Page 28 of Sweet Rule
Connie’s lips press into a thin line. “I don’t know, honestly. I wish she wasn’t.”
“She been around Honey?”
Connie shakes her head instantly. “No. I told you, I wouldn’t leave her alone with anyone that could hurt her. It’s only the idiots she’s been around.”
“Good to know.” I pause. I have to ask her the question that has been on my mind since Charlaine brought it up. Better to confront it now in Connie’s presence than let Zeus try and surprise me. “Did she marry him?” I ask. I am looking back at Honey, my eyes drawn to her by habit and fuck if she isn’t beautiful. The crowd has finally taken notice of her, just like the couple on the dais and it parts for her as well. She stands out like a goddess in a sea of mortals.
Connie makes a strangled sound. “What?”
“Answer me.”
“Law, I- that’s insane. Don’t you know what she is to him? Haven’t you figured it out by now?”
My eyes cut from Honey to Connie. “Figured what out?”
“Honey and Zeus…”
My gut roils at hearing their names together. “You better finish that sentence now, Connie.”
She winces at the venom in my voice and then says, “She’s his daughter, Law.”
CHAPTERTEN
HONEY
Family is the most important thing in Zeus’ world. Being a Vlahos is the be all and end all to him. Life falls in order for him with family at the center, because he’d been raised to think this way. I hadn’t had any such luck. Family is a source of pain. Embarrassment. It is the thing that holds me back and makes me yearn for escape.
Family is a prison for me. Another way to trap and force me to bend to the whims of a woman that has never loved me… but sitting with Zeus while my mother looks on, while she realizes that it is me that is going to decide exactly what happens to her, and all in the name of family?
Well, it makes perfect fucking sense to me.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Rosario explodes.
The music is still playing, light still flashing, dancers still moving and touching one another with abandon like they’ve been doing all night. But for Rosario Martinez, the world has changed. It has stopped being what she knew it to be and I fucking love that.
“Her money,” I say.
“What of it?” Zeus asks.
“Take it. Every fucking penny.”
Her eyes go wide. “What? Honey, you fucking littlebitch,what are you-”
“Does she have any property?” I ask him, ignoring her as she splutters and glares. If looks could kill I would be dead. I don’t care. I feel half dead from the way my life has gone over the past week. May as well get some fucking pleasure out of everything turning to ash in my hands. If I can’t hold on to any of it, then neither will she. I’ll see to that.
Zeus nods. “She does. A few things around town.”
“Things you gave her?” I ask, even though I already know the answer. Of course they are things he’s given her. She’s never been able to keep a single blessing or windfall that has come her way.
“Yes.”
I scoff. “Of course, you did. I want them.”
“Done.”
“Stop! You cunt! I’m going to rip you apart, you little bitch!” Rosario’s screams are deadened by the club music and when she starts forward, security appears as if by magic to force her back. She throws herself against them, but it is no use. They’re huge. The security is meant for crowd control or for going toe-to-toe with someone a lot bigger than the petite woman throwing herself at them.
I lean back in my seat and watch her struggle and spit. “Anything that she didn’t come to the city with, I want it.”
