Page 30 of Martyr (Sterling Falls Rogues #3)

Apollo and Artemis share similar features. Twins, of course, just like the gods of old. Apollo and I have already met—once at Olympus, masked, and again when he tried to warn me away from his sister. But that was a shadowed, dark affair. I wasn’t analyzing.

Now, I’m outright staring.

Where Artemis has lean muscles and curves, Apollo has bulk. When he first escorted me down to the basement, he had scruff. Now, he’s clean-shaven. His dark hair is short—impossible to tell if it’s wavy like Tem’s, but it seems thick enough.

Jace King sits across from me. Apollo is behind him, leaning against the wall. His arms are crossed.

Wolfe James stands at my shoulder, just out of reach. In case I decide to really fuck myself over and attack him, I guess. With bound hands.

The zip ties are overkill, but whatever. If it puts them more at ease…

Anyway.

“It was pitched to us that your loyalty could shift in our favor,” Jace finally says.

Ah, that. Saint’s plea. Did he mention it, or did Artemis?

I roll my shoulders back. “Loyalty is an interesting word.”

“You’re loyal to a madman,” Apollo says.

“I work for a madman,” I snap.

“Oh, you’re on payroll? You get your taxes taken out like a good little employee?” Wolfe snickers.

“Taxes, 401-k, health insurance, the whole nine yards.” I raise an eyebrow. “Does that make a difference?”

“Sure.” Wolfe drags out the chair next to me and drops into it.

He faces me, his knees nearly touching mine.

“The legal way means Justice Marcus Graves isn’t hiding who he’s employing.

But Daniel did a financial audit on you.

He said there were no direct deposits into your accounts, no cashed checks…

. Nothing that would indicate you work for him.

Just monthly payments from the military after your medical discharge. ”

I nod slowly. “Guess that sounds about right.”

“So you were being facetious,” Jace clarifies.

“Obviously.”

“How does he pay you?”

“Cash. An apartment. He promised me he would help me find Reese. That was the biggest thing.”

Jace and Wolfe trade a look, but I can’t read it. I don’t speak their language. I’ve been holding on to this loyalty to Ouranos for so long. He made me rely on him, trust him. He carved out every bit of disobedience. Just like the military does.

It’s similar, in a way. Their need for soldiers who will listen and follow commands, almost without question. Sure, there are questions. There will always be questions. But my ability to shove those aside and do what needed to be done…

My chest is tight. If they weren’t watching my every move, I’d rub it. I’d press my fingers into the tattoo Saint gave me, the one he still doesn’t know about. Is it so bad that I want him to remember it on his own?

The crunch of gravel outside precedes headlights shining through the windows. The car pulls past and rolls to a stop, the engine cutting off a second later.

I crane back and catch a glimpse of Saint and Artemis climbing out of it. Artemis goes for the porch while Saint circles around to the trunk. There, he pauses.

Waits.

He looks around and spots me through the glass. His brows furrow.

Tem bursts into the room, her sharp gaze immediately taking in the scene.

“Interrogating him without me?” Her voice is breathless.

Apollo shrugs. “Just talking.”

“Yeah, right.” She eyes me. “You good?”

I straighten in my seat and lift my zip-tied hands. “Peachy.”

She scoffs. “Is that really necessary?”

“We don’t know if we can trust him,” Jace says evenly. “And he is a known fighter. This was just a safety precaution. What if he escaped and led the Cyclopes right back to us?”

“It’s okay, Tem,” I interject.

Apollo glowers at me.

Why? Oh—her nickname .

I clear my throat and shift. They don’t know shit about my relationship to her. If she doesn’t want me calling her that, she’d say it. And maybe she wouldn’t say it with her voice, but her body language would absolutely translate it. So far, it hasn’t.

Not that I’ve taken much opportunity to call her that anyway. Seemed like a wrong place, wrong time sort of deal.

“Where did you go?” Apollo asks her.

Exactly the question I wanted to ask.

She makes a face. “Negotiating.”

Intriguing.

“With who?” her brother demands.

She gestures behind her. “Come and see.”

Uh-oh.

Jace and Apollo immediately follow. Wolfe seems to contemplate, glancing from me to them, then finally grabs my arm and tugs me up.

“I’m not missing this for babysitting duty,” he mutters.

I grin. “Fine by me.”

He huffs. We step onto the porch just in time for Saint to hit a button on the key. The trunk pops open, and he steps back quickly as a leg shoots out. My eyes bug out.

There’s a person in there?

Saint stands back, arms crossed, as the person kicks in the air. Black pants, boots. Their legs pinwheel until their heels hook on the ledge of the trunk, and they use that to leverage themselves up and out.

I nearly choke when Gabriel rolls himself over the lip of the trunk and hits the ground feetfirst. He rises to his full height and straightens his shirt, patting his chest down. His hands, like mine, are zip tied.

What the hell have they done?

“And you were worried about me,” I say to Wolfe under my breath.

He doesn’t reply.

Gabriel looks around. When he lands on me, he smirks—then, noticing our similar predicament, the smirk transforms into a grin. “Twins, Kade! Always said we were brothers. Were you transported by trunk, too?”

“No—”

“Lovely way to travel.” He eyes Saint. “I wonder if you decided to hit all the potholes along the way? Really gives the feel of a Russian massage.”

