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“Which he did by kidnapping me?” she asked.
Garrick frowned. “I’m surprised you remember. He took you on your second birthday… Daire’s eighth.”
“Excuse me?”
He exhaled a laugh. “The two of you share a birthday. Your father didn’t tell you?” She shook her head. “It was after that things really soured between your father and Zeus… Your father made it clear how much he valued Helen… which was perhaps his failing.”
“Helen?” Tess asked, remembering Daire had once used that name too.
Slipping his hands in his pockets, Garrick inhaled. “Your mother’s code name… Helen… of Troy.”
“The face that launched a thousand ships,” she whispered.
“She started a war, yes,” he said. “No one denied your mother’s beauty… or her allure… which I suppose is why she gave birth to the original temptress.”
Tess tossed the dress and panic button to the table. “Who comes up with this stuff?”
“Code names were more Zeus’s thing than mine.” Which was probably how he ended up with the most powerful one. “You should talk to him about your mother… about what happened in that time.”
“Zeus?”
“Harry,” Garrick said, his eyes narrowing. “There’s still so much you don’t understand.”
“I don’t know that he’d be honest with me. He’s busy with his men and seems to feel… to think…” His head dipped forward, prompting her on. “That I’m two years old.”
Garrick laughed. “Well, he lived with you until that age… after that, after your mother took you from Olympus… he never saw you again.”
The letters implied how Harry cared for her, if she was indeed the Light he referred to. Since Daire took her to her father, he hadn’t shown the same dedication. It wasn’t completely on him; Tess hadn’t made much of an effort either. The time he spent with his men made it difficult for them to find time alone. If she’d tried to reach him, asked him to make time for her, he may have done it.
Her mother’s death was still unreal. Talking about it, and about her in the past tense, could bring reality crashing in. Tess wasn’t sure she was ready for that. Not with everything else that was happening.
Dragging herself from her reflection, Tess straightened up. “What did you need him for? Is it important?”
“Yes…”
She didn’t think Garrick was done with his response, but the front door opened and the sound of a bunch of adrenaline-high men spilling inside silenced the rest of his words. It took a minute for them to reach Garrick, who wore a smile as he turned to greet them.
“Hydrate. Shower,” Harry said, coming in at the rear of the bunch. “Then dinner duty.”
“We need to talk,” Garrick said to Harry.
Her father nodded once, and the two disappeared as the other men filtered away toward the back of the house. All except Daire.
Tess was smiling, watching the rowdy gang disappear, and didn’t notice Daire was looking at her until they were all gone.
“You’re staring,” she said, picking up her dress to hold it against her body. “What do you think?”
“Beautiful,” he said, wandering around the table. “Oh, you meant the dress.”
She laughed. “Are you flirting with me, Agent?”
“Maybe,” he said, coming up close.
“Look at that,” she said, checking him out, or as much of him as she could with him standing so near. “You worked up a sweat.”
“Running in the desert,” he said.
She wasn’t sure why his eyes were alight with mischief or why he was leaning in.
