I looked at Zeus, grateful for the support even as frustration gnawed at my gut. “So what’s the play?”
Zeus leaned back in his chair, his eyes distant and calculating. “We watch her. Abyss reports back on everything. Where she goes, who she talks to, what she does. We keep her close, keep her safe, and we wait for her to slip up.”
“And if she doesn’t slip up?” Hermes asked.
“She will,” Zeus said with certainty. “Everyone does eventually. Especially when they’re scared.”
“What if whoever she’s running from finds her first?” I asked. The question I had been avoiding finally surfaced. “What if we’re too late?”
The room went quiet again.
It was Hades who finally spoke. “Then we deal with it. Same way we always do.”
With blood and bullets. The God way.
“I don’t want it to come to that,” I stated reluctantly.
“None of us do,” Zeus replied. “But we need to be prepared for the possibility. If Alex brought trouble to our door, we need to know what kind of trouble it is. And we need to be ready to handle it.”
“She’s not going to tell us,” I admitted with a certainty that settled in my chest like a stone. “Not willingly. She’s too stubborn. Too proud.”
“Then we find out another way,” Coeus offered. “I can dig into her digital footprint. See what she’s been up to online. Bank records, social media, anything that might give us a clue.”
“Do it,” Zeus said. “But be discreet. If she finds out we’re investigating her, she’ll shut down completely.”
Coeus nodded and turned back to his laptop.
“What about Rapid City?” Adonis asked. “Should we send someone up there? Ask around? See if anyone knows anything about this Derek guy or what Alex was really doing?”
“Not yet,” Zeus said. “We don’t want to tip our hand. If someone’s looking for her, we don’t want to lead them straight to us.”
“But if someone’s already looking for her,” Aries said, “they might already know she’s here.”
The thought sent a chill down my spine.
What if they are already watching? What if they are waiting?
“That’s why we keep her close,” Zeus said. “That’s why Abyss doesn’t leave her side. If someone comes for her, we’ll be ready.”
“And if she tries to run?” Hyperion asked.
“She won’t,” I said, though I wasn’t sure I believed it. “She came here because she had nowhere else to go. She’s not going to leave unless she has a better option.”
“Or unless she gets desperate,” Hades added.
Desperate.That was what she was. I had seen it in her eyes during the interrogation. The way she looked at me when Zeus assigned Abyss, like I betrayed her. Maybe I had, but what choice did I have? She wouldn’t tell me the truth. Wouldn’t let me in. Wouldn’t let me help. All I could do was try to keep her alive long enough to figure out what the hell she had gotten herself into.
“There’s something else,” Apollo said quietly. He’d been silent most of the meeting, watching and listening like he always did. The chaplain. The conscience of the club.
“What?” Zeus asked.
“Alex isn’t just scared,” Apollo said. “She’s guilty. I saw it in her face. Whatever she’s running from, she thinks she deserves it.”
His words hit me like a punch to the gut.
Guilty.
What the hell had she done?
