14. Set Free
14
SET FREE
TESSA
D ante watches me closely as we cross the hallway. I knock on Evan’s door, and Dante raps his knuckles on Kurtis’s.
Both doors swing open, and the guys look nervously at us, then at each other.
“What’s wrong?” Evan asks, his shoulders tense. He’s taking on his warrior aura which I’ve only seen a handful of times when out on some of the more dangerous Instant jobs.
“We were hoping you could help us figure something out,” I say as sweetly as possible. “Can we talk?”
His lips flatten, probably unsure how ugly this is all going to get. I don’t know if it’s because he fucked with our phones or because he thinks Dante is going to rage against them about trying to ‘steal’ me away.
Steal me… like I’m a possession and can’t make up my mind for myself.
“Come on in.” Evan waves us closer and glances down the hall to see if any of the other agents are watching.
Once inside, I sit on the wooden desk chair. Evan leans against his closed door and crosses his arms. Dante perches on the foot of Evan’s bed.
Kurtis remains standing, shifting from foot to foot, looking guilty as fuck. “What’s this about?”
I try not to jump to conclusions and freak out. It’s more likely he thinks this has to do with making it known how he feels about me. But how far are they willing to take this bid for my attention, my affection? Would they actively fuck with my relationship by manipulating my texts with Dante?
This is the hardest part about people—they’re so difficult to trust. Everyone is working for their own interests and often others get hurt along the way, especially if you happen to be their particular interest.
“I’ll do my best not to be mad with whatever you tell us. I just need to know the truth.” I keep my voice calm and soothing, using the techniques I developed when I was a psychic reader. “Did either of you mess with my phone messages or have someone do it?”
I open my intuition to activate my woo-woo lie detector.
Kurtis looks downright confused. “Huh? No. Why would I do that?”
My informed guess is that he had nothing to do with this. I ignore his question and turn my attention to Evan.
“I didn’t do anything with your phones or texts.” Evan uncrosses his arms and appears alarmed. “What happened?”
Inclined to believe their innocence, I explain, “I received unsettling texts from Dante that he never sent. When I tried to show him what he said in them, they were no longer there.”
Evan snaps his gaze to Dante. “And you aren’t doing it?”
“Why the fuck would I sabotage my relationship? That’s your agenda, not mine.” Dante stands and takes a threatening step toward Evan. “You are the only one with something to gain from what those texts said.”
I step between the two towering, almost feral men and place a hand on their chests, ready to knock them backward with my unique psychic powers.
Evan’s eyes drop to where my hand makes contact. The warmth from his thinly covered chest sends a shiver through me.
“What does he mean?” Evan demands. “What did they say?”
Thankfully, they no longer appear ready for a fistfight. “In the texts, Dante supposedly says that he wants me to get you two out of my system.”
“We’re in your system?” Kurtis asks, hope bleeding into his tone.
“Not the point, asshole,” Dante grumbles.
“Maybe it is,” Evan argues. “To us.”
“Focus, boys!” I snap. “I’m worried that someone, maybe of a godly sort, is fucking with me… with all of us.”
“How? By having us fuck?” Kurtis asks in disbelief.
“Maybe?” I shrug, then realize I’m still touching Evan and Dante. I finally drop my hands from the two hotties. “If I were to do what the texts said to do, I would be sneaking around with you both, and I’m sure Dante would eventually find out. If I betrayed him like that, he could have confronted me, then I would have told him he wanted me to do it. All our lives would have imploded because of it. Ruined our connections, our friendships.”
“So you think it could be Instant, coming back to hurt us?” Evan comes to the same conclusion I have.
“Or it could be someone else. We’ve heard that other gods aren’t much better than she was. We know the myths, the Greeks were notorious for being cruel to humans. What if they wanted to mess with us because of how we helped take down Instant?”
The room grows quiet, all of us thinking about that for a long moment.
“We need to be careful,” Evan suggests, his worried gaze lingering on me.
“I think the only way we can trust anything is if we hear it from someone in person,” I suggest. “I don’t want anyone tearing us away from each other.”
“You’re right. It might be part of their plan, especially if Instant is returning,” Evan adds. “She wouldn’t want us to be focused on what’s really going on. She’d want us to fight each other and not her.”
“Distracted,” Dante agrees.
“Exactly.” My gut twists at the thought of fighting another god.
We all give each other long glances.
Finally, Kurtis breaks the silence. “So… if Dante said he was cool with it, would you have dated Evan and me?”
I bite my lip and swallow hard, my eyes snapping over to see Dante’s reaction or see if he will respond first. Alas, no. I was hoping the bigger picture that we were being fucked with by someone would overshadow the part about dating them.
“I understand if you want to,” Dante sighs and drops to sit on the bed again.
I race over and stand between his legs, clasping his handsome face in my hands. I lift his gaze to meet mine. I lean down for a kiss. “You’re more than I deserve.”
His hands snake around my waist, pulling me closer. “Untrue. But I think you may need more than what I can offer.”
“Don’t,” I chide. “It isn’t like that. I didn’t seek this out.”
“I think you were falling for them, too. Since the beginning,” Dante points out. “It makes sense. We were a unit. A team. We went through hell together.”
Evan clears his throat. “I don’t want to cause either of you more stress, but my heart calls to be with Tessa. I’ve never felt something so strongly in my entire life.”
“Me either,” Kurtis chimes in. “But I’ll back off if that’s what you want, Tessa.”
I stare into Dante’s sky-blue eyes, readying myself to turn down the other two, even if my heart feels a pull to them. I don’t need to be greedy… if that’s what this truly is.
