Page 82 of Carry Your Debt

The entire room falls into a hiccuping quiet as everyone finishes converging on the living area of our Rox City suite.

Apollo moves to take the couch, dropping onto the cushion beside Hermes. Knox and Ares choose to spread out behind the seats themselves, keeping their hands in their pockets and careful gazes on the scene before them. Hades doesn’t move from his post against the wall opposite me.

I expect Sabine to hesitate, faced with so many choices. Instead, she heads straight for me, perching her pert ass on one of my armrests and I can’t help the primal satisfaction that swells in my chest.

Dionysus takes up his usual position at my back. But then he leans in, brushing his lips against the shell of my ear, and whispers, “Welcome back, Daddy Zeus.”

Christ almighty. My dick is never going down at this rate.

Just then, my phone’s digital display rolls over to7:00pm, and it chimes out with the familiar dulcet tones of an encrypted announcement from the Herald.

A sound I’ll no doubt grow to loathe by the end of this.

Swiping it open, I immediately read through it once—carefully—before reading the contents aloud.

>>>START OF ENCRYPTED MESSAGE

>> THE TWELVE LABORS OF SUCCESSION

> FINAL ROSTER

+ FACTION: THE GRAY MEN // Grayson, Jackson; Sinclair, Tristan;

+ FACTION: O’SULLIVAN-REILLY FAMILY // O’Sullivan, Aiden; Reilly, Benjamin;

+ FACTION: THE STRANGE ACES // Mahoney, Ford;

+ FACTION: ESCONDIDO CARTEL // De León, Diego; De León, Javier; De León, Luis;

Escondido Cartel.

I see when everybody’s postures tighten with the same confusion, and I hold up a hand, begging for silence.

“Wait for it.”

Almost immediately, a second message comes through, and I do the same as with the first.

>>>>START OF ENCRYPTED MESSAGE

>>> THE TWELVE LABORS OF SUCCESSION

>> TRIAL I

>You don’t go searching for bones in a lion’s den

+ TASK: NEUTRALIZATION

+ TARGET: SENATOR LEANDROS ADRIAN GEORGIOU, 43

+ AFFILIATIONS: United States Senate, Republican Party, Washington State

+ LAST KNOWN LOCATION: Washington, D.C.

+ DEADLINE: 47 hours, 59 min from digital receipt of message

My hand lowers, and I let the breath I was holding out with a deep sigh.

“Okay,so first question—who in thefuckare theEscondido?” Dionysus growls out from over the opposite shoulder of a very perplexed-looking Zeus. Our team lead is still scrolling back and forth through the Herald’s roster announcement as if the answer is right there, waiting to jump out of the screen.

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