Page 6

CHAPTER 6

ALEXEI

Cupid’s days are numbered. It's been a good run, but there's only one thing I have left to do under this alias.

Rose doesn't like my plan, doesn't like that I'm the one who must surrender. As if I would ever put her in harm's way. That's not an option. There's only one way forward now, and I'm on the path.

"Hit," I said confidently, almost like a boast. "I know what's coming."

The steely-eyed dealer drops a card and exclaims, "Twenty-one!. Winner, winner, chicken dinner."

Everyone at the table erupts in celebration. Of course they do: they’re making money. All around us, the casino chimes and rings and tolls with hopes and dreams. Most of them will lose—the house always wins.

But sometimes, a lucky few manage to steal their fortunes.

When Rose said my plan was a gamble, I couldn't help but laugh. How poetic. But that's not why I chose Vegas as the location to carry it out.

I chose Sin City because there are more cameras here than anywhere in the country. The casinos are always looking for cheaters, and you can’t walk five feet on the floor without being scanned by some of the best facial-recognition software in the world. Facial recognition can be tricked, but I'm not playing any games. For two days, I've been hitting the tables in fine suits, drinking my fill, and raising my glass to the eyes in the sky.

I’m not hiding.

I’m throwing up the white flag.

So, I'm not surprised as two men fill into the empty seats at the blackjack table. Hunters recognize hunters, and I've been waiting for them.

One is a slender man who towers over everyone in his seat; he has eyes so dark that they seem to swallow light. His associate is ugly like a bulldog, scruffy and lumpy and gnarled. Both are wearing all black suits. The two men exchange cash for chips at our high roller’s table.

Hades and Cerberus have entered the game.

I breathe a sigh of relief. The first part of my gamble has paid off: if their orders were to kill, I'd already be dead.

"Having fun?" Hades asks, running his knife fingers through oily black hair. "Looks like you're on quite the run."

"I suppose I am." I lean back and toy with my stack of chips. "Was thinking of cashing out, though. Don't want to press my luck."

"A wise decision."

"Yeah," Cerberus grunts. "Game’s over."

The poor dealer doesn't know what to make of our cryptic conversation. "Your bets, Sirs?"

The two hunters grab their chips. "We're going to try another table.”

I smile, drop one chip into my shirt pocket, and slide the entire pile toward the dealer. "That's for you. Thanks for the game."

"Are you serious?" The dealer calls out in disbelief as I saunter off with my two new friends in tow.

I raise my hand to him without looking back. "All yours, kid."

The other players at the table clap and congratulate the dealer on his big bonus. Cerberus growls behind me, "Stop making a fucking scene."

"You're the ones who sat down, dropped ten thousand for chips each, and got up without playing a hand." I plop my empty glass down on a waitress’s tray as she saunters by, along with my last chip. "I thought a devil and his demon dog would be more at home in Sin City..."

"Cute," Hades sizzles. "Head toward the parking garage. Don't try to fight, Cupid."

I smile broadly. "Wouldn't dream of it."

We leave the noise and haze of cigarette smoke behind us, delving into the cool subterranean lot. Hades takes the lead, and Cerberus can't resist shoving me along even though I'm keeping pace with his master. The attack dog is restless; he's not accustomed to taking targets in alive.

"Disappointing," he grunts. "Bullshit. Cupid ain't shit. All those stories are shit."

"My reputation precedes me, I see."

"Shut up."

"Consider yourself lucky, Cerberus. I'd put you down like the dog you are."

Hades opens the passenger door of an all-black SUV. There's a black bag resting on the seat. "Get in and place the bag over your head. Protocol. I'm sure you understand."

I smile back at Cerberus, shrug, and grab the bag. "Certainly. Just take it easy on the turns, or I might puke all over the leather."

Behind me, the dog fumes. "This is such shit. You're so lucky that bitch of yours isn't here. We'll find her. We'll find her and put her down."

Hades meets my eyes and sighs.

I turn slowly to face his pet. "Go on, take a shot at me. Rough me up. If you can manage to land a blow on me, I'll say I resisted. Then you can tell everyone that you beat the famous Cupid."

Hades shuffles behind me. I think he's turned around.

Cerberus's crazy eyes dart between me and his boss before he throws a lumbering but powerful punch. He's a stout, thick man. Admittedly, I'd never want to feel that fist crashing against my face.

That's why I catch the punch in the black bag instead. I twist his arm awkwardly, making him yelp before I silence him with the jab to the throat.

Cerberus keels over and chokes like an old dog.

Hades turns around and jiggles his keys. "Are you quite done?"

Cerberus coughs and growls before righting himself. "Yep." He may be dumb, but he's tough.

