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CHAPTERONE
HADES
As light pours through the window of my hotel room, I groan and shade my eyes. For a moment, I can’t place where I am. The soft, white sheets are luscious again my skin. But I’ve been so many places in the last five years, so many hotel rooms, so many beds exactly like this one. The only difference now is a distinct note of unease.
Something is not right.
There is an almost painful sensation of missing someone. I roll over and reach for the warm body that should be beside me. But like a phantom limb, there is nothing but an aching awareness of what used to be. Bile burns at the back of my throat and I sit up. Persephone.
Persephone is still missing.
For four months, I searched for her in every single place I could think of. Followed every trail, traced every place we’d ever been, questioned every bastard I could find about the location of Persephone or Constantine.
I even tried to contact her family, though I know that she wouldn’t flee to them. The mealy-mouthed Etienne had little to say about her. And I had the damndest time finding anyone to take on the task of finding her.
My reputation proceeds me, it seems. Whispers of my cruelty and brutality echo throughout the entirety of my dark realm.
I get up and pull on a fresh pair of dark boxer briefs, then stagger over to the window. Blinking into the bright sunlight coming through the large ceiling to floor patio doors, I shove my messy hair back from my forehead.
Fury begins to bubble in the center of my being. How can Penny still be missing after four months of my tearing the world apart? But I’m careful not to let any of my thoughts show on the outside.
After three months of torturing myself, I promised my brothers that I would quit my search. The Lyon family is back in business… and I am the mast head. Everything is normal, like it was before I ever met Persephone. Except, of course, that everything has shifted.
I feel lonely and haunted now, where before I was untouched by such emotions.
A loud thumping at my door draws my attention away from my morose thoughts. “Hades! Get ready!” Eros bellows. “Meet out here in twenty minutes.”
Repressing a sigh, I drag myself into the shower. It’s impossible for me to not think of Penny as I close my eyes and let the hot water rush over me. Her long raven locks, her hazel eyes. The sweetness of her mouth, the heat between her silky thighs.
The ache lodged in my chest sharpens. No amount of running my hand over the spot will do anything to dislodge or assuage it.
Shutting the lid tightly on my erratic emotions, I finish my shower and dress myself quickly. Black slacks, crisp black dress shirt, heavy black combat boots. I’m ready to go to war at any time and I feel no need to hide that fact from anyone that I do business with.
When I finally open the door to my bedroom, I find my two brothers already sprawled out in opposite chairs in the living room area of our shared suite. Ares swivels in his seat to look at me as I wander over to the coffee service that is set up on the table near the floor to ceiling windows.
“There ye are,” Ares says with a grunt. “And here I was, thinking that I would have to come in there and get you. Figured I would catch ye moping about your missing girl again.”
My mouth turns down at the corners. “Fuck off, Ares.”
Ares gives a tiny smirk and sits back in his chair, folding his arms. His self-satisfied air says that he feels like he scored a point against me.
I grit my teeth, taking my coffee to the couch and sitting down.
Eros rolls his eyes at Ares. “Come on. It’s too early to start being an asshole. We have more important things to discuss.”
I purse my lips and take a sip of my coffee. “Who are we meeting again?”
Eros moves forward, leaning toward me. His expression is excited. “I finally found a buyer for the trucks that we left behind in Algiers. A Hungarian separatist organization called Neph—" He pauses. “Nepha-something.”
“Nephadsereg,” Ares corrects him. “Our contact is a guy named Lazlo Racz.”
“Hm.” I take another sip of my coffee and look out the window. My attention wanders, as it has for the last few months.
Eros starts telling me what exactly the Hungarians want in exchange for the trucks full of weapons and ammunition. But I’m not interested. Instead I focus on the view outside.
The light is harsh even though it’s early. I squint out at the hazy view before me. Cairo is one of the most polluted cities I’ve ever seen and today is no exception. A thick blanket of smog lies across the tops of ancient brickwork buildings.
“Hades!” Ares snaps.
