I shake my head no on instinct, but I’m trying to think back, did she? “Not that I can remember.”
Dante pulls me in close, and Ares is stomping around the hotel room like the floor personally offended him. He stalks over to the sofa and I sink into Dante. I’m unfamiliar with this side of Ares, he’s angry and maybe even a little volatile. The lights in the room dim, casting long shadows on the carpet.
Ares drops back onto the couch and opens the laptop. The left corner is a mess of black spider webs when the welcome screen pops up. “Shit,” he curses, and it looks like someone dripped paint behind the glass, but most of the screen is still visible. He enters his password quickly. Moving his fingers on the trackpad, he highlights one of the lower icons.
It pulls up another login screen. He pounds the keyboard harder than necessary. Once his information is accepted, he hits a pull-down menu with a tiny magnifying glass. He types the name Leon into the search bar before hitting enter.
Several items pop up, all with the name Leon, and he scrolls down quickly, only glancing at the information beside each name. “This is ridiculous; there are one hundred seventy-two Leons. It will take me days to run these down. By that time, they’ll be here.”
Taking a chance, I reach out and place my hand on his shoulder. Ares flinches, but relaxes under my touch. His head falls forward into his hands. “Now we have something to go on, it sounds like your mom might give us some answers.” I hope he sees that as a good thing.
Ares turns his head, looking at me. “It also means my mom might have something to do with why you’ve been living out of a fucking RV your entire life.” He says the words like they taste bad in his mouth, like he couldn’t think of a worse fate than that. I take my hand back, feeling hurt for some reason.
If Ares sees the hurt splash across my face, he ignores it, instead choosing to pace again. Even without any pants, he’s still intimidating. Coming to an abrupt halt, Ares digs his phone out of his front pocket. Putting it to his ear after hitting one button he says, “Hey, doll, I need your help.” He looks at me, but quickly averts his gaze. “Yeah, I need you to perform your magic.” I listen to the one-sided conversation, growing angrier by the second. There’s not a hint of anger or frustration in his tone. In fact, he sounds flirty. I would bet my last hundred dollars that I know who’s on the other line.
“I want you to log in to the Infinity database—yeah, you know all my information. I’m looking for someone specific, but I can’t remember his last name.” Dante tangles his fingers with mine.
“Right, so the name is Leon.” He pauses and listens. “Yeah, I know there’s a lot of them, but that’s why I’m asking you. You’re the best at getting me what I need.” I bristle, because he doesn’t even have the decency to leave the room. I know exactly what he’s doing: he’s using her to get what he wants. But it still infuriates me to hear him talk to someone like that, to use that teasing voice.
“You can rule out anyone under thirty—no, make that twenty-five. Give me any information that’s listed on their pairs, whether they have them and their names.” Ares turns his back to me, he lets out a low chuckle and adds, “You’re the best… anytime.”
I dig my nails into my palm, well past angry and into the furious zone. Dante drops his head to my shoulder, his hand still in mine, but he’s no longer trying to distract me. He knows Ares went too far. We all do.
Ares puts his phone back in his pocket, and he still hasn’t turned to face me, but I don’t think I even want him to. He’ll look at me with those dark pleading eyes, and I’ll feel like I’m overreacting—that what he did wasn’t so bad and that I should just let it go.
“We’ll see if anything comes up in the next few hours.” I don’t say a word to acknowledge Ares. After a few more seconds of him stalling, he eventually turns around. It’s not like there’s much else for him to do, we’re stuck in this room that I thought was huge a little while ago, only to discover it is truly small.
Ares doesn’t take the seat next to me, he doesn’t sit at all, but instead he busies himself by looking over the laptop, like it’s even a concern. He could probably buy two a day. “Are you going to pretend that didn’t happen?” I question him when I can’t hold it in any longer.
“What?” His tone is already defensive.
“So, I see you are.”
“I needed something done, she’s my employee. I asked her to do it.” Ares crosses his arms over his chest looking down at me. I, however, don’t feel the slightest bit intimidated by him.
“You call all your employees ‘doll’?” I tilt my head to the side like it’s a real question. Ares opens his mouth like he might respond, but I cut him off. “You realize that’s sexual harassment, right?”
Ares's face darkens. “We’ve been working together for years, she wouldn’t claim sexual harassment,” he scoffs.
“Oh, is that how you always address her? Or is it just when you’re using her for something you need?” I make finger quotations around the word need. “And what a list I’m sure she’s accumulated over the years.”
“Are you actually pissed about this?”
“Oh, I’m more than pissed about it. You think it’s okay to treat people like that, especially someone you act like you care about? That’s a bunch of shit. If it’s something she’s paid to do, you ask her professionally. Not like that.” I wave my hand, getting madder and madder.
He opens his mouth again, but I keep going. “You’re using her, there isn’t anything about it that is okay.” I stand up, pushing into his space. There’s no way I’m backing down. If he’s willing to talk to her like that with me standing right here, what else is he willing to do to get what he wants?
Ares throws his hands up in the air. “You’re right. I knew exactly what I was doing, and exactly what to say to get her to do what I wanted. I will not apologize for it, because it would be a lie. If using her helps me protect us, then I’ll do it every time.”
“Where do you draw the line, and at what point will it be too much?” I’m yelling now, leaning closer to Ares.
“Never.” He tips his chin up. “Think about that, Laura. I’m not some superhero, nor do I have any illusion I’m the white knight. I’m the one who does the dirty work. The one who will always put our family first. If it takes me hurting someone else to do it,” Ares shrugs, both his jaw and eyes hard, “then so be it.”
I take a step back. “At what cost, Ares? We could have sat here all afternoon and gotten that information. She doesn’t have magic powers that make her better with a computer—not that I’m aware of, anyway,” I scoff.
“Laura,” I look down at Dante, his eyes are still a little droopy. “He knows where to draw the line, Ares would never do anything to risk you, and what you mean to us.” How could he know what I’m thinking? I thought I had every confidence in Ares after we bonded, but apparently that’s not true because hearing him talk to Mia like that brought back a wave of insecurities.
“Says the guy who kissed another girl a few days ago,” I snap. I’m being defensive, and I know it. Dante lowers his head, my razor tongue succeeded in shaming him into silence.