Page 24 of Unleash Hades
“What would you know about it?” I asked, again, still not looking the monster directly in the eye. “You said you hated blood sports.”
“Dear, dear Cali,” hetsked. That flowery voice was back. Maybe I hallucinated the earlier change? “I rarely do things because I enjoy them. I do them because of the advantages.”
I rolled my eyes, annoyed at his platitudes.
“Take them, for example,” he flicked his fingers to a couple of bespoke suited people. Kieran, Gavin’s son, and another woman. “That’s Kieran O’Malley, enforcer to the New York mob. See the woman he’s sitting with?” I was already looking, but I knew that this was his speech pattern - flowery, and winding. Never truly getting to the point. “That’s Yuliya Vasilieva, the presumed heirto the New York City bratva, currently in a power struggle for Boston as well.”
Then he brought his voice down in a stage whisper, “And the man beside her?” I looked, because I really wanted to figure out where the hell he was going with all of this. “That’s a lesser Prince of Monaco. What could all three of them have in common, do you think?”
I shut my mouth, because I had no idea.
“The bratva and the mob in bed with a foreign prince?” He feigned a shocked expression, his fingers clutching non-existent pearls. “How could it be?” He put his palm on his cheek, his mouth open in mocked aghast. “So, you see, this is where the real power brokers are, speaking candidly to each other.”
He was right. There were so many familiar faces, sitting across people who should never publicly be in a room together.
He pointed to my left, sticking his long finger right in front of my nose. I followed his digit with my eyes, and saw a face vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t figure out from where.
“That’s Aldon Mountbatten, Duke of Severn,” Then he sang a loud, “Yoohoo! Aldon!” while giving a finger wave.
Aldon Mountbatten turned his head, and looked like he was holding in a fit of laughter. Mountbatten reluctantly waved back with a shake of his head.
“He’s a dear, dear friend of mine, but we cannot socialize outside of the Underground because the Royals are such sticklers aboutbeing seen with the press.” Bellamy pouted. “I could tell you so much about everyone in here,” he said, then brought a finger to his lips as if he was shushing himself. “This is the most exclusive country club you’ll ever find because it operates in secret. What happens in the Underground stays in the Underground, so the royals get to mingle with the rabble.”
What he was saying made sense. But I just didn’t like that he was the one saying it.
If I found him slightly less reprehensible, he truly would have been a great person to join forces with. As it were… I hated the man.
“You’re saying that people come here to mingle?”
“Oh, why, yes!” His voice was so musical.
“Why don’t you and I have drinks sometime and have a chat?” The hand on the back of his chair moved, running a finger through a strand of my hair, and I jumped in my seat.
“Are you hitting on me?” I said in complete disgust. “I’m a married woman!”
Which wasn’t the real reason for my refusal. My marriage was a sham, my husband was a psychopath. But my heart… well that belonged to someone else entirely.
He let out a long, aggrieved sigh that was so dramatic and loud that it made the heads around us turn in his direction. Including mine.
His eyes were cast upwards, his mouth open. He then pinched the bridge of his prominent nose and looked forward.
Then his dark eyes turned to me, and he gave a one shoulder shrug, still not removing his arm from my backrest.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Cali.”
Chapter 6
Hugo
New York City, New York
“Keep your elbows down,your fists up, and for God’s sake, remember that she has no weak side. Keep both of yours protected at all times,” Rose said as she wrapped my knuckles. “The She-Bear is no joke. Honestly, if you were my fighter, she would not be the one I put you up against first.”
Gone was her malaise from earlier that week. She was laser-focused, and almost jittery with the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She was a woman of the arena. She loved it here. The lights, the music, the roar of the crowd.
I was indifferent. As I was with most things.
We straddled the locker room bench, facing one another.
