HADES Read online

“What do you mean?” Tess looks from her sister to Benjamin, her eyes wide with shock as she asks him, “What’s going on?"

  He’d been so brave before. But now he can only clench his jaw, refusing to say the words that would make everything he agreed to with Tess fall apart.

  Meanwhile, Stephanie shakes her head and looks away from both of them. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

  “Why didn’t who tell you what?” Tess asks, turning back to her sister. “I don’t know whether to comfort you or help you. Please Stephanie, what is going on? You’re freaking me out!”

  Instead of answering, Stephanie asks Tess, “Can you pick up Daphne from the airport?”

  “Wait, what?” Tess asks, her voice weak with confusion.

  “Can you do it or not?” Stephanie asks.

  “Of course,” Tess answers. “But Stephanie, wh—”

  Stephanie grabs that huge Birkin tote of hers and dashes out the door before Tess can finish asking her question.

  It reminds Benjamin of how she left him sputtering that fateful night.

  Except this time, Stephanie’s left him behind, not with his sleeping daughter, but with the woman he’d hoped to take to Boston and eventually make his wife.

  “What’s going on?” Tess demands. And her voice isn’t nearly as kind now as it was with Stephanie. “Tell me everything. Tell me everything right now.”

  CHAPTER 28

  HADES

  For all its Sturm and Drang,

  the actual conclusion of the

  Hades & Persephone myth

  is left strangely vague.

  * * *

  They came to love each other.

  * * *

  But how?

  * * *

  Why?

  * * *

  And does that actually mean

  they ended up living happily ever after?

  * * *

  The resolution of their tale

  leaves us with numerous

  unanswered questions.

  * * *

  This romantic drama

  sparked countless retellings.

  Even after civilization had long

  stopped gossiping about

  Zeus’s myriad affairs,

  we continued

  to tell again and again the story of

  Hades & Persephone.

  * * *

  Some even argue that their

  love story inspired

  Beauty & the Beast.

  * * *

  But as many

  a broken-up couple

  could tell you…

  * * *

  Love

  does not necessarily equal

  Happy Ever After.

  * * *

  And who hasn’t heard of or lived through

  a relationship equivalent to Hell?

  * * *

  For all we know,

  the immortal Hades and Persephone

  are miserable to this day.

  * * *

  And surely, the most cynical

  mythology readers must wonder

  about our warmer springs and summers.

  * * *

  Is it…

  * * *

  Global Warming

  * * *

  or

  * * *

  Persephone’s Rage?

  * * *

  The truth shall set you free.

  That’s what they say in all the superhero stories—if not flat-out, then in that beneath the words and actions way. How had his much smarter prisoner referred to the things that went unsaid when Hades forced her to do normal couple things, like going on dates to see the Marvel movies he loved so much?

  Like many muscular guys with his build, he hates cardio and can’t stand jogging. His knees whine vaguely about having to bounce so much weight as he jogs around the perimeter of the housing division he’ll be leaving behind in a couple of days. But that morning he pushes past the pain and racks his brain for the word until he remembers it in a sudden flash.

  Subtext. That’s what she called it when she explained why it wasn’t the CGI-laden action that made his beloved Marvel characters worthy of such long screen times.

  According to her, it was the hard choices that made them superheroes. Choices like confronting their deepest fears, opting for a more complicated good over a straightforward evil. Actions like telling the truth. Even when it meant they might lose everything

  Well, that is connerie…bullshit.

  Hades had confronted his fears. He’d opted for the more complicated good over the straightforward evil by giving Persy a choice instead of locking her down again. He told her the truth. He listened to Swamp Boy, the wannabe superhero still lurking inside of him.

  And the only thing it got him was a shattered heart when Persy’s eyes iced over and she said, “I choose Tess. Of course, I choose Tess.”

  Hades was many things, but a promise breaker wasn’t one of them.

  He’d given her one more choice. And she chose leaving. So, he let her go.

  But it hurt like hell.

  Things go better if they want to be there.

  Waylon's words echo in his ears as he approaches the open-gate entrance of Carnation Estates.

  He remembers the last time he drove through those gates, with Persy sitting by his side. They’d just come back from Louisiana in the Porsche he’d given her, with him driving this time and her in the passenger seat. They’d also just survived their first big fight as a not-so-official married couple. But he'd remained in a state about what he’d done in Louisiana. Worried his opposite-of-superhero choice had rendered something irreversible.

  His anxiety about their future must've shown up on his face.

  “Stop worrying, mon beau,” she said, reaching over to cover the hand he kept on the stick shift, even though this sports car was a manual.

  “We’re fine,” she assured him with a teasing laugh. “Everything's going to be fine, no matter what.”

  He knew that wasn't true. But he played along. He smiled back at her and lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles, like a caricature of a gallant French man, because he wanted to believe her. Hoo Lawd, how he wanted her words to be true.

