Chapter 3

Chapter

Three

ATHENA

Three days later, and I am back on the doorstep of this run-down Addams family mansion. It turns out I didn’t need to have my PI hunt down anyone. When I got home, a message from my mother’s estate lawyer was waiting for me.

So here I am, dressed to kill in a tight black dress that shows off my slender legs, shapely curves and ample chest. I’m sure to see the asshole my mother adopted, and I intend to distract him, or at least take note. Perseus’s attractiveness caught me off guard last time. That will not happen again.

I don’t expect my mother to leave me much, or anything, really. It’s not like my brothers or I need her money, or even care. However, I’m prepared to fight her will just to piss off Perseus.

“Ms. Godwin, please right this way.” A mousy brunette with large glasses greets me at the door. “I’m Mr. Carion’s assistant. He just stepped out back to make a call, and we are waiting for the others. Can I get you a coffee or water while you wait?”

“Coffee, please,” I say with a slight smile. She leaves me in the library again while she scurries off to get the coffee.

I take my seat and wait. My phone dings with another text from my father, not sharing concern over the will or even acknowledging the rift between us.

Nope, it’s all work related. Classic Troy Godwin.

We haven’t even discussed my mother since our last call, nor have I mentioned this to my brothers. Apollo and Phoenix are both busy getting their lives together, and for the time being, they both seem happy. They’re in love, living their lives out of the Godwin shadow of doom, and I don’t want to take that from them. At least not yet. Plus, the estate lawyer made it clear it was not required for them to attend. My cowardly mother has seemed to forget her real sons in the will.

I’m about to send a text to my father when the library door opens and Perseus comes in with three other mouthwatering, sexy men. The biggest one right behind him looks like he is ready to step into a heavyweight wrestling ring and take on the Rock. He’s about the same height as Perseus, but thicker. His dark hair is a mess of soft curls, and he is practically radiating power and rage.

I like him.

The one next is taller and thinner but looks more sinister with piercing green eyes, longer hair that brushes his back and tattoos across his knuckles and hands disappearing under the cuffs of his black shirt, just for the ink to peek out of the open collar at his neck. He also has a ring in his lip and brow, a stud in his nose and a chain hanging from a piercing in the top of his ear down to one in his lobe. It’s enough metal to make me wonder if he has any piercings not easily displayed.

The last man to enter doesn’t quite fit in with the rest. He is just as attractive but cleaner cut in his Burberry coat staring at a tablet. His thick-rimmed designer glasses slide down his nose every few moments.

Interesting… Did my mother become a cougar, or start a boy band in her final years? Are all these hot men my new brothers ? The absurdity of the idea has me smirking.

“What the fuck are you doing here? I thought I said you weren’t welcome,” Perseus practically yells as he stalks toward me.

“Down boy.” I stand to face him, my sky-high stilettos putting me at almost his eye level. “I was invited.”

“By who?”

“It wasn’t me, but I am kind of wishing it was,” the one with the serial killer glare and tattoos says, while undressing me with his eyes.

It’s not an entirely unpleasant feeling. I shoot him a quick playful wink and love the thrill it gives me when Perseus moves to stand in between us, his nostrils flaring and his jaw clenching hard enough I can almost hear his teeth crack.

“Who’re your hot friends?” I ask, blinking innocently up at him .

The muscles in his jaw tick. Making him angry is so easy and so much fun.

“The one looking like he wants to snap you in half, and not in the fun way, is Heph,” the serial killer says. “The one tapping away on his computer is Paris, and I’m Eros. Now, who are you? Are you lost, pretty little thing?”

“I’m Athena,” I answer. Before I can say more, Eros is shoved back and Perseus is in between us again, his fists clenching at his sides like he is aching to take a swing at something.

“Who invited you here?” he snarls.

“The lawyer, my mother,” I slow down and over enunciate every syllable of mother , “hired for her estate.”

“This is the girl who says she is—” the man, I think it is Paris, says.

“I am Freya’s daughter. Would you like to see my birth certificate? Or perhaps my baby pictures where I am in her arms? But I think by looking at me, you all know I’m flesh and blood.” Like mother like daughter.

“This is my home. I may not have been her blood, but I was the son she chose. You are the daughter she abandoned.”

His words cut into me deeper than I will ever show.

“No, I am the daughter whose father kept her away. You are nothing more than the street rat she cared for in some attempt to fill the void that was left from losing her actual children. Not just me, but her actual sons Apollo, Ares, and Phoenix.” We stand practically nose to nose, glaring at each other, the tension in the room palatable.

“Get the fuck out of my house.” His words hold promises of violence, but he has no idea who he is fucking with. I might look like my mother, but I am my father’s daughter, and he will bend to my will, not the other way around.

“Is that the best you have?” I ask. “Your usage of vocabulary is limited. Good thing you’re pretty.”

“Out. Now.”

“Make me.” The words fly from my lips barely more than a whisper, but I know he heard me. I’m clutching at the taser I have tucked in my purse, waiting for him to lay his fucking hands on me, practically begging him to do something. “That’s what I thought. I’m not going anywhere.”

The library door opens, and someone clears their throat.

“Good. You two have met.” The speaker has a deep, masculine voice .

Perseus and I each step back from each other.

“Something like that,” I mumble under my breath.

“Ms. Godwin”—the man reaches out his hand for me to shake—“I’m Mr. Carion, your mother’s lawyer. This case is a bit… unusual, so let’s get started.”

Perseus and I make a move for the same arm chair, but I drop my purse into it before he can sit. It opens just enough that he can see the taser. He gives me a look, then moves to sit on the couch with the other mouthwatering misfits.

Paris’s tablet flips into a laptop, and he is sitting on the couch typing way. Eros is sitting on the floor by the couch spinning a knife, eying me like he wants to eat me for lunch, and Heph is staring at me like I kicked his dog, which if I consider how close he is sitting to Perseus, maybe I did. Maybe I’m going to do it again, and that arrogant prick realizes who the fuck he is dealing with.