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“Strip joint.”
“Anything significant about the place? Weird?”
With a curious edge, his attention drifted to her. “The tables were triangular, H didn’t like ‘em. D put two together, always a pleaser—he told you about that?”
She shrugged, then showed her resolve with another challenge. “How does your brother know you’re not dead?”
That brought a half-smile, glowing with feral satisfaction, to his lips. “Because I haven’t killed him yet.”
“Oh my God,” she exhaled, accepting he was Daire’s brother. “What the hell are you doing in London?”
“Following you,” he said, hooking an elbow over the back of the bench. “Less you than One.”
“You know Byron?”
“I knew Three would lead me where I wanted to go.”
It was all so confusing. “How did you know where Three was?”
“I was watching the desert when Albany brought you in,” he said. “Real coup when Hades and Ares showed up the next day. Thanks for that.”
“Why didn’t you show yourself? You were watching Garrick and the guys… Why didn’t you join them? He’s tracing everyone.”
“Using Zone, I figure,” Styx said, showing another flash of a smile. “I knew that project would fuck us all in the ass.”
Damn. Questions crowded her head. She didn’t care about being late for dinner but did worry what would happen if Styx decided to get up and walk away.
“Why did you hide?”
“I have a mission,” he said. “I don’t go back to base until it’s complete.”
“A mission? What mission?”
“I’ve answered your questions, Lady Pandora, now you answer mine.” She couldn’t remember a question, so waited for him to repeat it or come up with one. “What is the deal with you, my brother, and that trailer?” It was difficult not to react. Just trying not to, holding her expression still like stone, Tess feared she’d revealed too much. Damn her inability to bluff. “You trust him or you don’t? You go there. Seek him out… But you’re in there for a helluva long time… Ares doesn’t talk to civilians unless it’s part of a mission and there’s no way he’s screwing you, so what is it? What do you say to him? You’ve gotta be feeding him information, no other reason for the letters either.”
“I didn’t say I was writing to him.”
“You’re writing to someone. It’s him or H. Helen is dead… isn’t she?”
With her lips sealed, she nodded. Confirming her mother’s death wasn’t revealing any big secret. The Olympus factions on both sides of the Atlantic knew that fact.
“What does he have on you?” Styx asked, peering closer. “What game has he got you playing?”
“I won’t ask Z out,” she said, diverting the conversation. “Not just because the idea of spending any time alone with him is repulsive.”
“You’ve gotta be less particular in this game,” he said. “It’s a conversation over a meal. He won’t lay a hand on you. He’ll be dead before you get back to the apartment. We could do it before the meal, but he’ll be suspicious walking into the park with you before the wine… and the conversation. By the end of the night, he’s lubed, figuring out how he’ll maneuver you onto your back when you get inside.”
“Harry would love that,” she murmured.
“H,” he said, catching her eye. “You’ve gotta be careful in the field. You think it’s by anything other than design that I haven’t used real names out here?” She wasn’t a super-agent but should know better. “H’s feelings on the subject are just another reason Z will go for it.”
She shook her head. “You’re not listening. I won’t do it.”
“You don’t have to be afraid,” he said. “H would have my balls if anything happened to you. I’m at your back, you’ll be fine. Even my brother would tell you that.”
Maybe. Yet, the two men spoke about killing each other like it was one day inevitable.
“I’m not afraid,” she said.
