by Katee Robert
The door opens, and I speak without looking up, “What are you doing here, Tink? You have the day off.”
“Tink does have the day off.”
I freeze in the middle of typing. Even as I tell myself that Hades wouldn’t be that much of an asshole, when I look up, Hercules is still standing in my doorway. “What are you doing here?”
“Reporting for training.”
Oh yes, Hades and I will have words about his high-handedness. He may technically be my boss, but I am in charge of managing the club. Up until this point, he’s allowed me to do that as I see fit. Forcing Hercules into my presence is a test, and I resent him for it. Why is he so determined to rub this man in my face? It’s like he knows that Hercules got under my skin, keeps getting under my skin, and wants to… That’s the problem. I don’t know what Hades wants. I can’t begin to guess.
“Did our dearest Dom tell you what he intends?” I don’t have much faith in it, so I’m already turning back to my computer when Hercules answers.
“I guess I’m training for Tink’s job?”
That bastard. I close my eyes and take a slow breath. It’s not Hercules’s fault that Hades continues to play games. Whether this one is aimed at me, Hercules, or Tink doesn’t matter. All that does is display his willingness to use the club as his conduit. “Sit.” I grab my phone before I can think better of it. This is probably best left to when we have some privacy, but if he’s determined to shoehorn Hercules into every aspect of our lives, then he’ll just have to deal with the man overhearing our conversation. I push the button to dial his office.
For once, he doesn’t make me wait. “I trust Hercules arrived promptly.”
“Hades, what are you doing?” I take in Hercules for the first time since he’s walked into my office. He looks like a different person this morning. I don’t know if it’s the expensive clothes that appear tailored to him or that he’s just more at ease in his own skin than he was the first night I met him. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Hades’s endgame is what matters.
And I don’t know what it is.
He lets the silence spin out until my heart is beating too hard and I’m ready to scream my frustration down the line. Finally, he says, “Tink’s contract is almost finished.”
“Yes, it is. And she’s considering staying on afterward.”
“She won’t.” He says it with such confidence, I almost believe him.
Almost. “Funny, but that’s not what she told me yesterday. Do you know something I don’t?”
“I know a lot of things you don’t. However, this is just a feeling.”
Just a feeling. Right. I strive for patience, not to let my frustration show. “I don’t deal in feelings, Hades. I deal in facts. Until Tink tells me otherwise, I’m going to operate like she’s not leaving, which means I don’t need to fill the position of her replacement.” More silence, an invitation for me to back down. I won’t. Most of the time, I will submit to his pleasure. Not in this. Not right now. “Just tell me why,” I whisper.
“He’s a gift, love.”
He’d said something to the same effect the night he sent me to fuck Hercules. I frown. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Report to me once you’re finished with him today.”
Click.
I take the phone away from my ear and stare at it. He just… He just hung up on me. I carefully set it back in its cradle and take an equally careful breath. This isn’t Hercules’s fault, but it feels like it’s his fault. If he’d just shown a little more restraint, just asked me what I wanted, then we wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with. “Apparently I don’t have a choice.” I don’t realize I’ve spoken aloud until he answers.
“I’m sorry.”
I glare. I want to shake him until something akin to sense blossoms in that pretty head of his. “It’s not your fault this time. You’re just a tool, Hercules, and a blunt one at that.”
He blinks and then bursts out laughing. “Wow, Meg, tell me how you really feel.” Just like that, some of the tension eases in him and he slouches back in his seat. “You didn’t have a problem with me last night.”
Of all the— “That was different and you know it. A scene is its own little world.”
He shrugs. “I won’t pretend I’m an expert in what a scene entails, but we have a connection. You can’t fake that.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him that I can, in fact, fake that. I close my eyes and strive for control. Cutting him down might feel good for a moment, but it’s like kicking a puppy. Unnecessarily cruel. He made a mistake in bargaining his life way. That’s punishment enough without me verbally stabbing him every time he brushes against one of my many emotional wounds. “Just because we have a connection doesn’t mean I want you underfoot.”