  But unlike her, he remembered their first encounter here in Ohio—the real first encounter, not when she woke up in that hospital bed.

  The real first time, he’d watched her from afar as she walked out of a small brick building with a bunch of the cast and crew members from the community theater troupe who paid her a whopping $100 per production to sew and choose all their costumes.

  He was a grown man in his thirties now, not an uncertain twenty-one-year-old boy. But a gong beat in his heart as he watched the beautiful woman he hadn’t seen in three years say goodbye to everyone involved with the current production of Noises Off.

  “Want a ride home?” one of the actors asked her. He was younger and slightly more handsome than any of the other cast members. His offer was smooth and friendly. But his voice shook with nerves as he added. “Maybe we could hit a bar on the way to your place? You know, hang out?”

  Hades tensed in the shadows, the old violence rearing its ugly head.

  But then Persy answered in a clipped tone, “No, I don't do that.”

  “You don't hang out?” the actor asked, laughing as if she were making a joke.

  But Persy didn’t laugh along with him.

  “No, I don't hang out,” she answered, her voice hard and weirdly flat.

  “Oh, okay…” he said. “Well, we don’t have to stop anywhere. Let me just give you a ride home. It’s getting dark.”

  Hades balled his fists at his side. He could just see the actor’s plan to hammer away at the friend zone she was trying to put him in until she agreed to go out with him.

  But Persy shot back with the perfect answer. “Yes, it’s getting dark, so I should get on my way.”

  Maybe she didn't hear the actor’s offer to throw her bike in the back of his SUV as she rushed to
ward her bike. Or maybe she did.

  She kept her stiff back turned from her would-be suitor as she put on her bike helmet in a way that struck Hades as practiced protocol. That’s probably why she didn’t see the actor approach her from behind with a hand reached out to get the attention she was purposefully not paying him…or Hades step out from the tree he’d been standing behind to glare at him in such a way that immediately made the shorter and much skinnier man back the fuck away from his woman.

  In any case, he had to call her name—the name he’d chosen for her—to get her attention. “Persy.”

  She froze. Like a whooping crane who just heard a gator swish in the water behind it.

  He assumed she was going to run, and he stepped forward to let her know that wouldn’t be a good idea.

  But then she swung her whole leg around in an arc and smacked him in the face with her foot. She roundhoused him. Actually roundhoused him like Scarlet Widow before he could even get the words “Don't run” out of his mouth.

  The memory is almost enough to make Hades chuckle as he jogs toward the Ohio house he will soon be leaving. Not selling, though.

  They had been happy here for almost a year, so he doubted he could ever do that. He might not even be able to bring himself to rent it out. But he also can’t keep living here without—

  Hades comes to a dead stop when he sees the car sitting in front of the house’s double garage. Persy’s Porsche.

  Persy has more pride than most—to the point he’d been surprised to see she’d kept the car when he returned to their empty Ohio house.

  For all he knew, she’d had Tess help her drop it off—purposefully waiting for when he went out for his much-hated Sunday morning jog.

  Still, he rushes into the house before his own pride can remind him not to get too excited.

  Only to come to another dead stop when he finds Persy sitting on the steps of the grand staircase in the front foyer.

  His lungs stop working at the sight of her. She’s dressed in sweatshorts and an oversized hoodie, the same as she was when he stepped out of the shadows and back into her life. Even the backpack she carried that night has returned. It’s sitting on the stairs at her feet.

  There’s no air to be had. But somehow, he manages to choke out, “Ma belle, what are you doing here?”

  “I remembered,” she answers, rising to her feet. “I remembered everything.”

  She lets him know this, her expression thunderous with anger.

  Then she asks, “Why didn't you tell me what really happened?”

  CHAPTER 29

  STEPHANIE

  I had escaped him.

  It took me a year of tattoo removal sessions and nearly every under-the-table dime I earned outside of rent and food to rid myself of his stamp. And after I achieved that goal, I made myself some vows.

  I promised myself that I was done being a blood debt no matter what. I promised myself that I would never be the PROPERTY OF HADES again.

  I promised myself that Persy was dead.

  “Persy…”

  I paused unlocking my bike when a voice called out that dead name behind me. A familiar voice. My stomach squeezed with a mix of emotions, but none of them was surprise.

  And sure enough…when I turned around, there stood Hades, dressed in a black-on-black suit and grinning down at me like a Mardi Gras skeleton.

  So I roundhoused him. Real talk, I wasn't even sure it would work. But it totally did! Take that, all those guys on Reddit who said you couldn’t teach yourself self-defense only using YouTube!

  Hades went down like the cocky lead in an East Asian drama. Which gave me the time I needed to grab my bike and make a pedal for it.

