This time I have a lock.
I’m coming for you.
K
My first and last time having sex was horrible. Kosta was rough. Too rough. He smelled like alcohol andcigarettes, then called me Irina halfway through. I’d spent the whole time trying to figure out what was supposed to feel so magical about it. All while he kept telling me to shut up. I cried, and he hit me. Told me he’d hurt me worse if I snitched to my father. I was supposed to marry him, but by some stroke of luck, he went to jail.
That’s when Daddy rented this apartment for me. He said it was to keep me safe, but I think he didn’t want to look at or deal with me anymore.
Fine by me.
Rhys wouldneverhit me.
Shaking and dizzy, I drop the letters and sit on the sofa, Basil clutched to my chest.
‘It’s okay.’He acts all nice when he sees me spiral.‘You have a boyfriend now who is an assassin.’
I look up and stare at the wall dividing Rhys and me. “You’re right, I do.”
Chapter 12
Rhys
Nearly a month after I met with the God of War, Ares finally gives me the green light to eliminate his problem.
Which is how I end up in his club. Music hammering my eardrums, I push through the crowd on cautious legs. The Zervas nightclub is the kind of place that sparkles from all the women in diamonds, but it’s also drenched in blood money from years of the Greeks’ reign of terror against the Irish.
I reach a table marked:Reserved for VIPs.
I look around and snort. This whole section is VIP. But I’m not here to act like a big shot. The only reason I’m doing a favor for the Greeks is because Ares recognized Griffin, my cousinand boss, as the head of the Irish Mob. With the marriage of Griffin to Ares’s sister Ava, the long-standing war ended, and we were able to form Quinlan Empire. What was supposed to be a six-month marriage contract turned into a real marriage that produced two sons for Ava and Griffin. That legacy binds us to Ares Zervas for life.
Ugh.
I wish I had brought Blade and Jett, but Ares is already on edge, wanting to keep this a personal assignment between us. I don’t want to set him off. Still, my eyes scan the crowd for enemies I can’t see.
At the rounded banquette against a wall, I take a seat. I’m perfectly capable of taking down one man, but now that I’m here, all the bodies, all the noise, I feel uneasy being here solo.
A server stops at the table, and I ask for anunopenedbottle of Jameson 18. I don’t trust anyone here, and it better be on the house. While waiting for the whiskey, Iwatch out for Ares, who is supposed to join me.
The bottle arrives before Ares, and I grunt. Sipping my drink, my thoughts wander, like they always do lately. Right to Fallon. The silent way she’s woven into my life. Like she’s waiting for something. Waiting for me to make some kind of move. It breaks my heart that I can’t. It’s not safe for her to be involved with me.
I’m darkness and ruin. Fallon is sunlight and the rainbow after a storm. She doesn’t sharpen me. She softens me. Makes me want to keep something alive instead of killing it.
Like the plants, even though I forget to water them.
I’m going nuts the way she looks at me like I’m her whole world. God help me, I like it.
I’m about to call Trace and ask him to do an updated background check on Fallon, like he offered, when I see Ares glide out of a darkened hallway headed for my booth. He’s flanked by his brothers Atlas and Ambrose, but at 6’8”, Ares towers above most men here. His bright white teeth look as sharp as knives, hungry for his next meal.
Which is usually a woman.
“Ares,” I greet him by his first name since calling him Zervas will send six sets of eyes my way.
“You see my persistent problem,” Ares says, voice like velvet dragged over broken glass.
I follow his gaze to the booth across the dance floor. The man he wants me to kill sits with a woman. Ice blonde. Big tits. Big lips. Long nails.
She’s giving him a hand job under the table.
