Chapter 11

Chapter

Eleven

PARIS

Athena is running a little slower today than normal.

I check the tracing data on Athena’s phone. She went on her run about an hour ago, and she always stops here for a coffee before running back. I sit, getting some work done on my laptop, just waiting for her. In the meantime, I’m checking her work correspondence. So far it looks like she hasn’t even logged in since she set up the away e-mail.

Honestly, I am a little impressed. I pegged her as a workaholic. A rule-breaker. I was sure when Eros couldn’t get it done, this would be the way to take her down.

I’m going to keep monitoring, of course, but I don’t know what I’ll be able to find like this, so I am going to have to get to know her a little more.

The bell above the door chimes as Athena steps in.

“Your usual?” The barista calls out to her, holding up a medium cup.

Athena shakes her head no. “I need a large today, and can you add an extra shot? I had a long night and not much sleep.”

“Athena?” I pretend I’m not expecting her, and I close my laptop.

She steps up to the counter, pretending she doesn’t hear me. I’m not letting her off the hook that easily. I stand up to bring my cup to the counter for a refill of the drip.

“Hey, I thought that was you.” I offer her a smile, effectively cornering her .

“Paris, hi.” She gives me a wary but polite smile.

“Would you care to join me?” Before she can make an excuse, I add, “I was actually hoping to catch you outside of the manor so I could talk to you about a few things. About Perseus, and why he has been?—”

“A huge asshole?”

“Yeah.” I rub the back of my neck. She is blunt. I’m not used to women being so upfront.

“Sure, I have a few moments.”

We get our drinks and head back to my table.

“Come here often?” I ask.

“You had something you wanted to tell me?” She takes a sip of her coffee. “About why you and your buddies have decided that being giant dicks is the best way to honor my mother’s wishes.”

“Well, I honestly don’t think that, but it’s not my inheritance on the line. And you have to understand?—”

“Do I though? Do I have to understand?”

“Okay, well let me explain why Perseus is the way he is, and maybe it will make more sense.”

“Sure,” she says, sitting back. I can’t help but notice the way the light is catching her hair, giving her a halo, making her blue eyes seem bigger and brighter. She looks so innocent, like an angel.

“Perseus met your mother when he was a young teen. He had been living in a box with Heph. Literally a cardboard box. Anyway, one night he was attacked by some asshole who thought Perseus was moving in on his turf. He was just a scrawny underfed kid at the time and was pretty much getting the shit kicked out of him. When your mother stumbled out of a bar, drunk with some fresh bruises of her own on her jaw, she saw what was happening and pulled a gun. Without a warning, she fired four shots into the drug dealer. Then she panicked, screaming and crying. So Perseus grabbed her and ran. He took her back to his makeshift house , and they hid there next to some dumpsters while the cops searched the area.”

I stop to take a drink of my coffee and see how Athena is taking all of this. She is chewing on her lip, so I keep going.

“They fell asleep in that box, but when Perseus woke up, she was gone. He was sure it was a dream, and she would never be back. He just lay in that box nursing his broken ribs for who knows how long when Freya finally found him again. Heph tried to scare her off, but he was skinnier that Perseus was. She gave Heph a few hundred dollars and told him to go shopping, get food, and head to this shitty little motel. She handed him a room key. She said she was taking Perseus to the urgent care, and then she would meet him there. Heph didn’t want to, of course, but Perseus told him to go. It would be okay.”

“Then what happened?”

“Well, the way Freya told it, Perseus looked her in the eye and said, just to do it. Just kill him and get it over with. He thought she was there to kill the only witness to her committing murder. She pulled him to his feet, put him in the back of a Town Car, and took him to the hospital, paying a lot in cash to make sure there was no record of either being there.”

“So what? She saved him, then he saved her, then she saved him again?” Athena is leaning forward in her chair like she is hanging on every word.

“Pretty much. That was the start of a long friendship. He actually didn’t see her again for a few months. She would send money, keeping both the boys in that motel room, and they were able to start taking care of themselves a little. Eros had moved in with them a while after. Then one day a man shows up. They think they are finally getting the boot, but he tells them Freya is in trouble and needs them.”

“When was this?” she asks.