“I love you, Tessa,” Dante says, staring up at me through his thick lashes. “My gut tells me I have to learn to live with you being with them, too. And my instincts are rarely wrong. As much as I want you for myself. I don’t think that’s what the cosmic forces want.” He turns his attention to Evan and Kurtis. “If I’m going to share your love with anyone, it should be with my brothers. Because I love them too.”
I hear Kurtis suck in a breath.
“Not in a sexual way, buddy,” Dante smirks.
“Um, well…” I suddenly feel awkward and overwhelmed. “I’m going to bed now. Alone. To figure out my own emotions.”
They all mumble their agreement, and I float out of the room in a daze, falling onto my bed covers fully clothed.
Sleep doesn’t find me for hours as I analyze my feelings and reactions to this recent development. If I’m honest, I’m not opposed to dating all of them at the same time. But only if they can handle it and overcome jealousy and get along. Sure, I know even two people have arguments and disagreements, but we will have to be a better version of ourselves to make this work.
I wake up throughout the night, wishing Dante was snuggled up with me.
Finally, after a night of tossing and turning, I crawl out of bed.
I thought I might have another dream about the dark-winged god, but he left me alone. Perhaps because it seems I might give in to my desires and start to date Evan and Kurtis.
Will Dante really be fine with that?
As I get ready for the day in the quiet house, I make a plan that will mitigate a lot of the biggest hurdles.
I’m rinsing out my coffee cup when Evan strolls into the kitchen. I feel my shoulders tense and remind myself it will work out somehow.
“Hey,” Evan greets me in his warm, deep voice, thickened by just waking up. His normally perfect hair is mussed up. It’s appealing to see him undone. I wonder how he might fall apart if we have sex.
“Hey.” I turn and face him as he stands right in front of me, almost pinning my hips to the counter.
Evan’s gaze travels over my face and flickers over my body. “You okay?”
His body’s warmth feels like a furnace. My cheeks burn with his proximity.
My clit pounds as it gets the signal that I’m interested. I suppose allowing the idea that we might hook up to take root is already getting me going.
“Not sure what’s freaking me out more,” I admit. “That we might have a stalker god, or what Dante said last night.”
“We’ll deal with a god if we have to.” His hand cups my shoulder, and he stares into my eyes. “And it doesn’t matter what Dante says. What do you want?”
“I…” I pause and consider lying and running from this complicated proposition. “I was always attracted to you. All three of you. But other than some wild fantasies, I never expected to commit to three guys at the same time.”
“Then maybe we should consider it dating until you feel comfortable committing to more.”
I smile. “That’s what I was hoping for.”
“How about we go out tonight? Just you and me. We can see how things go. See if I can make you feel like the beautiful goddess you are.” Evan plays with a long lock of my hair and waits patiently for my answer.
“Sounds good,” I say with a breathy voice. Damn if this man can’t fire up my engines. “I expect to be home around six tonight.”
His eyes light up with hope, and I realize it’s the first time I’ve ever seen him excited. Happy even? It causes my stomach to flutter with butterflies.
“I can’t wait.” He leans over to give me a chaste kiss on the cheek that lingers long enough for my thoughts to become anything but chaste.
Megan takes this moment to pop in and catch me pinned against the counter.
Her smirk tells me I’m in for a ribbing today. “Let’s get a move on, hot lips. Death waits for no one… well, but us right now.” She chuckles at her own joke.
“Hey, Megan.” Evan steps to my side and slides his arm behind me. He kisses the top of my head and wishes me goodbye. “Have a good day, sweetheart.”
I hold my hand out to Megan as my eyes widen, and we transport out of there.
When we land in the underworld, Megan gasps. “What the ever-living-me was that?”
“Apparently, I’m going to try dating all three?” I shrug because it sounds so weird to admit.
“Damn! They’re all hot as hellfire. Are you going to have orgies? Any male on male action?” She waggles her brows.
“Uh. Slow down, perv.” I chuckle when she gives me a perturbed look. “I’m going to just go on a few dates. I’m not having sex parties yet.”
“ Yet? ” Of course she picks that word out of what I said. “All I’m hearing is that is definitely on the agenda.”
Death sweeps into the room and his cloaked figure with his overpowering presence sends a chill racing up my spine.
“Hello, agents,” he greets us with his baritone that rumbles the ground.
“Hello, sir,” we acknowledge him.
“Tessa, I hear yesterday’s reaps went very well.” He turns to me and asks, “How do you feel?”
“Better than I thought. I wasn’t sure if I could handle it, but I’m more confident now.”
“Good,” he says, and I almost hear the smile in the shadows. “I will now bestow upon you the powers of a reaper. Transportation magic and invisibility being the most helpful to you. I also offer you my specter awareness, fragmented soul collection, and astral projection, even though you have your own abilities in these areas.”
He waves his sleeved arm in my direction, and I feel a wash of vibrating tingles settle over me.
My hands glow with godly magic.
“If you are amenable, Megan can train you on your new powers,” he says with a question in his tone.
“Yes, Megan’s been great. And thank you.”
“You’re welcome, little one. Call for me if you need any assistance.” Death tilts his head farewell and disappears.
Curious, I ask Megan, “Have you ever asked him for help?”
“I did a few times when I first started. Only do it if you’re in a bad way. Otherwise, call me and I’ll come help.”
“Really?” I ask with awe. “Will I be able to hear you?”
“Should be able to. We rarely need help, but weird shit can happen when you’re dealing with the supernatural and the gods.”
Yeah, she ain’t kidding.