7th Circle (Hades Book 1)

by Tate James

  But he'd rejected me before; I wasn't running that risk again. Sorry, but this bitch learned from her mistakes.

  I released his shirt and moved to step out from under his looming presence, but Cass had other ideas. He caught my wrist and jerked me back to him before I’d made it more than one step.

  My instinct was to lash out. In the blink of an eye, my free hand pulled the gun from my lower back and pressed it to his ribs. But Cass just ignored it. He kept my wrist captive in his grip as his other hand wrapped around my ponytail, tugging it back and tilting my face up.

  "Cassiel," I growled, anger and outrage thundering through my veins... along with some other emotions.

  His dark eyes met mine with a glimmer of challenge, and the corners of his lips kicked up. "You gonna shoot me, Red? Do it."

  Fuck. Fuck.

  He tugged harder on my hair, lowering his head until his lips hovered a breath away from mine, and my index finger stroked the trigger of my gun.

  "Shoot me if you want," he rumbled, "but I'm going to kiss you anyway."

  "I thought you didn't fuck children," I snapped back, my voice all bitter anger.

  He huffed a sound awfully close to a laugh, his breath warming my lips. "I don't."

  He didn't elaborate on that. He didn't need to. His lips met mine in a bruising kiss that temporarily short circuited my brain. Then I let out a small moan and kissed him back.

  My gun was still against his side, my finger still on the trigger, but that seemed so very appropriate as we kissed like we were at war.

  After a few moments, though, he released my wrist and shifted his hand to my waist. His fingers slipped beneath my loose sweatshirt, meeting bare skin and sending shudders rippling through me. I needed to put my damn gun down before I accidentally shot one of us.

  It seemed the universe was against us hooking up, because a second after tucking my gun away, the heavy sound of footsteps came up the front steps to the porch and an unfamiliar voice called out, "Hey!"

  "Motherfucker," Cass growled, echoing my own feelings.

  "Hey, who the hell are you?" the stranger shouted. "You can't be in here! This is a closed crime scene!"

  "Fuck’s sake," I huffed, pushing away from Cass's smoking hot body to glare in the direction of the voice. It was an SGPD cop, and a nervous-looking one at that, probably fresh out of training and tasked with keeping an eye on the crime scene. He'd been doing a shitty job of it too, considering how long I'd already been poking around.

  "Y-you're going to have to come with me," the rookie told us in an uncertain voice.

  Cass just arched a brow at me, silently asking if I wanted to handle it. I appreciated the sentiment but shrugged and waved my hand as if to say, All yours, Grumpy Cat.

  He gave a short nod, then crossed the room to the baby cop in just a handful of long strides. The poor kid didn't stand a chance, barely managing to babble out a weak protest before Cass's fist met the side of his head and knocked him out cold.

  The heavy thump of the cop's unconscious body hitting the floor seemed to echo, followed by the crackle of his radio.

  "You okay in there, Simmons? Need back up?"

  I rolled my eyes. "Great. He has a buddy."

  Cass just shrugged. "I'm about fucking done with these bastards. They're reporting back to someone, and it's sure as fuck not the SGPD commissioner."

  I was inclined to agree, but I was also curious what he hoped to achieve by assaulting an officer who wasn't under our control. I probably would have just told the poor kid who he was trying to arrest and let the fear of our names—my name—do its work.

  "We’d better go," I sighed. "Dealing with law enforcement is pretty fucking low on my to-do list today."

  Cass grunted a sound of agreement. "Or any day. Come on." He jerked his head to the back of the house. "I parked my bike around back. Your car is too far away."

  "Stalker," I muttered, but followed him anyway. He pushed through a back door and strode down a short path to an alleyway behind. He swung a leg over his gorgeous motorcycle, then jerked his head for me to get on.

  With absolutely no hesitation I climbed on, sliding in close until my throbbing core was firm against his ass and my legs bracketed his. I certainly wasn't the kind of girl to be any biker’s bitch, but I could definitely see the appeal.

  "Hold on," Cass told me as I wrapped my arms around his rock-hard abdomen. A cop car had just rolled past the end of the alleyway, and a second later, its lights flashed on. "Let's give this fucker a tour of Shadow Grove."