“I won’t be a burden.”
I open my eyes. “Before you were a waiter, what was your job?” If Hades is determined to have him here, I suppose I should treat this as professionally as possible. As if I wasn’t coming on his tongue a few short hours ago.
He looks away, a faint blush coloring his cheeks. “I, ah, didn’t work. After I graduated college two years ago, I took a year off and then I was supposed to start in my father’s business, but life got in the way.”
Life got in the way. Likely the same life that resulted in him ending up in Carver City. I want to judge him for his life of privilege, to cut him down out of spite because I’m hurting, but he’s trying. I can try, too. “Okay.”
Hercules looks back at me, all youthful promise and hope. “I’m a fast learner.”
I raise my eyebrows. “I suppose we’ll see, won’t we?” There’s no point in fighting this. I might as well put him to work. I brace myself. “Okay, first things first. Work is work and fucking is fucking. When you’re on the clock, especially during office work, I need you focused on paperwork instead of pussy.”
He grins. “You mean you don’t want me to climb under your desk and eat you out for hours?”
My body flashes hot, and I give myself a full three seconds to enjoy the fantasy. Despite my best intentions, I find myself returning his grin. “Maybe later we can play that out.”
“All work and no play.” His blue eyes shine with mirth. “You know what they say about that.”
“That is why it’s called work, Hercules.” Though now that we’re talking about it, it’s sounding like one hell of an idea. I shouldn’t start breaking rules the second I lay them out. I really shouldn’t.
Before I can walk back on my declaration of keeping work and fucking separate, he says, “Hades told me I’m not allowed to fuck you so I suppose I’ll have to follow at least some of the rules.”
I blink. “What?”
“I spoke with him this morning. He was pretty damn clear that my cock isn’t allowed anywhere near your pussy until he gives permission.” He shrugs. “Though he left the rest of it up for interpretation.”
I may have had the same order from Hades, but the idea of them negotiating what Hercules can and can’t do with me has fury fanning deep inside my chest. All my amusement, all my desire, turns to ash inside me in the wake of it. I want to hurt them both, to do something to make them reevaluate how easily they trade me as a favor between them. It doesn’t matter what Hades has said about us seducing Hercules together; in light of his actions, it couldn’t be clearer that he means to seduce the man himself, using me as a tool when it suits him.
I’ve played the part of tool before. I have no interest in playing it again. Hades must know that. Surely he hasn’t forgotten so much in his quest for his endgame. Surely…
But I can’t be certain. Not anymore.
I sit back. “Why you, Hercules? That’s what I don’t get. He’s had people who have caught his eye over the years, but nothing like this. I just don’t understand.”
He opens his mouth, but seems to reconsider his next words. “Why don’t you ask him?”
“As if it were that simple.” I give him a m
irthless smile. “He won’t tell me.”
“Are you sure?”
Just like that, I realize the truth. Hercules knows exactly why Hades picked him out of the crowd. Hercules knows and I do not. I absently rub my chest, grinding away at the ache there. No reason to feel this hurt. It isn’t as if being shut out by Hades is a new development. I should be used to it by now. I just assumed he wasn’t willing to open up to anyone, so it didn’t sting so badly that he wouldn’t open up to me. Apparently it isn’t the truth.
“Meg?” From the worried tone in his voice, Hercules has said my name more than once.
“I’m fine.” I turn back to my computer, but I can’t quite focus on the screen. It keeps blurring across my vision. I blink a few times, but it doesn’t help.
“Meg.” His voice sounds closer. He rounds the desk and, after the briefest of hesitations, takes my hand and pulls me to my feet. And then I’m in his arms and he’s holding me tightly. “Don’t cry, Meg. It’s okay. Everything will be okay.”
“I’m not crying.” Even as I say the words, wetness trails down my cheeks. “I’m fine.”
