Page 68 of Sinful Mates

I heard Mads rub his hands together. “What can I get the great Slade Vincent to do?”

“Rescue your wife from the Underworld,” Slade quipped.

Actually, I did that. Flew to the US to wait for her at one of three entrances to the Underworld that only Mads and I knew about.

“Not funny, Blow Job King,” Mads’ pouted over the line.

Slade balanced a freshly rolled cigarette between his two fingertips. “Screw Cupid. I’ll blow your mind, baby.”

Fuck. They were going to get out of hand. “Anything else, Mads?” I collected the phone from the table.

“Nah, that’s it. Slade and I will take this little game offline.” At that moment, Slade’s phone beeped with a message. “See you later, hot stuff.”

Slade slid out his phone, checked it, chuckling, flashing the picture of the volcano to me.

“Talk more tonight.” I ended the call and tapped the protective case a few times with my fingertip.

Of all the people to be behind our chaos. Colton fucking Raine. Heir to one of three Egyptian mafia families. Just as ruthless as us, but far more conniving, and most likely, two steps ahead of us. We had to be extremely careful how we handled his downfall, or we might be caught in the crossfire.

CHAPTER23

Castor

Trigger warning:bullying of a child (not from the harem!).

Slade wasat it the moment we finished our call with Mads. “Fucking Raine.” He angrily scraped at his beard as if it were responsible for all our chaos. “Danny’s smug text makes sense now.” He paused, recollecting it. “Be careful. It might rain.”

Colton Raine. Formerly known as “Amir Sayed” before his father went down for racketeering and they changed their names. Fat lot of good it did to hide from the feds. Still, the name change worked wonders with new clientele who flocked to the Raine’s underground casinos…before the rival families, namely the Farrouks and Hanafis cut in on his turf. More fuel for Colton’s fire to destroy all his enemies he viewed as sinking his family’s empire.

Zethan stroked his stubbled jaw. “I rescued Colton when Hades tried to kill him. This is how the prick repays me!”

People quickly forgot the good you did for them when it came to money and self-preservation.

I moved to Slade’s beverage cart, pouring all of us a drink. “By all accounts, Hades would pitch in to assist our fight with Colton.”

Going in alone was suicide. Sure, we had four avatars against one—excluding Aaliyah, because we’d do everything in our power to keep our woman safe—but I wouldn’t rule out Colton’s schemes to outplay us. Confronting him required weeks if not months of planning.

Zethan shook his head as I handed him a crystal tumbler. “Hades was still angry at me for saving Colton when he kidnapped Autumn. Grumpy asshole refused my request to question the junkie that beat up Aaliyah. I doubt he’ll agree.” He swallowed half his whisky in one go. “His wife, on the other hand… she’s the way to his heart.”

Slade flipped the cigarette that he played with into his mouth, lighting it, breathing down the smoke, and clutching it between two fingers along with his tumbler. “The woman always is. Think you can convince her?”

The rest of Zethan’s whisky went down his throat and he set his glass on the coffee table. “Doubt it. She has an amiable heart.”

I supported him on that front, topping up his glass with another finger. “It’s our fight. It’s not fair to ask them. Hades has a daughter and wife, and I doubt he will want to get involved.”

“He has a fucking god inside him,” Slade retorted. “The asshole can’t die!”

Fair point. Hades’ god merged with his avatar two hundred years ago. Same deal with his wife. They were immortal, but their human bodies weren’t indestructible and could suffer wounds and pain.

I was glad I wasn’t the cigarette getting burned down to nothing and stubbed out. “We work the grudge angle.”

Zethan swirled his glass and took a sip. “I’ll pitch the idea to Hades on Wednesday. I’ve arranged for Autumn and their baby to visit her mother in the Duat. I’m taking Aaliyah to introduce them.”

Relationship building between pantheons went a long way like it did with Mads and me. I wondered if Colton had any friends with magical benefits that we might come across. Exactly why this kind of mission required investigation. Better to be safe than sorry.

Slade grunted his thanks. I was happy to see the dynamic between those two somewhat in operation despite their recent differences. “How are we going to handle wiping out Colton?” He scanned everyone in the room. “I’m up for paying the asshole a visit.”

Not a good idea without back-up and plenty of it. “You want to end up on his infamous mortician’s table and your organs packed in canopic jars and sent back to the club?”

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