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ONE
THE BATH WATER WAS cooling. Tess would have to move soon. Soaking in the tub was supposed to clear her head, but no amount of thinking would lower her father’s walls.
Harry hadn’t wanted her, she got that. He hadn’t wanted Daire either. No, not that he hadn’t wanted Daire, he hadn’t expected fatherhood to be thrust on him after the death of one of his agents. It was no surprise that after thirty-three years together, Daire had a connection with his superior officer and father-figure.
In his own way, Harry cared about his ward. With her, his biological daughter, obligation to her deceased mother urged him to fulfill the duty of keeping her safe. DNA was all that linked them, and he was big on duty.
Her fingers skimmed the surface of the water. Just over an hour ago, Daire had convinced her to stay in Three’s Vegas mansion with the Olympus cohort. The argument with her father ignited an intention to leave. If Daire hadn’t put himself in her path, she’d be miles away. He’d used her feelings for him to fix things for Harry. Unfair? Yes, yet she’d let it happen.
After persuading her to stay, Daire turned on the water to fill the tub, touched her lips, and took her semi-packed bag from the room. He didn’t like things lying around, sure, but neatness wasn’t his motivation. The bag and its contents were a temptation. One he’d want to confiscate from her sight.
She wasn’t an expert on much but staying low and starting over were her specialties. Starting a new life was an appealing idea. Except the only life she wanted included Daire, her Heart. They could never be together; both had acknowledged that sad truth.
Leaving would save them from being reminded of that reality every time they laid eyes on each other. Yet, her Heart asking her to stay was enough. Sticking around was better than abandoning him.
It was crazy. Daire didn’t need her. Of all the Olympus men, he was the most capable. He’d grown up in the organization, been raised and nurtured by it since birth. He didn’tneedher to keep him safe. But their time together, before Harry returned to the picture, had shown Daire a different kind of life. Maybe it was his sanity she feared for, or that Olympus would chew him up and spit him out. Her job was to remind him he was worthy of more than just being used. He was a human being with rights and feelings, neither of which should be ignored.
How had she got to this point? The letters she’d found after her mother’s death were to blame. She hadn’t known it at the time, but her father was the author. A man enraptured, one with feelings, with conviction. In their short association, she hadn’t seen much evidence of that emotive vehemence.
The journey from those letters to that bathtub was orchestrated by her Heart. At the time, Daire’s motivation wasn’t altruistic. He’d duped her into trusting him so he could lead her to Harry in the name of revenge. The grand plan worked, she’d fallen for it and had walked into the Olympus Beta control room believing that she was following her mother’s breadcrumbs.
All along, Daire had been manipulating her. Pretending to be someone he wasn’t. Danny, Daire’s false persona, was a harmless junkyard lackey with zero ambition. Harmless. Safe. Or so she’d believed. The month they’d spent together—intimate in every way together—gave them a taste of something they’d never had. Whatever it was, there was no going back. That part of their relationship was over… though their libidos seemed to forget that whenever they had the chance.
Only ten days had passed since they’d left the Beta control room as a trio. Because Harry raised Daire in Olympus, training him almost every minute of every day, the men had fallen back into their traditional roles with ease.
It hadn’t been so easy for her to find common ground with her father.
Her downtime led to naught. She got out of the tub, washed her hair in the shower, and blow-dried. Yet, the way she’d walked away from Harry still bothered her.
Slipping into a silky camisole and shorts set, she left the bedroom intending to track down her father. Okay, so maybe it shouldn’t fall on her to be the bigger person. But life wasn’t always the way it should be.
She traipsed down the stairs and along the corridor.
Everyone, including her father, Garrick, and all of their soldiers were in the foyer. An odd place for them to congregate.
Tess came to a halt. “What’s going on?”
The front door opened. A man entered wearing slacks and a loose shirt. When he noticed the gathered people staring at him, he stopped.
After a tense moment, his lips quirked to a smile, then he laughed. “Happy to see my money was well spent,” he said, scanning the men in the room until he stopped on her father. “Hades.”
Harry’s Olympus code name.
“Three,” her father said in response to the new guy.
Another code name.
Three’s smile brightened. He kept scanning past Daire and Garrick and everyone else until he stopped on the last person: her.
His smile dulled. The serious expression on his face transformed to a kind of wonder as he glided toward her. He didn’t say a word. No one else moved. They were absorbed by Three’s focus on her. Why exactly was she so interesting?
Three swept her loose hand into his. “I wouldn’t have believed it unless I saw it with my own eyes,” he said, raising her fingers to his lips. “Pandora in the flesh.”
And there was her code name. Tess wasn’t a fan. Not that she was a fan of any of the frustrating code names.
Olympus was a private agency with shady government and business links. Their “Six,” referred to by their individual numbers, were the financial backers. They paid for Olympus to do what official agencies could not.
Since childhood, they had pursued her. Her mother hadn’t explained the need for their run and hide life. Tess was only now learning that Olympus was the Big Bad. The truth went deeper than she’d imagined. Much deeper.
