Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Hades
Days had crawled by since the funeral, each one heavier than the last. Indie had spilled everything to Diana and Aspen. Every goddamn detail. Every nightmare. Every violation. It was one more fucking reason for Zeus to hate her, one more weight on the scale tipping toward violence.
Diana wanted to tell her mother. Needed to, maybe.
But Zeus had convinced her to wait, his voice low and commanding, the kind of tone that brooked no argument.
It caused a rift between the twins, a fracture I could see widening every time they were in the same room.
The air between them crackled with unspoken accusations and hurt.
Bane backed his brother-in-law. Said that until we confirmed what Indie and Karlyn accused Kronos of, or had solid proof to deny it, there was no fucking reason to tear out Rhea’s heart. The words made sense. Cold, calculated sense.
Though Bane made it abundantly clear he believed Indie’s accusation. The conviction in his voice left no room for doubt. And there was no fucking way I’d admit it out loud, but I believed her too. Every word. Every horrific detail. The truth sat in my gut like a stone, heavy and undeniable.
They all left a few days after the funeral.
Diana wanted Rhea to leave with them, practically begged her.
But she refused. Her place was here, even without her husband.
Even with the ghost of him haunting every corner of this goddamn town.
She wasn’t the same woman anymore. Grief changed people at their core, hollowed them out and filled the empty spaces with something darker.
Rhea didn’t smile anymore. Not even when Zeus told her about his son. The news that should have brought joy just slid off her like water off glass. Nothing penetrated the wall she’d built around herself.
Reggie was pissed at me for telling Zeus about Gus. Furious, actually. Her eyes had blazed when she cornered me outside the clubhouse. My only retort was that if I’d known he’d fucked her, I would have told him years ago. The truth, plain and simple.
Reggie left town not long after Aspen got married and moved to Arizona with her husband and the Death Dogs.
No one thought much of it. People left Athens all the time, seeking something better, something different.
Even when she came back a year later with a baby, we all assumed she’d met someone while she was gone.
Some faceless man who’d knocked her up and disappeared.
Zeus immediately contacted a lawyer. I tried to stop him, tried to make him see reason.
Told him he was making a mistake by not just talking to Reggie first. But Zeus was stubborn, like his father.
Bullheaded and convinced his way was the only way.
He led with his fists instead of his head, thinking he could bulldoze through a problem and make it disappear.
He was only making things worse. Digging the hole deeper with every aggressive move.
“I want my fucking son!” He slammed his hand on the table, and the lawyer jumped. The sound cracked through the office like a gunshot. Papers scattered. Coffee sloshed in cups.
“Mr. Cooper, these things take time. We have to petition the judge to grant a DNA test. Once we prove the boy is yours, then we can file the necessary paperwork to obtain visitation.”
“I don’t want every other fucking weekend. I want my son in my home. I’ve already missed four fucking years of his life.” Zeus’ voice was raw, scraped clean of everything but rage and pain. The kind of pain that made men do stupid shit.
“Mr. Cooper, it’s highly unlikely a judge will grant you full custody. You’d have to prove his mother is unfit.”
“She fucking kept him from me. How much more unfit can you get?”
“Zeus,” I warned. My voice cut through his fury, sharp and commanding.
“Miss Brooks is a respected, certified nurse-midwife. She has a stable job, a stable home, and an income to support herself and her son. Unless you can prove the child is in danger, visitation is all you’ll get.”
“Then maybe she should lose her fucking job.”
“Zeus, shut the fuck up,” I growled. The words came out harsher than I intended, but goddamn, he needed to hear them.
“I’ll remind you again, Mr. Cooper, that privilege applies to crimes in the past. Not something you confess to doing in the future.”
“I didn’t confess shit. People lose their jobs all the time.” Zeus’ jaw clenched, the muscle jumping beneath his skin. His hands fisted on the table, knuckles white.
I rubbed my hand over my face and groaned. The lawyer stood and gathered the paperwork Zeus had signed, his movements quick and efficient. Professional. “I’ll file this petition and let you know when we have a court date.”
When the door closed, I glared at my best friend. “You’re making a big fucking mistake, brother.”
“He’s my son, Hades.” The words came out quiet. Broken. The kind of quiet that preceded violence.
“I understand. Had I known, I would’ve told you sooner. But, brother, this isn’t the right way to go about it.”
“I want my kid.”
