Page 32

This is going worse than expected.

Someone looms in front of me with a tattooed X over their eye. They don’t seem like they belong in Bow & Arrow. They don’t belong in Sterling Falls. But the guy’s gaze skates past me, and then he’s moving on.

Whatever they’re searching for, they clearly haven’t found it.

I glance up.

I don’t know what leads me to, but my attention flicks to the VIP section two stories above, which has a wall of glass to overlook the dance floor I stand on.

And there’s Kade.

My stomach knots the instant he locks eyes with me.

It should be impossible—we’re so far away. I shouldn’t be able to tell he’s looking at me. But then he tips his head to the side, and I blow out a long breath. I push through the crowd, heading for the stairs that will take me up.

I’m not sure what good it’s going to do.

Is there anything I can say that will convince him to retreat? To leave Bow & Arrow alone?

He meets me on the stairs. The bouncer who usually mans the VIP lounge entrance is gone, the path clear.

He bodily herds me away from it, though, and into an alcove.

His black t-shirt is form-fitting, and the open jacket doesn’t conceal the gun strapped to his hip.

Black pants, black belt. There’s a black bandana loose around his neck, like it was once pulled up over his nose to hide his identity.

“What the fuck, Kade?” I glare at him. “What’s going on?”

“This is one of the pillars,” he says.

He’s so fucking calm.

“Did you know that before? When?—”

“Before what?” He tugs the collar of his shirt, baring the tattoo I gave him. “Before this? Yes. Before I caught you ogling my dick? Yes. It’s been set in motion for a long time now. This is just one thing that has to happen.”

“Because you want to take over the town.”

I’m such an idiot. I knew it, didn’t I? We all knew the Cyclopes had their sights set on taking over more ground than West Falls.

They shouldn’t have been allowed to enter the city in the first place. That’s a failure on Jace King’s part. And Wolfe. And Apollo.

But they’re not here…

And somehow, I surmise that, too, was part of the plan.

“This is Tem’s club,” I say quietly. “You’re hurting her.”

“She will understand.” He sighs. “It’s not my plan, okay? I’m just following along.”

He sent a bomb to the Hell Hounds. He somehow managed to get the Olympians out of Sterling Falls, and he’s using their absence to take over everything.

“Did you see our handiwork at City Hall?”

I pause. He pushes me up against the wall, and I fucking let it happen. Mainly because I want to see what he’s going to do… and I need him to keep talking.

“I’ll take that as a no. The poor sheriff. He thought compliance would keep him safe. But we burned it all down.”

My shoulders inch higher. “Is that what you’re going to do here?”

Kade makes a show of looking around.

I growl.

His smirk gives me anxiety.

“No,” he finally says. “I’m not going to burn down this club. Gabriel might have other ideas. He’s been toying with Artemis. That was part of our deal, you know? He gets her, I get Reese.”

“Bullshit.”

He appraises me. Dark eyes, dark hair. He’s taller than me. He smells like citrus.

Why am I smelling him?

He inches closer, until we’re practically touching. “What would you give me to stop all of this?”

“What do you want?”

“I want you to admit you were ogling my dick.” His gaze drops. “And that you’re a little turned on by me.”

“I’m straight.” I shake my head. “Fuck off.”

“I’d like to fuck you , if we’re being honest.” He puts his palm on my chest, right over that damn brand. He pushes, and I hit the wall.

My dick wakes up.

If I could think of literally anything except how one single point of connection has my cock rising in my pants, I would. But that and his fucking arrogant smile are all my mind can latch on to.

He slowly looks down between us, and that smile widens into a full-on grin.

“Hmm.” His other hand grips the front of my jeans. His fingers slip inside the waistband, and he uses it to tug my hips forward. Into his. He’s hard, too, and the way his tented jeans rub…

“Jesus,” I grunt.

“I thought so.” He shoves me back. Harder.

I hit the wall again, not just my shoulder blades but my ass, my head. He presses into me, pinning me to the wall the way I would Artemis.

Or Elora.

My throat tightens, and I shake my head.

He grips my jaw. “Stop.”

I lock my gaze on his. My body stills.

“Good,” he whispers. He leans in, and his lips brush mine. “Saint? I don’t think you’re straight at all.”

Holy fucking shit.

He kisses me once, the softest peck, then again. And again.

Teasing, featherlight contact.

Until my resistance crumbles and I lean forward to meet him.

His hold on my jaw doesn’t loosen. If anything, he uses it to angle my face. It’s like I give him an inch and he takes it as permission to run a mile. His lips press on mine, sliding, inching. His hips keep me against the wall, and my cock leaps in my pants.

He has to feel it, just like I can practically feel the pulse of his against my thigh.

While it should embarrass me, I don’t seem to care at the moment.

He pries open my mouth and infiltrates it with his tongue. I groan into his mouth as his other hand comes between us. He lifts my shirt, running his fingers across my abdomen. It’s a rather maddening path.