“About ten years ago,” I answer, having already put the dots together in my head. I wait for her to come to the same conclusion.

“After my father banished her.”

“Yeah, apparently, she was a mess, but having her boys there to take care of gave her purpose.”

“Okay, so where do you fit in?” she asks, catching me off guard.

“I met them at school.”

“There is more to that story.” She narrows her eyes at me.

“A lot more,” I admit, “but I agreed to share all Perseus’s secrets. Not mine.”

“Well, that’s not fair.”

“It has been my experience that life is usually not fair.”

“Which side of that equation are you on?”

I set down my coffee, trying to figure out what she means. “I’m not sure I?—”

“I mean, do you get more or less than your share? Is life kind to you, or a raging cunt like she is to so many?”

Talking to Athena isn’t what I expect. She has the face of an angel, the mouth of a sailor, and the brain of a shrewd businesswoman. All strategy and seeing more than most would like. It’s clear she reads people the same way I read code. I have no doubt that for her, it’s incredibly easy, but it baffles lesser people.

“Depends on what we are talking about. I have always been lucky that money has never been lacking in my life.”

“But something else has been.” Her bright blue eyes seem to see through me, something I should find incredibly off-putting, but for some reason, I don’t.

“It has.”

She looks like she wants to press, and part of me wants her to, but she sits back and just watches me.

“Trust,” she finally says. “Freedom. Love. A Home.”

“Those used to elude me, the freedom one is still kind of iffy, but with those men you hate so much, I found my home with a family I trust.”

She nods like that is an acceptable answer, and I can’t help but watch the way her little tongue darts out of her mouth to lick the bit of foam her coffee left on her lips.

I want to kiss her.

I have no idea why. I shouldn’t want to. But I do.

“What about you? Has life been generous or a cunt?” I ask, hoping I can wash away the thoughts of tangling my fingers in her hair as I dance my tongue with hers from my mind.

“A bit of both. Like you, I don’t know what it means to struggle financially, and I know I am lucky for that. But everything else has been a scarce commodity.”

I nod. I know exactly what she means.

“What’s with you and that computer? I think this is the first time I have seen you put it down.”

“Hacking is a hobby.” I shrug. “Nothing too serious or illegal,” I lie.

She shifts a little and tilts her head. Something tells me she knows I’m lying, but she decides not to push me on it.

“You don’t live at the mansion, why?”

“How about this? You answer a question for me, then I will answer one for you,” I offer, not wanting her to take control of the conversation. I know one thing about Athena—she’s used to taking control.

“Sure, but if we are going to hang for a while, I need more coffee and food.” She rubs her stomach, and I look at the clock. We have already been talking for awhile. “They make great bagel sandwiches here, you want one? ”

“Sure, but let me get them. What are you drinking?”

“Mocha latte,” she says.

I nod and get up to grab our food.

I half expect her to be gone by the time I return, but she is still sitting at the table with her phone out, scrolling through social media. She seems so carefree and at ease. I am in awe of this woman. I can’t pinpoint exactly why, but it’s as if she’s a siren or has some spell cast on me. Part of me feels I’m betraying Perseus and the others by not hating Athena. Actually, hatred isn’t an emotion I’m feeling at all.

We dig into our food, trading questions, some serious but mostly light. I know she is smart; she has to be in order to run Medusa like she does. And I know she is stubborn, but I had no idea she is so charming and witty. At one point, she makes me laugh so hard I can’t swallow my drink until I calm down. I don’t remember the last time I laughed this hard. We just sit talking for a little over an hour when an alarm on her phone goes off.

“Shit. I have to go. I’m going to be late for a meeting with the next party planner.”

“Would you like a ride? I am heading back to the estate.”

“That would be awesome, thanks. You know you aren’t nearly as mean and stuck up as I thought you were.”

“Thanks? Well, you aren’t as evil and vindictive as I thought you were. So?—”

“Don’t count me out just yet.” She gives me a playful wink. I think she’s flirting, so on a whim I do the thing I have been thinking about for the past hour.

I kiss her.

Her body freezes, but she doesn’t pull away. It only takes her a second before she is kissing me back. Her lips are soft against mine. Her breath merging with my own. The others will hate me for this, but right now, I can’t help it, and I don’t want to.