Page 50 of Hades

“I don’t know what to fucking believe. I’ve got women on every side of me lying through their teeth.”

“This is about Reggie,” Rhea said with a nod.

“She had my fucking kid and didn’t tell me!” Zeus shouted.

I sat back in my chair and watched Rhea. She’d been closed off to everyone since the funeral. Even now, her words were measured as she spoke to her son. Careful. Controlled. Like she was walking on glass and one wrong step would shatter her completely.

“What’s your plan?”

“I got a lawyer. He filed a petition for a blood test. I have to prove he’s mine before I can move forward,” Zeus explained.

“And after that?”

Zeus looked at his mother. Not many people knew Zeus had a tell. The man could look you in the eye, lie to your face, and you’d never know the difference. It was so fucking subtle and so damn random that I might be the only one who knew him well enough to catch it. He tapped his finger on the table. Once. Twice. Three times.

And lied to his mother.

“I haven’t gotten that far.”

“Let me know when you figure it out,” Rhea said before turning back toward the door. She paused and looked over her shoulder. “And Alex?”

“Alex is family.”

It was the answer Rhea needed. A small smile crossed her face. She nodded and walked out of church. The door closed behind her with a soft click that echoed in the silence.

“I need you to stick around the clubhouse for the next few days. I need every eye on Alex,” Zeus ordered.

“In case she slips up?”

I’d known this was coming the moment she climbed off her bike. Alex was a liability. She always had been, and Poseidon held too much guilt over the way she was raised to hold her accountable for the shit she pulled. She had him wrapped around her finger and we all knew it. She’d use that. Exploit it. And when whatever she was running from caught up to her, we’d all be standing in the blast radius.

“There’s no question she’ll slip up,” Zeus grumbled. “Alex can’t control herself. She’s selfish and entitled. She thinks the world revolves around her, and I guarantee she’s brought shit to our door. We just have to figure out what it is before it gets here.”

“And when it gets here?” I asked, knowing there was only one acceptable answer.

“We protect her,” Zeus said. “Just like we always have. We do what we’ve always done and clean up the mess she made.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Hades

The next day, Alex walked into church scared as hell and lying through her teeth. My jaw clenched as I watched her performance. Forty-five minutes of calculated, rehearsed bullshit. Every answer measured. Every pause deliberate. The story about Derek and the bad breakup didn’t hold water. It was thin as piss, transparent as glass, and she expected us to swallow it whole.

She was terrified, but not of us. Of whatever she’d run from.

I could see it in the way her eyes darted to the door every few minutes. The way her hands trembled before she clasped them together in her lap. The way her breathing hitched when Zeus leaned forward. She was prey, and something out there was hunting her. Something that made facing a room full of violent men seem like the safer option.

Pathetic.

Zeus assigned Abyss to shadow her. Ordered Coeus to dig into her background. Demanded Poseidon get the truth out of her.

When the officers filed out, only Poseidon remained.

“What if we can’t save her?” he asked quietly.

“Then we make sure whoever’s coming for her regrets it,” Zeus said.

The next morning, she was gone.