Chapter 3 #2
She rolls her eyes. “You don’t want me to guess what you’re thinking, then you better work on your poker face.
It’s usually better than this.” Her expression softens the tiniest bit, which is almost worse.
All these scary people that I thought I earned my place beside as a near-equal, and they all pity me. I can’t stand it.
“I’m fine.” I take a deep breath and lay out my options.
I could go to Jasmine. She’s not as bad as some of the others, and she likes me enough to give me the space to work.
I think. But then, she’s less than a year into running her territory, and that will give her less leniency.
She’ll have to keep me under her thumb to avoid the appearance of favoritism or something else that will weaken her position.
Dealing with Jafar is also a mark in the negative column.
No, I’ll only go there as a last resort.
Gaeton might take me in, at least for a little while, but it’s even worse over there.
The Man in Black is old, and rumor has it he’s the kind of sick a person doesn’t come back from.
His daughters are strong enough to hold the territory, but the unrest will be bad for business.
Bad for me if I’m there. Not to mention the Man in Black’s youngest daughter has a history with Gaeton, and his helping me wouldn’t earn me any points with her.
If Isabelle Belmonte decides to blacklist me, that will cut out a huge stream of revenue to my business. I can’t risk going that route, either.
There’s no help for it. I’m going to have to bite the financial bullet and find a place in Hades’s territory. At least for now. I’ll figure out the rest once I get enough time and distance to be able to take an honest look at my current situation.
I try very hard not to think about how much I love my suite in the Underworld as I start walking with a vague wave in Allecto’s direction.
There’s no point in calling a cab. Hades’s reach is only a handful of blocks in any direction.
There are a set of apartments a few streets down that might work.
I’ve met clients there in the past, and while the spaces are small, they’re really nice.
As I stop at the corner to wait for the light, the small hairs at the back of my neck raise and my skin prickles.
Someone is watching me. I look around slowly, but it’s midday and there’s too much foot traffic to be able to tell who it is.
That, and I’m too short to see over the shoulders of the people in front of me.
The light changes, and they surge into motion, taking me with them.
I focus on putting one foot in front of the other and try to watch the faces around me.
No one seems to be paying me the slightest bit of attention.
It should be enough to relax me, but my instincts aren’t getting the memo.
I reach the other side of the street, and the guy on my left stumbles, knocking me aside right as I try to step on the curb. My heel turns, and then I’m falling. “Fuck!”
Hands grab my upper arms and haul me to my feet. I immediately start to step back, to thank the dude, but he doesn’t let me go. What the hell? I jerk back harder. “Thanks. I got it.”
“Do you?”
I freeze. Even five years later, I know that voice.
My gaze goes up, up, up, and there he is.
The specter in more nightmares than I care to count.
My boogeyman. Peter. He doesn’t look like he’s aged a day since I saw him last, his light brown hair still cut short on the sides and left longer on top.
His blue eyes twinkle at me, filled with the kind of mean amusement that always comes before my pain. “Hey, baby.”
No words come. I open my mouth, but a strange wheezing sound emerges. Apparently he takes that as a sign, because he shifts his grip to my wrists and starts pulling me down the block. “Been a while.”
“Let go!”
“You know better. I’m just taking what I’m owed. And you owe me a lot, Tatiana.” Step by step, despite my best efforts, we start down the street in the opposite direction of where I’d wanted to go.
I can’t go with him. I know what happens if we get somewhere private.
What I owe him. He didn’t kill me before, but he sure as fuck is going to now.
Or worse. I can’t think about worse right now.
I can’t think about anything. I dig in my heels, but he’s always been stronger than me.
Even though my body is nowhere near the weak thing it was at sixteen, at eighteen, at twenty, he still doesn’t even seem to notice that I’m fighting him.
“Hey!”
A voice behind us, so familiar it makes me sag in relief.
My breath sobs out. I twist and catch sight of Hercules wading through people behind us.
His gaze lands on me and then on Peter, finally settling on where Peter’s hands grind the bones of my wrist together.
Hercules’s eyes narrow. He’s a total cinnamon roll, but right now he looks like he might tear Peter apart with his bare hands. “Let her go.”
Peter looks down at me and chuckles. “You won’t always have friends with you, baby. See you soon.” He releases my wrists and melts into the crowd right as Hercules skids to a stop next to me.
Hercules goes down on one knee, completely ignoring how dirty the street must be, and examines my wrists. “Are you okay?”
Okay? I am so far from okay, I don’t know where to begin. I blink down at him. “What are you doing here?”
“Hades has his reasons for making this call, but it’s wrong to just toss you out without a parachute.” He gives me a sweet smile. “I was going to help you find a place and get you settled in.”
If he were anyone else, I’d accuse him of ulterior motives, but Hercules is one of those pure souls that defy explanation. He’s a legitimately good guy, and I still don’t quite understand how he and Hades and Meg ended up in a relationship that works. I guess it’s enough that it does.
My body finally understands the threat has passed, and I start shaking and can’t seem to stop.
That was close. Too close. Not a single one of these strangers on the street even looked up from their phones long enough to realize they were witnessing an abduction.
If Hercules wasn’t too pure for this world, Peter could have taken me wherever he wanted to.
He won’t stop. I knew it for truth even as I denied it to Hook, but there’s no room for that kind of denial now. He will not stop. He will keep coming for me. I wasn’t strong enough to stand against him on my own before.
I’m not strong enough now.
Hercules stands and pulls me into a hug. Part of me wants to fight him, but he’s big and strong and smells really good. For a moment, I can almost fool myself into thinking I’m safe.
I’m not, though. I’ll never be again.
Which means I have only one course of action left to me.