Chapter 25
HARLOW
"Idon't know about this," I said, trying to focus on making ravioli. Shame there were no bits of Hypnos in it.
"It'll be fine, trust me," Boner said. "Take a deep breath. You know what you have to do."
"Right." I fed more pasta through the pasta machine, flattening it out into a long sheet.
A message pinged on Cass' phone. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced at it.
"Jules said they're both heading this way."
I swallowed hard.
"They have some balls, I have to give them that," Boner said. "Or what is it? Cast iron ovaries?"
I managed a short, nervous laugh. "One or the other." I knew Shelly had the first, but that was none of my business.
"Play it cool," he said as the back door opened and someone stepped inside.
I turned in time to see Shelly, her bag over her shoulder.
"Morning, Chef," she called out cheerfully.
"Morning," I replied as if nothing was amiss.
"Everyone seemed to have fun last night," she said, stopping by the kitchen door.
Fun? That was one word for it. I'd almost forgotten we had the dinner the night before.
"Yeah, we should do it again sometime," I said.
With a different ending next time.
She grinned. "I'm here for it. They were all tipping like they'd never tipped before."
"That's great," I said sincerely. If that was the case, and she was innocent, I'd happily hold another dinner. Once Zeus was dead.
She headed off to the office to put down her things and fix her uniform.
"One down, one to go," Archer said softly.
I hummed my agreement. What was I going to do if Yvette seemed just as innocent?
I stepped away from the pasta maker, over to the doorway as Yvette stepped through.
She looked surprised to see me. Her face paled. She turned to run.
"Bingo," Boner called out.
We all bolted after her.
I was barely out the back door when she ran into Jules as he stepped into the alley. He grabbed hold of her, whipped her around and held her arms behind her back.
"Looks like we have ourselves a guilty party," Boner said, stepping over to her.
She lifted her chin in defiance. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Innocent people don't run off like that," I pointed out. "You look like you saw a ghost."
She curled her lip at me before she could stop herself.
"Why did you do it?" I asked.
"I know who you are," she said, making no effort to keep her voice down. "You're a murderer." She spat in the direction of my shoes.
Lucky she missed. These were my only spare pair.
"Harlow could have died." Jules twisted her arms a little more.
She bit back a cry of pain. "That was the idea."
"Why?" Cass demanded. "Why would you want her dead?"
"Because she wanted to kill my father," Yvette snarled.
I stared at her for a moment.
"Hypnos was your father."
She had the same eyes as him. The same hair color. Different enough that I didn't pick on the resemblance until now. Seeing her in front of me? It should have been obvious.
It took a moment for my words to sink in. When they did, she sagged. Just a little, because Jules held her upright.
"Was?" she whispered.
"You haven't heard?" Boner asked happily. "He had an unfortunate run-in with some sharp objects. After he tried to turn my woman into soup." His tone and expression became dangerous.
Her gaze snapped to him. "He wouldn't do that. He was trying to save himself from her. Because she's coming after him and people like him for no reason." She didn't look so sure.
"He was right, I was going after him," I said evenly. "But not for no reason."
In as few words as possible, because we were standing in public, I explained why I'd hunted them down. Why I'd killed them.
By the time I was finished, tears trickled down her cheeks.
"He wouldn't do that," she whispered again.
"He did do that," Jules snapped.
She whimpered. "I'm sorry, I had no idea. If I did, I would have—"
Jules must have loosened his grip, because she jerked herself away and turned around to take a swing at him. He caught her fist with his hand right before it hit him in the jaw.
"Not this time," he said. The last time anyone tried to punch him, he ended up with some impressive bruises. "What are we going to do with her?"
I considered for a moment. If we let her go, she could well run off to Zeus. If we didn't, it meant killing her. I didn't like killing women, but what choice did I have?
"Ravioli," Boner suggested.
"You wouldn't." Yvette tried to jerk away from Jules, but his grip on her hand was too tight.
"Yeah, we would," Boner said, grinning.
"No we won’t," I said finally. "We're going to have to put her away somewhere while we deal with Zeus."
She hadn't harmed me, but she was complicit.
Part of me wanted to let her go, but I didn't dare.
If I turned my back on her, she might drive a knife into it.
That was a risk I couldn't take, not with myself and not with any of my men either.
Archer would have pointed out the saying, ‘The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.’ If that was the case here, we needed to treat her like her father treated me.
"I’m not going to do anything to you," Yvette said, pleading. "Let me go and you never have to see me again." She blinked more tears out of her eyes.
"Unfortunately, I hold a grudge," I said. "You knew what he wanted to do with me, and you helped make it happen. That makes you the enemy in my book."
She sniffed. "Please, I promise I won’t…"
I ignored her. "Jules, can you bring her inside?"
He nodded and started to let go of her hand.
She took that moment to jerk away from him and make a run for it. She darted toward the end of the alley and out onto the street, straight into the path of a yellow taxi.
Tires squealed. The driver tried to avoid her, but the vehicle slammed right into her, throwing her body up into the air before it came back down to the road with a crunch that made me wince.
"Or that could happen," Boner said.
"Yeah." That took care of that problem.
As if I was in a dream, I watched the driver climb out of the car and step over to check on her. I couldn't hear him but I read his lips when he mouthed, "She's dead."
"I guess I'm going to need to find a new server," I said with a sigh.
After I found Zeus and ended him.