Page 19 of In the Devil's Shadow

How am I going to find my other dad…and did I even want to find him?

What happened between Desmond, Bash, and Azazel?

Should I forgive the guys?

With the exception of Zaz, they all had wronged me before my month-long slumber hiatus. All the questions and thoughts bouncing around my head were organized. My first order of business this morning was to go downstairs, get an Olga-certified breakfast with tons of bacon, and gather all five of those knuckleheads at the kitchen table. They needed to catch me up to speed on whatever the fuck was going on. This time around, no secrets, no kid gloves, and no pulling punches. This Brooklyn broad floated like Snoopy at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and stung like a bank account after Black Friday.

After washing up and getting dressed, I only made it halfway to the kitchen before I regretted my decision to stay here with them. Even without my superhuman hearing, I heard them whisper-shouting in hushed tones.

“Who the dark fuck is that?!” Bash rasped. “She’s gonna kill you, Ares.”

“It’s a surprise; I’m not spoiling it before Diana gets here,” he coolly replied.

“I don’t care about Diana ripping Ares a new asshole. How the Heaven are we going to handle the damage control? Ares exposed us!” Desmond huffed in an exasperated tone.

“You made a promise to her last night to involve her in decisions, Desmond. I’m waking her up,” Zaz huffed. “She can give us more insight as to whether or not this is even a problem… I don’t foresee it being an issue be–”

“Feathers is right,” Ares interrupted, seeming to not have a care in the world about whatever they were arguing about. “This won’t be a problem, stop overreacting. Diana will love my apology gift; it’s the best one yet. She’ll fall in love with me all over again, and you’ll all sleep in your own rooms for the next few days while I reap the rewards. If her bed frame is rocking, don’t you dare come knocking. If you hear her scream, it’s because of my Greek god peen.”

His Greek god peen…wow.Ares seemed pretty full of himself today. He actually was this ridiculously confident every day. A chair scraping and tapping against the tile floor and muffled screams caught my attention.Who is that?I ran into the room, and before any of them could explain, I screamed at the gagged, blindfolded man bound to the chair with golden magical ties. Was he hurt? How did Ares get him here? A burlap bag was fixed over the bridge of his nose as a blindfold, so I could only see the bottom half of his face.

“Little Goddess, do I have a surprise for you!” Ares shouted as he made his way around the counter and put his hand on the small of my back, leading me toward the chair. I froze, mouth gaped, because I was too overwhelmed to say anything. “I’m sorry that we miscommunicated about the fire tattoo, but I hope this gift proves how much I love you. How I can’t live without you and want to work on our relationship. I’d doanythingto make you happy.”

The gagged man at the table screamed something that sounded a lot like ‘Diana, help.’ I tore my attention away from him and closed my mouth so I could talk.

“Youkidnappedsomeone and thought that would be a good gift?”

I looked around the room at the guys, trying to see if anyone else found this as batshit as I did.

Diana, the guy tied to the chair is human, and Ares used magic to get them here. That could expose us…Bash linked me.

“Not justsomeone…” Ares teased as he removed the bag over the man’s head. He could barely contain his excitement. “IT’S CHAD!”

“Oh my God!Charlie!!!!!!!!” I screamed as I ran over to untie the gag and magically remove his restraints. “Charlie, I missed you so much.”

When I tried to hug him, he jumped out of the chair and backed away from me. His face paled, and I couldn’t blame him. I forgot, he thought I died two months ago.

“Charlie, it’s me. I know this is hard to believe, but I’m one hundred percent alive and okay,” I assured him.

“Babe, is that you?! You’re alive?!” he wailed through thick sobs. “My bestie is ALIVE, motherfuckers!” He almost knocked me over in his rush to hug me.

“This is truly a Hallmark moment,” Mal snarked. “Is someone filming this?”

I would never admit this to the guys, but no one hugged like Charlie. Nothing compared to an embrace from someone you’ve known since you were six. Char and I have been through everything together: breakups, makeups, ups, downs, our moms passing away, fake friends, and surviving elementary, middle, and high school together. I needed him now more than ever, because shit was getting way too real. We stood there, glued to each other for what seemed like eternity–swaying back and forth and crying together–until someone cleared their throat, breaking up our reunion.

“What do you think of your gift, Little Goddess?!” Ares’ entire face beamed. As wildly fucked up and inappropriate as this gift was, it truly was his best apology gift yet. I missed Charlie so much.

“Is this psychotic bear your boyfriend?! I was lying in bed last night, and somehow ended up here andhe–” Charlie pointed at Ares, talking a mile a minute “–tied me up and made me sit in that rickety-ass chair for hours while I screamed and begged to know what was going on. It was torture, Diana! WAIT, did they do that to you?! Is that why you’re here?!”

I sauntered over to Ares, grabbing him by his shirt and pulling him down so we were eye level. “Ares, I missed Charlie very much. Thank you for bringing my best friend to me. But you’re going to apologize,now. You can’t treat someone I care about that way. That would be like me kidnapping your brother and threatening him.”

“Which one? I’m fairly sure Apollo would be into that, since he’s a kinky little fuck. And Dionysus would think it’s all part of an elaborate joke. Everything is a party to him.”

“Ares, stop trying to distract me. I’m never spending the night with you again until you apologize. And we are going to have a discussion about the appropriate way to treat friends at some point.”

Ares sighed, looking like a chastised child. Which was fair, because he sure all Hell was acting like one. “Chad–”

“My name is Charlie, asshole,” Charlie quipped, cutting Ares off mid-sentence. “Charlie Monroe.”

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