  Luckily, I’d memorized how to get to the bus station by heart from just about every location in the city. I also kept enough money for a ticket anywhere in my backpack, along with an extra set of clothes that I swapped out seasonally. I’d felt a little paranoid when I put in summer clothes a few days ago. But Hades had taught me to never get comfortable, to always stay prepared for the worst. And now, the worst had come for me.

  “I didn't just find you, you know.” Hades’s voice rang out behind me just as I was about to jump on my bike. “I knew where you were all along. And if you run, I’ll only hunt you down again.”

  His words made me pause…then turn around. Hades was on the ground but sitting up now, with a small white shopping tote I hadn’t noticed before gripped in his hand. Like he’s simply decided to have a little lounge and didn’t get knocked on his ass.

  He appeared so relaxed I could only assume he’d brought back-up with him. Derelict or Jam—maybe both. I scanned the area for black trucks and white vans just to make sure I wouldn’t be biking straight into a trap.

  “I came alone,” Hades said as if reading my mind. “I gave up my presidency of the Reapers. Now I’m just Galen Fairgood, the CEO of RR Homes.”

  I’d tried to pay as little attention as possible to Hades’s underworld dealings, even though he’d forced me to stay in the room like human furniture for many of his meetings. But during our time on the bayou, he’d talked extensively about the legitimate construction arm of the Reapers’ business and how he’d planned to use it to develop the area where he grew up.

  So, he’d finally done something that would make his mother proud of him. A bittersweet pang of pride pierced my heart. But I didn’t understand…“Why would you quit the Reapers? That biker gang was, like, your whole personality.”

  Hades came to a stand and dusted off his trousers. “How about I take you to dinner and tell you the whole story. Then if you want to try running away again, feel free to go ahead. I won’t stop you if you just hear me out. There's a place over there where we can have us a long overdue talk.”

  He nodded toward the diner where the cast and crew sometimes went after rehearsals.

  I'd never been with them though. I’d had to save every extra penny in preparation for this very scenario. If I wanted to be able to disappear fast, I couldn't do things like buy food at a diner just for the thrill of my production mates’ company.

  But if I were to go with him anywhere, some place where people knew me would be my best bet.

  “Come on.” Hades said, before walking toward the diner like it was already decided.

  Leaving me to choose if I’d follow or run.

  I’d told Amira I was going to Vegas—a city where a girl could hide in plain sight without being seen. But the truth was after Amira and I parted ways, I doubled back to the South—Mississippi to be exact. A place I could live cheaply on the five-thousand Amira had stolen for me, lay low for a couple of months and still have enough money left over for a trip to Disney World.

  Disney World had been the plan all along—the only thing that kept me sane during my years with Hades. Finally following through on the promise I’d made to my nine-year-old sister before Hades yanked me into his underworld—that was all that mattered in the months after I escaped.

  It had been a relief when Daphne basically let me kidnap her from the girls’ home, no-questions-asked, even though she hadn’t seen me in three years. We spent a couple of days at the happiest place on Earth, and then I took her to Columbus to find a name on a Christmas card I’d found while cleaning out my mother’s things.

  Countess Malloy. Luckily, the relative who appeared then to be my mother’s much younger sister not only had a somewhat unique name but also a ton of social media presence thanks to the shelter she had just founded.

  I’d been unprepared for the bomb drop that Tess wasn’t just a random relative who sent a Christmas card my mother had actually saved. And I was even more unprepared for Hades telling me Daphne was the reason he’d been able to track me down years—not months—ago.

  “I was racking my brain, trying to figure out why you were going out of your way to protect your father after what all he’d done to you,” he told me after our waitress dropped off two orders of cheeseburgers and fries. “Then about a few months in
, it occurred to me it wasn’t him you were trying to protect, but the little sister you never said one word about. You knew there wouldn’t be anyone left to take care of her once your father was gone.”

  Panic rose like a scream in my throat. My sister was only fifteen with a bright future ahead of her. If Hades was planning to use her as leverage against me, it would absolutely work. I’d have to—

  “Now, now, take that scared look off your face, ma belle,” Hades said calmly. “I’m not trying to hurt you or your sister. If that was my intention, you know my power. It would have already been done years ago. I’m just telling you, I followed that hunch, and imagine my surprise when I found out she’d been formally taken in by an aunt here in Columbus, Ohio. I figured that was where I’d find you too.”

  I inwardly frowned. Not because he’d figure out that I loved Daphne more than my own life. But because he didn’t know about the true nature of our relationship.

  I supposed that made sense, though. The inner state paperwork had been a nightmare even Daphne’s millionaire father couldn’t quickly untangle. And even if he could, Tess refused to ask him for his help. So, my older sister had basically had to undo all the fraud our mother and grandmother had committed in order to get Daphne declared her legal daughter.

  But if Hades figured out I’d return briefly to Louisiana to help my adopted sister years ago like he said, then it would have looked like Daphne was just being taken in by an aunt with the resources to take care of her back then.