Page 6 of Unleash Hades
She begged me to keep her family safe, and I gave her my word without hesitation.
The news of that kiss spread like a fungus on the estate. I had hoped it would stop these habitual lectures, but apparently not
“You've spokenoncein over ten years,” Alastair corrected himself without missing a beat. “There’s no reason to believe that she and her husband aren’t a perfectly happy couple that might have an… open marriage.”
He bit out the words as if they were poison. He reached out and gripped his wife’s hand, making it clear that thisopennesswould not be in the cards for them.
He was a possessive fool and would never agree to such a thing.
Neither would a controlling bastard like Dick. I refused to call him her husband. He didn’t deserve the title.
“No!” My fist slammed on the table, sending the plates and glassware rattling. The clatter was replaced by a deafening silence as I breathed through my nose, trying to calm the racing anger that simmered in my chest.
I would not say something I would regret.
“She speaks to me all the time.” I glared at my friend, and visualized punching him in the throat. “All the time,” I said again with extra emphasis. “You know that.”
They all knew. At first, I had celebrated every message from the screen - each time she used my call sign or said something that only I would understand. The coded messages in her broadcasts, over the screens that I had learned to adore. I had stored every hint in my memory like a treasure that I had to safeguard.
“Youthinkshe speaks to you,” Alastair said slowly, the words cutting deep into my chest. “You must understand how thatlooks. Secret messages while she’s on television? Really? It sounds…”
Mad. It sounds mad.
I clenched my jaw, feeling the muscle tick.
“I don’t care how it sounds.” My top lip curled, ready to bite his head off. “I know she is speaking to me.”
I took a forkful of the minced meat on my plate and placed it in my mouth. The taste of it overwhelmed my tongue - pepper, thyme, a bit of lemon and meat that was oversaturated with flavors that did not complement one another. And the texture? Abysmal. I didn’t even care to know what the hell it was. It was horrible.
But the bitter taste of it in my mouth was better than the words I could not say…shouldnot say.
“I’m concerned,” Alastair finally said, with a small sigh. “You sound like a stalker. And I…”
“Iama stalker.” I admit it freely. I watched every broadcast, every message, and… more.
My evening recreation was my own closely guarded secret.
“Leave him alone,” Rose whispered. “If only all women felt so loved…”
I could have kissed her on the cheek in that moment. I didn’t because my dear friend was a possessive son of a bitch who would stick a fork in my jugular.
Alastair turned his head like an owl, his eyes narrowing at the hidden meaning. Love had made my friend blind to what was right in front of him…
“What business is it of anyone’s?” I finally asked, feeling the tension in the air dissipate with Rose’s intervention. “After all, I pay for the services. I use my own salary to ensure that she is protected.”
That’s why I’m so poor. Why I sleep at free lodgings provided, and dress like a Parisian bum.
I used my vacation days and free time to secure Calissandra. If I couldn’t, I sent a colleague, and I paid them the standard rate for their time.
“It’s not the money,” Alastair said. “I’m concerned about a friend.”
The touchy-feely Brit was a sentimentalist. The man was more heart than brain, which is why he fell in love so fast, and so deep. But he still could see nothing.
“You don’t have to care about me.” I jutted my chin up. “Save your feelings for her,” I nodded to the dark-haired beauty beside him. “For your wife, and your…” I shuddered, remembering the number of people in the house who shit their pants. The number was more than zero, which was far too many. “Your germ-riddled little…spawns.”
Alastair looked like he would punch me in the nose. He had taken to fatherhood like a fish to water.
But kids ruin everything.
