Chapter 33 Hades
Hades
When I finally climb out of the car at the remote hotel, it’s twilight. I give Ares a hard look as I scan the parking lot.
I see Eros’s matching sedan not far away and pull out my phone to text him.
Ares gets out of the car and stretches. “That was longer than I like to travel in a day,” he says.
“We should have been here over an hour ago,” I fling over my shoulder. “If ye hadn’t given me bad directions and had us running all over the countryside, our trip would’ve been shorter.”
“Ye should’ve known better than to listen to me.” He shrugs as I start walking toward the car. “Ye know that I’m an idiot.”
I stop, sliding him a glance. Usually Ares is pretty defensive about his own intelligence.
“What?” he asks. “Ye know it’s true.”
“Ye started a fist fight with me the last time I merely suggested that ye were short sighted and hadn’t thought something through.”
Ares shrugs and raises his hand to shade his eyes. “Where are Eros and Persephone?”
“I’m not sure.” I survey the scene, sweeping my gaze around the entire parking lot and the dingy little hotel building again. “Their car is here…”
Something is off. The hotel is too quiet. One part of me hopes that Eros and Penny are just resting… but deep inside, I already know that’s not the case.
A chilled note of fear-spiked adrenaline slides down my spine.
“Hey.” Ares brings me back with a word. I glance up at my brother, who is squinting at the hotel. “Does that seem right to ye?”
He points at the faded gray building, motioning to the very farthest door. I look where he points and notice that the door is leaning against the doorway. It isn’t attached at all but has been arranged very carefully to look like nothing untoward has happened.
“Fuck.” My gun is tucked at the back of my waistband. I draw it and train the barrel at the doorway. Turning to the side, I start moving closer, my steps guarded and quiet.
My heartbeat pounds faster, all my senses on full alert. I’ve trained for moments like these but it’s still hard to stay calm when all this adrenaline hits my system.
Steps behind me, I can see Ares drawing his own weapon, moving in the exact same tactical manner as I do.
As we approach the door, we automatically split up so that I’m on the right side and he is on the left. There are little bits of splattered wood scattered on the ground and they crunch beneath my feet as I draw up against the wall.
I squint at the door, listening carefully for any signs that there might be someone still inside. Ares motions to a thin wire laid across the threshold of the door.
The hairs on the back of my neck rise. A trap has been laid for us.
I take a few steps back and jerk my head toward the doorway. Aiming my gun directly at the door to cover my brother, I try to control my harsh breathing. Ares puts his weapon in his waistband and kneels, examining the poorly-laid tripwire.
He grabs it with the precision and deftness of an old pro, lifting it very slightly. He frowns and looks up at the door for a second, then carefully places the wire back on the ground.
Fishing in his pocket, he pulls out a little black multitool. I glance behind me, sweeping my gaze over the lot and the building.
Everything is deadly still.
In seconds Ares has a pair of needle-nosed snips out. He looks at me, motioning that I should back up further. I drag my feet a few steps back, my gaze intent on what he’s doing.
He sucks in a breath and cuts the wire near both sides of the door. He double checks his work and stands up, working his fingers into the space around the door.
I hold my breath as Ares lifts the busted up door up and moves it away, walking into the darkened room. Following him on quick feet, I’m inside the room in seconds.
Ares leans the door against a blank white wall.
Nosing my gun through the door into the bathroom, I find no one inside.
I return to see Ares doing a quick check underneath the narrow single bed.
I scan the room, taking in the rough bedspread that has been mussed very slightly and Persephone’s shoulder bag.
My heart slams against my ribs. The only sign of anything untoward is the iPad, which is laying on the floor, it’s navy cover hanging open at an awkward angle.
I gave Penny that iPad. But there is no Penny to be found.
My head pounds as I look at the evidence laid before me. I swear, I’m trying to fit all the puzzle pieces together, but I feel hopelessly slow.
Was Persephone actually taken? The scene suggests that she was. Just a busted door rigged with explosives in the middle of nowhere.
We didn’t even pick this hotel until a few hours ago… so how could anyone have known where we would be?
Ares has turned his attention on the explosive device that is sitting by the doorway. He nudges it with a finger.
“This is staged,” he says, his voice low and urgent. “I dinnae even think it is even capable of detonating.”
“Fuck.” I keep my gun trained on the doorway and slide my phone from my pocket. “Where the fuck are Eros and Penny?”
I sidle over to check the bathroom again. Ares shrugs, his eye catching on something on the floor near the bed. He bends down to pull back the thin duvet and reveals a black canvas bag.
