Chapter 11
Persephone
I avoid leaving the bedroom later that night because I can hear their voices. Hades, Ares, and Eros.
All three villains. All three intriguing.
All three utterly off limits to me. I’ve been down the garden path before. The last time I followed my heart, it led me straight into Constantine's arms.
Where did that land me?
Almost dying on a beach, with Constantine screaming that I had betrayed him. I still don’t fully understand exactly what set him off. All I can say is that he had done so many lines of blow and maybe he just… snapped.
In any event, Constantine left me for dead. And it took so long for me to free myself of his nettling brambles that I’m forever wary now.
Besides, that assumes that someone who looks like Hades would want this new, damaged version of me. After Constantine backed me off a cliff and I tumbled to the ground, I hit my head hard enough to have a bruise on my brain.
But that’s not the worst of it.
That kind of misplaced trust causes permanent damage. That’s what I now associate with following my heart.
Clenching my right fist, I wallow in the bedroom until the voices die away. I wait by my door for twenty minutes just to be absolutely sure that they aren’t coming back.
When I open the door, though, the house seems to be at rest. Ares and Eros are nowhere to be seen. I catch the scent of simmering onions and garlic in the air as I approach the kitchen.
Peeking around the wide doorframe, I find Hades standing at the counter, a wooden spoon pointed at a burner. I raise my eyebrows, surprised.
I wouldn’t have guessed that any of the three knew how to boil water. I edge closer, trying to determine which brother it is.
My breath catches as Hades turns around and spots me. I think I see a note of amusement in his face before he looks back at the stovetop.
“I was wondering when ye would show yer face,” he says. “Driven out by hunger, then?”
My cheeks heat and I step out into the doorway. “Your brothers are too loud for me.” I raise up on my tiptoes, trying to see what he is cooking on the stove without moving closer.
“Aye. They are quite brash. But ye have naught to fear from them just now. They are both asleep in their car.” Hades looks at me, gently nodding his head at the stove. “Shakshuka.”
I crinkle my nose, stepping into the kitchen. “Pardon?”
Curiosity pulls me toward the stove, though I stay far clear of Hades’ big body. He sends me another look laced with amusement.
“Shakshuka. It’s a middle eastern recipe. Eggs poached in tomatoes.” He raises an overflowing measuring cup full of stewed tomatoes, showing it to me before he pours it into the frying pan where the onions and garlic have been popping and crackling.
“That smells amazing,” I say, edging cautiously toward the stove. “Kind of reminds me of the smell of crawfish etouffee.”
His brow furrows. “Cannae say that I’ve had that.”
“It’s a creole dish.” I take a deep breath and my mouth starts to water. “Where did you learn to cook that?”
He clears his throat, turning the heat down and putting a lid on the dish. “In my later teenaged years, I suppose. I was with the Special Air Forces, stationed in Casablanca.” He purses his lips and lifts a shoulder. “We had a lot of free time. Free time and a fucking lot of sand.”
My eyes widen. “You were in the military?”
I look at him, trying to imagine him wearing a deep blue khaki shirt and pants. I would bet anything that he filled out the uniform perfectly.
“Yes.” He smirks. “I haven’t always been in my current line of work. Though I have to say that I vastly prefer the freedom of my new job, not to mention…” He gestures around to the house. “The pay is substantially better, if ye can imagine.”
My lips twitch. “You seem to gravitate toward very dangerous career paths.”
A rumble of something that might be laughter leaves his chest in a huff. “Yer right about that, lass. I dinnae mind living on the edge.”
My stomach growls audibly. Hades slides me a look. “Sit down. I’ll feed ye.”
Wrinkling my face, I do as he says. For a couple of minutes, I watch as he adds eggs to the mixture and pulls a golden loaf of crusty, tantalizing bread from the kitchenette’s tiny oven.
Soon enough, Hades slides a steaming hot bowl of poached eggs and tomato in front of me, accompanied by a fragrant hunk of bread.
“I need—“ I start.
He cuts me off. “Ye dinnae need a fork, lass. That’s what the bread is for.”
He sets down a bowl in the spot beside mine and sits, picking up his own piece of bread. “Like so.”
Hades scoops his bread into the tomatoes, raising a heaping bite to his mouth. He blows on his food for a second before he devours the tomatoes and peppers off the bread. I watch him for a second, my lips puckered in a frown.
I don’t understand why Hades is suddenly being so… well, so damned hospitable to me. Picking up the hunk of warm bread, I sniff it.
Hades stops eating, looking at me. “What? Ye dinnae trust my food even though I am eating it too?”
I drop my gaze, my face warming. “Why should I trust you? You took me from my home and keep holding me hostage.”
