Page 31 of Hades

“No one knew but the men in that room and Karlyn herself. She didn’t tell a soul for years, Zeus,” I said, my voice gentle but firm. “Why would she lie about that? Why would Indie lie about the years she spent at the Trick Pony?” I forced him to face the reality he was trying so hard to deny.

“I don’t fucking know,” he said, his voice breaking. His chin dropped to his chest, and I saw his shoulders shake. Just once, just for a moment, before he locked it down again.

I motioned for the others to leave. Everyone quietly stood and walked out the door, leaving me, Zeus, and Atlas. The three of us who’d been through everything together, who’d bled together, who’d killed together.

Atlas didn’t grow up with us in the club. He grew up in New York, but when he turned eighteen, he left home after discovering his parents had been lying to him his whole life. Lying about who he was, where he came from, what he was meant to be.

He joined the club at nineteen, and he fit in so seamlessly that most people thought we’d been friends since grade school. He understood us in a way most people never could. Understood the darkness, the violence, the need for brotherhood when your blood family had failed you.

“How the fuck do I get through this shit?” Zeus asked. “How do I break my mother’s heart and destroy her world when she’s already grieving the bastard?”

He turned around and looked at both of us, lost and broken, searching for answers we didn’t have.

“I wish I had the answer to that,” I said, feeling the weight of my own helplessness crushing down on me.

“We find the fucking truth,” Atlas said. He stood and walked toward Zeus, laying a grounding hand on his shoulder. “The truth is out there. We clear his name and destroy those who tried to tarnish it. Or...”

“Or we dig his body up from the cemetery and burn the motherfucker,” Zeus agreed, his voice cold and final. It was the voice of a man who’d made his choice, who’d do whatever it took to protect his mother. Even if it meant desecrating his father’s grave.

Even if it meant accepting that the man he’d worshipped was a monster.

CHAPTER TEN

Lettie

Sunrise was my favorite part of the morning. I sat on the back porch, coffee in hand, Cerberus beside me, and watched the sun bleed color across the horizon. It reminded me that every new day was an opportunity to make the right choices. Or the wrong ones, depending on your perspective.

Every sunset I reflected on what had gone right and what had gone wrong that day. It helped to empty my soul of anything weighing me down. Any regrets were given to the darkness so they could be transformed in the light. A ritual. A cleansing. The only therapy I’d ever need.

The back door opened, and I smiled.

My guests had been here for three days, and I’d made a friend in an unlikely man. The first morning after I brought them here, I sat on this porch and Cash stepped out shortly after. The air had been cool, damp with dew, smelling of earth and growing things.

Cerberus snarled a low, threatening rumble that vibrated through his massive chest. Cash simply ignored him. He sat down at the other end of the steps with a coffee cup in hand and stared out over my gardens. The silence stretched between us, comfortable and easy. Neither of us needed to fill it with bullshit small talk.

We didn’t say a word until the sun rose. Then we talked. He told me how he and Kytten met, and about Rachel, his previous old lady. He shared about the letters she’d left. One for him and one for Kytten. His voice went rough when he spoke about Rachel, grief and love and acceptance all tangled together in a way that made my chest ache.

It was so romantic and utterly beautiful. The kind of love that transcended death. The kind of love I wasn’t sure existed for people like me.

Cash sat down and ran his hand over Cerberus’ head. He’d charmed my dog too, and that wasn’t easy to do. Cerberus still growled every time Mimic walked into the room, but he loved Indie. He followed Kytten around the house like he was protecting her, guarding her with the same fierce devotion he showed me.

Or the babies she carried.

Cash and Kytten argued relentlessly about whether there was one baby or two. I was on Team Cash. For how far along she was, she shouldn’t have been showing yet, but with how tiny she was, that could have also explained it. Given her family history, I’d bet everything I owned they were having twins. The way her belly curved, the way she moved. It all pointed to multiples.

“Are you going to the funeral?” Cash asked as the sun crept over the horizon. The light turned everything gold, warm and soft and deceptively peaceful.

“I am. I wasn’t going to, but I want to show my support for Rhea.”

“Not Zeus?” he asked with a grin.

“I don’t know Zeus, not really. I’ve only met him in town when he was with Rhea.” I sipped my coffee, and though I was looking out over the backyard, I could feel Cash’s eyes on me. Assessing. Calculating. Trying to figure out what the fuck my deal was.

“What’s your deal, Lettie?”

I smiled and turned to face my new friend. “My deal?”

“How do you support yourself out here in the middle of nowhere?”