“Meg.” He tightens his grip, practically crushing me to his chest. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”
I should push away, should tell him I can stand on my own, but I don’t. I just rest my cheek on his chest and let him hold me. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t feel that way. I’ve been fucking up ever since I got here.” He laughs harshly. “I’ve been fucking up a lot longer than that, if I’m honest.”
“Hercules…”
He strokes a rough hand over my hair. “All I wanted was to help you, and it feels like all I’ve done is make your life harder.”
He’s not exactly wrong, but he’s also taking all the blame when there’s more than enough to go around. I shouldn’t have seduced him in the first place as part of a game with me and Hades. Hades shouldn’t have used us both as pawns without communicating his plans. A whole lot of shouldn’t. “I guess I should apologize too.” My voice is watery and rough, and I hate the weakness it represents. The crack in my armor.
“What a mess we are.”
“You can say that again.”
He lifts me and carries me back to the chair on the other side of the desk, sitting with me curled in his lap. Again, I know I should stop this. Again, I don’t. I let him hold me, let him comfort me, even though I don’t deserve it. “What did you mean before? When you said you’ve been fucking up a lot longer?”
He takes a careful breath, and I wonder if he’s going to lie to me. But Hercules just rests his chin on the top of my head and exhales. “My father hurt a woman. I found out and tried to make things right. I just thought if the truth came out, then he would be punished for the harm he did her. I didn’t realize I’d be putting her reputation on trial more than his. He traumatized her, but I’m the one who ruined her life. I told her I could protect her, and then I wasn’t able to.” I start to sit up, but he tightens his hold on me. “Please don’t try to comfort me. I don’t deserve it.”
It doesn’t take much to read between the lines and know what kind of harm his father delivered that would put his victim’s reputation on trial. “You were dumb to think that it would play out any other way than how it did, especially if you father has any power.”
He makes a choked sound. “Thanks, Meg. That’s very helpful.”
I lift my head. “But that doesn’t mean you’re to blame. You tried to make things right. It blew up in your face, but you tried and that counts for something.”
He looks so goddamn upset. Those blue eyes hold horrors in a way they never have in the other times we’ve talked. “I appreciate you saying it, but it doesn’t count for shit.”
I know how I would have handled that situation. I know how Hades would have. In that, we are too much alike, perhaps. No matter how powerful, we would have taken the bastard down. The only difference is that Hades would have required a deal to put things into motion. I don’t know if telling Hercules that he should have sought justice outside of the system is helpful. Probably not.
I cup his jaw. “What happened to her?”
He looks at me, but he’s not seeing me. “She ended up dropping the charges. She just wanted to get out of town, to break fully from everything connected to what happened. I gave her as much money as she’d take and promised never to look for her.” Hercules shakes his head. “I should have done something more.”
Easy enough to follow this to the next step. “So that’s why you left.”
“That’s why I left.”
Noble or stupid? I honestly don’t know. Maybe he could have done more good back in that place, fighting against the powers that be. Maybe. I’m not about to judge cutting his losses and leaving. I walked away from my entire life and all my future plans for a man who threw me away like trash the second he got what he wanted from me. And after I fell for Hades, I never once considered leaving, not with any kind of intent. Does that make me a coward for being content to live in his shadow? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. Because I have no answers, I do the only thing that makes sense.
I kiss Hercules.
He tastes like mint and something surprisingly sweet, and after a moment of shock, he returns the kiss with interest. The man might be submissive but he’s all enthusiasm as he slips his fingers into my hair and tugs until he’s able to deepen our kiss, to tease my mouth open. To claim me, just a little, just right now. To connect.
It’s not enough. I knew it wouldn’t be the second our lips touched. I want that connection as much as he does, want the purity Hercules brings to every interaction. He hides nothing. It doesn’t even occur to him to try. After a decade with Hades, it’s refreshing in a way that goes straight to my head.
