Page 61 of The Deeper Game
“You were sitting out there all day. We heard about it,” Jenny said. “You think we’re idiots?”
“You don’t do banks,” Thor said. “You guys are residential.”
“We were going to make an exception,” Angel said. “It was Macy’s idea how to get the codes.”
We all looked at Matteo. Odin wasn’t happy, but I was overjoyed. Would the Gigis wreck everything? Odin still had my hair. He pulled, just to remind me. “Don’t get your hopes up, goddess,” he whispered. “We’ll let them help if worse comes to worse.”
Macy and Matteo were yelling at each other, with the other Gigis chiming in; I was starting to feel embarrassed, like maybe they needed to hash it out somewhere else.
Odin gave me a nudge in the direction of the porch. “Go clean yourself up,” he said.
“Excuse me?”
“Go.” He lowered his voice to be extra gravelly. “Clean yourself up in the porch shower.”
That was the shower we usually used before getting in the hot tub. “I’m not supposed to soak with the tattoo for two weeks, I thought,” I said.
“Nobody’s going in the hot tub,” he growled.
My entire core tightened.Clean yourself upsometimes preceded very dirty plans.
Thor stood. “I need to check in south of the border.” I was guessing he didn’t mean that sexily. He headed out to thebedroom. Zeus had gone into the kitchen. Everybody wanted to leave Matteo and the Gigis alone.
“Way to break up a party,” I grumbled at the Gigis, not that they could hear me. I actually really liked them.
I headed out to the porch, walking in my bare feet across the shadowed porch timbers, which were still warm from the day of sun. I went into the little cedar shower stall and turned on the water, apprehensive and sort of excited, too, like I often was when they made me do pre-sex things. It stoked the anticipation.
I stripped off my clothes and began dousing myself, waiting for Odin and whoever else to join me.
I heard a swish in the trees. I assumed it was squirrels, maybe, up there playing, though it registered as slightly odd. I turned around and let the water beat down on my face.
I sensed movement behind me. Odin? Zeus?
Suddenly, a rough, gloved hand clapped over my mouth and an arm went around my torso like a steel trap.
Alarm shot through me. The arm wore an unfamiliar shirt, and worse, smelled unfamiliar. Like chemical-scented body spray.
My guys never wore body spray!
The next thing I knew, I was breathing in something sickly sweet from a cloth over my mouth.
I kicked and fought, praying for Odin to come out and surprise the guy—I was sure it was the feather guy.
It was suddenly delicious to sleep, and my last thought was that squirrels don’t play in trees at night, and I should’ve known that.
Chapter Fifteen
I wokeup on an uncomfortable patch of sticks and dirt.
What?
I was in some sort of forest.
I rose up, stabilizing myself against a nearby tree trunk, eyes straining to see in the faint moonlight, ears alert for any sound beyond the crickets and the rustle of breeze high up in the treetops.
Memories started falling into place. The shower. The rough hand. The smell, sonotmy guys. I’d been drugged and brought here.
The horrible thought came to me that I could’ve been raped while I was unconscious, but in the next moment, I knew that I hadn’t.
