“She’s right, Rosario,” Zeus says with a smile. “You’re jealous of our daughter.”
A sneer crosses her face. “You’re both delusional. I have everything I want and you couldn’t even hold on to your man, Honey.”
That blow lands, but only because it has truth attached to it. Even still, I shrug at her. “You won’t have everything for long.” I have a plan in mind. It is one that I had settled on while leaving the restaurant with Zeus. He’d told me family was the most important thing. That the world I am slowly sinking into is going to be mine by right of being his daughter. He’d given my mother everything she’d wanted for the sole fact that she is attached to me.
“Why is she here? In New York, I mean,” I’d asked him on the way back to the club. The day was peaceful around us, a perfect day in the city with all green lights as we drove. Even the pedestrians on the sidewalks were smiling in the early summer sunshine.
“She’s here because she gave me access to you. She was the easiest way to contact you and keep tabs, but that was before…” His voice trailed off and I looked at him.
“Before what?” I’d asked.
“Before I realized just how terribly she’s treated you. I’ve only kept her close for you.”
I shook my head, not understanding. “But I ran from her, I left Texas and moved here to get away from her. What do you mean you only kept her close for me? If it were up to me I’d never see her again.”
He’d nodded, eyes on the street ahead of us as he put the car into drive. “Exactly. Her fate is yours to decide. Whatever you deem she’s allowed, is all she will be allowed to keep.”
“What?”
“Family is important. If you cannot protect it then what use do you have?” he continued on as he drove. “In our world, the answer is nothing. Your mother’s value is in your hands now, Honey. I turn her over to you.”
I’d turned over Zeus’ words all afternoon. They played on repeat in my mind and I knew that I would see her soon. I hadn’t known when, but the inevitably of it weighed heavy on me. My father didn’t choose his words idly. I knew that. The proof of it is here, with the way my mother is glaring at me. She senses something is happening, a shift in the power balance and she is trying to game out her next move.
She just doesn’t know that there are no more moves for her. The game is over.
Finally.
CHAPTERNINE
LAW
Instructions to enter Honey’s birthday party are different than normal club affairs. We are not to use the front doors, but the private entrance. It is the same entrance that I used the last time I’d had my girl with me. I pause in the alleyway and glare at the door. Taylor is just out of sight and he’ll stay there in case I need him. I don’t much think I will, but planning for the worst is necessary when dealing with a fucker like Zeus.
Elegantly dressed couples pass me on their way to the door where a bouncer stands waiting to check invitations. One had arrived that afternoon for me, thick linen card stock with handwritten filigree. The fucking thing had been done in gold, just like the envelope had been made heavy by a layer of it.
Zeus has expensive taste and wanted that known by every soul that came across his missive to me. The invitation is tucked in my breast pocket and feels like lead. When I move, the sharp edges of it push against my muscle and all it does is remind me of Honey. Every shift of my shoulders brings that goddamned corner into contact with me and my mind goes to her. I watch as a couple presents their invitation to the bouncer with a flourish. They are happy to be here, excited and proud at Zeus singling them out, if their body language is anything to go by. The second the bouncer opens the door for them with a slight bow, the woman practically dances forward in excitement.
If only they knew what kind of hell they are walking into.
The revolver I have strapped to me is a comforting weight against the small of my back. It is discrete, compact and easily concealed by the cut of my suit. The gun is part of my plan for the worst case. Even if I am patted down by security, I don’t think they’ll kill me. Zeus wants to show me something tonight. That is why I’ve been invited to the club— it may even be why he is throwing this party in the first place.
I know precious little about the man that has taken Honey from me. Not even Charlaine’s digging has brought much to light, but she is still working on it. If it’s there, she’ll find it. What I do know about the man is that he likes to win. He also likes to show off his wins. Honey is a trophy he fully intends to parade in front of me.
I don’t like that, but it also means he can’t kill me before he has the pleasure of his big reveal. Whatever it is, he needs me alive to see it. A gun is a risk I am willing to take, knowing I’ll be able to keep moving forward. So is the knife I have strapped to my calf, and the garrote sewn into my suit cuff.
God help Zeus if I get him alone. I am going to end him if he gets between me and Honey. I am getting her back if it is the last thing I do, and tonight is just as good a time as any to do it. The longer I leave her here, the longer she is exposed to whatever twisted little game Zeus intends to play with us. She is too sweet to be in the hands of a man like him and I’ve already wasted a week without her.
Seven fucking days since I’ve had her in my arms. Seven days where she’s been in the club. I know that, because I keep eyes on her apartment and she hasn’t gone back. Charlaine has eyes on her phone and knows she hasn’t made contact with anyone.
Honey has gone dark.
Whether that’s by choice or she is forced to do it, I don’t know. What I do know is that every day she is with Zeus, the bigger risk I’m taking that she is not going to be okay when I find her. Every day is another opportunity for him to bend her will, twist her from who she’s been and poison her thinking. My girl is strong and she is smart but there is only so much someone isolated can take and she’d never been trained for that.
She is too sweet for any of this. I never should have started it with her. I knew from the first I should have left her alone. Left her in the bright sunlight of that coffee shop I’d found her in, but I’d been too selfish to do it. I think about her face, the way she looks when she wakes up. The smile on her lips when she is drinking her coffee first thing in the morning. How she tucks her body close to mine when she wakes up in the middle of the night. The way her face lights up when she sees me.
That goddamned fucking smile of hers is like a light in the darkness to me. It calls to me, the lift of her lips, the rounded curve of her cheek when she grins at me and throws her arms around me. The way she smells, like cinnamon and spice and musk that is all her own. The feel of her hair sliding through my fingers while she lays on the couch with her head in my lap. I read, went over work in the evenings and like clockwork she found me after an hour or so. She would climb up onto the bed and slide in close to me.
I’ve gone a week without her sweetness. My bed is cold without her, the penthouse too big and empty without Honey’s laughter taking up space or sitting in the sun with her breakfast while she plays games on her phone.
