Page 7 of A Worthy Opponent
Marriage. Fucking.Him.
It’s more than that, though. If I agree to his terms, if I let him fight this battle for me, if I agree to forever, it wouldn’t be as simple as signing a paper, putting a ring on my finger, and then lying back while I think of England. Hook would never settle for that. No, he wants me, body and soul.
I’ve only just gained ownership of both. I’m not in a hurry to give either away, let alone to a person IknowI can’t trust. Hook is a goddamn villain, no matter how pretty he smiles.
“Tink.”
I blink. Allecto sounds annoyed enough that this can’t be the first time she’s said my name. “What?”
“The car.”
“Right. My bad.” I fish my phone out of my oversized purse and pull up the app to call the car service. It’s only when I’m typing in the pickup address that I pause.
I have no idea where I’m going.
Staying in Hades’s territory in the center of Carver City would be ideal, but even without having looked into it in detail, I know real estate prices are astronomical. Neutral territory is worth its weight in gold, and people are only too happy to pay through the nose to live inside his boundaries. It allows for dealings with a variety of criminal types without having to worry about stepping on territorial toes or pledging long-standing alliances to a single ruler.
I might be able to afford the cost of rent, but it would deplete my resources really fast. If I devoted more time to my fashion gig instead of using it as a side hustle the way I had for the last couple years, I might be able to make up the difference, but that is a lot ofmight. I can’t pay my newly acquired bills with “might.”
“Don’t let all the possibilities hamper your decision-making abilities.”
I give Allecto a sharp look. “I don’t need you crawling around inside my head.” I don’t needanyonedoing it.
She rolls her eyes. “You don’t want me to guess what you’re thinking, then you better work on your poker face. It’s usually better than this.” Her expression softens the tiniest bit, which is almost worse. All these scary people that I thought I earned my place beside as a near-equal, and they all pity me. I can’t stand it.
“I’m fine.” I take a deep breath and lay out my options. I could go to Jasmine. She’s not as bad as some of the others, and she likes me enough to give me the space to work. I think. But then, she’s less than a year into running her territory, and that will give her less leniency. She’ll have to keepme under her thumb to avoid the appearance of favoritism or something else that will weaken her position. Dealing with Jafar is also a mark in the negative column. No, I’ll only go there as a last resort.
Gaeton might take me in, at least for a little while, but it’s even worse over there. The Man in Black is old, and rumor has it he’s the kind of sick a person doesn’t come back from. His daughters are strong enough to hold the territory, but the unrest will be bad for business. Bad for me if I’m there. Not to mention the Man in Black’s youngest daughter has a history with Gaeton, and his helping me wouldn’t earn me any points with her. If Isabelle Belmonte decides to blacklist me, that will cut out ahugestream of revenue to my business. I can’t risk going that route, either.
There’s no help for it. I’m going to have to bite the financial bullet and find a place in Hades’s territory. At least for now. I’ll figure out the rest once I get enough time and distance to be able to take an honest look at my current situation.
I try very hard not to think about how much I love my suite in the Underworld as I start walking with a vague wave in Allecto’s direction. There’s no point in calling a cab. Hades’s reach is only a handful of blocks in any direction. There are a set of apartments a few streets down that might work. I’ve met clients there in the past, and while the spaces are small, they’re really nice.
As I stop at the corner to wait for the light, the small hairs at the back of my neck raise and my skin prickles. Someone is watching me. I look around slowly, but it’s midday and there’s too much foot traffic to be able to tell who it is. That, and I’m too short to see over the shoulders of the people in front of me. The light changes, and they surge into motion, taking me with them. I focus on putting one foot in front of the other and try to watch the faces around me. No oneseems to be paying me the slightest bit of attention. It should be enough to relax me, but my instincts aren’t getting the memo.
I reach the other side of the street, and the guy on my left stumbles, knocking me aside right as I try to step on the curb. My heel turns, and then I’m falling. “Fuck!”
Hands grab my upper arms and haul me to my feet. I immediately start to step back, to thank the dude, but he doesn’t let me go.What the hell?I jerk back harder. “Thanks. I got it.”
“Do you?”
I freeze. Even five years later, I know that voice. My gaze goes up, up, up, and there he is. The specter in more nightmares than I care to count. My boogeyman. Peter. He doesn’t look like he’s aged a day since I saw him last, his light brown hair still cut short on the sides and left longer on top. His blue eyes twinkle at me, filled with the kind of mean amusement that always comes before my pain. “Hey, baby.”
No words come. I open my mouth, but a strange wheezing sound emerges. Apparently he takes that as a sign, because he shifts his grip to my wrists and starts pulling me down the block. “Been a while.”
“Let go!”
“You know better. I’m just taking what I’m owed. And you owe me alot, Tatiana.” Step by step, despite my best efforts, we start down the street in the opposite direction of where I’d wanted to go.
I can’t go with him. I know what happens if we get somewhere private. What Iowehim. He didn’t kill me before, but he sure as fuck is going to now. Or worse. I can’t think about worse right now. I can’t think about anything. I dig in my heels, but he’s always been stronger than me. Even though my body is nowhere near the weak thing it was at sixteen, ateighteen, at twenty, he still doesn’t even seem to notice that I’m fighting him.
“Hey!”
A voice behind us, so familiar it makes me sag in relief. My breath sobs out. I twist and catch sight of Hercules wading through people behind us. His gaze lands on me and then on Peter, finally settling on where Peter’s hands grind the bones of my wrist together. Hercules’s eyes narrow. He’s a total cinnamon roll, but right now he looks like he might tear Peter apart with his bare hands. “Let her go.”
Peter looks down at me and chuckles. “You won’t always have friends with you, baby. See you soon.” He releases my wrists and melts into the crowd right as Hercules skids to a stop next to me.
Hercules goes down on one knee, completely ignoring how dirty the street must be, and examines my wrists. “Are you okay?”
