Page 17 of Hades

Perseus was with Apollo, but I texted him, anyway, and told him to stay away from Eros. My brother had some shit to work out, maybe more than the rest of us. He was close to Kronos. Closer than the others. And knowing Kronos was the man who raped his friend’s woman when she was only sixteen years old? That was tough for anyone.

But in the MC, we weren’t just brothers. We weren’t just family.

We were one.

You come after one of us, you come after all of us.

You hurt one of us, you hurt all of us.

We were the Gods of Mayhem.

The gods envied us. They envied us because we were mortal, because any moment might be our last.

And with our last fucking breath, you can be damn sure we’ll all come after your ass for vengeance.

CHAPTER SIX

Lettie

Athens, Texas...

“VIOLET!”

I flattened my hands on the counter and took a deep breath.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six...

“VIOLET!”

Five, four, three, two, one.

I pushed off the counter and walked to the back room where my mother lived. I stood in the doorway and watched her stare out the window.

“VIO—”

“I’m right here, Mother.”

My mother’s body jerked at the sound of my voice. She hadn’t expected me to be so close.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Getting ready to take some food to the clubhouse.”

“What clubhouse?” Her eyes narrowed in my direction.

“The one next door, Mother. I know you’ve heard the music. You complain about it constantly, even though it’s barely a whisper.”

“Why are you taking them food? Surely someone over there can cook.”

“Kronos died, Mother. I’m taking food because that’s what you do when someone dies.”

My mother scoffed at the notion of politeness. She scoffed at empathy of any kind. Friendliness and sympathy weren’t in her wheelhouse. In my entire life, I’d never met a single friend of hers.

Sure, there had been acquaintances. Occasionally coworkers when she held a job long enough. But she wasn’t the type of woman other women wanted to be around.

I didn’t want to be around her either.

But she was my mother, I reminded myself.