Chapter 29 Persephone #2
He gives a chuckle as he does the same. “Of course ye do, lass. I can absolutely see ye eating a whole pomegranate.”
Hades ties his keffiyeh on and then leans over to me, making a quick adjustment. My cheeks color at the casual touch.
How far we’ve come in so short a period of time.
He starts to pull away. But I kiss him on the cheek, quick as I can. His lips twitch and he runs his fingers over my cheek.
“Ah, lass,” he says, shaking his head. “What am I to do with ye?”
I shrug, blushing furiously. He drops his hand to mine and clasps my hand. I weave my fingers through with his, my heart skipping a beat.
This feels… dangerous.
I know that Hades is a bad man. And I have already learned that things don’t end well with villains. But my heart keeps whispering sweet lies to me.
Hades will change. One day he’ll want the same things you want… you just have to wait for him to be ready…
I squeeze his hand and he narrows his eyes on my face. Then he looks away, pulling me along a long road that slopes gently down toward the inevitable ocean.
I suck in a deep lungful of air.
“It smells so…” I lift my nose, trying to catch a note in the air. “I don’t know. Exotic? Like the air is made of different kinds of perfume, shifting and changing every few minutes. It’s driving me wild.”
His lips curl at the corners and he glances at me. “I can assure ye, most of Tunis does not smell like perfume.”
I roll my eyes. “I know. It’s just… it’s something different. It’s refreshing, after being stuck in that little shack south of New Orleans for so many years.”
Hades frowns. “How did ye end up there, of all places? I know that ye were hiding out from Constantine. But didn’t ye have family to protect ye?”
A bark of laughter escapes my lips. “Like whom? My mom, who I’m pretty sure is still rooting for me to get back together with Constantine? Or my dad? He’s barely in my life because he has a whole other family to attend to.”
Hades eyes narrow on a point in the distance. “Yer parents are divorced, then?”
“Nope. Better.” I shoot him a grin. “My mother is my dad’s long-term side piece.”
His brow furrows. “She’s… what?”
“They have been engaged in a twenty-seven year long affair.”
He scrunches up his face. “Can ye call a relationship that long an affair?”
I shrug. “No idea. My dad is a local politician, a real fire and brimstone, church every Sunday, squeaky clean record type. He’s married with a big, loving family.
Buuuuuttttt he’s also been sneaking off for a little afternoon delight with my mom for almost thirty years.
Hell, he had two kids with her!” I roll my eyes.
“My mom would rather die than sully his reputation. And he would rather not be seen with any of us in public.”
“Jesus.” Hades seems to be working to keep up with the flow of information. “So that makes ye… a sibling?”
“Yeah.” I scrunch up my nose. “To my brother Lawrence. He’s… very sweet, but a little self-absorbed.”
Hades nods, his pace slowing. “I see.”
“You really don’t, but I think it’s better that way.” I say it fast and add a wink in at the end, trying to put some distance between me and my family’s dramatic history.
“Still. It sounds like ye were…” He stops, choosing his words carefully. “It sounds like they didn’t care for ye as they should have. And for that, I am sorry.” He glances away, sucking in a breath. “They missed out on knowing ye, I think.”
My cheeks fill with heat. “They did their best.”
He pulls a face. “They didn’t protect ye from Constantine. They allowed me to kidnap ye. And to be frank, they haven’t put up much of a fight back in New Orleans.”
“How would you know?” I slice a look at him. “Have you been checking up on me?”
Hades frowns, shrugging a single shoulder. I look at him, expecting him to say more, but he doesn’t.
Instead, Hades changes the subject. “We’re here.”
He takes me by the hand, pulling me down a little set of stairs that lead to a basement level. As soon as I make it to the second to last step, I smell something sweet, cinnamon and fried.
“Donuts?” I wonder aloud.
Hades shoots me a secretive smile and pushes open a door. “Harcha. They are like… imagine an English crumpet and an American donut combined. I have been missing them.”
