Page 36 of A Worthy Opponent
I don’t have a good response to that, so I examine the phone. It’s already got a number of contacts keyed into it. I raise my brows as I read through them. Hook. Meg. Hercules. Aurora. Even Nigel is in here.
A text comes through, and I snort. Hook’s already put a selfie of himself in his contact information and, damn, it’s a good one. He really has the smolder thing down. I click through to read the text.
We talk tonight.
No telling if that’s a threat or a promise, so I send him a gif of a cartoon flipping the bird and slip the phone into the back pocket of my jeans. “Why are you still standing there?”
“I’m your protection detail for the day.” Colin looks like he’d rather be anywhere but here, and I can’t really blame him.
I laugh. “You drew the short straw, huh?”
“You have no idea.”
I want to snarl and snap, but Hook’s earlier words still linger in the back of my mind. I amnotlike Peter. He knows that. He only said it to give me a verbal slap I more than deserved. It’s not Colin’s fault I’m in this situation. Hell, it’s not even Hook’s. He took advantage of my misfortune, but he didn’t orchestrate it.
Finally, I exhale the tension threatening to creep up my shoulders to my ears. “What are the parameters that Hook set?”
Colin’s looking at me like I might try to bite. “You have free range of the house, provided that you don’t pull a repeat of the earlier attack.”
“But no limits on guests?”
“No,” he says slowly. “He didn’t mention anything like that, though I’ll have to get anyone you want vetted.”
I wave that away. I expect nothing less, though I’ll be damned before I invite someone over simply to spite Hook. No matter how tempting the thought. “He said my stuff will be here soon.”
“That’s the plan.”
“When?”
Colin shrugs. “I don’t know.”
Yeah, that’s what I thought. I can appreciate Hook ensuring I get my possessions quickly, but ultimately he’s got other things on his mind. Other priorities. I’ve already lost too much work time in the last two days. I have a dress due to Isabelle Belmonte in a week, and I’ve only begun to sketch it. She’s got a particular style, and while I normally enjoy the challenge of working with her, it’s not something best left for last minute.
“Well, thanks for this.”
He picks up the clear dismissal and sighs. “I’ll be at the elevator doors downstairs if you need anything.”
More like to ensure I don’t do anything impulsive. I nod. “Thanks.” This time, it actually sounds like I mean it. I barely wait for him to leave before I find Meg’s contact and call her.
Despite the relatively early hour—most people who live in the Underworld are on a mostly nocturnal schedule—Meg answers rather quickly. “You know, if I’d realized you were desperate enough to marry Hook, I would have fought Hades harder on letting you stay.”
I release a silent breath, something loosening in my chest. So shehadfought for me. I’d thought so—I didn’t believe Meg would offer to let me stay on without having some intention of following through on it—but hearing her state it in her dry tone makes me believe it.
It’s tempting to spill everything. To tell her about the threat Peter still represents and Hook’s plan to use me as bait to remove him once and for all. I open my mouth to do just that but stop before a single word escapes.
We’re not on opposite sides. Meg’s not onanyside but Hades’s…which is the point. Sharing the dirty details with her means sharing them with Hades, and I’m not willing to do that. Not when he could use it against Hook. Hades deals in information, after all. He’s not technically supposed to meddle in leadership shit with the territories, but if he’s not caught, who would know the difference?
I clear my throat. “I’m doing okay. I chose this.”
Meg’s silent for so long, I check to see if the call got disconnected. Finally, she says, “If you change your mind, all you have to do is tell me. I’ll get you out.”
Shock has me rocking back on my heels. She says it as if it’s fact; if I ask her, she’ll get me out. End of story. It unsettles me the same way Aurora’s defense did. Neither of them hesitate to defend me, to offer me a way out. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that. “What about Hades?” I ask weakly.
“WhataboutHades? I have resources of my own, and youof all people know I’m not beholden to him beyond our relationship.”
In my opinion, that’s plenty beholden, but I don’t point out lots of people have committed atrocities because they fell in love with the wrong person. Even I’m not immune, though the only person hurt when I was with Peter was me.
I realize that Meg and Hades hardly have a relationship like Peter and I did. Hades is a cold bastard, but he sees Meg as a partner and has no intention of grinding away the things that make herherto ensure she never leaves him. I don’t really understand their relationship, but I know it’s nothing like mine and Peter’s.
