Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
“Going to stop you there. No one is forcing anyone to do anything.” He frowns. “Well, there is a marriage bed, but this is Olympus. Marriages of convenience are the rule rather than the exception. At least these days.” He leans forward even farther, peering up into my face. “Why are you so invested? Is it because of her father?”
“He wants her dead.” I stare into his dilated pupils and find myself speaking the truth without having any intention of doing so. “He commanded me to kill her.”
“That’s going to be a problem.”
Again, I speak without having any intention of doing so. “It really won’t. I’m not going to kill her. She’s mine. She has been from the moment I saw her.”
“Interesting.” His brows wing up. “That’s not very enlightened of you.”
“It has nothing to do with enlightenment and everything to do with fact. I’m hers. She’s still in denial about that, but she won’t be for long.” I snap my mouth shut and shove back. I’ve never said that shit aloud. I wouldn’t have said it to him. “What the fuck did you put my drink?”
“A little of this, a little of that.” He waves a hand leisurely. “Since you’ve spent so much time haunting my steps today, I thought it important that we have a frank conversation. You seem like the strong, silent type, so I took it upon myself to give you a little…lubrication.”
“You motherfucker.”
His body language is still relaxed, but the dazed look in his eyes melts away. It’s enough to make me wonder if he took any drugs at all today or if that was all a show for my benefit. The better to underestimate him.
Dionysus waves over the bartender, who delivers two fresh drinks. “Let’s chat. I have a number of questions requiring answers.”
“With all your brilliant planning to pull me in and drug me, did it ever occur to you that I could just kill you once I realized what you’d done?”
He nods solemnly. “The thought did cross my mind. Especially after the attack last night. That’s why I brought them.” He nods and I follow the movement to the booth across from us. Two nondescript people sit there, draped in shadows. They weren’t with him earlier or I would’ve noticed. I sure as fuck would’ve noticed the guns in their hands, pointed casually in my direction. Dionysus takes a long drink of his beer. “Let’s not dirty ourselves with meaningless threats. You might end up killing me today—I’ll give you that. But if you did, you wouldn’t make it out of this building alive.”
Entering the booth was a mistake. The few seconds it’ll take me to slide out are enough to pump me full of bullets. He chose his trap well. I consider the people in the booth across from us and then turn back to him. “You’d still be dead.”
“I absolutely would. But you would be too, and that’s what I’m betting on. You seem like a man with a plan, and men with plans aren’t suicidal. So why don’t you drink your beer and we’ll have a nice little chat and then go our separate ways at the end, both healthy and whole.”
Clever motherfucker. I lean back, pointedly not touching the new beer. “There’s nothing I can tell you that your fiancée doesn’t already know.” It’s the truth, more or less. At least it’s true enough to satisfy the drug in my system. Ariadne knows about the barrier coming down and she knows about the pending attack on Dodona Tower. Whether she told him—and I know she didn’t—is not my problem.
“I see. What are your current orders?”
I debate not speaking at all, but curiosity is a powerful thing. He isn’t acting like I expected, which means my father’s—and Circe’s—information has holes. “Kill Minos’s daughter.”
“Yes, you mentioned that already.” He blinks slowly. “He’s really not one to let sentimentality hold him back, is he?”
“You’ve met him. What do you think?”
“Ah, ah.” He waves his finger at me. “No getting around the drugs by answering a question with a question.”
I shrug. “His children have always been disappointments. Ariadne betrayed him, but more than that, she betrayed Aeaea. He’s not going to let that go. Not even for a blood relation.” Which is why I have to get her out of here. Eventually he’ll figure out that I have no intention of harming her, and he’ll send someone else to do the job. Maybe Aeacus. I don’t have strong bonds with any of Minos’s men, but I’ve trained with them and I know their strengths and weaknesses. I can beat them, but it will have a high cost. It’s better to avoid that particular confrontation.
“How Olympian of him.” Dionysus sits back. “When will Circe attack?”
“I don’t know.”
“Make an educated guess based on the information you currently possess.”