Chapter 16 Donovan
Aurora & Ash was one of Sanctum’s favorite places to take guests, I knew this because Mercy and her wife had taken a select few of us there on occasion.
It was owned by some billionaire company as a hidden wonder of the city, the type of place paparazzi weren’t around, and you had at least ten escape routes at any one time.
I wished I’d been here as a customer instead, I bet I could’ve caught myself a whale of a client to work for.
I complained about grunt shit like protection detail when it was for someone I knew was being funded—I’d heard a lot about Maya’s story, so I knew she wasn’t a trust fund brat, but maybe it was Artemis’s energy mixing in with her—the real bad influence.
Having lunch among all these affluent people was almost sending threat signals out.
Maya sat and ordered pasta and a very expensive wine.
Guards like us were supposed to blend in, and right now, we were sitting at the table, refusing glasses of wine.
Almost everyone around us had a protection detail to them, standing out of view beside one of the Grecian statues dotted around the outer rim where the central light didn’t hit, but spotlights cast deep orange glows on all the focal pieces around the room—making it easier for someone like me to hide within the shadows even to someone staring right at me.
“We’re fine, here, right?” Artemis asked.
“As long as you don’t touch a drop of alcohol, we’ll be fine,” I told him.
Although the real answer was that we couldn’t trust a single soul here—outside of Sanctum—purely from a no weapons perspective.
You could never trust anyone more than yourself.
“I want you to scan the room, without making it obvious, and count how many hidden people there are.”
“Hidden people?” he grumbled, leaning in.
“You know what,” Maya said with a giggle. We were probably the loudest table. “I think since we’ve got an open tab, we all get something extravagant. I’m thinking fajitas, they bring it out on a hot stone that keeps it warm and just sizzling.”
I nodded and smiled, I had to get control—but I saw her plan.
“Good idea.” Trying to bait the Ashford family out in public.
Her file was interesting, this wasn’t the first time she’d done something to get their attention, she’d vandalized many of their vehicles—she was never officially caught or charged for it.
“People are so quiet in here,” Artemis said.
Maya laughed. “What do you say we get some attention?”
I stood, knowing I was a looming force. “Let’s not do that here,” I said.
“I’m sorry,” Jinksy came through my comms. “I should’ve checked out who else was there. I’ve got their book open. Sienna Ashford has their private business suite booked.”
“Did you know?” I asked her.
She shrugged, grabbing her glass of wine. “Did I know what?” Her voice louder, people were staring. And I thought Artemis was bad—he’d never been this bad when it meant something. He even looked up at me, his big eyes as if he was in disbelief over what was going on. Maya had to have known.
“There’s—” I began quietly, sitting down. “Sienna is upstairs in their business suite.”
Sinking back the glass of wine, she planted it on the table. “Ugh, I don’t want to deal with that,” she said. “Should we get food to go?”
I stared at her, it wasn’t directly at her as my eyes unfocused slightly to think about what had happened. “You didn’t know?”
“No, are you kidding me?” She was already grabbing at her beige beat-up Birkin. “I wanted their attention, but I can’t—I don’t—we need to leave.”
It was all rushed, I didn’t know what to believe about any of it. We were show and tell to her, and I was fine with being used, but I liked to know in advance the goal.
Once we were in the car, Artemis, who’d been quiet, turned to Maya and asked. “Do you want them to know you’re protected?” he asked. “You had to have known something, you were, a bit loud and all.”
She laughed to herself, rummaging through her bag and pulling out a phone. “The plan is to show the Ashford’s I’m protected, yes, but I don’t want to engage with them. It could complicate the investigation.”
“The FBI are heading to the hotel now for file cataloguing and collection,” Jinksy said.
“We’re heading back to the hotel anyway,” I told her, glancing at her in the rear view. “In future, if you could fill us in on what you’re going to do, we can be better prepared.”
“Yeah, I just go a text. My friend is arriving at the hotel.”
* * *
We were set there to be glorified statues. Standing across from each other outside the bedroom we’d fucked in. Artemis struggled to stand still for so long, complaining about his ass—thighs—calves, everywhere I’d been able to grab at last night.
