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Still, hunger strike wouldn’t do much for her position. Answers were her goal. She had to give Zeus an opportunity to provide them. If for no other reason than details would help Daire. They would see each other again. They would.
“Something wrong?”
Glancing at Zeus and then around the table, Tess found the men poised, watching her.
“No,” she said, picking up the soup spoon to taste the food.
After she’d eaten some, the others returned to theirs. A different server came in to pour wine. Starting with her and ending with the man at the top.
“You won’t be used to having a staff,” Zeus said. “You don’t have to worry; they will attend to your needs. When no one is here, they’re not allowed in. Everything is safe. You are safe here.”
If he wanted to think the staff were the problem, she wasn’t going to correct him.
“You are rather quiet,” Byron said like he knew her.
“You must have questions, Tess,” Zeus said.
Too many of them. Except tipping her hand would be dangerous. Intimidating people was no doubt a skill he applied daily; it wouldn’t work on her.
“The first one would be, is abduction the only way you can get women to your dinner table?”
He finished his soup and put two fingers to the stem of his wine glass to draw it closer. “As far as I understand it, you got on the plane willingly.”
Details. Semantics mattered to this guy. She had to remember that.
“Misinformed,” she said. “Under false pretenses… I shouldn’t be out of the country; I didn’t show a passport to anyone.”
“Don’t worry yourself about details like that,” Byron said.
Typical rules didn’t apply to former presidents. Or he had the connections to dispense with formalities like customs and immigration.
“I don’t care about how I got here,” she said, trying to keep the venom from her tone, though it wasn’t easy. “I care about going back.”
If she had the ability, she might kick up more of a fuss about how they’d brought her to another country illegally and against her will. But if she had limited time in front of these men, bitching wouldn’t be an optimum use of the opportunity.
“You will,” Zeus said, sipping his wine. “We don’t intend to keep you here forever.”
“She can’t stay here forever,” Byron said.
Zeus agreed with a nod and then drew his focus to her. “You’re not afraid of me.”
That might not be exactly accurate. Just because she wasn’t blubbering or pleading, didn’t mean she was ignorant to the man’s ruthlessness.
“Ditto.”
He smiled. “Why should I be afraid of you?”
“I could ask you the same question. From what I understand, your role in Olympus wasn’t one of action. You’re not a deadly force. You give orders and…” Tess made a point of scanning the room. “I don’t see anyone here capable of murder.”
Zeus’s expression became harder and less impressed. “You don’t know what we are capable of.”
Putting down her spoon, she laid a hand on the table to lean closer to him. “I don’t know everything about you or Olympus,” she said in a low growl. “But I know you were the one they wanted to erase. You were the target.”
“Because I threatened them.”
“Maybe.”
He smirked. “Not because I was useless or ineffective, I’ve been in my role at Olympus for decades. Olympus belongs to me.”