I straddle him and the new position makes my shift dress ride up. Hercules strokes his hands down my back and squeezes my ass, urging me to grind against him. He’s hard, all thick and long and full of promise. Exactly what I need. I reach down to the front of his pants, but he catches my wrist. “No, Meg.”
“Excuse me?”
“Hades—”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. The reminder stings. I yank my hand away from him. “Do you always do what you’re told?”
The guilt on his face confirms it even before he says, “This time, I do.”
The reminder is a slap in the face. I was willing to suffer whatever punishment Hades dreams up for his command. Apparently the same can’t be said for Hercules. He might say he came here for me, but he stayed for Hades. I see the way Hercules watches him, recognize it on a soul-deep level. He’s caught in Hades’s gravitational pull. He’s not the first, and he won’t be the last. There is absolutely no reason for that to sting. And yet it does. “So much for that shining armor you’re so fond of. You’re just as bad as the rest of us.”
I climb off him, but he catches my wrist again. “That’s not fair.”
“No, it’s not, but I’m not in the mood to be fair right now.” The lost feeling from last night washes over me again. I’m just a raw nerve right now, not good company for anyone. That seems to be the rule, rather than the exception, these days. “Please leave.”
“Meg.” Now censure creeps into his tone. “We have a job to do.”
The sudden urge to scream and throw things washes over me. I have to close my eyes and breathe through it. I am Megaera, Queen of the fucking Underworld. I do not indulge in petty temper tantrums. It takes far longer than it should to wind myself back into something resembling calm. A facade, and not even a good one, but it’ll have to do.
I carefully put my desk between us and sink into my chair. Hercules is still sporting a cockstand for the ages, but I ignore it. The room feels too small with him in it, but I ignore that too. I’ve never been claustrophobic, but right now the entire city feels too damn small. There isn’t enough air, enough space, enough freedom.
I turn my monitor so he can see it. When I speak, my voice actually sounds norm
al. “These are the numbers from last night. Tink—and now you—are aware of them, but ultimately the books are my responsibility.” For now. I ignore the insidious little voice inside me and continue. “Most mornings, Tink and I meet to discuss the information the staff gathered the night before. We have files on all the major players in Carver City, and it’s in everyone’s best interest if we know as many of their dirty secrets as possible.”
“Who are the major players of Carver City?”
I might laugh if I didn’t want to strangle both him and Hades for putting me in this position. I’m not a goddamn kindergarten teacher, and I might resent it less without Hades’s clear hand of manipulation in all this. If he’d just talk to me, instead of forcing me to backflip through his hoops.
I pull out a laminated map that I keep in my locked desk drawer. It’s an archaic way to keep track of things, but Hades is old school and sometimes the lines shift enough that it’s actually useful. I unfold it and point. “This is Carver City.”
Hercules takes in the red lines I’ve painstakingly marked, finally focusing on the little square in the center. It’s only a couple of city blocks, but it represents safety in a way I don’t think he can comprehend. He points to it. “This is the Underworld.”
“Yes. Hades’s territory, but for all intents and purposes, it’s neutral territory for everyone else. They can visit the club without worrying about power plays and murder attempts, at least for the most part. These belong to others.” I touch each of the slice in turn. They were in varying sizes and shapes, marked out with blood and violence in some cases, with deals and threats in others. “You will see their leaders and generals in here at one time or another. I’ll get you copies of the files on them, but it’s important that you don’t do anything to fuck with their coming here. We can’t gather knowledge if it’s not given within this space. We don’t send our people into their territories. It has to happen in the Underworld, and it can’t if they’re not here. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
I don’t know that I trust him with this. He’s still so new, he practically shines. The fact that Hades wants him trained up under Tink would blow my mind if I let myself think about it too hard. Tink’s skills are hard-won, and she had most of them before she was put in the position to make a deal with Hades. Training her was just a matter of refining them a little and pointing her in the right direction. Hercules is another creature entirely. “That’s enough for now.”