Radiant sin, p.7
Radiant Sin, page 7
It takes more effort than it should to focus properly. “We have to assume he’s bugged the place, both with audio and potentially video.”
She narrows her eyes. “He’ll expect you to sweep the room, at least, and remove anything you find.”
“Yes.” I am Olympus’s spymaster. Minos is canny enough to know that, and he’ll expect me to take precautions. That’s the true rub. He knows I’m coming to this party to find information and yet he still invited me. It’s a dare. “I have a solution to the cameras. It’s blunt, and normally I’d just play along and pretend I didn’t realize they were there, but I won’t let anything that happens at this party harm you.”
Cassandra waves that away. “My reputation has been in tatters since before you met me. Besides, this is a fake relationship, so it’s not as if we’re in danger of having him film and leak a sex tape. If it serves your purpose to keep the cameras in place, don’t let me be the reason you don’t.”
Sex tape.
An image slams into my head, too quick to resist. Me on my back, holding my phone. Cassandra astride me and…
I abruptly stare out the window. The city has given way to rolling countryside. I focus on the trees, counting them until I have control of my body’s response. When I finally turn back, she’s looking at me strangely again.
“I won’t let any harm come to you. The cameras go.” The statement comes out too harsh, too bold.
“Okay. I trust you.” Her easy belief in me is staggering, but she continues before I can fully process. “I don’t suppose you have blueprints of the house?”
“No.” The admission grates. “It used to belong to Hermes.” Hermes is one of the few members of the Thirteen that I have next to no information on. She took the title about a year after me. The Hermes title is transferred by virtue of stealing an unstealable object or acquiring a piece of information about one of the Thirteen that no one else knows. This Hermes did both.
She appeared out of nowhere. No past, no active connections to any of the legacy families, no motive that I can see. She stood before the rest of us and recited things about the others that not even I knew while holding an heirloom vase from my family’s vault. No one contested the truth of those facts, and she was instated as Hermes immediately.
Since then, she’s been an agent of chaos, but she seems to genuinely want to protect Olympus. I wouldn’t call her an ally, but she’s not an enemy.
I think.
Either way, despite her apparent lack of boundaries and deep love of breaking and entering, Hermes is intensely private when it comes to her own home. Frankly, I’m shocked she sold this place to Minos. The country might not suit her, but she’s owned the house since she took over the title.
“Well, shit.” Cassandra sighs. “Then it’s bound to be full of surprises. Hermes’s sense of humor is too twisted not to have secret passageways and the like. It would appeal to her.”
I can’t argue that, though the familiar way she speaks of Hermes has my curiosity stirring. “Most likely.”
She hesitates. “I’m still surprised you didn’t manage to get the blueprints. The house didn’t spring out of nothing. Someone built it. If you can’t get to it through permits, applying pressure to one of the workers is the next best thing.”
I love that she already made that logical jump. I shake my head. “I tried. She didn’t use any of the known contractors in the upper city.”
“She went to the lower city.”
I smile reluctantly. “That’s my theory. And they have no love for me as a member of the Thirteen, so it’s a dead end.” Not to mention Hades wouldn’t have thanked me for trespassing in his domain. There are circumstances when it would behoove me to test him, but not over something as mundane as this. It aggravates my curiosity to no end that I don’t know what Hermes did to the building after she acquired it, but ultimately it’s a country house that I would never set foot in.
Or so I thought.
Cassandra examines her long red fingernails. “Will Hermes be at the party?”
“I don’t know.” The guest list is another thing that’s been kept under wraps. Minos hasn’t kept a convenient list to peruse, at least not digitally.
“Poor Apollo,” she murmurs. Her eyes are alight with amusement. “It must be aggravating to have run into so many dead ends. So we need to map the house as quickly as possible, find out where Minos keeps the keys to the kingdom, and use them to unlock his mysteries.”
“Nice metaphor.”
“I try.”
We share a grin that quickly becomes…something else. It’s my fault. My gaze falls to her lips, and despite my best efforts, I can’t help thinking about that kiss the other night again. She’d tasted of wine and had practically melted when I deepened the contact.
Not even cold showers were enough to combat that memory over the weekend. I haven’t had my body take over so intensely since I was a teenager, but back then, I was jacking myself to whatever I could find on the internet that suited my tastes.
These days, my fantasies all revolve around one woman.
Cassandra frowns. “I don’t understand why this is all necessary, though. If Minos bargained for information in exchange for his citizenship, why hasn’t he given that information?”
“He has.” I shrug. “Or so he says. He was recruited to a militant group fifteen years ago, but according to him, he was part of a cell that was only informed about the Ares tournament. Which we already knew, since he showed up here for that event. We don’t know anything about their leader, their motivations, or their plans.”
“You think he’s still working for them?”
“That’s what I am to find out. He says he defected. We’re not naive enough to believe it. I need evidence of correspondence or a money trail or something to prove he’s still answering to the enemy.”
“Okay. That makes sense. We need to get you access to Minos’s personal computer, since I doubt he’s got paper files just hanging out with incriminating evidence.” Cassandra licks her lips. “I, uh, suppose we’ll be doing more kissing this week.”
