Page 59 of Hades

I shake my head. “She’s with us. Came to us because she needed help. Didn’t grow up with him and connected with him as an adult only to realize he’s not someone she wants to associate with.”

“Interesting,” Mav muses.

I look over at him. “What about you? What have you found?”

“I managed to bug his office, next to the light switch and on the window frame. People are really starting to open up, and I got on his radar.”

Rebel groans as my eyes narrow.

“Do I want to know?” I ask.

Mav smirks. “One morning I made sure to look extra annoyed. When someone in the break room asked me what was wrong, I went off on a tangent about bikers thinking they own the road and being cut off. Dansworth overheard and joined in. Asked me about cuts and what the person looked like. He seemed disappointed when I described just a normal dude but also confessed that he didn’t like bikers. How he plans to clean the city of their filth. I pretended to be on board, and he said that I was exactly the type he needed on his staff.”

“Hopefully that opens doors,” I murmur.

Mav nods. “I think it will. One of the girls from happy hour confessed that she’s scared of him. When I asked why she doesn’t just quit, she looked at me like I was crazy and said that if she gets an amazing reference, this could do great things for her career.”

Rebel shakes his head. “I’ll never understand that shit.”

I never will either, but I don’t tell him that. Having something in common would probably send him over the edge.

“Anything else?” I ask.

Both men shake their heads no, so I stand.

“Let me know when you are ready to meet again.”

Mav tips his chin toward me. “Later. Stay safe.”

“Always.”

Rebel doesn’t say shit as I leave, and I pretend it doesn’t bother me.

Evelyn

Opening the fridge, I look at the contents and wince when nothing stands out.

“Hey, you’re here!” Natalie says as she walks into the kitchen.

“Yeah, Hades mentioned that there was a meeting tonight, and instead of going home, I decided to stop by here.”

I don’t tell her the truth. That my home no longer feels right without Hades there with me. So when Wrath told me that Hades wasn’t going to make it to take me home, I asked him to come here instead.

“Good, because everyone else decided to show up too.”

My eyebrows raise. “Who’s everyone else?”

She waves as she turns. “Come on, all the girls are here, and I have pizza and wings on the way.”

“Bless you,” I moan, thinking about the food.

I follow her into the main area and see the other girls sitting together along with a sweetbutt. The only old lady missing is Sunny, but that’s not surprising. She doesn’t come around all that often anymore. Not since she went to rehab after admitting she was abusing alcohol. She’s clean now, but she’s still cautious. All of us are.

Rachel, one of the nicer sweetbutts, sits on the floor, painting her nails.

“That’s a pretty color,” I say as I sit down.

She looks up at me and smiles. “Thanks. It’s new. I like how it changes colors depending on how the light hits it.”