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“Okay, what’s going on?” Tess asked. “I’ve missed you. I came to see you because I wanted to know how you’re doing.”
Daire folded his arms. “How I’m doing? How do you think I’m doing seeing you going out with him every day?”
“He’s talking to me,” she said. “Nothing’s happened. He’s never even tried to kiss me.”
“You want him to?”
“No!” she objected, flattening a hand on the table near him. “I’m saying that whatever his interest in me, it’s not sexual.”
“He has an agenda.”
“You told me that before and I don’t doubt you’re right,” she said, giving that a second to settle in the air. “What’s going on with Six?”
“No,” he said, grabbing his glass to stand up and put it in the sink.
“No, what?”
Daire turned to face her. “You can’t come in here and ask for intel.” His head shook slowly. “You can’t do that to me. What was it you said? You don’t get to use whatIfeel for you.”
“I said that and then let you use what I felt for you,” she said, approaching one careful inch at a time. “Baby, I don’t care about intelligence. I care that you wanted Six out and it’s not happening. I asked Three about it and he’s vague. From the way he talks, he doesn’t seem to think Six is going anywhere.” Daire didn’t respond. Infuriated, she pinned a glare on him and slapped a palm onto his chest. “It’s easy for you. You know you can handle yourself. You know you can take care of whatever needs to be taken care of.”
“You’re protected. I’m monitoring your safety. You think I trust those chump bodyguards of his?”
Though he wasn’t exactly happy about it, Tess relaxed a little on learning he wasn’t done caring about her. “It’s your safety I’m worried about,” she said, getting closer. “Six is a threat. He will always be a threat.”
“To Olympus? I bet he’d argue ZeusisOlympus.”
“To you,” she said, sliding her hand up and down. “Six is a threat to you. Do you think I want you going out there on some mission and Lowell whoever-Six-is, leaking those details to Zeus so he can hurt you?”
“There’s no chance of anyone going on missions. Not until Zeus is dealt with.”
“I suppose the argument is you need Six’s money.”
“That and unless we kill him, he could expose the organization.”
She exhaled. “I thought about that with Zeus. He knows enough to cause problems.”
“Yeah.”
Hugo enjoyed talking about his business and regaling her with tales of his past. His father had been the one to get involved with Olympus and he’d passed that responsibility to his son after receiving a terminal diagnosis.
“Three’s been in contact with One. I don’t know how recently, but he said they’re trying to vet whoever the new Six members will be. Is it smart to do that while Zeus is still out there? How do you know he hasn’t gotten to them already? He must know who they are.”
“That’s above my paygrade.”
“There is no above your paygrade,” she said, curling her fingers to dig her nails into him. “This is your life we’re talking about. I don’t care about respecting those above you, I care about you being safe. Three says there are ‘opinions’ on how Zeus should be dealt with… Please tell me you’re in those discussions. Everyone seems to think as long as he’s in Europe you’re—”
Laying a finger on her lips, Daire silenced her. “Watch that mouth,” he said, keeping his finger in place. “You’re sharing privileged information.”
His finger left her lips when he chose to rest his hand on her shoulder instead. “I’m not sharing privileged information. I’m having a conversation.”
“You have conversations like this with Three or any of his buddies, you could get yourself in trouble.”
“Like that’s anything new,” she said, pleased to see him relax. “I listen and ask questions with Three. I only run my mouth with you.” He let her go to move around her. “Intel is the key to survival you know.” She moved aside when he got closer to the sink to rinse his glass. The corner of his mouth rose. Tess sighed. “So much I could teach you…”
“Okay, sensei, teach me,” he said, grabbing a towel to dry his hands as he propped a hip on the counter. “He talked to One, when?”
Tess shrugged. “The night we met, he said he and One had been in contact. That they were trying to hold things together. Then…” Drawing in a breath, her eyes rose as she thought back. “On Wednesday he said something about staying up into the wee hours. We always come home before it’s dark, I asked why he was up late, he said he and One had a lot to catch up on and time zones sucked.” That brought Daire’s brow down. “Interesting, right?”
