For now.
“You’ve been avoiding me.” I’m playing for an audience of one, but with how closely the receptionist is watching, this is going to be recounted somewhere later. I’m fucking betting on it.
Aphrodite rolls her eyes. “I just saw you a little over twenty-four hours ago. I never expected you to be clingy.”
“Again with the smart response.”
She flicks her ponytail off her shoulder. “Of course. I’m both smart and quick. Really, you should be used to it by now.”
I don’t know what it says about me that her stinging words are starting to be less infuriating and more intriguing as time goes on. I step closer. My body is sore as fuck after last night. No matter how careful Adonis was with me, it was still more stress on my knee than it’s had in a while, and I’m paying the price this morning.
Now’s the time to throw what happened last night into my wife’s face. I fucked her ex, the one she still watches with her heart in her eyes when she thinks no one is looking. Pandora might be my best friend, but Aphrodite was romantically in love with Adonis. Still is, if I don’t miss my guess.
But it feels…weirdly wrong. I didn’t sleep with Adonis last night with the intention to hurt my wife. I didn’t even think of her once I started kissing him. I’m still not sure why I went to him in the first place. It doesn’t make any sense.
“Have dinner with me tonight.” I say it before my brain has fully processed that I was going to speak.
She blinks. “Excuse me?”
“Dinner. It’s a meal people eat in the evening. Have it with me tonight.”
“I know what dinner is.” She shoots a look at her receptionist, steps closer, and lowers her voice. “What game are you playing at?”
I don’t know. I wish I could say this was all part of some grand plan Minos and I devised, but the truth is that I’m acting on impulse. I hadn’t even thought about the invitation for a moment before it was coming out of my mouth, but now I want her to say yes. It’s…strange. “I’ll see you at seven.”
“I never agreed to dinner, you ass.”
I catch movement behind her as someone walks through the door. They’re wearing a trench coat and a hat pulled low over their face. Too warm for this weather. They slip their hand into their coat.
Gun.
I move on instinct. One step brings me to Aphrodite, and I fully intend to spin us around and put me between her and this person, but my knee buckles. “Fuck!” I go down, taking her with me. We hit the floor, and I barely manage to make sure she lands on me instead of under me. It happens so fucking fast.
The person sprays the space where Aphrodite just stood with bullets. Too many fucking bullets. The ridiculous etched glass divider shatters into a million pieces over us. I try to curl around my wife, but there’s no time. The receptionist shouts, and the attacker turns and flees. I didn’t even get a look at their face.
My blood roars in my ears and I can’t tell if it’s me or Aphrodite shaking. That was close. Too close. It’s not over yet, though. I keep one arm around my wife and point at the receptionist. “Call Ares’s people. Now!” I’m not going to be able to chase some fucking gunman through the streets. It’s already too late, anyways—they’re gone. But Ares should be able to pull the footage or some shit and track the fucker down.
The receptionist nods and grabs the phone with shaking hands.
I sit up slowly. “Are you okay? Did the glass get you?” Even as I ask, I see the cuts on her legs. “Fuck.”
“I’m fine.” She’s not quite steady as she pushes off me. I grab for her, but she’s too quick to her feet. Aphrodite stumbles to the door and flips the lock.
“Get away from the window.” I tense, but no more gunfire meets her.
She tries to smirk, but all the color is gone from her face. “They’re still running. They won’t be back.” Her lower lip quivers but she shakes her head. Hard. “It was only a matter of time. This is the reality we live in now.”
I don’t know if she’s trying to convince me or her, but I struggle to my feet all the same. My knee hurts like a motherfucker, but I don’t let that stop me from limping to her side. I take her shoulders. “Come away from the window.”
“What do you care? I know you don’t give a fuck about committing murder, but surely you would be relieved if someone else took care of the wife you never wanted. Gods, maybe Minos stopped plotting in the dark and finally decided to take more direct action. He’d like to rid you of me.”