There were three people in those FBI windbreakers that turned up. A woman and two men. I didn’t know what they were doing or even looking for, since there were a lot of files, and I didn’t want to comprehend that was filled with hellish scenarios more vicious than the ones we’d heard about earlier.
“What do you think justice looks like here?” I asked Artemis.
“Like what do I think will happen, or what to do I want to happen?” he countered, trying his best not to rest on the wall with all it’s geometrical designed ridges.
“Both,” I said. “I want to know what you see is going to happen, and then what you would do.”
His jaw visibly tensed, turning away from me. “Interrogation,” he said. “I want to know who they hire, or how they get people in here and treat them as slaves. Then kill them, or the better sense would be to have them rot in jail and pay a whole bunch of money out.”
“What Reaper told you about one head, it’s true. You took down the head of an organization. You—actually made me feel proud when I saw it. Like, pretending to myself I was the reason you were able to get that good shot,” I said. We were far passed honesty time, now, we were being brutally truthful.
“I was actually thinking, what would Daddy do?”
“And, what would I do?”
He gulped hard and turned to me. “Make sure their a paycheck at the end of it.”
I laughed so hard the FBI agents in the room came out to check on us. It was fun to feel like we could joke about stuff now, again, without either of us kicking up a fuss—which all stemmed from being severely underfucked. Getting laid did wonders to us—even if I knew this wasn’t the life for him.
“There is a paycheck,” I said, restarting the conversation up afterwards.
“Yeah, I just want to see Mercy’s list,” he said. “I heard there’s someone on there with a fifty-million dollar bounty on his head.”
I kept my laughter down this time. “There was once,” I told him. “There hasn’t been anyone that high on it.”
“What happened to him?” he asked.
“He had billions on a crypto wallet, apparently it was stolen, or they needed his pin since it was a cold wallet,” I said to his questioning gaze. “That’s when your crypto wallet isn’t connected to the internet. Nobody can steal it.”
“Right, so they killed an innocent guy then?”
“Let me finish,” I said.
He giggled. “You’ve never said that before, you just do.”
“Funny, so you want to know about Mercy’s list, or not?”
“I do, I do.” He pouted, now looking like he was doting on me. He was so tired behind those eyes. After all that training, the one thing to take him down is an active social life. “So, what happened?”
“He wasn’t killed,” he said. “He came forward, and Sanctum protected him. Which is wild since nobody actually got the bounty. I think whoever placed it must’ve been smaller business since Mercy is loyal.”
“Are you guys taking about Theodore Cortland?”
“Yes,” I answered to him.
Artemis wavered, ultimately resting on the protruding shapes on the wall. “I think I need a chair,” he said.
“Theodore now works at Whitespire in their technological innovations,” he added.
I knew Whitespire ever being mentioned sent shivers through Artemis. Something must’ve happened there for him to hate it so much, to the point he was shivering and taking some measured squats just to the point he was sitting on his ass—it was perfectly cushioned.
“I think we need to take a break,” I told Jinksy—and Artemis.
“You haven’t eaten much today.” He’d been so giddy about getting the bad guys, he’d forgotten the most essential thing—breakfast, and now lunch.
“I’ll order room service.” I knocked on the bedroom door for an FBI agent.
It was only nice to offer billionaire expensed room service.
* * *
The hotel room came with it’s own dining area.
It was nicer than Aurora & Ash, but maybe that was because I wasn’t focused on all the men in the room—to which Artemis didn’t answer.
I should’ve known something was up—he’d been quiet, submissive, and hadn’t eaten.
This was taking a lot out of him, and I should’ve pulled it there and then—hand it over to someone else.
He wasn’t ready for this. I knew Artemis well, although probably not the new Artemis, I knew him, and I knew when he wasn’t doing well.
Six of us at the table. A large selection of food from the menu in large bowls with tongs. It cheapened the expensive feel to the hotel. This buffet style meal, and most of it was deep fried—Maya’s choice, she was also still drinking wine.