  I could have sworn he laughed then—an actual laugh. But it was right as he revved the engine of his bike, so maybe I was imagining things. Either way, my grin was wide as we tore out of the alley, straight past the cop car with my ponytail streaming.

  A high-speed chase was a much better use of my Monday than sleeping anyway.

  12

  It was almost disappointing how easily we ditched the cop on our tail, but Cass didn't seem to be in any great hurry to deliver me back to my car. Instead, he took the mountain road behind Shadow Grove, racing around the tight corners with expert handling and speed.

  He was getting no complaints from me, either, as his muscles bunched and flexed under me with each shift of the bike. I was definitely seeing the appeal of being a passenger rather than driver. Fuck me.

  "What are we doing up here, Cass?" I asked when he slowed to a stop at Eagle's Rest lookout. He flipped his kickstand out, and I climbed off to shake out my limbs.

  He swung his leg over the bike as well, then wrapped his hands around my waist. "This," he said, then instead of lowering his face down to mine—flat sneakers had me a full foot shorter than him—he picked me up off the ground to kiss me.

  A flash of shock rippled through me, then I wrapped my legs around his waist to keep from being dropped as I kissed him back. He tasted of scotch and mint with a faint hint of tobacco and used his lips like a weapon—exactly what I'd been imagining since meeting him years ago.

  But my phone started buzzing incessantly in my pocket, and I groaned with frustration.

  "I need to check that," I told him, my hands on either side of his face and my face just an inch from his.

  His eyes narrowed. "Do you, though?" Punctuating his point, his hands tightened where they'd slipped to my ass and his lips found mine again.

  For a moment, I let him sway me, kissing him back as my phone stopped buzzing. But then it started again, and I unlinked my legs from around Cass, pushing away.

  Pulling my phone from my pocket, I took a couple of strides away from temptation, then answered the call.

  "Zed," I said in greeting.

  "Boss," he replied without any hint of teasing in his voice. "I'm at the city morgue. There's something here you need to see."

  I didn't ask questions. If Zed said I needed to see something with my own eyes, then he meant it. Dread curdled through my guts and I breathed a short sigh.

  "I'll be there in half an hour. Do you have a copy of the reports yet?"

  "Working on it," he said, sounding annoyed. "See you soon."

  He ended the call, and I turned back to Cass. The sexy, inked-up bastard just stared at me with his arms folded over his impressive chest.

  "Duty calls?" he guessed, his dark gaze running over my face and pausing on my mouth like he was still thinking about kissing me again.

  I jerked a nod, shoving my arousal aside. Business first, always.

  Cass didn't ask anything more, just got back onto his bike and waited for me to climb on behind him before revving the engine.

  We didn't speak again for the whole drive back into Shadow Grove, and Cass took me directly to my car in the covered lot near Nadia's Cakes. Instead of just dropping me off and leaving, though, he parked beside my Range Rover and waited as I popped the trunk open and hunted out a change of clothes. It was one thing for Cass—who I wanted to get naked—to see me dressed so casually. But if I was showing up at the city morgue in official capacity, then I n
eeded to look the part.

  Luckily, I kept a bag of spare clothes specifically for times like this.

  His eyes remained glued on me as I swapped my hoodie for a leather jacket—luckily, my sports bra was black, so it worked as a "top" underneath—and my sneakers for a pair of black patent leather Louboutin’s. Then I slid into my driver’s seat, leaving the door open as I flipped my mirror open and applied some heavy mascara, winged eyeliner, and blood-red lipstick.

  "Just like that," Cass commented in a low rumble, "Hades is back."

  I arched a brow at him, pulling my messy ponytail free to weave my thick hair into a tight french braid. He wasn't wrong, though. Changing my appearance went a long way toward focusing my attitude.

  "You got a problem with me as Hades, Cassiel?" I asked in a cool tone, sliding back out of my seat and taking two steps closer to him. My heels clicked on the concrete floor, and I already felt different. Less emotional.

  Maybe that was why I liked Lucas so much. He seemed to still see the real me through my Hades facade.

