Chapter 24
HARLOW
Isat with my elbows on the table, hands wrapped around my mug. My guys were talking but I didn't hear what they were saying. A word here or there filtered into my brain, but that was all. Mostly, I was lost in my thoughts.
Boner slapped something down on the table in front of me and said, "Penny for them." He lifted his hand to reveal what looked like a newly minted penny. Pennies aren’t even being made anymore.
"Where did you get that?" I picked it up and turned it around in my fingers.
"Never mind where I got it," he said. He pulled out the chair beside me and sat, perched on the edge, leaning toward me. "What's going on in that beautiful head of yours?" His blue eyes were troubled. Worried for me.
"It was a long night," I started. I managed a couple of restless hours of sleep before I had to get back up and get ready for work.
"It was, but we're here for you. You know that, right?"
"Of course I do," I said quickly. Maybe a little too quickly.
He took the penny from my fingers and laced his hand in mine. "I'm sorry for what happened to you. I wish I figured out what was going down sooner, like, before we were drugged, not after." The regretful expression on his face suggested he'd be beating himself up about that for a long time to come.
"Yeah." I averted my gaze.
"What?" he asked, leaning in closer. "It wasn't you, was it?"
My gaze snapped back to his. "Of course not. Do you really think I'd drug myself?"
"No, I don't," he said. "But something is going on with you and I want to know what it is. How are we supposed to help you if you won't open up to us?"
He was right. I knew that, but Hypnos's words kept going around and around in my brain like a song on repeat. The kind of song you wish you never heard in the first place. The kind that stuck in your mind for days after, until you wished some other earworm would come along.
"Did Hypnos tell you who drugged us?" Cass stood behind Boner, a hand on his shoulder. The pair seemed to be getting closer. I loved that for them.
"Whatever he said, he's full of shit," Jules said. He was leaning against the fridge, his arms crossed like he was guarding the food. I didn't know why and from who. None of us seem to have much of an appetite.
"Maybe he was," I said, only offering him a glance, before looking back to Boner. "Maybe he wasn’t."
Jules pushed himself away from the fridge and stepped closer to the table. "What are you saying?"
"Boner came into the kitchen while you weren't there," Cass said, looking down at him like he couldn't believe he was saying those words.
"What the fuck?" Boner looked over his shoulder. "I was making sure you were okay. Do you think I slipped something into the food?" He looked back at me in disbelief. "Is that what that prick told you? That I did this? Do you think I'm working with him? I didn't know who he was until last night."
"People don't always know who they're working for," Jules pointed out. "If someone contacts you indirectly, you can—"
Boner shoved himself to his feet. "You can fuck right off with that bullshit. I wasn't working with Hypnos. I wasn't working with anyone but the people in this room. I can't believe you'd accuse me of this."
He hesitated for a moment before pointing at Jules. "Okay, you I can believe. Not the rest of you." He flicked his finger around the room.
"No one's accusing you," I said. "Hypnos didn't say anything about you."
Boner stared at me for a moment, my words slowly sinking in before he sank back into his chair.
"Of course he didn't. I have nothing to do with what happened. If I find them, I mean when I find them, I’m going to stab them in the ass too." He nodded to punctuate the threat.
I managed a faint smile.
"Whatever he said, it put you on edge," Cass said, coming around to stand behind me and massage my shoulders.
I tried not to flinch.
"He did try to boil me alive," I pointed out. That would rattle the hell out of anyone. Last night was the closest I ever came to dying. I didn't want to repeat the experience anytime soon.
"Yeah, he did. But you're holding back on us," Cass insisted. If he was going to use his dominant tone to force the words out of me. I was going to be in trouble.
"I think I speak for everyone here when I say we're not letting you out of here until you tell us what he said." Jules moved a couple of steps to stand in front of the door, like he was now guarding the only way out.
He wasn't. If I wanted to, I could make a run for it and be out the fire escape before he could move.
I didn't. I closed my eyes and drew in a long breath through my nose and out again.
"It was gas," I said. "They left a canister that put us all to sleep."
"So they only gassed the people who were left at the end of the night," Archer reasoned. "How did they know we'd be staying?"
"Because Hypnos was right there watching," I said. "He saw me offer the coffee to Detective Getzoff. He knew we were staying, so he came back with a couple of his minions. They tied all of you up while Hypnos took me and Getzoff."
"What canister? Where?" Jules asked, abandoning his post at the door to step over closer. His eyes were half closed like he was turning thoughts around and around in his mind.
"That's a surprisingly good question," Boner said.
"Thanks," Jules said sarcastically.
"You're welcome," Boner, said, as if he missed the sarcasm altogether. "How did the gas get there?"
"It was left under the table by one of my staff. All Hypnos had to do was pretend to adjust his shoe. He opened it under the tablecloth and left."
"What a sneaky bastard," Boner said. "I thought he looked sus as fuck when he walked through the door."
"You could have said something," Cass told him.
Boner shrugged. "Who am I to point fingers at other people? Believe it or not, some people might suggest I'm sus as fuck."
No one took that bait.
"It's true what they say," Archer said. "It really is hard to find good help."
I snorted softly.
"Which one of them was it?" Cass asked, leaning down to press my cheek to his. "For the record, it wasn't me."
"Of course it wasn't," Jules said. He glanced around at all of us as if daring us to contradict him.
We didn't. We all knew where Cass' loyalties lay, and it wasn't with someone like Hypnos.
"I don't know who it was," I admitted. "It could be Yvette or Shelly. Maybe both. I have no idea. Hypnos wasn't forthcoming with specifics."
I wanted to stab him again for not being clearer. I'd asked, but he told me it didn't matter, since I'd never see my restaurants again.
"Now that's a mindfuck," Boner said. "If we accuse one, we could accuse the wrong one. If we kill them both, we could be killing someone who's innocent. If you don't, and they’re both guilty…"
He didn't need to finish that. If they were working against us, we couldn't leave them alive. How would we know which one it was though? Was it one, or both of them?
We couldn't fling accusations around, not when it was possible one of them hadn't done anything at all. Enough innocent blood had been spilled already.
"It turns out Getzoff wasn't working with Hypnos," I said with a sigh. "He really was trying to find a serial killer."
"He found a few of them," Boner said cheerfully.
"It didn't do him much good," I said. "He still ended up dead." I curled and uncurled my hands, but I swear I could still feel his blood coating my fingers.
I used him as bait and he'd paid the price. And what for? Hypnos would have come after me anyway. He knew who I was. Chances were, so did Zeus. He could be planning something as we sat here talking.
We were going to have to go after him and quickly.
"You can't open Angel's Rest today," Cass said firmly. "Not when one of your staff might have betrayed you."
"Yes, you should." Boner started smiling slowly. "I have an idea."