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She hadn’t drunk much of her champagne. Hugo poured more into her flute anyway, taking the liquid almost to the rim.
“Not only the keys,” Hugo said. “Minotaur isn’t the only thing we need to retrieve.”
She assumed he meant JARR. Daire hadn’t known the specifics but did believe something was bothering Harry. From the way her Heart had said that and then gone on to explain JARR, she assumed one was related to the other.
“What else do you need?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Byron said, which was frustrating.
Most of what they’d covered she’d already known. JARR was the question mark. If she could take new intelligence back to Daire, he might be able to put the pieces together.
“I’m not worried, I’m curious,” she said. “It seems to be an obstacle.”
Byron’s gaze narrowed. “Do you fear Olympus?”
“Do I fear it? Why?”
“You’ve been running from it your whole life,” he said. “It would correlate that you might be afraid of the organization getting back on its feet… It could be a threat to you again.”
“It could be a threat to all of us,” she said. “I’ve met some of the agents and know more about Olympus… Knowledge is power.”
“So you’d expose the organization if it became a threat to you?”
She smiled. “I wouldn’t go that far. If the general plan was to cut me loose, you wouldn’t have been so open.” Though the plan may be to kill her. Dead couldn’t expose anything. “Am I your plan to get Hades’ compliance? You know Poseidon will comply.” Because the man had already given in to Zeus when he handed over the Trident. “Getting Zeus and Hades to play nice will be more difficult.”
“Zeus has used you against Hades since you were born,” Byron said. “It’s always worked.”
Her? No. That didn’t tally with what Tess knew of her father. Her mom? Yes. That was who Zeus used against Hades. Maybe he hadn’t figured it out. If Zeus threatened Tess and her mom at the same time, maybe the principal super-agent hadn’t deduced the truth. Harry submitted to Zeus’s will to spare the woman he loved, not her child.
Daire was their unknown. The X factor. They just didn’t know it. Harry wouldn’t prioritize her over getting Olympus up and running again. Her Heart, however, could do something crazy in the name of protecting her.
He knew things he shouldn’t, like the code to restart Olympus Beta. That could extend into extracting Minotaur. Maybe Daire knew how to do that. Harry trusted the boy he’d raised and didn’t comprehend how she’d corrupted his protégé.
“You have to know that it won’t be as simple as that,” Tess said, twisting to address Hugo. “Was that the point of the store? You thought I’d stick around to be exploited against Hades just because I had dresses to sell?”
“I wasn’t lying when I said you can have a life now. Olympus doesn’t want you dead.”
Tess was confused. “Because you couldn’t use me against Hades if I was?”
As far as they were concerned, executing her would be a waste of resources. That’s what she was, a resource. Their ticket to ensuring Hades’ compliance. They’d probably consider him more dangerous if he didn’t have anything to lose except his life.
Daire’s life was the one she was worried about. Erasing her, especially if Harry let it happen, would set Daire on a dangerous path. She’d told her father he had no responsibility to protect her, that she didn’t expect any gallantry. She was realistic about her position in Harry’s list of priorities. How Daire would react if Harry let her be sacrificed? That was the unknown.
“Because you’re useful to the organization as you are.”
A smile contorted her lips. “I’m no super-agent.”
“No. Doesn’t mean you can’t have something we need.”
Cryptic. Drawing her eyes from Byron, she took her focus to Hugo. The men didn’t give anything away.
“What do I have that Olympus needs?” she asked.
“We’re sponsors,” Byron said. “It’s not our place to get involved in the details of how the organization is run. It will be a while before we reach our destination, would you like something to eat? You can get some rest if you’d prefer, you can sleep in the rear cabin.”
“Sleep?” she asked, frowning at Hugo even though he hadn’t been the one to suggest it. “I thought we were going somewhere to eat. Why would we eat on the plane?”
“I said we were going somewhere special.”