“You haven’t gotten a massage a day in your life,” I say on a sigh.

“Oh. Well.”

“I wasn’t driving,” Saint interjects.

Gabriel lights up. “That mayhem was Tem ? I always knew she had spirit. Try as I might to break it…”

“Gabe—shut up.”

He zeroes back in on me. “Don’t call me Gabe.”

I roll my eyes. “Don’t call her Tem.”

“Excuse me for wanting a bit of intimacy, Kadius .”

“That’s not even my name.”

He pushes his shoulders back and steps away from the trunk.

And Saint. He’s quick-footed getting away from that one, which makes me wonder how calmly Gabriel got in the trunk.

Probably not at all. He’s got bruising on his cheek and deep gouges that should probably be checked out.

Beyond that, there are dark shadows under his eyes and a bruise forming on his neck.

He circles the car and leans back, whistling softly. “Whose home?”

“Ours,” Apollo bites out.

They know who he is. It’s impossible not to—Gabriel has a terrible habit of making himself known. So why did Artemis choose to bring him here? And how the hell did they get him into the trunk?

Gabriel trots up the steps before anyone can stop him. He bypasses Wolfe and me and waltzes into the house.

“What the fuck, Tem?” Jace growls.

She shrugs and follows Gabriel.

“I don’t suppose you’re going to make us share the basement?” I ask. I follow her, escort be damned. She seems to have an idea, and no one else has any good plans. Why not see it through? “There’s just one bed, and that would probably be awkward.”

She doesn’t respond.

Gabriel flops down on the couch and kicks his feet up on the coffee table. Honestly, he’s worse than a child. He’s feral.

Someone stops beside me, close enough that our arms touch. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch Saint’s profile. It takes a lot of restraint to not smile.

Tem drops into the chair perpendicular to Gabriel. “Go on.”

Gabriel heaves a sigh. “Oh, fine.” He clears his throat. “Dear Artemis, I am so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so sorry for getting you addicted to heroin. It was not my intention at all?—”

“Skip to the real part,” she snaps.

He shifts a few times, nestling deeper into the cushions.

“I would like to return to Isle of Paradise and lie down next to my love, close my eyes, and never wake up just like her. Maybe it would end the torment inside me. But for now—it seems Artemis has appealed to my sense of revenge. The only way I can fulfill my first desire would be to complete a task: to bring a crushing end to Ouranos.”

I blink. “What?”

Gabriel meets my gaze. “Oh, Kade. You have to feel it, too, right? The disturbance? Something isn’t right, and he won’t let me go. I can’t go see her. He said there’s more important work to do.”

Reese enters the room. He spots me first, confusion coloring his expression, then assesses the rest of the room like a good soldier. My stomach knots, and I nudge Saint. My muscles tense, and I watch Reese spot Gabriel. The realization that crashes over him—and then the rage.

I’m already moving by the time Reese decides to act. I snap the zip ties— it was only a matter of time —and lunge for my friend. He has a gun in his hand. I catch his wrist and force it down, driving us backward.

The rest of the noise behind me is muffled. My heartbeat roars in my ears.

“Let go of me,” Reese shouts. “He?—”

“Stand down,” I bark.

He fights me, but then Saint is there, too. He removes the gun from Reese’s hand, and I pin my friend’s shoulders to the wall at his back. He breathes heavily, jerking under my grip, but I have the weight and leverage to keep him there.

“Look at me.”

Reese’s wild gaze comes back to mine.

“He’s bound. He was brought here in a fucking trunk.”

“And if he escapes, he’ll be the death of us all,” he spits.

I cock my head. “You don’t think that about me?”

“I—” His words die. “No, Kade. I don’t know if I can trust you, but if you walked out of here? You wouldn’t give us up.”

I nod. He’s right . I wouldn’t.

“Artemis has a plan,” Saint says at my shoulder. “I believe in her, and I think, if you can sit in the same room as that madman and hear what she has to say, you would, too.”

Reese nods slowly, letting out a long exhale. His body relaxes.

“Just to be safe, though, Saint is gonna hang on to your weapon,” I add.

He gives one more nod.

I release him and step back. When I turn around, Jace is behind us. His attention bounces around the three of us, and whatever he sees must pass his inspection. He steps aside, and we reenter the living room.

Gabriel’s feet are off the coffee table, and a stern-looking Antonio hovers over him. That man is old but mighty. He has the face of a guy who has seen some shit—and that’s coming from someone who has absolutely seen some shit.

“Oh.” Artemis frowns. “We had to drop Bradshaw off at the hospital on the way over.”

Jace makes a noise in the back of his throat. “Excuse me?”

“I was just asking him little questions,” Gabriel says. “He wasn’t cooperating. It’s not my fault.”

“You really shouldn’t go around stabbing people, dude,” Saint mutters.

Gabriel perks up. “And you shouldn’t go around shooting people in the face. It’s rude.”

Saint stares at him.

“It was, uh, your reaction to Elora’s death,” Jace says. “You shot Kronos in the face a bunch of times.”

“Then tried to drown yourself,” Apollo adds.

That part probably wasn’t necessary.

Saint considers that. “Huh. Sounds about right.”

We’re all doomed.

“So.” I clap my newly freed hands together, drawing their attention away from Saint and his messed-up head. “Tem has a plan to un-fuck this city?”