“In pain?” I asked Artemis, he stabbed at fries on the plate.
“I just—” he let out in a gasp. “It’s fucked up.” I leaned in to listen. “We’re all just doing nothing, we’re running around and we’re not stopping anything.”
Patting his back and giving it a rub. Nobody was paying attention to us. We were just there, on one side of the table with our whispers.
“Mercy wants to know if Artemis would like a infusion to pick him up,” Jinksy said.
“No,” I said for him. “He’s just going through something. You should take a nap.”
He nodded weakly, stabbing his fork into the fry finally but then losing it with a dip into the ketchup. “I need to keep it together,” he whispered. “My head is—”
“I get it,” I said, giving him some assuring squeezes.
We weren’t the Artemis and Donovan of the past, we were something else right now.
Not quite a couple, but still with all the heart and love a coupe could have between them.
I loved him, and I didn’t want to see him sick—or suffering.
Standing from the table, the chair squawked.
“Artemis needs to rest. I’ll stay. But he needs a bed. ”
Maya stood, wine sloshing around in her glass. “He can nap in my room until my friends are done with their work.” She gestured over them with her hands, as they all seemed to dip and dive beside each other to keep the wine from hitting them. “And I know you’ll keep me safe in the meantime.”
Artemis’s eyes were rolling around—not rolling with sass, but he was fully disassociating.
I thanked Maya and took him to her room.
Her bed was more comfortable than the other, and as soon as Artemis’s face touched the silk pillow, he was asleep.
I pulled his comms from his ear and placed it on the nightstand.
“Artemis is sleeping,” I told Jinksy. “What else did Mercy want me to do?”
“Mercy wants you to stay on post, make sure Maya isn’t telling any secrets, and the moment she mentions her benefactor by name, then we can worry,” he said.
“So, you know who it is?”
“I know what I’m allowed to know,” he said. “Come on, Donovan. You know the rodeo. Protect the asset, that means making sure they’re not blabbing to the FBI right now. Her friends.”
She called everyone her friend, and would spill her guts to them. She guarded the secret of her benefactor, but with just the right amount of wine, that could be dangerous.
Walking back into the dining room, one of the agents was filling her glass with more wine. “You should really take a water break,” I told her.
“No way,” she laughed.
“Come on, there’s probably enough wine in your body—”
“Are you policing a woman’s body?” she said almost immediately.
“Absolutely not, Ms. Chen,” I said, lowering my head like we were in the animal kingdom and I needed an escape route from the conversation.
“I was joking,” she said as the agents chuckled. “I know, today has been a bit of a wild day, but tomorrow is going to be—”
I shook my head, I didn’t want her to say it. “Worse?”
The agents went quiet. Maya perked up on a shoulder, now spilling wine for her arm. “Well, there is the meeting tomorrow, so maybe.” She laughed so hard, the wine had covered most of her plates and dishes on her side of the table.
In was in the file, the meeting, the reason she didn’t want to be seen by any Ashford’s today. “What’s the meeting about?”
“Classified,” she said.
“Well, I think you should perhaps drink some water, and think about taking a nap,” I said.
She giggled. “Ok, dad, sending the kids to go nap. You know, my benefactor didn’t tell me anything about these restrictions. They were very clear, I could get drunk. Wasted. As long as it was somewhere private.
I stared at all four of them. It was my turn to tell these people what to do.
Maya’s head was probably worse than Artemis’s, she’s seen the pits.
My shoulder sent a shimmy shiver down both arms. “You three. Finish working. Maya. Bed. It’s big enough for five people, I hope you don’t mind Artemis in there. ”
One of the agents perked up. “We’re actually waiting on a vehicle to arrive so we can load the boxes.”
“Ok, good, well, go wait with the boxes. I have my orders too. And I don’t know how I rank among FBI agents, but I’m probably being paid more, so I win,” I said.
And they followed my orders. Maya tried to take a bottle of wine with her, but I was quick to take it away.
She needed these drunken times to unthink everything she knows—but she knew a lot—more than the FBI could know apparently.
I needed to know.