He gestures for me to step inside. The space behind the door is very small, just big enough for a gleaming silver samovar on a tray and a large griddle. A woman works the griddle, pouring the whitish batter onto the hot surface. She turns around and Hades flashes her a sign.
She flips two fresh pancake-shaped pieces of dough onto a paper plate. Hades hands her a wad of cash and he accepts the harcha.
“Come on,” he says, opening the door again. “Let’s sit on some steps and eat.”
He walks only a handful of feet before he finds a stoop to sit on. He turns and waits for me to brush my skirt underneath me and sit down. Only then does he take a seat.
I nibble on the warm bread in my hands. It’s sweeter than a pancake and has more cinnamon than a regular ring donut. It does taste very buttery, despite having a texture of the outside of an English muffin, just where it is brown and covered in cornmeal.
I look up to see Hades practically inhaling his harcha. He eats with a single-mindedness that brain surgeons would envy. It makes the corners of my mouth tug up into a wry smile.
“You must have been a cute little kid.”
It pops out of my mouth without warning. Hades looks up, finishing the last bite of his harcha. “Why do ye say that?”
Shaking my head, I wrinkle my nose and try to ignore the slight flush rising to my cheeks. “Something to do with watching you eat your pastry as if it was the only thing in the world that mattered to you, I expect.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He rolls his eyes at me. “Better finish yers before I do.”
I purse my lips. Tearing off a piece, I hand the rest of it to him. He looks a little shocked.
“Dinnae ye like it?” he asks. He accepts it, looking at the harcha as though it were tainted.
“Of course I do.” I wave the remaining piece in the air. “I think you like it more, though. And I like watching you wolf it down.”
I punctate my statement by popping the piece in my mouth and giving a loud mmmm. Hades shakes his head and eats the rest in three big bites. Then he drops his hand onto my lap.
I lean back and lace my fingers with his, a contented sigh on my lips. Several children burst out from around the corner, kicking a battered soccer ball between them. As I look on, they race around the block, darting to and fro, chasing each other.
They stop near us, looking at the steps to the little harcha shop. A little boy shouts something I can’t understand.
Hades apparently does, though. He reaches in his black slacks for his money clip, peeling a bill off. Then he nudges me with the money.
“Go give this to them.”
I arch a brow, plucking the money from his fingers. “How unexpected.”
He shrugs, leaning back and trying to pretend that he isn’t being generous. I go over to the boys, leaning down and handing over the money. Then I pantomime the harcha that I just ate. They grow excited, dashing down the steps and into the harcha shop.
When I turn around, Hades is just getting up from the stoop and dusting himself off. “Are ye ready?”
My mouth twitches. “What, you don’t want to see them enjoying their breakfast?”
“Not particularly, no.” He eyes me and starts walking away.
I follow, smiling at him.
“It’s too late!” I declare, catching his elbow. “Now I know your terrible secret. You’re soft and tender on the inside, under miles and miles of battle-hardened armor.”
He snorts, shaking his head. But I notice that he pulls me a little closer, settling my arm in the crook of his elbow.
“We should get back to the hotel.” He squints into the distance. “Ares and Eros have some place for us to stay. It’s a private palace, owned by some friend of a friend or something.” He sighs. “Yer art supplies should be set up somewhere when we get there.”
That gets my attention. “You are putting my stuff where just anyone can see it? Is that advisable?”
His lips twitch. “Wait and see for yerself. My brothers are bringing the trucks tonight— “
“What does that mean?”
He gives me a hard look. “Exactly what it sounds like, lass. They are bringing the supplies on trucks.”
“What supplies?” I ask, confused.
He heaves a frustrated breath out. “What kind of supplies do ye think I’m talking about, lass?”
I screw up my face. “Guns?” I whisper.
Hades’ expression tightens. “Supplies,” he repeats. “As I said, my brothers are bringing the trucks tonight. So we are basically going to be waiting on ye to ship the cargo containers of… supplies.”
I blink a couple of times. “Oh,” is all I can think to say. “Well… okay.”
Hades slides his arm around me and hurries me along the cobblestone road, back to the hotel.