1
Zeus
Xavier Morris is the first one to try and ruin the evening. He bursts into the ballroom red-faced and angry, which I anticipated.
I did not plan to give him Brigit. I would never. I know what happened upstairs, and I know he will not be happy, but it’s my turn to wear a perturbed expression. The chief of police cuts his way through the crowd with his elbows out. By the time he reaches the dais on the side of the room, where I have sprawled myself across my chair, he’s purple. “What the fuck was that?”
I put down an empty glass that never had a drink in it and peer at him. “Brigit understood the terms of the deal. Did she try to negotiate?”
“She got taken,” he spits. “Right in front of me. I walked into that room to find broken glass and a team carrying her out. What the fuck are you—”
I’m on my feet, letting rage color my own face. “What do you mean, taken?” I took her. I fucking took her. I have people all around this building and I have people outside and I had them break the window and carry her outside. “What the hell are your people doing, Xavier? This was part of our deal. You didn’t have anyone on the perimeter?”
“Of course I have people on the perimeter.” He’s spitting the words through clenched teeth, leaning in close, but he’s not as tall as I am and he never will be. And he’s in my property. “I bought her. I’ve already paid.”
I stare at him until he blinks. My head of security will be coming now to give me the news. He’ll be at my side in three, two, one— “Zeus.” It’s easy enough to take my attention from the furious gaze of the chief of police and look at James, who is wealthy and almost sickeningly handsome. I am positive he works security for me for the amusement. He doesn’t particularly need me, which is why we have such a lovely relationship. “There’s been a situation.”
I take him by the front of that suit and yank him close. “Is this fucker lying to me?”
It’s a show. It’s an act. And James plays his part. “A window on the second floor. Breached. One of the women has been taken.” James does not flinch when I tighten my fist around the fabric and pretend to consider killing him. “We had people on the ground, but they were distracted.”
“Distracted by what?” Distracted by the car accident I planted on the corner. “What’s more important than doing your fucking job?”
“A traffic accident. We’ve got people looking for her already.”
“My clients are impatient.” This gets me mild approval from Xavier Morris. “They are being deprived of their purchases.” I am being deprived of Brigit. I let go of James’s jacket and push him a step back. “Fix this. Now.”
“Do you want us to clear the building?”
“No,” I keep my voice low and deadly. Nothing will disrupt the dancing or the drinking or the dinners. “Leave them, and get my property back under this roof.” I wait until James has retreated into the crowd, and then I rearrange my face into a less-bothered expression. As if I do not particularly care that Brigit was kidnapped. As if the money changing hands tonight is all that matters to me. On any other night, that would be true. Xavier lifts his chin. “You have people on this?”
“I have people on it now.” The air between us shifts. For all the power Xavier thinks he has, I have more. I make a show of bribing him, of putting money in his pockets, but it’s not me who needs him to live. He needs me. “I thought your building was better secured than this.”
I pat him on the shoulder. “And I thought your men would make this place untouchable.”
He curses. “They were supposed to.” A glint in his eye, a flash of worry. “I’m not leaving until this is resolved.”
“Of course not.” I let out a breath. “You’ll have to accept my apology for the inconvenience.” He doesn’t trust this. He shouldn’t. But he nods anyway. “In the meantime, I have a diversion.”
Ah—there she is. Reya, with her hand on Savannah’s wrist, coming in from one of the side entrances. I see the moment when Savannah realizes what’s happening, see her eyes go wide and the way she tries to take a step back. And then the whispered conversation. Reya’s lips form the words if you want to stay.
Savannah blinks, tears in her eyes, and then they’re gone. She’s learned at least one lesson in her time here. This will be the rest of her punishment for what she did to Brigit. This way, I can keep an eye on her while the delicate part of my plans for the evening take place. Really, Xavier Morris will be keeping an eye on her. She won’t be able to escape him. There is no refusing him this time. Reya brings her in close. He turns to see her at the last moment. It’s not what he wanted. He wanted Brigit.
But he’ll take Savannah.
Olympus’s Judas whore puts on a shy smile, waving her fingers at Morris, stealing a glance at me. She’ll get a bonus for this. I confirm it with a shallow nod. “Would you like to go somewhere quieter?” Savannah offers her hand to Xavier, and he takes it. The man throws one more look over his shoulder as they leave, his phone already pressed to his ear.
I drop back into my chair and stare out over the party. Reya sits primly in the second one, the one where Persephone sat the night she came to visit me.
The night I brought her to visit me.
It doesn’t matter.
“We’ve cleared the hallway, yes?”
“Of course we have. And there are men stationed at either side now, and below the windows.”
“Savannah?”
“She didn’t play a part. She tried to give Brigit something to relax her, but that was all she did. No contact with the kidnappers.”
Good. That means my constant surveillance hasn’t failed. No rumors got out about anything but the auction. The auction was meant to be a semi-public event.
“Any signs of Lowell?” John Lowell, Brigit’s uncle and fiancé, was supposed to be at the event tonight. Coming to purchase her from me was the most obvious move for him, and it was Plan A. I said enough about her to enrage him, to draw him out, to force an argument. He didn’t take the bait.
Reya sweeps her eyes across the room. “No.”
So he didn’t take the bait because he’s not here.
An old fear crawls down to the base of my spine and takes root. Here, in this ballroom where everything is luxe and clean and expensive, it’s the easiest for that fear to return. In a way, I am still standing in the middle of the room, listening to people sing happy birthday and feeling the very last of my humanity bleed out. The fact that John Lowell did not attend tonight isn’t an omen. It’s just one of the many turns this evening could have taken.
“When will we have confirmation?”
Reya consults the slim watch she wears on her wrist. “Forty-five minutes.”
Hearing her say it is like being hit by a tsunami when one is expecting a dry day in the desert. I choke on it, my body reacting. Heart seizing up. I laugh through a sputtering cough. Reya gives me a sidelong glance. “People are looking at you.”
I grin at her, eyes damp from the coughing. “Don’t you ever breathe wrong?” Don’t you ever stop breathing? “Stay with me.”