Chapter Eighty-Four
Helios
Haven wanted a fucking funeral. Graveside.
Ghost and Ares, those fucking pussies, hadn’t said shit. Neither had I.
Ghost was getting the bodies shipped stateside. Ares was handling the funeral and cemetery arrangements, and Haven picked fucking flowers. Or told Ares what she wanted. Lillies. Same shit her mom had at her graveside funeral, apparently.
I sat back and watched the whole thing like I wasn’t goddamn pissed off about it.
Bullshit for bullshit people who should’ve been left to rot in Costa Rica. But three grown-ass men weren’t gonna deny the wishes of the woman sitting beside us.
Ten minutes later, we had a tentative date pending arrangements, a plan to meet at the cemetery, and Haven and I went to change, separately. Which might have pissed me off more than the fucking funeral bullshit. Then we ate dinner.
Now I was here.
Standing by the front door, making it real fucking obvious it was time for these motherfuckers to leave.
Reading the room but strolling over like he had all the time in the world, that motherfucker Ghost followed my lead. Eyes on his woman, he flanked me. Then the prick threatened me. “You ever ditch, crash, or bail out of a plane with Feralyn again, I’ll kill you.”
I turned and leveled the asshole with a glare. “Let’s get one fucking thing straight. You’re only breathing because Haven asked me not to fucking end you.”
“Then we understand each other.”
“You know what I goddamn understand? Feralyn lost eight years of her life because of you.”
The fucking prick threw me a calm-as-shit glance. “It could’ve been your operator status that put Feralyn in the crosshairs. Or Ares’s. We both knew the risks when we became Tier Ones. All of us had bounties on our heads.”
He wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t make him fucking right. “But it wasn’t us.”
He scanned the room, then glanced toward Ares and the women as they finished the last of the dishes before looking back at me.
“Understood, but the point still stands. It could’ve been you.
Then this conversation would be reversed.
It’d also end with two rounds between your eyes because, unlike you, I don’t tolerate liabilities. ”
This motherfucker. “You asking to get dead?”
“Feel free to try.” He looked back toward the kitchen and nodded at his woman. “But I suggest you have your affairs in order before you do.” The motherfucker aimed a calculated smile my way, then raised his voice enough to be heard across the damn room. “Glad we cleared the air.”
Trained to his cues, his woman walked up to his side. Polite to a fault, she looked at me with sympathy. “Thank you for the hospitality, Helios. My condolences for your loss.”
I didn’t remind her that she’d brought, cooked, and served the food, then cleaned up. Also didn’t tell her that I didn’t give a single fuck about a woman who’d never given a shit about her sons. With stellar fucking restraint, I tipped my chin.
Still with that bullshit congeniality pretense, Ghost glanced back toward the kitchen. “Feralyn, Ares, good night. We’ll see you all next week.” The motherfucker nodded at me. “Helios.” Then they were out the front door.
Two down, one to go.
I looked back toward the kitchen in time to see Haven hug Ares. Again.
I raised my voice. “Time to fucking go, Ares.”
He said something to Haven I couldn’t hear. Whatever the fuck it was, it made her turn her back on him and start wiping the fucking counters.
Ares came at me, one hand in his pocket.
“What the fuck did you say to her?” I demanded.
“I asked her to give us a minute.” He pulled out a small, folded piece of paper and handed it to me.
Taking the damn thing, I glanced at it. Nine numbers. Training, habit, I memorized them, then handed the paper back. “What the fuck is this?”
“The new code for your security system on the island. All the damage is fixed. Trace evidence handled.”
“I changed the security code when I left.”
“I know.”
And he’d fucking hacked it. “Is this the part where you expect me to fucking thank you?” He’d dragged his feet leaving the marina to get back to the island in the first place. Minutes would’ve made a difference with that fucking shit show at the house. And goddamn it, he’d fucking hacked my shit.
“I’m not expecting anything except for you to treat Feralyn right.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
Truce. Ares-style.
Manning up, I took it. “Already do, but for the record, message received.”
“Good.” Ares aimed for the door.
“Nix called me this week. He has a new assignment.” I’d turned it down because I was taking time for me and Haven right now.
“I know.” Ares glanced over his shoulder. “You declined.”
The second I saw his face, I knew he was taking the assignment, and guilt hit. “It’s a risky fucking job.” He’d be safer if I had his six. Since Ares had joined Paragon Ops, we’d done assignments together.
“Life is risky.”
Fuck me. The way he said it, the shit he wasn’t fucking saying, something was up. “Tell Nix you’re pushing out the timeline on this one.” This assignment could fucking wait. “I’m taking some time off. Do the same. Then we’ll handle that shit together.”
“This day was always going to come.”
“What fucking day?” I knew what the hell he meant, but I wanted to hear his version of reality because with Ares, I never fucking knew anymore.
“You and I not working together.”
“Yeah, because we fucking retire at the same time.” We both had enough money.
Fucker evaded every damn thing I’d said and tipped his chin toward the kitchen. “Take care of her.” He walked the fuck out.
Haven hit the entryway as Ares headed to the armored Yukon in the driveway.
I held out my arm for her, then called after him. “Watch your fucking six.”
“Always do.”
Haven fit herself against my side, I grasped the back of her neck, and Ares got behind the wheel.
My woman’s arm snaked across my abs. “Do you think he’ll be okay?”
“Yeah.” He fucking better be.
Ares drove off.
I kicked the door shut.
Then I palmed my woman’s throat and grasped her by the jaw, both locking her in so she couldn’t escape and tilting her face up so I could see her eyes. “No bullshit. How are you doing?”
The front she’d been putting up deflated, and she leaned into me. “I’m tired.”
“And?” I could see the conflict in her eyes.
“I don’t know. I just, I thought I would feel more… grief-stricken.”
She would. “It’ll come.”
“Will it? Because right now, it almost doesn’t seem real. Or that anything actually feels different, even though I know everything is.”
“Don’t know the last time you talked to your old man.” Or when that fucker had called her. “But you’ll feel it. You’ll reach for the phone or expect him to call, then it’ll hit.” The reality of death. It always fucking hit.
“Would you think less of me if I said I was glad that they were together?”
“No.” The sentiment was more than they deserved, but that was my Haven. She was a hell of a lot more charitable than I was. “And facts are facts. They were always together.”
“Like us?” she whispered, right before her face fucking fell. “Is that going to be us?”
Jesus Christ. “First of all, halt that train of thought right fucking now. Second, and listen goddamn carefully, Haven. You are not your fucking father. I am not my fucking mother. There is no fucking universe where we abandon our kids and move to a goddamn different country. You hear me?”
Her eyes welled. “You want children?”
“Woman.” Jesus. “I’ve been fucking you bareback for over a week.” She wasn’t on birth control. “Why the hell do you think I’m coming inside you every damn chance I get?”
Color hit her cheeks. “Because it feels good?”
It felt fucking unreal. “Only half the reason.”
“But the timing—”
“Doesn’t matter. Now, next week, next month, I’m not wrapping it up with you, woman. And so we’re clear?” Leaning down, I brought my mouth to hers. “I’m fucking marrying you, Feralyn Alva Grayson.” I kissed my Haven.
Then I picked her up and carried her to the bedroom.