A knock on Zeus’ office door cut off my response. Coeus walked in, laptop tucked under his arm, that gleam in his eye that said he’d found something. “I have something.”
“About Reggie?” Zeus asked, leaning forward. Hope and desperation mixed in his voice.
Coeus looked from Zeus to me and back again. “I didn’t know I was looking for anything on Reggie.”
“Then what the fuck are you in here for?”
“Brother, sit the fuck down. Jesus Christ,” I cursed. The frustration bled through every word. Turning to Coeus, I asked, “What did you find?”
“Before the funeral home cremated Harlan, I had the M.E. run more bloodwork.”
“For what?” My gut clenched. That familiar feeling that said we were about to step into something dark.
“For anything outside standard protocol.”
I glanced over at Zeus, who was only half listening. I could see the gears in his head working, grinding away at whatever the bastard was plotting. Whatever scheme he was cooking up wouldn’t help his case for meeting his son. It would only make things worse.
“What did they find?”
“Wolfsbane,” Coeus said, a glimmer in his eye. Excitement. The kind that came from solving a puzzle.
“What the fuck is wolfsbane?”
Coeus set his laptop on the table and spun it around. On the screen was a picture of purple flowers.
“Wolfsbane, also known as monkshood, is a highly toxic flowering plant. Every part of it is deadly. In fact,” Coeus explained, his voice taking on that professor tone he got when he was excited about something, “just handling the plant without gloves can lead to toxicity.”
“Okay, so what does it do?”
“A variety of things. Vomiting, diarrhea, paralysis...” He paused for dramatic effect. He always did that shit when he got excited about learning something new. The anticipation practically vibrated off him.
“And?” Zeus prompted, letting his impatience show. His fingers drummed against the table.
“Severe heart arrhythmias.”
“Fucking heart attack,” I said. The pieces clicked together in my head. The pattern emerging from the chaos.
“A fucking heart attack,” Coeus repeated, glee oozing from his words. He was practically bouncing in his seat.
“So how did it get into his system?” Zeus asked, leaning forward now, finally paying attention. “And who would want to kill him?”
“That, I haven’t figured out yet. I also don’t know if the others had it in their systems because the bloodwork protocol doesn’t look for poisons.”
“What the fuck do they look for?” I asked.
“Alcohol, drugs, medications, genetic factors, metabolic changes.”
I held my hand up to stop his list of shit I didn’t understand, nor did I care to. “You’d think they’d look for this when someone so young dies of a fucking heart attack.”
“Horses, not zebras,” he said.
Zeus and I looked at each other, then at Coeus. “What the fuck?” I asked.
“It’s what they teach in medical school. When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Zeus asked, his patience wearing thin. The confusion on his face would have been funny if the situation wasn’t so goddamn serious.
Coeus blew out a frustrated breath. “It means horses are more common. When you’re in your house and hear hoofbeats, you’re not going to look outside and see a zebra.”
I stared at the kid. He was one of the younger officers. Smart as hell, but he didn’t make any fucking sense most of the time. His brain worked in ways mine didn’t, connecting dots I couldn’t even see.
“Explain,” Zeus growled, growing more impatient by the minute. The tension in his shoulders screamed violence.
“It means the most likely scenario is the one you’ll find, so don’t waste time looking for something else.”
“No wonder our medical system is so fucked up. Doctors don’t want to take the time to find out what’s really wrong with someone if they can fit the symptoms inside a neat little box and wrap it up with a pretty fucking bow.”
And it wasn’t just the medical system. The cops didn’t investigate shit anymore, either.
They found the person they wanted to pin the crime on and made sure the evidence pointed to him.
If something showed up that debunked their theory, they simply threw it away or buried it. Convenient. Efficient. Corrupt as fuck.
All they cared about was putting someone behind bars. Didn’t matter if they were actually guilty as long as they looked good and closed the case. As long as the numbers added up and the public felt safe.
“Okay, so we know Harlen was murdered,” I started.
“Do we?” Zeus asked.
I stared at my best friend. This shit with Reggie and his son, Gus, had him distracted as hell. His brain was somewhere else entirely.
“You think he ate that shit on his own?” I asked.
“Who the hell knows? The guy was a fucking idiot.”
“Touché,” I said with a grin, because Zeus was right. Harlan Troy was a fucking moron. The kind of stupid that made you wonder how he’d survived as long as he did. “So assuming he didn’t eat that shit himself, who would want to kill him?”