  Cass just watched me with a wary cautiousness that stung a bit. He also didn't answer my question, and I didn't know whether to be offended or not. Then he ran his gaze over my body from head to toe and shook his head.

  "See you around, Red," he rumbled, swinging his leg over his bike and kicking over the engine.

  I turned my back on him, going back to my trunk to tuck a couple of spare ammunition clips in my pockets. The roar of his bike faded away as I got back into my seat and slammed the door, and I allowed myself a small spike of disappointment before pushing it all aside.

  Business first.

  Personal life... later. Maybe. If later ever came.

  It was only a short drive over to the morgue at the county medical examiner’s office, so I was only a couple of minutes later than I'd told Zed. He was waiting for me outside, not a good sign, and he was smoking. An even worse sign.

  He straightened up when I got out of my car, dropping his cigarette to squash it under his boot. I didn't comment on it, though, just arched a brow at him as he fell into step with me. He gave me a grimace, then opened the front door for me to enter ahead of him.

  The metal detectors beeped as we both passed through, but neither one of us stopped to surrender our weapons. Enough of the city was still under my control that the guard on the door just turned the beeping off and pretended like it'd never happened.

  "What am I walking into here, Zed?" I asked in a low voice as we made our way down the long corridor. We'd visited the morgue often enough that we knew where to go without needing someone to guide us.

  He huffed a sigh. "You wouldn't have believed me if I’d told you, boss. Better to see it for yourself."

  Apprehension prickled my skin, but I didn't argue. It was pointless when I was about to find out. Drawing a steadying breath, I pushed open the swinging doors to the morgue itself.

  A woman in a lab coat and glasses startled so hard she almost fell off her stool, then quickly recovered and strode over to greet us.

  "Hades, ma'am, sir, sorry, uh—" She fumbled over her words, and I held a hand up to stop it before she panicked too hard.

  "You must be Meredith," I said, giving her a quick once over. Our old medical examiner had recently suffered a stroke. He was doing well, but he'd been forced to retire and appoint a replacement: Meredith Quay.

  She was a pretty woman with tightly curled hair and a dusting of freckles across her nose. Her head bobbed in confirmation, and she held her hand out for me to shake.

  "Yes, ma'am, uh, sir, uh, Ms. Timber?" Her panicked eyes shifted to Zed, who was hiding a smirk behind his hand as he pretended to scratch his cheek.

  "Just Hades is fine," I told the new medical examiner with a cool smile. I knew it wasn't one that reached my eyes, though. They rarely did these days. "Zed tells me you have something to show me?"

  Meredith bobbed her head again. "Yes, I mean, I probably wouldn't have noticed anything super suspicious about it on a body like this, but..." She paused, hurrying over to the metal gurney already set up in the middle of the room with a body on it. A sheet covered the whole corpse, but she quickly flipped the sheet down to reveal Sonny-boy. "I mentioned to Mr. De Rosa that the victim had a recent tattoo." Her eyes darted to Zed as she pulled a fresh pair of latex gloves on, then indicated I should come closer.

  Not that I needed any encouragement. I was no stranger to dead bodies, and Sonny had loads of tattoos. But something about this one had alarmed Zed enough to call me down to the morgue in person, so I was burning with curiosity.

  Meredith rolled Sonny's corpse slightly, lifting his shoulder off the table to show me the fresh ink in a small patch of previously un-inked skin.

  Alarm ricocheted through my whole damn body when I saw the tattoo in question, and my eyes flew to Zed's. He gave a nod, confirming that I wasn't fucking imagining things, and I silently cursed.

  "This looks like it was only done a day or so before he was killed," I commented, keeping my tone carefully neutral and my face blank.

  Meredith put the body back down and shrugged. "Yeah, I'd say so. Within a day or two, anyway. Does it mean something?"

  Zed and I exchanged a quick look, then I shook my head. "Not that I can think of," I lied. "But thank you for showing me, anyway."

  She didn't believe me, and I would have been disappointed if she had. Still, she took the hint and didn't push any further.

