Page 31 of Carry Your Debt

“Sabine?” comes Apollo’s terse voice, reminding me why I’m here in the first place.Rude.

“Yeah,” I confirm with a sigh, reluctantly tearing my focus away from his friend’s nipples and reaching up to untie the black silk ribbon holding my feathered disguise in place. “We need to talk.”

Stormy eyes run over my newly exposed features, assessing. They narrow from behind his golden mask when they move onto my companions, taking in both my Enforcers’ protective stances and Zeus’s possessive hold.

When Dionysus blows him a mocking kiss, he steps out from between two loveseats, fists clenched and chin lifted like he’s expecting another confrontation.

I hold my hands up in surrender. “They won’t touch you,” I insist.

Apollo only scoffs, shooting daggers in D’s direction. But I don’t miss the way my words have Hades shifting in my periphery, aura like a cornered animal.

Fuck.

“They won’t touch you—again,” I clarify, attempting to shoulder both Zeus and Dio away as discreetly as possible.

“Sabe,” Zeus warns, lowly.

“Maybe you should step outside and watch the door,” I say to him pointedly. We only have so long before we’ll be expected in the dining hall, and we’re going to get exactly nowhere with all this loose testosterone and caveman posturing.

When their large frames only tense up further, my eyes roll to the heavens. “If either of you growls again, I swear I will have youbothfucking neutered.”

“We’re not letting you out of our sight, babygirl,” Dio argues right back. He’s wearing a wicked smirk that I know is purely for the Boys’ benefit.

“No one’s getting in here, you idiot,” I snap. “Now get out, we’re on the clock.”

“That’s not what—” he tries to protest.

“I know it’s not, but I’m safe with them.Trust me. Knox?”

Our Second Enforcer exhales dramatically, then obediently grabs hold of Zeus and Dio by their suit collars and begins tugging them both backward. He despises team conflict, but he’s on my security detail for a reason.

The moment the drape settles back into place behind them, Apollo hisses, “Who the fuck are they?”

“Look,” I start, inching toward one of the couches. I choose a spot close to the entrance that lets me keep all four of them in my line of sight and perch myself uncomfortably on the armrest. “It’s a long fucking story—one that I don’t think we have time for right now—but therearesome time-sensitive matters thatcan’twait.”

Apollo slips his hands into his pockets, bristling. He’s clearly unhappy about the dismissal.

“What sensitive matters?” Ares grunts, and my eyes cut to where he’s glowering at me like a dark cloud. In this lighting, the neatly combed strands of his auburn hair appear almost blood-red, his amber glare now the color of grain whisky.

As soon as his gaze meets mine, he shifts into a defensive stance. Forearms fold tightly across the broad width of his chest, massive biceps trapping the yoke and sleeves of a bespoke tuxedo in a valiant fight for their lives.

My mouth waters, but I have to get this done before one of the Senior Enforcers shows up to drag me off to dinner by my ear.

I slide my focus back to Apollo, watching carefully for his reaction. “Your father, for one. The Labors for another.”

When his face visibly pales, shoulders pulling taut, my spine immediately straightens.

Does he already know?

“What about my father?” The question is purposefully even. Normally, I'd say he had a reasonable poker face, but the stress now written all over his body language gives him right away.

“Your father will most likely be entering you into the trials for the Crown Succession as one of his designated heirs.”

That pulls a startled laugh from his mouth, cracking through some of that cool confidence he was trying to cloak back around himself.

“My father’s a monster, but he’s not part of the Underworld,” he assures me in a derisive tone, with his full chest. Despite only having been around him for a short time, it’s what I like to think of asClassic Sinclair.“Well, not officially, at least. I wouldn’t put it past him if he had dealings. But there’s no proof. Not in his office, anyway.”

In his office?

---