A Worthy Opponent Read online

  “Then let me lay it out explicitly. I’ve allowed you to find your feet in more than one way while you lived under my roof and my protection. Despite our bargain, I only took five percent of your clothing profits, when we both know I was entitled to a much larger slice. You have resources. You have money. The only thing you’re lacking is courage.” He stands slowly, glowering down at me. “It’s time to the leave the nest, Tink. Because these two have tender feelings for you, I am content to hold your possessions until you find a residence—within a reasonable timeline.”

  He just knocked the wind out of my best argument for more time. I swallow past my suddenly dry throat. “How long are you giving me?”

  “Three days. That should be more than enough time to nail down living arrangements.” He makes a show of looking at his watch. “That timeline starts now. I wouldn’t linger.”

  None of them make a move as I turn on my heel and march out of the room. I won’t hold this against Meg and Hercules later, but right now the betrayal lies thick on my tongue. I’ve made Hades a shit ton of money over the last five years, and the second he has a chance to drop me, he doesn’t hesitate. For all his talk of loyalty and the like, he’s a fucking hypocrite.

  I absolutely refuse to see his side of things. I’m not interested in being fair right now. Only angry.

  I stop on the employee residential floor to grab some things and stop short when I find Allecto leaning against the wall by my door. She’s Hades’s head of security, and she’s so beautiful I’d be jealous if I didn’t enjoy her snarky attitude so much. She’s got her long black braids up in a messy bun on top of her head and is wearing combat boots, jeans, and a black tank top that shows off her impressive arm muscles. She catches sight of me and straightens. “You have ten minutes to grab your shit, and then I’m escorting you to the exit.”

  “Ten minutes and an escort.” I try and fail to keep the hurt out of my voice. “Hades really is pulling out the stops.”

  Allecto shrugs, her dark brown skin gleaming in the soft light of the hallway. “Time to fly, little bird.”

  “I hate all of you.”

  “No, you don’t. You’re just pissed. You’ll get over it.” She motions to my door. “Clock’s ticking.”

  As much as I’d like to stand here and yell at her until I can exorcise some of the horrible emotions tumbling through me, it won’t make a difference. Allecto isn’t responsible for this decision any more than I am.

  I hurry into the room and bypass the racks half-filled with clothing from my last styling appointment and the compulsively organized corner of the room that houses my desk, sewing machine, and a small fortune’s worth of fabric and accessories. I might not trust Hades as far as I can throw him, but I don’t believe for a second that he’ll mess with my things. He wants me gone, not broken. The two things feel remarkably similar in this moment, but with distance, that will change.

  I’ve already been intimately acquainted with being broken. This isn’t what it looks like. Not by a long shot. I’m pissed and my feelings are hurt, but that’s the worst of it.

  I wade into my walk-in closet and dig through the garment bags to the spot in the corner where the pink suitcase sits. It’s shiny and new and has never been used. It’s also packed with enough clothes to see me through a week of whatever the hell life can throw at me, duplicates of all my cosmetics and hair shit, and six pairs of shoes. Oh, and of course, a taser and two cans of bear mace. A woman has to be prepared, after all.

  I heft it out of the closet and do a quick circuit of the room. My phone charger goes into my purse, the stash of cash I kept in a little fireproof safe in the nightstand follows. It’s not everything I have, but it’s more than enough for a month or two of rent to get me started.

  I stop short. Holy shit, I’m going to have to find furniture, do my own grocery shopping, do everything. The sheer number of things I need to take care of has me wavering. Would Hades really put me out if I hid in my room until further notice?

  I know the answer even before my mind finishes the thought. He would and he will. No, there’s no option but to leave gracefully. Jump and figure it out on the way down.

  I muscle open the door and haul the suitcase behind me. Allecto is exactly where I left her and she raises her eyebrows at the luggage. “Subtle.”

  “It’s called character, asshole.”

  “You better take a cab or something. Dragging that shiny thing behind you is like carrying a neon sign just asking to get mugged.”

  As satisfying as it would be to tell her where to shove her opinion, she’s right. “I’ll call from the lobby. Wouldn’t want to give you any excuse to drag me kicking and screaming from the building.”

  “Aw, Tink, you ruin all my fun.” She gives me a wide grin and, even with my world turned on its head, it has heat licking up my spine. Allecto plays just as mean as I do, and we’ve had a lot of fun together in the past.

  Will we still do scenes if I’m no longer on the payroll?

  I shake my head and push the thought away. I have larger things than my sex life to worry about right now. And I certainly will not be thinking about Hook’s offer.

  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 I know I 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 of might. 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 need anyone doing 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 keep me 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 a huge stream 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 one seems 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 a lot, 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 I owe him. 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, at eighteen, 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?”

  Okay? I am so far from okay, I don’t know where to begin. I blink down at him. “What are you doing here?”

  “Hades has his reasons for making this call, but it’s wrong to just toss you out without a parachute.” He gives me a sweet smile. “I was going to help you find a place and get you settled in.”