  "No troubles, Hades," she chirped. "Also, Mr. De Rosa, Jenks made a copy of the file for you." She snapped off her gloves and hurried over to her desk where she picked up a thin folder of paper.

  "Thank you, Meredith," Zed said as he took the file from her. "I really appreciate how helpful you've been today." His smile was pure charm, and I had to bite my cheek to stop from rolling my eyes at him.

  Meredith blushed, though, despite being an easy ten to fifteen years older than Zed. Fucking hell, his appeal knew no limits, apparently.

  I didn't hang around to watch him flirt with the new ME and stalked out of the morgue with paranoia pricking my skin with every damn step. Zed followed quickly, catching up before I’d even made it to the end of the corridor, but didn't say a word as we exited the building.

  Once outside, I drew a couple of deep breaths, letting the fresh air ground me and calm me down. It didn't totally work, but the pressing sense of panic subsided slightly. I didn't feel quite so much like I was about to pass out.

  "Tell me that wasn't what I think it was, Zed." My voice was a rough whisper as I continued toward my car in the parking lot. Zed was close enough to touch, though, so he heard me just fine.

  "Can't do that, boss." He grimaced. "It's exactly what you think."

  Not wanting to believe him—or what I'd just seen with my own two eyes—I swiftly grabbed him by the front of his shirt and slammed him into the side of my range rover. He didn't fight me as my shaking fingers tugged his buttons loose, parting his shirt to reveal the tattoo on his chest.

  His chest rose under my touch, his breath gusting out as I ran my fingertips over the geometric design over his heart. It'd been years since I'd seen it up this close and even longer since the day Zed had drawn it as a doodle in the margin of my economics workbook while he helped tutor me through exams.

  "How is this even possible?" I breathed, tracing those lines over and over with my finger. It seemed like an intricate and possibly random design, but I'd watched him create it. It was my middle name. Darling.

  Chase had seen him draw it too. Chase goddamn Lockhart, my first love and Zed’s best friend. It'd been his idea to make it into a tattoo, and Zed had only gotten it done because Chase Dared him to do it. It was a stupid fucking game. Dare.

  "I don't know, Dare," Zed whispered back, using my nickname for the first time in five years. It shocked me almost as much as seeing that tattoo on Sonny-boy. "We'll figure it out though. Whoever it is, they're just trying to get inside our heads. Don't let them." His index finger pressed under my chin, li
fting my gaze up to meet his. "You're Hades, remember? No one scares you. Not even a ghost."

  I wanted to believe that so badly, but he was wrong. No one scared me more than this particular ghost.

  13

  Zed and I headed back to my apartment from the morgue, not wanting to discuss sensitive topics out in the open. By the time we’d finished reading through the police report of Sonny-boy's murder and officially decided that a certain Officer Randall was our lead, I was running late to pick Seph up from school. And I still hadn't dropped off her car with my mechanic to be fixed.

  "I'll take it in now," Zed offered when I said as much aloud. "I need to go back to the ME’s to pick up my car anyway; I can drop hers at Rex’s on the way."

  He'd come home with me in my Range Rover, as if he didn’t want to let me out of his sight for that amount of time. Silly really. I was scared and paranoid and wallowing in old guilt, but I was perfectly capable of driving alone. And yet I hadn't protested when he'd climbed into my passenger seat.

  "You're the best, Zed," I told him with a genuine smile. "What would I even do without you?"

  He rolled his eyes with a short laugh. "Let's never find out." He headed over to the hall table where Seph usually tossed her car keys when she came home. He found them straight away, thanks to the fluffy pink ball hanging from them.

  I groaned as I stood up and stretched, feeling all the kinks in my spine and regretting that I hadn’t gone back to sleep this morning. With a yawn, I pulled my shoulder holster back on, shifting it until it was comfortable, then strapped a couple of slim but deadly blades to my thigh, right over my jeans. Fuck it. I gave less than zero fucks if stuck-up Shadow Prep parents saw me and screamed.

  "Safety first," I told Zed with a smirk when I caught him watching me. He was probably thinking I was going overkill for school pickup, but I'd rather be over-armed than dead.

  He gave me a tight smile, then opened the front door. "Shall we?"