Page 7 of Daddy's Justice

“Odin is the God of War, the All Father,” I said. “Tyr stepped aside for him, if I remember correctly. Isn’t Tyr, Odin’s son?”

“No, Tyr was the son of Hymir, the giant. Men seem to have a hard time getting us all straight,” Edda said.

“Hell, I have a hard time getting us all straight,” Kara added, coming into the room. “The pizza is done. Why don’t we move this conversation downstairs?”

She smiled and for the first time, I found myself relaxing some. Perhaps, if I could keep them talking, get on their good sides, I could convince them they had the wrong person and they would let me go.

Sure. That sounded like a plan. As good as any of the other ones I had, at least. Smiling as convincingly as I could, I stood and motioned for them to lead the way. Forseti waved me ahead of him, and I followed the women down the winding staircase, down a long hallway and to what appeared to be a dining hall. Of course, there would be a dining hall. They took this role-play business seriously.

It felt like I had just walked onto the set of a movie. At the very back of the room were three floor-to-ceiling windows. In front of the windows was a just slightly raised dais with a table with eight chairs facing the rest of the room. Two rows, containing three tables each, were below it. I quickly counted the chairs, eight on each side of the table, forty-eight chairs, fifty-six all together. Why would Forseti need a house that would host fifty-six people for meals? Was he rich? He had to be. How else could he afford a house like this?

“This is the feasting hall. We don’t use it much, as I don’t host nearly as many parties as I did when I was younger,” Forseti explained.

He was right behind me. If I stepped a half step back, I would smack into his massive chest. I felt his breath on my neck and his spicy smell wafted toward me. Masculine. My olfactory receptors were working overtime, and his pheromones were causing my body to react. My nipples tightened, and I felt the moisture start to pool between my legs. Fuck. Why was this stranger having such a strong effect on my sexual arousal? I had never been this physically attracted to a man before.

“Are you coming?” Kara asked, from the lead. “I hate cold pizza.”

I shook myself and followed along.

I hate cold pizza too.

On the other side of the large hall was a smaller, more intimate dining room. This room boasted only one dining table. Kara had placed three steaming pizzas on it, along with bottles of soda and paper plates. I was surprised. It was so… normal. We sat down at the table and filled our plates. It smelled delicious. For a second, I forgot that I had been kidnapped by strangers. It felt like I was having lunch with friends. I closed my eyes and moaned with pleasure when the bubbling cheese hit my tongue.

“Were you expecting an extensive staff and fine china?” Edda asked, breaking the silence.

I really wished she would stop reading my mind. I was starting to get a headache, and I wasn’t sure if it was some sort of side-effect of the constant mind reading or a natural reaction to the stressful chain of events that had occurred in the last hour.

“It is probably a combination of the two,” Edda answered the question I hadn’t spoken. “For what it is worth, it isn’t something I can turn off easily, especially around untrained minds. Forseti and Kara block the signal, and I can only hear their thoughts when they unblock it. Normally, the only time they unblock it is if we are on a mission and stealth is required. It only works one way though because they don’t have this power. They can communicate their thoughts to me, but I can’t give them mine. For people like you, who haven’t trained their thoughts, it comes across as if you were speaking out loud. Imagine if we were talking to you and you didn’t want to hear it. You would have to either leave the room or put in ear plugs, right?”

I nodded, following along with her train of thought.

“Telepathy doesn’t work that way. I can’t just put in plugs and have it go away. Our brains are talking to each other. Your movies get that wrong, by the way. I don’t put my hands up to my forehead and connect to your signal. It doesn’t get turned on and off by me, it gets turned on and off by you.”

“Let us pretend for a second that I believe all of this and that you can read my mind,” I said.

“Why pretend?” Edda asked. “I know that you know I can read your mind. Think of a number.”

“The old number trick? Really? Magicians have been doing that for years.”

“Okay, fine. Think of something that only you would know. A secret,” Kara joined the conversation. “A memory that we couldn’t possibly know about. Edda will prove it to you then.”

I didn’t have many secrets; I was pretty much an open book. My parents had taught me, from a young age, how to strive to be a good person. I had done my best to live up to their expectations. I had a hard time coming up with anything I had kept secret from people. Although, there was that one time…

“You stole money from your best friend’s mother’s wallet when you were fourteen. You had misplaced the money your mother had given you for the drama club field trip. You were embarrassed and instead of just asking, you snuck it out of your friend’s mom’s purse,” Edda parroted my thoughts.

I heard Forseti tsk under his breath. He raised an eyebrow at me. He wasn’t going to reprimand me for something that occurred more than fifteen years ago, was he? Sheesh. I had done the right thing in the long run. I had found the twenty-dollar bill underneath the seat in the car, and the next day, I snuck it back into her purse.

“You made it right, though. You put the money back the next day.” Edda sat back and took a large bite of her pizza, smiling at me. I looked at Forseti, the raised eyebrow lowered. He smiled, looking almost relieved. Odd.

“He’s the God of Justice, remember?” Kara didn’t read my mind, but my expression.

I giggled, nervously. “Okay, so you can read my mind. I’ll give you that. How do I go about blocking my thoughts from you? Like they do?”

“That is a skill I will teach you, hopefully soon,” Forseti said, reaching for yet another piece of pizza. The man would easily finish off one of the pizzas by himself.

“What if I don’t want you to teach me that? What if I want to go home?”

“That isn’t possible. Until the threat is neutralized, you will stay with me.” His tone was absolute. He believed the words he was saying.

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