I retrieve the bag and pat him on the shoulder before I get in the car. Hades slides a silenced pistol back into his black coat. He lets Cerberus have this fun, but he would have ended me in a heartbeat if he needed to.

I put the bag on my head and bounce in my seat. "To Olympia, boys! I'm so excited. It's been years! Feels like going to Disneyland."

"Happiest place on earth," Hades drones.

Cerberus gets in the back seat. "What a prick."

We get rolling to whatever lair that white speaker is waiting for me in.

Somewhere else in the world—in a location I would not disclose to the most painful interrogation techniques—Rose Watson waits safely with her fingers on an array of triggers, eyes on the schedule I've had worked out for months.

I think about her the entire ride: the taste of her, the way she moans my true name, and the future waiting for us.

Already, things are starting to explode.

Usually, Zeus makes you wait. It's an interrogation tactic. Cops love it. Counter-terrorism units live by it. The slow tick of time and the boredom of an all white room would make anyone grateful to hear that disembodied voice come through the speaker.

Today, he's booming before they even get the bag off my head.

Is this you? Is this your doing, Cupid? Where's Hera? What have you done!?

I rub my eyes sleepily, slide the metal chair over to the speaker, and kick my legs up on the pedestal. It rocks slightly. Huh, I always thought this thing was bolted down. "Zeus, so good to hear that weird little voice of yours. How are you?"

This is not a game...

"Everything is a game, my disembodied friend. You only say that because you're losing."

Zeus is silent. Hades took my watch, so I do a little rough math in my head.

"Let's see, it must be around seven in the morning on the East Coast." I start holding up fingers. "That means Director Anderson's vacation house in Puerto Rico is gone. Co-director Padilla just lost his collection of supercars. And the head of your cover-up division... Oh, what's her name?" I lean the chair back on two legs before I snap my fingers and bring it back down. "That's right. Veronica Stratford. She's probably wondering how her yacht caught fire in the middle of the night. I think she was planning a little Atlantic excursion soon, wasn't she?"

Enough, Zeus almost sounds like he's begging me to stop. How?

For once, the gods have to wait in silence. I stand and do a lap around the little room, running my hands along the perfectly white walls. It's even smaller than it seems. I imagine all the blood on my hands staining the walls red. But it's already red. Underneath the white, it's all blood.

"You know when one of your assassins succeeds or fails. Of course, you do," I speak like I'm giving a lecture. Who knows, there might be a gathering of Olympia higher-ups hanging on my every word like fawning students. "You have your spies and your eyes. But you don't know the details until they're reported to you. You don't know how we kill them, how long it takes us to do it, or the things we might ask them before we take their life. You never even considered the possibility that we might speak to our target at all."

You, Zeus stammers. You've been conversing with your targets before you eliminate them?

"I've been interrogating them."

Somebody keeps their finger on a button because the mic is hot for a full two seconds before it shuts off. Zeus's panicked voice was more than one.

I smile at the speaker and pat it on its little head. "I’ve been surprised by how much some of them actually knew. You lot have made some enemies out there."

They are evil, Zeus booms. We are ridding the world of—

"Evil. Right. Right." I roll my eyes and wave him off. "Truly, I don't care which of you thinks you're wrong or right. You’re all cut from the same cloth. You're all parasites. That's all this is: the wealthy at war with one another. The obscenely rich playing and paying in blood for more power and control. Your motivations mean nothing to me."

Again, I count in my head.

"Except, of course, self-preservation. Now, that's a motivation I can work with. I assume you don't want to find out what will blow next if you keep me here for too long."

Zeus, whoever they are—one of them, all of them—comes back softly, What do you want, Cupid?

"Simple: to not be Cupid anymore," I say sternly. "And for Hera to not be Hera. We want to be nobody. Nobody to you , that is. All you have to do is let me go, leave us alone, and never come looking. Nothing else will explode. Your identities will be safe with me."

That's a risk we can't take. We don't let people go.

"Well, what a toxic work environment you created. Is it any wonder that someone is shooting up the office?" I plop back down in the chair and rest one foot against the pedestal like I'm about to topple it. "Your choice, Olympia. Keep me here, and it's only going to get worse. We spared lives up until this point. The more the clock runs, the deadlier things are going to get. You’ll call us Titans before this is over. And the best part is that you'll never find her."

The only shitty part about this plan, from my perspective, is that Rose doesn’t get to witness Olympia taking it on the chin. Well, at least she gets to pull the triggers.

Zeus politely asks me to wait.

“Take your time.” I glance at the non-existent watch on my wrist. “Well, take it at your own peril. And send in someone with an espresso, would you? I’m beat. Vegas, baby.”

