HADES Page 17

  Antoine…Zeus said that to his daughter. He said that to her with venom laced throughout every syllable of his last speech.

  But Persy just flinched and turned her gaze back to Hades. “Please spare his life. If you ever loved me. If you're serious about loving me back. Please, don’t do this.”

  Maybe there was a world where Hades might've seen reason in this. A world where he spared Antoine Perreault's life, even though the man had not only killed his mother, but also given his daughter over to a criminal in order to spare his own insignificant life. Maybe there was a world where Antoine put the million-dollar hit on Hades to save his daughter, to get her back and finally start offering her the protection any decent father should. Maybe, in that world, Hades would have changed his mind.

  Yes, perhaps there was a world—more than one, even—where Hades failed to kill the man who had caused the woman he loved so much pain.

  But this world… the one he and Persy occupied on that fateful day… this world wasn't one of them.

  “No! Hades, please don’t—” Persy began to say.

  He pulled the trigger on the gun Persy failed to kill him with toward the beginning of their relationship, and the shot rang out before she could even finish begging him for her bon de rien father’s life.

  “My father didn’t die by suicide?” Persy says after he’s done with his story. Her voice is filled with horror. “You…you killed him? You actually killed my father right in front of me?”

  Persy is the one with the gun almost four years later, but she looks just as shocked and upset as she did that night. “We finally made up after all that fighting, after everything you did to me. I was willing to forgive you, and you paid me back by killing my father?”

  “Persy…” he begins to say.

  “Don't call me that!” she shrieks.

  But then she visibly calms herself down to ask, “Why?”

  “Why did I kill him?” Hades asks, a little confused by the question.

  “No, I know why you killed him. I can see you’re a total psychopath.” She shakes her head. “But why the rest? Why didn't you just re-kidnap me when you found me? Why did you bother with the big house and the job with the Amy Fairgood Foundation. All that money you let me give away? Why did you put so much effort into building a dream life for someone who promised to always hate you? Why did you pretend to be Galen Fairgood instead of the monster you really are?”

  Good question.

  And though it’s unwise to laugh at someone who has a gun pointed at you, Hades has to let out a wry chuckle.

  “Answer me!” She pulls back the slide, exactly as he would have done if he thought someone wasn’t taking him seriously enough. He hadn't taught her to use a gun. But obviously she learned from osmosis. He’s weirdly proud of her. But…

  “The answer to your question is another long story, ma belle,” he says with a long exhale of breath. “Why did I pretend to be Galen Fairgood?”

  He shakes his head and tells her the truth. The complete, ridiculous truth.

  “Because you told me to.”

  CHAPTER 25

  HADES

  One moment Persy was pleading for him not to do this, not to kill her father, and the next moment he had already done it.

  “It’s over,” he explained to Persy on the car ride to the mansion that served as a nightclub underneath with Hades’s residence above. “No more punishment. The blood debt’s cleared. When we get home, we can drink that bottle of—”

  “I’m tired. The only thing I want to do when we get to your house is lie down,” she said before he could finish his offer to drink the thirty-year-old bottle of Glendaver bourbon he took from her father’s office and talk about their future.

  And after they arrived at his French-quarter-adjacent mansion, she simply walked up the stairs to their suite without even a nod of goodbye.

  Leaving Hades deeply unsettled as he made his way to the downstairs throne room where he conducted business and met with members of his MC.

  This was not the first time Persy had gone silent on him. She’d plotted in silence and submitted in silence. But this silence wasn’t a new scheme, he suspected. And it had a different quality from the complete compliance she’d given him after Lukas shunned her instead of helping her at the ball, and she realized there was no escaping.

  That three years of submission had been a Cold War of sorts. She had acted the part of the prisoner thoroughly tamed. But he’d always suspected she was biding her time, looking for the right moment to finally escape. And he had been right.

  One thoughtless move when he took her to the bayou while Vengeance looked into who put a hit out on his life, and the next thing he knew she had his own Glock trained on him. However, when she got her chance to end her imprisonment early through his death, she hadn't taken it. And that had been the breakthrough they needed, a path paved to begin the relationship he wanted with her when she emerged like a siren from that swimming pool.

  But thanks to her father offering a cool million to anyone willing to kill the underworld crime lord he’d given his daughter to, their fragile peace was broken.

  Persy was still his. She was right upstairs, without any means of escape. But when he sat down on his dark throne, it felt as if he had lost her somehow.

  “So you finally killed that macaque,” a voice said, drawing him out of his trouble thoughts.

  He looked up to see his sister, Ellie, entering the room with a smile as feral as the one that had earned Hyena his road name.

  “Just saw Persy go into your suite, and that girl looked shook!” Ellie cackled. “You know, I had my doubts about keeping her alive. But now…”

  His little sister shakes her finger at him approvingly. “I can just imagine him up in that big house of his, thinking he got off without a beatdown even. And then, bam! You bust in and kill him when he’s least expecting it—right in front of his daughter. Man, now that I see it all played out, that is the perfect revenge.”