This is insane.

I pull away.

“Good,” he repeats, his pupils dilated.

I’m sure mine look the same.

“Hold on to that feeling.”

“W-what feeling?”

“This one.” His hand leaves my abdomen and cups my dick through my jeans.

I jump.

“I did that to you. Say it back to me.”

“I—”

“Who made you hard?”

What the fuck is his problem? I shove at him, but he’s got the leverage. He barely moves. He doesn’t seem to care about the lack of privacy either. This alcove doesn’t have a door. We’re not enclosed—anyone could see us.

“Who. Made. You. Hard?” He leans in and nips at my lower lip. Bites it.

Pain and pleasure. A terrible, heady combination.

A drop of blood spreads across the tip of my tongue.

“Should my next question be, who can make you come?” There’s a challenge there.

He squeezes, and I grunt. He’s serious.

“You,” I finally spit out. “You made me hard.”

“Good boy.”

Fucking hell.

He smirks. “Like that?”

“No.”

“Liar,” he whispers.

He finally releases me and adjusts his pants. “Baby steps. That was just a taste of what I want to do to you.”

I swallow and rake my fingers through my hair. I don’t know if I can do much more—I’m not convinced I want to. My dick, however, is fully on board with more touching. Which is not great.

And worse, the guilt that usually comes with attraction?

Totally absent.

“Now,” Kade says. “Things are about to get messy. But remember what I said?”

“Hold on to the feeling,” I repeat. “What do you mean by messy ?—”

He winces. “This might’ve been a little distraction.”

“What?” I shove past him.

This time, he moves aside. I burst into the hallway and take the stairs down, to the first landing that gives me a view of the club.

The empty club.

The music still thunders, the colorful lights swinging across the floor and walls, but the whole place seems to have been evacuated.

The DJ is gone, even.

But as I watch, people enter.

They’re forced in by armed men with bandanas hiding the lower half of their faces. People I recognize, some I don’t.

Nadine Bradshaw, who holds a seat on the city council, and her brother. More city council members, people from the sheriff’s office. Deputies in uniform, secretaries, detectives in plain clothes.

It’s hard not to get to know all of them in Sterling Falls. It’s such a small town.

Antonio and the two club bouncers are brought in from another door. Sam, the manager, and the head chef who runs the kitchens.

Fighters at Olympus—the regulars I can recognize from years of studying my opponents. Hercules, Minos.

Jeffrey Thompson, the mayor, who has always held a sham position in Sterling Falls.

The Sterling Falls University president and two of his colleagues.

“Go join them,” Kade says from behind me.

I glance back. “Where is Artemis?”

And Reese?

“Gone.” He tips his head. “Part of the deal. They’re separate from this.”

And I’m not.

He steps forward. “Go stand with Antonio. You think Artemis would break if he died? Then protect him.”

There’s a silent plead there, I think, although it’s hard to tell by his tone.

Either way, I’m not going to fight it. My arousal sufficiently doused, I go down to the bottom floor and make a beeline for Antonio. The older man’s eyebrows hike slightly at the sight of me, but I shake my head.

Both in not knowing where Artemis is, besides gone , and what’s happening.

I know most of the people in this room.

The only ones missing are Jace, Wolfe, and Apollo, and then Artemis and Reese.

And Gabriel, although I have a feeling he’s lurking somewhere.

“I met him,” Antonio says, just loud enough for me to hear over the music.

I jerk to attention. “Who? Kade?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “Graves.”

The music pouring from the speakers stops. It was loud—but now my ears faintly ring with how silent it is. I glance at Antonio, not liking this a single bit.

Graves . The name sounds vaguely familiar, in the way an old friend’s sibling’s name might be. I can’t immediately place it, though. And it isn’t until a collective murmur bleeds through the crowd around us that I realize Kade has made himself visible on the landing.

Gabriel stands beside him.

They’re dressed similarly. All in black, bandanas slung around their necks. Their men around us, now that they’re closer up, all have the X tattooed over one eye. The upper lines cut through their eyebrows, and the bottom points end just above their cheekbones.

A sign of fealty?

Cyclopes.

One-eyed monsters. Giants amongst men .

It’s kind of ironic that their name choice indicates single-mindedness. That, in Greek mythology, while the monsters were great, they were also aggressive. They lacked focus.

Somehow, I don’t think Kade and Gabriel met and decided to form a gang.

No… this is something else.

Graves?

Graves.

Graves .

Come on, Saint, fucking think harder.

I snap my fingers.

Wesley Graves .

He’s better known as Kronos. Or, he was before I killed him last year. So… what kind of connection does this guy have to Kronos? Besides the last name.

Cousin?

Father?

Son?

Brother?

Kade said I should join these fuckers and protect Antonio—but if this Graves guy knows I killed Kronos, then I think I’m in more danger than even Kade realized.