Page 69 of Fastest Kill

"Mine are already bigger than most guys', so I hope not."

Giana made a noise like a kettle reaching boiling point, and Athena laughed loud enough that it bounced off the old kitchen tiles and came back at them twice.

"Sit your ass down," Athena said, wiping her eyes. "I'll pour you a coffee. You've earned it."

The coffee Athena pushed in front of her was strong and hot, and that's all Frederica needed. For a moment, none of them said anything, and she enjoyed the moment of silence to let her sleepy brain catch up.

"So what are you two doing here?" she asked, after another mouthful of coffee. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as what Dario made.

"Rodrigo and Kon went out to get some more groceries," Giana said and poured herself another cup. "Rodrigo wanted to check in with Dario, and Serapis wants Kon to run some kind of magical check on you. Make sure Agrippa didn't leave any residue after Vienna."

"Kon doesn't need to—" Frederica began.

Athena groaned. "For the love of fuck, humor him. He's been worried since you were touched up by Agrippa. Let him poke around and tell you that you're clean, and he'll feel better. Or I can call Altun and tell her that you are being difficult."

Frederica flinched. "Anything but that. She will curse me harder than Agrippa. Letting Kon have a look isn't a bad idea. It scared the shit out of me…just a bit."

"This is why you never let rich creepy white guys touch you," Athena pointed out, and patted her hand.

Frederica had never been good at friendship, especially with women. Most of the women she tried to be around found her too loud and murderous.

She watched Athena steal one of Giana's biscotti without asking. Giana reached over and took it back without looking up from her phone, and Frederica couldn't help but smile.

These women had been through things that would have broken most people. She had fought beside Athena, bled near her, trusted her in the way you only trusted people who had been in the same hellish dark and come out the other side still standing.

Giana, who had survived six years of Gabriella's particular brand of captivity and come out of it with her spine intact, didn't frightened easily, and whose warmth was genuine.

They were intense. They were, in their separate ways, just as murderous as Frederica was. She liked that.

"Fifty euros, huh," she said, breaking the silence. "Who held the longer bet?"

"Me. I maintained that you would find a reason to drag it out." Athena tilted her head. "In my defense, you are both spectacularly stubborn."

"You broke early," Giana added, satisfied. "In his childhood bedroom, no less."

"It's not his childhood bedroom. It's a guest room."

Giana smiled into her coffee. "And that makes it better?"

Frederica opened her mouth. Closed it. Athena was already grinning, sharp and delighted, teeth showing.

"I will kill both of you if he comes downstairs and you make it weird," Frederica warned them.

"No, you won't," Athena said and batted her lashes. "You like us too much."

The problem was that it was true. "I like Kon enough not to kill his girlfriend."

The sound of footsteps on the stairs stopped whatever Athena was about to say, and Dario appeared in the kitchen doorway, his hair loose and still tousled from sleep. He had a robe over his pajama pants and the Rhodes tourist T-shirt with the knight on it that made Frederica want to do very bad things to him.

Frederica bit the inside of her cheek just looking at him. She liked her friends, but fuck did she resent them being there in that moment.

She really would have liked to greet him with coffee and another round of sex before the day had to start.

Dario held his phone in one hand and watched the three of them at the kitchen island with a dazed expression.

"You're here already," he said, which was not his most eloquent moment.

"We are," Giana confirmed.