I sighed. “I wish I could.”
A flame sparked in the darkness, and I reached for a weapon that wasn’t there only to relax when Jasper stepped into the light. He pulled a freshly lit cigarette from between his lips and nodded in my direction. “Lorenzo.”
"Jasper. Appreciate you coming."
He didn’t say anything. That was Jasper’s way, a man of few words.
"Shall we discuss business?" Diego said as I began to redress. “You said you needed transportation to Rio?”
I nodded.
“What for?” Jasper demanded.
I hesitated, but only for a moment. No point in dragging it out or lying. They were going to find out either way. “I need to take out a Director. Dionysus."
Jasper's cigarette froze. Diego hissed a curse in Spanish that made my skin prickle.
"Madre de Dios. Lorenzo, are you loco? They’ll kill you for this."
“I don’t really have a choice,” I said and fished out the Judas Coin to show it to them.
Jasper's eyes narrowed. "No."
"Jasper—"
"This is suicide. Worse than suicide. This is walking into a wood chipper and expecting to come out whole on the other side." Jasper lit a new cigarette from the dying ember of his last one. "I've survived eight years by avoiding exactly this kind of attention."
"I know what I'm asking," I said carefully. "But I'm dead either way. At least this way, maybe I'll take some of them with me."
"Stupid," Jasper muttered and turned away.
"Guapo, you’ve been hunting Zeus for eight years," Diego said. "Maybe it’s time we take the fight to him, eh? This could be our chance to get some new information."
Jasper's jaw worked. Finally, he stubbed out his cigarette. "Fine, but you do as I say, when I say it. No questions asked. Understood?”
We shook hands.
What would Rafael think if he knew I was flying to Rio to put a blade through the heart of the man who'd raised us both? Maybe it was better he didn't know what was coming. But the priest was nothing if not determined, and once he connected the dots between Azevedo's death and Rio, he'd come. When he found me with Dionysus's blood on my hands, we'd finally have our reckoning.
The flight to Riopassed in a blur of Diego's terrible jokes and Jasper's pointed silence. By the time we landed and I'd acquired the Ducati from one of Diego's contacts, the sun was already bleeding orange across the favelas.
I killed the Ducati's engine a block from Sanctum and slid between two parked cars.
Electric blue and pink neon wrapped the old church ahead, tracing gothic buttresses in pulsing light. Bass vibrated through the cobblestones into my boots. Laser light bled through stained glass, painting saints' faces across the street in strobing colors. Rio had turned a church into a nightclub. Very on-brand.
I pressed deeper into shadows as a black Mercedes with diplomatic plates glided past.
The car door opened, and suddenly I couldn’t breathe.
Dionysus stepped out in a perfect navy suit. How long had it been since I last saw him? Did he have so much gray hair then?
Two bodyguards peeled off the Mercedes to flank him.
Dionysus vanished through the side door before I could react.
Dammit. I don’t want to do this.But I didn’t have a choice.
I dismounted and walked toward the club, barely aware of my surroundings. A guard stepped into view, and my hands started shaking again. I could kill him. Easy. But after him came stairs, and after stairs came Dionysus, and after Dionysuscame—
