Chapter 22
Garrick
What the fuck have I done?
I haven’t ever denied that Ninety-Eight is attractive, but I never thought I’d act on it. Especially after I found out who she really is. That web is far too sticky for me to get involved with.
She’s one of the most powerful beings in the realm and currently under my care. Not to mention she manages to irritate the fuck out of me and push all my buttons so flawlessly. Even as we fucked, she managed to wind me up into a frenzy.
My inner cat is hissing at me to lay claim to her. It wants her with a kind of possessiveness I refuse to acknowledge, already considering her ours.
There’s a knock at my door. Before I can think, I go and open it. Finding Tarron on the other side, I let him in before sinking back into the chair behind my desk.
“What is it? Please don’t tell me we have more bodies.” I really can’t handle that tonight.
“No, but Zafihra wanted me to tell you that one group looks close to picking the wrong weapon.”
“It’ll be their funeral.” I shake my head. I knew one team would rush through the task, and no doubt come up with the wrong lead and ultimately get themselves killed. “Which team?”
“The one with that computer hacker.”
“Nineteen?” My heartrate spikes painfully for a second. Nineteen is with Tacita.
“No, the female one, Twenty-Three.” Lines appear on Tarron’s forehead as he reads my reaction. I try my best to hide my relief.
He’s not sat down, and is instead hovering in the space between the seats and the door.
“Sit, unless you’ve got to leave. I could do with running through the groups that have formed.”
“Er… I would, but seeing as it reeks of sex in here, I’m not sure the surfaces are sanitary,” he says hesitantly.
“Fuck you. The chairs are safe.” He flinches a little, even though I curse him in jest. It stings that our relationship feels a little fragile currently since I chewed him out about losing his badge. It was a stupid mistake on his behalf but I’m truly over it. I have much bigger problems.
He’s my second, and the guy I’d label as my best friend. I don’t want bad blood between us.
“Please don’t act like I’m about to punish you. I’ve already forgotten about the pass, please let's put it behind us.”
“Truly? I know I fucked up.”
“Yeah, well, I might be fucking this up far more royally than losing a damn card.” I heave a sigh and run both my hands through my hair. A bone weary tiredness hits like a freight train with the admission.
“Would it have anything to do with whomever else it is I can smell in here?”
I make a snap decision. “That would be the Death Bringer.”
Tarron’s bottom jaw drops.
“As in…” he starts but trails off, the disbelief rendering him speechless.
“As in our leader’s assassin, Hades’s personal killing machine? Yes.”
“Wow.” Tarron breaks into a shocked grin, elongating the word. “Damn, Garrick. How on earth did you pull her? They are a she, right?”
“Yes, they are female. But that’s your first thought?”
“Why? What should it be?”
“How about how fucking stupid it is?”
“I mean, you're punching for sure. Although, maybe she’s hideous. Did she take the mask off?”
“She did,” I confirm.
He leans forward in his seat, excitement lighting his eyes. “That means you know what she looks like. Tell me please, is she banging? Do her looks match her power?”
“I’m not revealing that to you.”
“Oh, come on. You can’t hold back on me now. I thought you were going to say you’d fucked a contestant in here. This is huge!”
Lords, if only he knew the whole truth.
“And you’re smiling. It was good, wasn’t it?” Tarron hooks a brow at me and I realise that indeed I might be grinning.
I word my answer carefully. “It was explosive.”
“Do you think you’ll do it again?”
“It’s complicated.”
“I’m sure it is. But if she took her mask off for you, she must really like your grumpy ass.”
“Ha,” I bark a laugh. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Dismiss yourself like that. I know you think you have to act all tough but it’s about time you found someone. You’ve been married to the job for long enough.”
“That’s not what I was doing.” I shift in my seat.
Tarron’s been my closest friend for a couple of centuries and in that time he’s had a few relationships and is now happily married to a great female harpy. I, on the other hand, have been completely single. And happy about it.
“Is she going to be here frequently until the end of the games?”
“I guess so, or until we find out which one of the fuckers is working for the Angels at least.” I can’t tell him that she is in fact living in the compound and has been the whole time.
“Well then, it gives you a chance to get to know her. Be open to it.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “I’m pretty sure it was a one-time thing.”
He scoffs. “Really? ‘Cause I don’t know a single person who knows her real identity. If you know who she is, that says something.”
“No, it really doesn’t.”
He holds his hands up in a placating gesture and shrugs. “Calling it as I see it.”
“Well, you’re seeing it wrong,” I tell him firmly. “Can we move on please?”
“Fine, but don’t retreat into yourself like you usually do.”
Tarron knows me all too well; that is my exact MO with the females I hook up with.
Even one’s I have liked and maybe seen more than a handful of times.
In fairness, the job demands a lot of me and the people I’ve dated haven’t understood that.
I can’t just drop everything to be at their beck and call.
I have a lot of people relying on me and I cannot afford for anything to go wrong, Tartarus is full of the worst souls to have walked on several planes.
Hades trusts me to keep them securely locked up and the team of staff safe too, that requires me to put many hours into ensuring it runs smoothly and everything is well maintained.
I heave another heavy breath before leaning forward on the desk, steepling my fingers. “Fill me in on the groups the contestants have formed.”