He uses his booted toe to drag it out into the middle of the floor. His expression is unreadable as he unzips the bag.
“Fuck.”
I walk over and see that he’s exposed a colorful stack of euros. My eyebrows shoot up.
“What the fuck is that doing in Penny’s room?” My mind whirls. Added to the other pieces of the puzzle, it doesn’t seem to fit with what I’ve found so far.
“Uhh…” Ares says. “It could be from us.”
I glance at him sharply. “What?”
Ares clears his throat. “Well, Eros and I— “
“Stop.”
We both glance at the doorway, surprised to see Eros there. I bound out of the room, shoving Eros aside. But Eros is alone.
“Where the fuck is Persephone?” I scream. Whipping around, I pin both of my brothers with an accusing gaze. “Ye had better fucking have a good answer.”
Eros puts his hand on his gun, looking cagey. Ares glares at Eros. When Eros pushes his cheek out with his tongue and looks pissed off, Ares explodes.
“Tell him where the girl is!” He steps towards Eros, puffing his chest out aggressively. “It was yer fucking plan.”
“It’s not that simple. I gave her money and offered that she could leave. Where she went…” Eros shakes his head and shoots me a pleading glance. “Persephone decided to leave, Hades.”
My breathing grows ragged. My heart squeezes in my chest.
“She doesn’t get to decide to leave!” I bellow at my brother. “Where the fuck did she go? And where did ye just come from?”
Eros raises a hand to calm me. From a lifetime of dealing with his bullshit, I can say for certain that raised hands aren’t a good sign.
“Hades, let me explain,” he says. “I dinnae ken where Persephone has wandered off to— “
Ares cuts in, talking over Eros.
“Shut up, ye fuckhead.” He points to the hotel room. “The money’s still here. All of it. And unless Persephone is a demolitions expert, she didn’t leave on her own. She was either taken or she had help in escaping.”
“The—” Eros’s eyebrows rise. His confusion is evident. “Why would she leave the money?”
My rage is hot and red and fast as lightning. I lash my gun out at his head too fast for him to protect himself. The gun connects with his skull and makes a satisfying soft crunch.
“Ye fucking idiot!” I rail at him. “Ye dinnae ken where she is? Ye want to know why she left the huge bag of cash ye gave her?” When I scream, specks of spittle fly out of my mouth. But I’m red-faced and beyond caring about that.
Eros doesn’t cower under my abuse. He merely weathers it, looking aggravated.
“Hades—” Ares says, trying to calm me down.
“What were ye two doing, offering Persephone cash? Were ye trying to get her to leave?”
Ares screws up his face and shrugs. Eros folds his arms across his chest and stares over my shoulder.
“We could tell that ye were becoming too attached to her. Persephone is damaged goods, physically and emotionally. She can’t just travel with us everywhere we go. She belongs in the States, with Constantine.”
I raise my gun, pointing it right in the middle of Eros’s face. I’ve been born and raised with guns, from childhood hunting rifles to slick M16’s during my military service. Trigger discipline has been drilled into me every step of the way. Even now, it’s hard to point my weapon at my brother.
And I know that I shouldn’t point a gun if I don’t mean to shoot.
But my finger rests on the trigger as I hold Eros in my sights. My head throbs. I can’t quite hear anyone or anything else because I have the distinct feeling that my ears are stuffed with wads of thick cotton. I glare at Eros, my heart and gut and rational mind all playing tug of war.
He took Persephone from me.
Maybe she wanted to leave. Still, he helped her.
If he were anyone but my brother, I would have killed him already.
But can I even trust Eros now?
Before I can make up my mind, a blur appears, physically tackling me. Ares grunts as we both go down to the ground hard, me underneath him. I release the trigger before my entire body crashes to the ground. Eros scrambles to knock the gun from my hand, his glare lethal.
“What the fuck, Hades?” Ares asks. “Calm down! We can find Persephone, okay?”
I shove him off of me, cringing as I start to get up. Eros offers me a hand, but I smack it away, trying to convey my feelings for him at this precise moment without saying a fucking word.
To put it tersely, I fucking loathe the bastard.
Ares gets to his feet, his head swiveling as he senses movement. Not a second later a car starts around the front of the little hotel.
A possible witness, fleeing the scene. No fucking way.
I don’t even have a weapon in my hand but I sprint toward the front in time to see a little rusty two-doored shitbox backing out with a squeal of tires. My brothers are right behind me.