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So much for the conversation coming to a mutually satisfying end. “His enemies?”
“Olympus’s enemies,” he said with the concession of a half shrug. “We worked hard to ensure no one ever knew he had a child. In our line, it’s best not to have entanglements, to have weaknesses.”
Irritation tightened her jaw. “I am not Harry’s weakness. Harry is free to live his life however he sees fit.”
“In an ideal world,” he said, probably thinking that he got to dictate a large part of her father’s life. The past was a testament to that. “But if our enemies learn of your existence, you’ll become a target.”
“Then you better make sure no one learns of my existence,” she said, looking him in the eye. “No reason they should. I’ll change my name, move somewhere new. I guarantee he’s not on my birth certificate.”
Because she’d never had one. Though she’d probably, maybe, been registered somewhere at some point, her mother changed their names so often that the beginning was a distant memory.
“People have their ways,” he said. “I’ll have to discuss it with your father, but it may be best for you to stay on base. Close to us. Where we can keep you safe.”
TWENTY-FIVE
NARROWING HER EYES, she glared. “Does anyone ever fall for that? Anyone ever buy the shit you spout like it’s genuinely in their interest?”
“You’re important to Olympus.”
Pushing to the edge of the couch, she slammed her glass onto the table. “Why?” she demanded. “What the hell am I so special for? Are you honestly telling me that in all the decades Olympus has been in operation, no operative has ever conceived a child?”
“It’s something that would always be taken care of.”
Just the ease with which he said that sent a chill up her spine. “You don’t seriously mean that.”
“A lot of Olympus procedures were still in their infancy when Hera fell pregnant,” he said. That was a name she hadn’t heard before. “Kaiya Canon, Ares’s mother.”
Yes, she knew his last name, though Zeus wouldn’t have any reason to think she did. “It was a complex issue, given the father was her asset.”
A mission? Daire was a product of a mission gone wrong? Concealing her shock was difficult. “If you wanted to take care of it, I’m sure you would have.”
“Well, yes,” he said, swallowing the last of his drink. “It was, of course, discussed at the time. Kaiya was against it, which led to issues between Harry and myself…” He stood up to saunter to the bar, recounting the tale like it wasn’t horrific to hear. “Ultimately, it was decided the child, the pregnancy, gave us another layer of advantage over our asset.”
Her jaw moved as words ached to leave her lips. The pregnancy, this child he was referring to, was the man she loved.
“It allowed you to manipulate him. Was he married?”
“Much more complicated than that,” he said over his shoulder. “He was a political aide to the then vice-president. The mission was more of a test case than anything else.”
Closing her lips, she inhaled through her nose, fighting to restrain the emotion bubbling up within her. “You were testing Kaiya?”
“The system, our system… A live drill. None of the participants knew; it ended up being fruitful. The VP was the mark. Merrill had access to his schedule, his paperwork… Kaiya’s relationship with him allowed us to extract certain sensitive information.”
After some quick math, she said, “Byron Senior was in office.” Given the president was one of their own, Olympus would already have access to sensitive information. “Why would you need information from the VP?”
“Chester Buford was a thorn in the side of the Byron family. He had his own aspirations to be in the top chair. We didn’t want that to happen… And like I said, we had to test our processes.”
“By ruining an innocent man?” she asked. “Buford resigned in disgrace.”
Everyone knew that. She hadn’t been born yet, but the footage of him leaving the White House aired every time Buford came up in the media. Still, her knowledge on the subject was hazy; limited to what most would know about a historical event.
“He wasn’t innocent,” he said, beginning his stroll back her way. “Merrill was one of his trusted advisors and ended up working in the VP’s Chief of Staff’s office… He had access to just about everything the VP did, and their families were social.”
“So this Merrill, Kaiya cultivated him, and then, what? Asked him for information?”
“That she received,” he said, stopping just a couple of feet away. “Buford did allow that information to be leaked. It came from Richard Merrill.”
She searched her memory for anything related to Chester Buford. “He was investigated for selling secrets to foreign governments.”
