I turn my monitor so he can see it. When I speak, my voice actually sounds normal. “These are the numbers from last night. Tink—and now you—are aware of them, but ultimately the books are my responsibility.” For now. I ignore the insidious little voice inside me and continue. “Most mornings, Tink and I meet to discuss the information the staff gathered the night before. We have files on all the major players in Carver City, and it’s in everyone’s best interest if we know as many of their dirty secrets as possible.”
“Who are the major players of Carver City?”
I might laugh if I didn’t want to strangle both him and Hades for putting me in this position. I’m not a goddamn kindergarten teacher, and I might resent it less without Hades’s clear hand of manipulation in all this. If he’d just talk to me, instead of forcing me to backflip through his hoops.
I pull out a laminated map that I keep in my locked desk drawer. It’s an archaic way to keep track of things, but Hades is old school and sometimes the lines shift enough that it’s actually useful. I unfold it and point. “This is Carver City.”
Hercules takes in the red lines I’ve painstakingly marked, finally focusing on the little square in the center. It’s only a couple of city blocks, but it represents safety in a way I don’t think he can comprehend. He points to it. “This is the Underworld.”
“Yes. Hades’s territory, but for all intents and purposes, it’s neutral territory for everyone else. They can visit the club without worrying about power plays and murder attempts, at least for the most part. These belong to others.” I touch each of the slice in turn. They were in varying sizes and shapes, marked out with blood and violence in some cases, with deals and threats in others. “You will see their leaders and generals in here at one time or another. I’ll get you copies of the files on them, but it’s important that you don’t do anything to fuck with their coming here. We can’t gather knowledge if it’s not given within this space. We don’t send our people into their territories. It has to happen in the Underworld, and it can’t if they’re not here. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
I don’t know that I trust him with this. He’s still so new, he practically shines. The fact that Hades wants him trained up under Tink would blow my mind if I let myself think about it too hard. Tink’s skills are hard-won, and she had most of them before she was put in the position to make a deal with Hades. Training her was just a matter of refining them a little and pointing her in the right direction. Hercules is another creature entirely. “That’s enough for now.”
He blinks those big blue eyes at me. “What?” He has the audacity to sound hurt, and I hate that I want to smooth his pain away at the expense of my own. He’s an adult, and his actions have consequences just like the rest of us.
“I’ll have someone drop off the files. Study them like your life depends on it. It might.” When he doesn’t immediately move, I dig my nails into my palms, striving to keep my growing emotional bullshit out of my voice. “Hercules. Please leave.”
He studies me for a long moment and finally nods. “I’ll fix this.”
I don’t ask what he means. In the end, it won’t matter. “Some things aren’t capable of being fixed. The faster you figure that out, the faster you’ll get ahead in life.”
Chapter Sixteen
Hercules
I’m half expecting Tink when someone knocks a little while after I return to my suite, but when I open the door, it’s a striking Black woman with a mass of braids piled on her head. She sweeps a look over me and shrugs. “You’re pretty, but I don’t think you’re pretty enough to be causing all this drama.”
“Thanks?”
“It wasn’t a compliment.” She shoves a laptop at me. “Don’t take this out of your room. The sensitive material on it can’t leave the property. I don’t think I have to tell you what will happen if you try something.”
Nothing good. So far, nothing about this situation has gone like I expected, but I don’t think for a second that Hades would allow me to pass on privileged information without recourse. I don’t know what kind of recourse, but it doesn’t matter. I have no intention of sharing it. Even if I did, I have no one to share it with. “I’ll keep it in my room.”
“Glad we got that sorted.” She points at herself. “Allecto. I run security. You have any problems, you come to me or one of my people. You become a problem, I deal with you. Got it?”
“Got it,” I say faintly. Tink had mentioned security, but because I wasn’t currently allowed into the back rooms of the club where the intense play went on, I had put it from my mind until later. It was enough to know that Hades protects his people.
“Then we shouldn’t have any issues.” She frowned at me. “Don’t know what he was thinking bringing you in.” She shook her head and walked away.
I step back into my suite and close the door. Allecto’s thoughts aren’t anything that haven’t been echoed back to me by multiple people since I arrived here. I get it. I don’t fit in. I have to be trained from the ground up in a way that none of the other employees seem to require. It didn’t make sense before, the reason why Hades would drag me into a lifetime deal. Now that I have some distance—now that I know it’s because of Zeus—I understand it a whole lot better.
Seems fitting that I should suffer for the sins of my father. Seems almost like penance after how things fell out with Leda. I couldn’t save her, couldn’t stand up to him no matter how hard I tried. If there were others…
I stalk to the couch and drop the laptop there. Of course there were others. My father has hardly been a paragon of virtue, only to break character with Leda. There were others. There must have been.
Thirty years ago, one of the victims of my father’s sadistic nature was apparently Hades’s son.
I wish I knew more. What happened in that situation. What happened in the wake of it. Did Zeus kill him? The thought makes me sick to my stomach. I wish I could rule out my father being a murderer, but he’s a rapist and has no problem committing assault. Why not murder as well? Would knowing the truth even matter? As Hades said, it happened before I was even born. It has nothing to do with me.
Until now.
Then there’s Meg. It’s obvious Hades didn’t tell her his reasoning or his plans, and the fact that I knew even part of it hurt her. She covered her reaction up quickly, but I saw it all the same. I had assumptions about those two when I first came here and now, less than forty-eight hours in, I’m having to question all of them. They present a united front, but the closer I get, the more the cracks in their relationship start looking like canyons. It’s none of my business. I should know by now to stay out of shit that doesn’t concern me.
But when I stood between them, things felt more stable, like I was fixing something broken. It might be all in my head, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something there beneath the games and bullshit and plotting. Or there could be if we gave it a chance. Maybe. I don’t have answers now, and I likely won’t anytime soon, not with Meg and Hades’s respective walls built sky-high. Tormenting myself by playing what-if is a recipe for disaster.