  If he were anyone else, I’d accuse him of ulterior motives, but Hercules is one of those pure souls that defy explanation. He’s a legitimately good guy, and I still don’t quite understand how he and Hades and Meg ended up in a relationship that works. I guess it’s enough that it does.

  My body finally understands the threat has passed, and I start shaking and can’t seem to stop. That was close. Too close. Not a single one of these strangers on the street even looked up from their phones long enough to realize they were witnessing an abduction. If Hercules wasn’t too pure for this world, Peter could have taken me wherever he wanted to.

  He won’t stop. I knew it for truth even as I denied it to Hook, but there’s no room for that kind of denial now. He will not stop. He will keep coming for me. I wasn’t strong enough to stand against him on my own before.

  I’m not strong enough now.

  Hercules stands and pulls me into a hug. Part of me wants to fight him, but he’s big and strong and smells really good. For a moment, I can almost fool myself into thinking I’m safe.

  I’m not, though. I’ll never be again.

  Which means I have only one course of action left to me.

  Chapter 4

  Hook

  “She’s here.”

  I stare at Nigel for a full three seconds before speaking. “You’re going to have to elaborate, cousin. There are a lot of ‘she’s’ in my territory.”

  Nigel crosses his arms over his chest. He’s built bulkier than I am, courtesy of his giant of a father, but we share our mothers’ coloring. I’ve been in this world long enough to know that family doesn’t mean shit unless you want it to, but I trust Nigel with my life. There are reasons he’s my second-in-command, and cryptic statements aren’t one of them. He relents before I do and snorts. “Short, curvy blonde. Mean as a fucking snake. You know exactly what she I’m talking about, so stop dicking around.”

  Tatiana. Or, rather, Tink. That’s the name she’s been going under since she got out.

  I look at the old clock above the door. “That took less time than I expected.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’ll pay up.” He digs his wallet out and passes me a hundred-dollar bill. “You going to keep gloating or you going to go get your woman?”

  My woman.

  Not yet. Not in any true way. But the fact she’s here means she’s going to say yes. She doesn’t have a choice if she wants to stay in Carver City, and the sooner she realizes it, the better. Even Hades’s neutral territory won’t protect her if Peter decides to chase her down—and he’s already decided it.

  I check my pace and head for the door. She came to me. That puts me in exactly the position I need to get what I want. If I play my hand too freely, she’ll realize my offer isn’t as simple as it appears. She’s smart enough to connect the dots and understand I need her just as much as she needs me. That shit will not fly.

  Nigel put her in his office, which is just as well. I trust my men not to touch what’s mine, but loyalty has been wavering over the last few months. I’ll need to make an example of someone soon to ensure they fear me more than they fear the memory of Peter. The thought sits like lead in my stomach, but I knew what I was signing up for when I drove him out. This is the price I pay for safety, mine and my people’s. I’m willing to bear the burden of it.

  I should have killed him. I beat him within an inch of his life, but when it came time to finish him, I hesitated. Murder is what monstrous people did—what Peter and my father did. If I killed him, I’d be no better than him, so I had the few men loyal to him drag his bloody body out of the building and washed my hands of him.

  Joke’s on me. Four years later and I am exactly as monstrous as Peter and my father. Better that I’d lost my soul a few months earlier and
removed the biggest threat to this territory, because my so-called morals didn’t last the first year. One does not run an entire territory without being challenged, without being forced to make examples of people. I’m no exception. I can talk circles around most people, but there are situations that I simply can’t charm my way out of.

  Because of my weakness, Peter lives and now he’s knocking on my door, threatening everything I’ve sold my soul to protect. If I fail, everything I’ve done to keep my people safe will be for nothing.

  I can’t let that happen. No matter the cost.

  I step into the office and shut the door behind me. I’m not surprised to find Tink sitting at the desk and rifling through the unlocked drawers. She glares, silently daring me to say something.

  I don’t have to say shit. She came to me. She knows the offer on the table. If she wasn’t willing to accept, she wouldn’t have crossed into my territory, let alone shown up at the house itself. I sprawl into the chair across from the desk and wait.

  She doesn’t make me wait long. “I hate you.” Tink’s voice holds no heat, just a weary resignation.

  “You’ve made that abundantly clear over the years.” I only tried to talk to her once after she escaped Peter’s clutches, a few months after she made her deal with Hades. She refused to see me, and every time since then, she has treated me like an enemy. Someone to be cut down verbally every time we shared the same space. I don’t blame her for that. I’m a walking, breathing memory of years I’m sure she’d rather forget. And, fuck, but I enjoy seeing her snarl and snap instead of cowering like she did in the bad old days.

  She props her hands on her generous hips. She’s wearing a cute pink dress with black polka dots that hugs her tits and torso and then flares down to stop just below her knees. It’s old school and a strange combination of prim and sexy that makes me want to sink my teeth into her.

  She snaps her fingers next to her face. “Stop staring at my tits.”