  Yes, yes it was. Hades had finally avenged his mother, and moreover, he’d forced Antoine Perreault to suffer for years before his death. He had every right to bask in his sister’s praise.

  Yet the victory… it didn't feel like anything. Perhaps this was why they were sometimes referred to as hollow.

  Instead of taking a bow or gloating, he said to his sister, “It’s time for you to leave Louisiana.”

  Ellie was one tough cookie. She hadn’t worn a skirt since she was four. And though she wasn’t one for what she called “political bedroom shit,” her masculine way of dressing and wearing her hair, along with her preference for cute college girls over the many sexually fluid women who occupied their MC world, was label enough.

  But she looked like the little girl who used to shadow him around the bayou when she asked, “What? You’re kicking me out?”

  Yes, that was exactly what he was doing.

  She had served as a constant reminder that their mother was gone. She had pushed him to kill Antoine Perreault’s daughter when he first captured her. And though she'd eventually come to accept Persy’s continued presence here at their mansion, he'd always sensed her judging him for not avenging their mother.

  Ellie had been part of the reason he'd never been able to let that vendetta go, why he insisted on punishing Persy, long past the time he felt comfortable with the arrangement. And maybe it wasn’t fair, but he couldn’t bear to look at Ellie right now, much less sit there as she praised him.

  Yes, she had to go. But he would not be cruel about it.

  “You want to become a Reaper, take on more duties. That means you have to prospect, and as you know, all prospects go through the Iowa chapter.”

  Ellie went from devastated to elated in an instant. “Seriously? You’re going to let me join the Ruthless Reapers?”

  “I’m not going to let you do anything, El. As you know, Waylon’s got the final decision. You can prospect, but there's no guarantee he’ll let you join. You will have to prove yourse
lf worthy, just like any other member of our MC."

  His voice rang out with cold warning, but Ellie bounced on her booted feet, barely able to contain her excitement. “I will prove myself, I promise. You'll see. I'll be the best Ruthless Reaper there ever was. Believe me!”

  Hades did believe her. She had what it took. If her gender had been different, she'd already be a full-fledged member of his gang. In some small part of his chest, he was actually proud of her for sticking it out and wearing him down.

  But he was too conflicted to say anything sentimental to her at the moment.

  So, he gruffly told her, “Pack your things, and I’ll text Waylon. Tell him to expect you.”

  Ellie didn’t have to be told twice. She ran out of the throne room to go pack up her shit, just as her brother commanded.

  And as for Hades, even though he had been gone for an entire week, he gave up on doing any more business before his two right-hand MCs, Derelict and Jam, could announce who wanted to see him.

  He made the long trip upstairs to…He didn’t actually know yet. But he had the sense that something needed fixing.

  She was lying on the bed. Face down with her arms folded underneath her head. She would have looked the very picture of a teenager throwing a temper tantrum if she were actually crying. But she just lay there.

  Shook did seem like the most apt description.

  Hades sat down next to her on the bed. And he reached a hand out to—

  “Please do not touch me,” she said before he could rub her back. “I'm trying to keep it together, but I will lose it if you touch me.”

  She said this to him, then turn her head to face in the other direction. Away from him.

  “Ma belle…I couldn't just let him live. He put a hit out on me.” Hades wasn't in the habit of explaining himself. It wasn't a good look for someone who ran a ruthless biker gang. But even though she was right there, she felt so far away from him. He had to try. “He would've been a thorn in our side forever if I allowed him to keep breathing. It was the only way. It was the only way for us to clear the debt and move on with their lives. Now we can be together. The way I wanted us to be, before your father helped kill my mother.”

  There was a long silence. Then she said in a matter-of-fact tone, “You’re lying to yourself and me. You didn't have to kill him. You didn't have to take me as a blood debt. You didn't have to do any of this."

  What did she mean? Did she not understand what his mother’s death at the hands of her father had done to him? “My mother—”

  She once again interrupted. “Your mother would hate this. I hope there isn't anything such as heaven. I hope that's a story us humans came up with to make ourselves feel better about having to die, just like all the other animals. Because if your mother's looking down at you right now, she's crying.”

  Persy’s voice became a harsh indictment as she reminded him, “This life you're living, this criminal behavior—that is the opposite of what she wanted for you. She was proud of Swamp Boy. She was proud she raised a hero who helped people. But you became a villain in her name. And that's why you have the nightmares. Not because of how she died. But because, deep down in your soul, you know.”

  She turned her head back over to regard him with blazing eyes. “You know that she didn’t want you to do this. She did not want you to kidnap the girl who called her Mama Fairgood. She wanted you to be happy. She worked for us so that you would have the opportunity to live a happy and prosperous life away from the world of crime she grew up in. And you squandered it. For revenge. In her name.”