“Yes.” The word is low. A command I’m practically daring her to challenge. If she did…
Well, it doesn’t matter, because she just gives a jerky nod. “All for the cause, right? I’ve kissed worse people for shittier reasons.”
I don’t like to think about her kissing worse people for shittier reasons. I have very intentionally not looked into Cassandra’s private life. Oh, everyone in the city is aware her parents were killed in a car crash after displeasing Zeus—and I know the truth behind that public lie—and that she and her sister were publicly shunned afterward.
That’s one thing. Her personal life is something else.
I don’t pry. I don’t check up on her. I don’t ask her who she’s dating or why she’s changed her perfume and started wearing redder lipstick about a year into working for me. I had thought she might be seeing someone, but she wouldn’t have agreed to Zeus’s bargain if she was. She wouldn’t be leaving her partner behind when she walks out of Olympus for good.
Except all that’s an excuse, isn’t it?
I don’t care if she is seeing someone. I will keep my priorities in order and find the answers Minos wants to keep hidden, but I won’t lie; I am greedy for every minute with Cassandra. After this week, all I’ll be left with are my memories of her. I only have seven days to shore up a lifetime’s worth of them.
I don’t know if it’s going to be enough.
9
Cassandra
By the time we reach the house, I’m about ready to throw myself from the car. It’s not that things got awkward with Apollo. He keeps looking at me with that strange expression on his face, but he’s maintained a steady flow of easy conversation.
Still, I can tell it bothers him that he doesn’t have all the information. Not on Minos. Not even on the house we’re going to be spending seven days in. It makes me feel the irrational urge to comfort him. What a laughable impulse. Apollo doesn’t need my comfort. No matter the setbacks, he’ll get to the bottom of this and find answers. It’s what he does. He might even end up enjoying the challenge.
The house is, of course, sprawling and beautiful. It creates an upside-down U shape that frames the circular drive. We’re not the only car pulling up, and I catch sight of Hermes herself bouncing from the car in front of us, followed by an exhausted-looking Dionysus. They make quite the pair. She’s a short Black woman with dark-brown skin and tight dark curls wearing bright-pink pants that sparkle in the sunlight and a teal graphic T-shirt that I can’t read from here. Dionysus, on the other hand, is a white man with mussed dark hair, a truly outstanding mustache, and a penchant for dressing like he stepped out of another time. Today it’s slacks, suspenders, and a dark printed button-down shirt beneath a vest.
I still like Hermes. First because she’s one of the few people in the upper city who know what my parents did and didn’t treat me like I’m carrying around a knife and just waiting to finish the job they started, and second because I truly enjoy being around her. Our relationship flared bright and hot, but we quickly realized it wasn’t meant to be. I’ll never willingly tie myself to a member of the Thirteen, and I highly suspect Hermes gave her heart to someone a long time ago and no one else can compare. These days, we’re friends and that suits us both.
Apollo waits until Hermes loops an arm through Dionysus’s and tows him into the house before he opens the door and steps out of the car. He catches my questioning look. “We have to deal with her eventually, but there’s no reason to rush it.”
I should probably tell Apollo that she’s my ex, but the words keep sticking in my throat. Surely it doesn’t matter? I accept his hand even though I’m more than capable of climbing out of the car without help. For the act, of course. Not because I like the way his fingers curl around mine. To distract myself, I say, “You really don’t like Hermes, do you?”
“She’s fine.”
His clipped tone gives him away. I frown at him. “Is it you don’t like her? Or that you’re quietly furious that she’s dodged any of your attempts to get more information on her?”
Apollo shoots me a sharp look. “I don’t like mysteries.”
I bet. “Has she broken into your house?”
His jaw goes tight. “Several times. I still can’t figure out how she gets in.”
That must irritate him to no end. He really does hate mysteries. Without thinking, I pat his chest. “Poor Apollo. That must bother you so much.”
He glances down to where my fingers still rest lightly against his chest. When he speaks again, his voice has deepened. “I’ll get over it.”
“Welcome!”
I drop my hand guiltily and spin to face the woman approaching us. She’s about my age, I think. About my size, too, and wearing a perfectly tailored blouse and shorts. She moves with an easy grace that reeks of some kind of expensive finishing school; no one moves like they’re floating naturally.
The woman must be Minos’s daughter, but she doesn’t look like him at all aside from her coloring. Her light-brown skin is an identical tone, though her hair is a deep black and falls in a straight line past her shoulders.
She smiles at us, the expression lighting up her dark eyes. Being on the receiving end of that smile makes my spine straighten despite myself. I don’t have a type. I’m not one to narrow my options, even if I don’t date much as a general rule. But this woman is pretty. Very, very pretty.
I can’t help glancing at Apollo to see his reaction. Apparently he had the same idea because our gazes meet fleetingly before we turn back to her. He steps forward and offers a hand. “I’m Apollo. This is my girlfriend, Cassandra.”
