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“Zeus was in charge of strategy, ultimately at the top. Poseidon was resources, hardware. Personnel was my area, recruitment and training.”
“And discipline?” she asked, unsure why her mind went straight there. “So how did—”
“Why do you ask so many questions? You don’t need to know the details. All you need to know is that I’ll keep you safe.”
“No,” she said, sliding down in her seat to get more comfortable. “All you want me to know is what you want to share. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life running from the Big Bad Wolf.”
“The only way to guarantee your safety is to eliminate Zeus.”
“Because he hates me.”
“He hates me,” H said. “By extension…”
“But he doesn’t hate Daire,” she said. The name still felt odd on her tongue and to her ears. H glanced at her. “You said that you thought Daire was working with him because Z told you that. You respected that choice. That’s what you said. That means you believed Daire made the choice on his own. I don’t know Daire at all, but I’m going to guess he wouldn’t work under a man he despised.”
“He works under me.”
She straightened the seatbelt between her breasts. “That’s fathers and sons.”
Danny’s words. At the time, she hadn’t accepted them. Now she wondered how much of it, if any, was true at all.
“Our relationship is complicated,” H said, reminding her of her own relationship with her mother.
Some of what they’d been through had tested them. And some of her past behavior was shameful, especially in certain teen years. Could anyone say they’d been a saint their whole life? As they both got older, they developed an understanding, a way of communicating that gave each of them what they needed.
“I was a teenager,” she said, recalling something H had said the previous night. He glanced her way again. “You asked about the running away. I’m not proud of it. I was a nightmare sometimes, but life was no picnic. Some unseen boogeyman dictated my entire existence. I was tired. I wanted normality.”
“You can’t have normality.”
“I know. I know that now. But I didn’t understand what my mom was afraid of. It seemed unreal to me. I wanted to be free. To get away, I thought I could change things if I just wanted to bad enough.”
“Broke her heart. Her fear for herself was nothing compared to her fear for you.”
“How did you know?” she asked. “The letters? I didn’t know that mom was writing to you back then, but she was, wasn’t she?”
“Sometimes. We didn’t keep in touch as regularly as I’d have liked. I had missions, and we were overseas. Our communications were secret from Olympus, it complicated things.”
“Everything’s complicated,” Tess murmured. “When I found the letters, I knew nothing about any of it. I couldn’t even begin to figure them out.” She’d rambled on to Danny about them, unaware that he knew every detail the whole time. Humiliation tried to warm her cheeks again; she blocked it out. “Can you imagine not knowing your own history? You said they recruited you at eighteen. This has been your life, been Daire’s life. You take knowledge for granted. I’m the only one who doesn’t know a damn about it.”
“We wanted to protect you.”
“Except that excuse doesn’t fly,” she said. “Not anymore. My mom wanted to protect me and now she’s dead. It happened in a blink. We were fine, going about life, and then, she was gone. No warning. Nothing. What happens if this Z is the one responsible for taking her out? What if Z does that to you? Just like with mom, I’ll be swinging in the wind. Vulnerable. I won’t know who to trust and the only people alive will be your enemies. I’ll learn their version of the truth. I’m going to bet their version won’t paint you and mom in the best light. That’s if they let me live long enough to hear anything. You’ll be dead and I’ll be easy pickings.”
“Daire will protect you.”
A snort of disbelief shook her. “For the rest of time? I don’t think so. One day he’ll be the same age as you and I don’t know how to train him.”
“By then, Z will be long gone. I promise you that.”
“So it’s him or me?”
“The organization is in flux… It doesn’t exist as it did anymore.”
“As of a year ago?”
“Right,” he said. “There was a plan that didn’t go down as it should have… Everyone scattered. I taught my men well, but Zeus is resourceful.”
“You think he’s starting up on his own…? Olympus two point oh.”
