Page 66 of Learn My Lesson
I try to find words, but a sob rips free. My chest hurts. Ribs, I think distantly. Definitely broken. “I’m… I’ll be okay.”
He holds out a hand. “Can you get to me, Meg?”
My fingers brush his when a hand closes around my throat and I’m jerked back against a big body. Something wet coats my back, soaking through my dress. Zeus’s voice sounds more animal than human. “You always were a fucking traitor.”
Hercules goes pale. “Let her go.”
“Move back or I wring her neck.”
Hercules takes a step back and then another, his hands held up in front of him. Each increase in the distance between us spikes my panic. I struggle, but Zeus wraps his other arm around my waist and squeezes. The pain nearly makes me black out and I can’t stop a shriek.
Zeus shoves us from the crumpled vehicle, dragging me over broken glass. I barely feel the cuts over the symphony of agony that is my ribs. He stops just outside the car and my vision clears to see Hades bearing down on us. Zeus, the bastard, laughs. “I thought taking her was good enough, but you’re right. This is better. You can watch her bleed out and know that it’s your fault.”
Hades draws a gun and points it at us. “Release her.”
“Is your aim good enough to hit me and not her?” Zeus laughs again. “I don’t think so.” He hefts my body up until my knees don’t touch the ground, using me as a human shield. “Move back.”
“I don’t think I will.”
“Come now, Hades. Release Hercules and I hand back your woman. She’s even mostly whole. You’ve had your fun.”
“No.”
Zeus goes tense behind me. “You can’t get out of this without losing one of them. Her or him. Choose.”
“There is no choosing, Zeus. I love them both.” Hades hesitates and then his eyes go hard as they meet mine. “Head wound, Meg.”
I don’t think. I can’t afford to. I slam my head backward, ignoring the screaming of my ribs. The impact to Zeus’s face wouldn’t be enough if he was healthy and whole, but the blood soaking me must be his because he shouts and drops me. I hit the ground and press myself down as a gunshot sounds. Too loud. Too close.
Then Hercules is there, gathering me carefully up and rushing back several steps to put distance between us and his father. I lift my head enough to see Hades standing over Zeus, who’s bleeding from a gunshot wound to his shoulder. Not fatal. Not by a long shot.
Hades trains the gun on Zeus, and I’ve never seen him look so cold. “If you or your people set foot in Carver City, your life is forfeit.” He gives a slow smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “You’re lucky I care for your son or I’d empty this clip into you.” He glances at me—at Hercules at my back. “A gift to you, little Hercules. Your father’s life.”?3
Hercules starts to move forward, aggression in every line of his body, but I clutch his shirt. “It’s the right choice.”
“He took you. He was going to hurt you.” His eyes go hard, and he’s never looked more like his father than he does in this moment. “There’s only one way to guarantee that he doesn’t do it again.”
“No.” I look between my men and put more force into my voice. “No.” I want nothing more than to take that gun from Hades’s hand and pull the trigger several times. I hate that Zeus made me afraid, I hate that the fear will cling to me like a spiderweb for days and maybe weeks to come. It doesn’t matter. I put a little wobble into my voice, and it takes far less effort than I want to admit. “Take me home. Please.”
For a moment, I think it won’t work. Hercules hesitates and then finally takes another step back. “If that’s what you want.”
It isn’t. I want this man dead at my feet. I want to rip him to pieces with my bare hands and then scatter his ashes to the wind. But Hades has always seen things clearly enough for both of us. He’s right. If Zeus dies today from our hand, Hercules will eventually grow to hate us. He won’t be able to stop himself, no matter what he’s feeling in this moment.
If there’s a choice between love and revenge, I choose love. Today, for the first time since I’ve known him, Hades does too.
Hercules doesn’t stop until we’re on the other side of the car from Zeus. He sets me carefully on my feet and then Hades is there, running his hands gently over my body. “We’ll have to get the glass out of these wounds.” His fingers graze my side, and I wince. “Ribs,” he says, echoing my thought. “Get her into the car before someone calls the police.”
Hercules opens the door and carefully guides me inside. Allecto turns around as I settle in the middle seat. “You’re alive. Good.”
“No thanks to you.” I’ve never heard Hercules sound so dangerous. “You could have killed her with that stunt.”
“I had things perfectly under control.”
“No, you fucking didn’t.”
I clear my throat. “Children.”
Hades opens the other door and takes a place on the other side of me. I’m safe. My brain may register that, but my body hasn’t quite got the memo. I can’t stop shaking. “You shot him.”