“I know.” Her smile widens. She looks so happy. Surely she’s faking it, but I don’t detect a hint of artifice in her. “I’m Ariadne. My brother, Icarus, and I are seeing to the sleeping arrangements. We have your room ready.”
He has his children doing the initial entertaining. It’s not shocking. After the encounter with Theseus in Apollo’s office and watching the Minotaur during the competition for Ares, I don’t expect either of them excel at playing nice. Not like Ariadne apparently does. I can’t help wondering if Icarus takes after his sister or his foster brothers.
Apollo smiles down at her. “That sounds wonderful.”
She turns and leads us through the front doors into an echoing entranceway. It looks like something out of a movie with two staircases circling the space opposite the front door to meet overhead. I knew Hermes had a sense of the theatrical, but this looks like a cross between a Gothic mansion and some hideously expensive southern manor.
Ariadne heads up the stairs, leaving us to trail behind. The archway at the top of the stairs flows into a wide hallway. She motions at the doors studding the walls all the way down. “These are converted rooms. They’re essentially sitting rooms and will be open to whoever wants to use them throughout the day.”
I raise my brows. “How many people are coming to this party that you need half a dozen sitting rooms?”
She tucks her hair behind her ears. “They were, ah, used for a different kind of entertaining purpose by the last owner, and my father decided sitting rooms were a more appropriate conversion.”
A different kind of entertainment.
I look at the doors with new interest. Hermes’s sexual tastes are just as eclectic as her fashion. She’s kinky as fuck and a regular in the lower city where it’s rumored that Hades has an honest-to-gods sex club, though she never took me there when we were dating, understandable considering Hades was supposed to be a myth at that point. Another of the secrets she kept close to her chest.
Still… Six rooms?
“I see,” Apollo says faintly. I can’t tell if he’s actually surprised or scandalized or if this is information he already had filed away in that impressive brain of his.
“Dinner will be at seven tonight. Papa has a party game planned afterward.” Ariadne shoots us a sweet smile. “There’s an agenda in your room with details for the week. Dinner and lunch have scheduled times, but please feel free to have breakfast sent to your room. If you prefer to dine downstairs, there will be a small buffet available.”
I make a show of looking around as we reach a T in the hallway and take a right. “I don’t suppose there’s a map with that agenda.”
“No need.” Another sweet smile. Is this woman for real? “Just follow this hallway back to the entranceway, go downstairs, and everything is a straight shot to the main area downstairs.”
A straight shot doesn’t sound very Hermes. This house holds some tricks up its sleeve. I’m sure of it. The only question is whether Minos and his people know it or if Hermes kept those secrets to herself. I’d bet good money on the latter.
Ariadne opens a door halfway down the hall. “This is your room. Please make yourself comfortable and feel free to explore before dinner if you’re so inclined. The gardens are particularly lovely.”
I step inside first. I’m vaguely aware of Apollo following me into the room and shutting the door behind him, but the only thing I can focus on is the oversize bed. I had foolishly thought this might be a full suite, but while there’s a bathroom through the open door visible from my position, the only other furniture in the room is an antique-looking dresser and a pair of matching nightstands on either side of the bed.
Fuck.
I knew this was coming, of course. I just didn’t expect to freeze up at the reality of it. “Um.” Damn it, I can do better than that. I clear my throat. “About tonight, when we go to bed—”
“Hold that thought.” He narrows his eyes and motions toward the bed. “Sit and be silent. Please.”
I jerk back, a sharp reply on my lips, before my brain kicks into gear and makes the jump to what’s going on. He’s not telling me to be quiet. He wants to sweep the room for surveillance. I sit primly on the edge of the bed and watch him dig through his duffel bag for a piece of electronics I don’t recognize. It’s strangely difficult to stay silent as he goes over every inch of the room. The device dings three times. Once in the mirror over the dresser. One in the lampshade on the nightstand, and one tucked cleverly into the doorjamb. A fourth additional one dings from the bathroom.
I make a face. “Ugh.”
“Not done. Checking for cameras.”
I shudder a little. Obviously being watched and listened to was something we’d talked about before this. I’m not surprised when he pulls a tiny camera from the molding at the top of the mirror, but I feel vaguely violated all the same. “Gross.”
“Yes.” He deposits it in the small pile on the dresser and brushes his hands together. “That’s everything. About what we expected. I have a device that Hector can use to hack the system, but I need to be closer to the control room, which means we need to prioritize finding it.”
“Consider it prioritized.”
“Agreed.” He nods. “About the sleeping arrangements…I’ll sleep on the floor.” Apollo hauls my suitcases to a spot near the dresser and sets his on the other side.
“But—”
“Don’t argue.” He doesn’t look at me. “I know you’re not going to insult me by suggesting I’d allow you to sleep on the floor while I take the bed. And no, we’re not going to switch off. I don’t care about being fair, so that agreement won’t work.”
A little forbidden thrill goes through me at his firm tone. Apollo almost never gets abrupt with me, and certainly never commanding. I can count on one hand how many times it’s happened in the past five years and still have fingers left over. Including just now.