  Persy screwed her face up, vicious and tight. “You don't care about her. You don't care about me. If you did, you would've found a way for us to be together legitimately, to have a nice, normal life. But you did the opposite of that. You ruined my life and repaid my love with my father’s death. And now you think I can just be okay with that? No! I’m not like you, Hades. I have morals and standards.”

  Her eyes glittered with righteous anger. “Don’t try to act like I matter to you because I am never going to forgive you. So, if you’re going to break my neck, go ahead. But I’m done. I’m done playing this game with you.”

  He didn’t break her neck. But, he also didn’t let her go.

  He lived with her ghost for three more months, wandering in and out their suite while she drank copious amounts of alcohol.

  And then, when he couldn’t stand it anymore, he forced her to get dressed and come with him to his cousin’s house in Nashville for Thanksgiving. He grabbed the bottle of her father’s elite bourbon and nastily informed her that he would be drinking it in celebration with his cousins.

  That was the biggest mistake of his life.

  Persy met Amira Fairgood again at the party, the one person in his world who would be willing to help a woman with a criminal gang leader’s name tattooed across her back. He didn’t know her father’s bourbon was poisoned with some kind of sleeping drug.

  But she did. And that was how he lost her.

  One moment everyone was suddenly tired and deciding to call it a night early, and the next he was waking up in his bed alone.

  Persy, damn him.

  “So, you're trying to say that you did all of this, tricked me into thinking you were Galen Fairgood, because I rightfully told you about yourself after you killed my father?” Persy asks on the other side of the Glock.

  Hades has nothing left to lose at this point. So, he answers with the truth. “I was trying to show you. I was trying to show you I could be the man my mother wanted me to be, the man you deserved. I was hoping that might convince you to give me a second chance when you finally remembered everything.”

  Persy’s eyes blaze much like the night she chewed him out. “What do you mean convince me? From what I’ve learned, you never let my opinion get in the way of your actions.”

  She shakes her head at him. “It must've felt so weird for you at the hospital to actually give me that fake choice.”

  “Don't. Don't do that.” Hades shakes his head right back at her. “I had just spent five days by your side, not sure if you would live or die. And when you looked at me like I hung the stars and the moon, I didn't know how to handle it. I didn't want to hurt you. I didn’t want to disappoint you. And then I just didn't want to lose you because I saw how good we could be. You chose me, ma belle. And those were the most glorious months of my life.”

  “So you're saying I actually had options in this situation. You would have let me live with Tess?”

  “Yes, I would have—”

  “And how about now, when you have me trapped here in this house? I’m your prisoner again, just like you wanted.”

  “No, I didn’t want this. I promise you that. I don’t want that for us anymore. I want you to choose me. I always want you to choose me. Now and forever.”

  Her gaze softens. But only a little bit. Then she asks, “What if I don’t choose you?”

  Hades falters. “What?”

  “What if I decide to walk right on out of here,” she asks, her face taking on an insolent cast. “You’d let me? After all of that, I can just go back to my own life and see if I can get Lukas Brandt to forgive me, then fuck me like you refuse to, and fill his mansion with babies?”

  God, she knows exactly where to hit him hard. The thought of that chews up his guts like battery acid.

  But then Waylon’s voice floats back into his head. It’s better when they choose you.

  “You can go,” he says between clenched teeth. “You can leave if you want, and I won’t stop you.”

  She stares at him, mouth open. But then she lifts her chin and says, “Why? Because I have a gun and you don’t want me to shoot you dead like you did my father?”

  “No, because I don't own you. Not anymore,” he answers just as angrily as her. “You're not my possession. And if you don't want to be with me—if our time together didn't affect you the same way it did me, then you can leave. I’ll text Waylon myself to give you a ride to the airp
ort. And you can choose to stay with Tess now that you know the whole story. You can get back together with that beer bitch, and I won’t say or do anything to stop it. I won’t ever bother you again.”

  She stares at him, her eyes distrustful and confused.

  And that confusion makes him asks, “Do you want to stay with me now that you know everything? Forgive me? Make a life together?”

  He asks her that question with hope sparking like potential fireworks in his chest. Then he holds his breath and waits for the answer that will decide his future happiness.

  CHAPTER 26

  BENJAMIN

  “So, Daph, now that you’re back from France, there’s something I want to talk with you about,” Benjamin says as he makes his way down the street toward the shelter where Tess works and lives. “Your mother and I…ah, reconnected while you were away. And our relationship’s become…more."

  Silence. Then: “What exactly do you mean by more?”

  Benjamin jolts a little. He wasn’t expecting follow-up questions. Just a hearty congratulations.

  He clears his throat. “Well, uh…your mother and I have become very fond of each other. I asked her to come as my date to the Boston Charities Man of the Year award ceremony, and she said yes. I wanted to tell you first, so there wouldn't be any surprises.”

  Another silence. This one seems to go on forever before it’s broken with, “So last week before I left, you two hated each other's guts. And now this week you're planning on going to Boston together?”

  Wow, she is really grilling him about this. “We never hated each other.”