Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 89331 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89331 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Heph grumbles something under his breath that I can’t quite catch, but Athena does. She takes his glass from his hand and downs the contents before throwing it at the wall, where it shatters.
“No, fuck you, asshole. I am so sick of your shit. You want to have this fight? Let’s go.”
“Okay sit down, little girl, or leave,” Heph snarls from his seat.
“Do not tell me what to fucking do, asshole. And don’t ever think of calling me little girl again.”
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
Athena
Really? With everything going on, even with me being nice and getting him ice and a drink and cleaning his cuts like a decent human being, he is still going to start shit. Well, fuck that. I am over his petty bullshit.
“Sit down and shut up. This is all your fucking fault.”
“No, Heph, I am sick of your brutish temper tantrums. You seem to be under the impression that I am some evil seductress here to lure everyone into my magical vagina.”
“Then why don’t you fucking leave?” he yells.
“Because this is my house. You fucking leave!” I yell back like a mature adult. Ugh this man is throwing me off my game.
“Okay, can we not do this tonight?” Eros says behind me, then he stands up just long enough to pull me back to sitting next to him.
“Can we please fucking focus?” Perseus sighs, and he sounds as annoyed as I feel. He pours himself another drink and slams it back before refilling his glass.
“Fine, who else could have gotten to my mother? Who else knew about the money?”
“Only us.” Perseus pushes the heels of his hands into his eyes.
“Any staff like the lawyer or anyone like that?” I ask.
“The lawyer is one Freya had forever. I think since she was with your father. The only time he was here that I can recall is after she died.”
“Once before, about two years ago,” Heph adds.
“That must have been when she set up the will. Did she have an accountant who had access to her accounts or bank statements?”
“Yes.” Perseus lets out a sigh. “But Paris oversees all of her accounts.” He takes a large swallow of his drink.
“Okay.”
“That doesn’t mean he—” Heph starts.
I say, “I know it doesn’t mean anything. I am just trying to figure out who was in my mother’s life that could have done this.”
“Just us,” Perseus says.
“So, Paris—” Eros says.
I turn on the couch to look directly at him. “How do we know it wasn’t you? You would have had just as much opportunity as he would, and more motive.”
Eros looks at me, swallows a few times, then bites his bottom lip and looks at the far wall before returning his gaze to mine. “Baby girl, after everything, do you really think so little of me?
“No, but—”
“All of what?” Heph barks out a laugh. “Let’s not pretend you fucking someone is anything special. You have fucked half the women in this city. That’s what you do, isn’t it? If a woman has something you want, you fuck them and take it.”
“Heph…” Perseus says in warning.
Eros’s entire body goes still.
Heph continues, “No, that is who you are. Just a common whore that tricks women into wanting you. Promising them the world, then fucking them and getting whatever it is you were after, usually just some cash or jewelry. But maybe this time it was a little bit more. Wasn’t it? Is that why you are all over Athena? Trying to get to the daughter and have her give you what her mother wouldn’t.”
Eros jumps off the couch and lunges at Heph, who is on his feet in an instant. “I haven’t done that in years, and you fucking know it!” Eros screams in Heph’s face.
The two men glare at each other, and the air is thick with tension. Any second, someone is going to throw another punch, and I am fucking over it.
“If you guys are going to keep staring into each other’s eyes like that, either kiss or sit the fuck down,” I say.
The tension fizzles out as Perseus huffs out a laugh, and Eros takes a half step back and turns to grin at me.
“Baby girl, you are the only person in this room I have any interest in kissing.”
I roll my eyes and lean back into the couch, letting the alcohol work its magic and loosen the tension in my limbs. Heph still appears pissed, but I don’t really care why anymore.
“Good, then come sit your ass back over here, and let’s figure shit out.”
He sits back down next to me, then pulls me into his lap and snuggles into my neck. “You don’t think I—”
“No.” I’m not sure why, but I don’t think he had anything to do with Freya’s death. And I don’t think he fucked me to use me. In the beginning, that might have been his plan, but if one of us was using the other, it was me.