The chair grows uncomfortable, so I plop down on the floor and lean against one of the walls. Eventually, the nearly-invisible door opens, and Hades walks in. In all black, he’s a blotch on the room.

He doesn’t seem to mind serving me the espresso.

“Are you kidding?” I laugh, examining the little mug. There’s a red thunderbolt on it. “Olympia has merch? God, I wish Hera could see this. Can I take this?”

Hades shrugs. “Not my division.”

I sip the coffee and raise the cup to him. “Damn good.”

Hades pulls a black flask from his pocket. “Want a little something to spice it up?”

“Oh, no,” I scoff. “I quit.”

“You seem certain that they’re gonna let you slide.” He takes a pull from his flask. “If that speaker tells me to, you know I’ll blow your brains out right here.”

I smile, thinking about all the things Olympia still has to lose.

My bombing schedule has just begun, and they won’t risk seeing just how deep it goes. They’ll let me go because only I can stop it, and they won’t come looking because they know I’ll start it up again.

Me? I’ve only got one thing to lose, and she’s the one thing now completely out of their reach.

“And ruin these pretty white walls?” In one gulp, I down the espresso and smirk at Hades. “I don’t think so.”

It’s a cool night in the desert.

The stars are out, blanketing the sky and shining down on me like spotlights. Zeus isn’t up there watching me anymore. None of them are.

As it turns out, Olympia did not want to ruin their white walls. By the time I’d ordered and finished another espresso, the speaker let me know that they were accepting the deal. The voice of Zeus didn’t sound so big surrendering to my demands.

No more Cupid.

No more Hera.

They forget about us, forever.

Hades and his dog dropped me off back at the casino, insisting on the bag over my head as if I don’t already know all the organization’s secrets. Their black SUV speeding off is the last bit of Olympia I’ll ever witness.

Unless you count the cup I took.

From Vegas, it was a nine-hour drive to her hiding place.

Out here, in a wasteland where no one would ever come looking, Rose flipped switches and raised hell. I’m parked outside the trailer, praying that she’s still in there. I know she is. I know my plan succeeded, but I can’t shake the fear that something could have happened to her.

The door opens, and my future walks out.

She’s wearing that same flannel from our safehouse in the mountains. Her pale legs gleam in the starlight.

Finally, I’m home.

“It’s a good thing you’re here,” she says as I get out of the car. “Forty-three more minutes, and I would have flipped another switch.”

I pretend to calculate in my head as I saunter over. “Which one was that?”

“Deputy Chief Morel’s house in Aspen.”

“Oh, yeah.” I mimic an explosion. “That one would have been bad.”

She’s standing on the trailer’s metal steps, biting her lip and rocking on her heels. I wrap an arm around her waist and press my face into the flannel. The longest, most relieving sigh leaves my body.

“I can’t believe you were right,” she whispers.

“Told you,” I mock. “Look, I even brought you back a souvenir.”

I plant the white cup with the red thunderbolt in her hands.

Her jaw hangs. “You’re kidding. They actually make cheap shit like this? Do you think they have team building weekends, too?”

“The coffee was fantastic, though.”

Rose turns the cup over. “You… you don’t think there’s a tracker in it, do you?”

“Who cares? They’re afraid of us, now.” I shrug before yelling into the cup. “You hear us in there? You want more boom-boom ? Come and get us!”

They wouldn’t dare.

Besides, we won’t be here for long.

Rose smacks my chest and rolls her eyes. “Knock it off, psycho.”

“Now that we’ve taken care of that mild annoyance…”

“ Mild? ”

“It’s time to decide where we’d like to go.”

Rose considers this. “Where can we go?”

I smile and wink. “Anywhere.”

“Well, first,” she hums and slides her arms around my shoulders. “To bed .”

“That goes without saying…”

“And then…” Rose hurls the cup, shattering it against the shed next to the trailer. “Why don’t you take me somewhere warm?”

I glance back, losing the white pieces of ceramic in the darkness.

“That was dramatic,” I say.

She shrugs. “I figured it was my turn.”

We don’t even make it into the trailer.

I take Rose in my arms, lie her down on the hood of the car, and rip off that flannel under a blanket of stars. Her body is moonlight spilling between my fingers. No matter how hard I try, I can’t grab enough of her at once to be satisfied.

I’ve been all over the world.

I’ve been shot, stabbed, beaten, and brutalized.

I’ve killed. Boy, have I killed.

All of that seems like a dull, distant memory to me now. Another life I’m ready to forget. With her moaning my name, clawing at my scars, and urging me deeper with her feet hooked behind me, nothing else in the world matters. Not money. Not power. Not control.

We’re free, and I’ve never felt so alive.