to send them on their way.

“Thank you, but I won’t be needing your service tonight,” I say with a welcoming smile, but pause when I sense something is off.

The housekeeper appears afraid. She looks at me with wide eyes and a pale face. My heart stops for a split second, unsure what can make the woman look the way she does.

“Is everything okay?” I ask.

My question is answered when the housekeeper is pushed aside, and Apollo stands in her place. Dark hair, piercing eyes, and the same look of betrayal on his face from when I left him at the funeral.

Apollo hands the woman a wad of cash and gives a warning look that sends a shiver down my spine. “Nothing out of the ordinary happened tonight. It would be a shame to find you tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir,” the woman says and turns to hurry away. She doesn’t even look at me, but I don’t blame her. Who would stand up against Apollo Godwin? I don’t think the money had anything to do with her leaving and no doubt keeping her mouth shut. The poor housekeeper feared for not only her job but even her life.

No one messes with a Godwin.

Then I realize I should fear for my life as well.

I try to slam the door shut, but Apollo has already placed his black leather shoe on the threshold and uses his arm to open the door even wider.

His eyes snake down my body. “Now, love, this isn’t how you treat your husband. On the day we bury my brother, I expect better from you.”

My breath hitches as Apollo forces his way into the hotel room, shutting the door behind him. I glance over my shoulder at the couch where I had left my cell phone. I also consider screaming but feel I should be very careful in how I handle this situation with Apollo. Screaming, running, or even fighting could get me killed. I have learned one thing since becoming a Godwin and that is that they don’t like messes. And they are very, very good at cleaning them up.

“I don’t know why you’re here,” I say, taking a few steps backward toward the couch.

“Oh, I think you do,” Apollo counters as he walks toward me slowly. He reminds me of a mountain lion stalking his prey—calculated, stealth-like, deadly. He stops when he stands directly in front of me. “I told you to go home.”

“I…I felt getting a hotel room would be better… Considering.”

A feral flash of his teeth nearly buckles my knees. “Considering.”

Blood courses chaotically through my veins. “You should be with your family. Grieving.”

He chuckles, which isn’t exactly the reaction that I expect. “You sure know how to change the mood of a funeral.” A small smirk lights up his face. “I prefer rage over sadness any day, so I guess I should thank you.”

“I didn’t know your father,” I begin, swallowing back the large lump in the back of my throat. “I didn’t expect for him to confront me like that at the funeral.”

“Did you think you could get away with it? Not get caught? You had to know we have cameras everywhere at Medusa Enterprises.”

“I expected you’d eventually find out,” I admit. Except every day that passed in which I didn’t get confronted was a day that built my confidence that I had indeed gotten away with it after all.

“And did you know there would be consequences? You had to know my father would demand consequences. That I would as well.”

Images of death flash before my eyes. “If I scream,” I begin.

“If you scream, then innocent people die. I have men in the hallways prepared to clean up any mess that should arise.” His eyes lock with mine, and for a moment I see…sadness. But then the look vanishes as quickly as it came, and his arms cross against his chest. “I hope to keep this as clean as possible. But that’s entirely up to you.”

I can hear the rapid beating of my heart in my ears. “I want you to leave right now.” My voice cracks as I issue the demand.

“Yes, well… We all want things in life, now don’t we?”

I steal another peek at my phone, wondering if it’s even possible to reach it and dial 911 before Apollo can stop me.

“You could try for the phone,” he says, never taking his eyes off me and somehow reading my mind, “but then things would get dirty.” He glances at me from head to toe with a devilish grin. “But maybe you like to get…dirty?”

“What are you going to do?” Asking the words seems to take whatever breath I have left in my body. I feel faint as I try to play out every scenario of what might happen to me in my head. The likelihood of me getting out of this situation alive seems less and less likely with every gruesome thought playing in my mind.

But this is my husband. My husband. Apollo wouldn’t kill me. Maybe his brother would, but he’s dead. His father would, but he’s not here. Even Athena would gladly slit my throat. But not Apollo. Not my husband.

Not answering my question, Apollo asks his own. “Why did you do it? Why go to the police with the video?”

“You know why.” I swallow hard.

“No. I don’t. Tell me.”

“I thought it would be my life raft. I wanted off the Godwin boat. You know this. You and your family wouldn’t allow me to leave. I simply wanted to leave,” I say softly, repositioning my weight from one bare foot to the other.

“I took—my brother took the fall for what you did.”

“ You were supposed to take the fall,” I counter, my voice coming out screechy. “I turned you in. Not your brother. It’s not my fault you let Ares take the blame for killing that man.”

He doesn’t respond but seems to study every inch of my face. I feel as if he’s trying to read me, dive into my thoughts. His proximity and the way his eyes seem to devour every inch of my skin have me taking a few steps away from him.

Closer to the door.

Closer to my chance of making a run for it.

“Do you think I came here to kill you?” he growls as he takes slow, calculated steps toward me, closing the distance I just created between us.

He’s toying with me. He’s toying with me like a cat does with a mouse right before the kill.

“I don’t know why you’re here,” I say as I spin on my heels and bolt toward the door.

A sharp pain erupts in the back of my head.

Darkness.