He takes a big bite, shrugging. He chews and swallows. “So? That doesn’t mean I’m going to poison ye, lass. Ye might be here against yer will, but we dinnae have to be enemies. I bear ye no ill will.”
My brows rise at his words. “But I have to get back to my life!”
Hades squints at me, his mouth flattening. “What exactly are ye so fired up about getting back to? Before we found ye at the gas station, we visited yer little hovel.”
Anger flashes through my veins, quick and hot as lightning. “It’s not a hovel.”
He shrugs. “I’ve been all over the world, including extensive travel in countries that could be considered the third world. Trust me when I call it a hovel.” He takes another bite of tomato, this time careful to add some egg to it.
“Fuck off,” I say, raising a finger in warning.
He rolls his eyes and shakes his head in response.
I look down at the food. My stomach growls again so I tear a tiny piece of bread off, stuffing it in my mouth. The groan of satisfaction that slips past my lips is entirely unintended.
“Umf,” I sigh, closing my eyes. It is very good bread, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, buttery through and through.
“So,” Hades says, studying me. “Are ye hiding out from Constantine, then? Is that why ye live in such reduced circumstances?”
I dart a glance at him and then busy myself by loading a heap of steaming tomatoes and peppers onto the bread. The aroma itself is tantalizing. I can practically taste the hot, savory, salty mixture before it even hits my tongue. When it does, my toes practically curl up in satisfaction.
Hades is actually a good cook, despite my doubts.
I chew and swallow, trying to parse the flavors of the tomato-pepper blend. When I look up again, Hades is giving me a rather impatient look.
I lick my lips, savoring how the dish has a little spice that still clings to my tongue. I wave my hand at Hades.
“I didn’t just decide one day to leave Constantine,” I explain. “There was…” I pause, thinking of how exactly to say it. “An incident.”
“Would that be the murder that ye are wanted for?”
“I didn’t murder anyone,” I fire back, my expression hardening.
“No?”
I look up, my chin rising, my mouth turning down at the corners.
“I’m wanted for questioning. There is no one that actually believes that I murdered anyone.
Especially not…” I trail off, my mouth twisting.
“Constantine chased my best friend and I off of a cliff. He wanted us dead. Maddie… Maddie died. And he was almost successful in killing me, as well.” I bring my hand up, touching the back of my head.
“He put me into a coma for three days. When I woke up, I figured it was as good a sign as any that the breakup was final.”
Hades cocks his head, his eyes tightening on my face. “Why didn’t ye just stay and tell the police what ye just told me?”
I snort, shaking my head. “The New Orleans police would have pinned it on me. Either because they were in Constantine's pocket… or maybe just because they are too lazy or incompetent to find out what really happened. As soon as I could walk, I got the hell out of Dodge.”
He considers me for another few seconds and then nods. “I’d have done the same.”
“Thank you,” I reply, my tone tart. “Are you satisfied now that you’ve dug around in my past?”
A blip of humor passes over his expression. “No. I’m never content. Not really.”
“No?” I ask. I use the corner of my hunk of bread to break the yolk of one of my eggs.
“Well, at least you can be certain about one thing. I make terrible decisions when it comes to men. I dated Constantine for two years, even knowing that he was a drug addicted piece of trash who did illegal things. And before him, my high school boyfriend was a psycho too. After we broke up, he killed two people in an attempted liquor store robbery.”
Hades is quiet for a long moment. “So ye are attracted to criminals, it seems.”
I crack a cruel smile as I take another bite. “Yup. There is something seriously wrong with me. After Constantine, I just decided to take myself off the market permanently. One brush with death was enough for me. For a whole damn lifetime.”
Hades scrapes the last bite from his bowl into his mouth, chewing. All the while, his gaze is heavy on me.
“Can I ask ye something?”
I give a humorless chuckle. “Why not? I’m an open book today, apparently.”
He pushes out a long breath. “Ye said the Constantine chased ye off of a cliff. Ye hit yer head?”
I nod, my mouth twisting to the side. I am not sure I like the area Hades is probing. “Yeah…”
“I noticed when we were on the beach the other day that ye were heavily favoring yer left side. Is that because— “
“I don’t like to talk about it.” I shoot to my feet, my face radiating heat. “Look. I know that I’m damaged. There is no need to rub my face in it, Hades.”
“What? That’s not— I do not think yer damaged. Jesus.” For the first time ever, he looks like he’s at a loss for words. “Lass, I didn’t mean anything by it. Ye can’t honestly blame me for my curiosity.”
I clench my right hand, grimacing. I feel myself begin to tremble and tear up. “I’m going out for a bit. Alone.”
He scowls at me but I just whirl, heading toward the front door.