Page 50 of For the Love of the Gods

Sebastian groaned, pulling down the sleeve of his shirt at the wrist. “I am not responsible for anything I do while drunk.”

“Just be glad that it was a closed party. If one of your patrons saw you, they would abandon you,” Jason jumped in.

“And go to who? I’m all they got, baby.” When the Roman pantheon popped up over two thousand years ago, the seat for the god of music was missing, with no explanation. The Apollo house had assumed the mantle ever since. In the years after Adrian’s birth, that was the one godly line everyone could count on to transition smoothly.

“I’ll take them,” Lukas said, dropping his elbows to the table and earning a glare from Corrina. He peeled them off dramatically. “They’ll either want to drown themselves or dunk their heads in the water to muffle the sound of your shrieking.”

Rose took a sip of her tea, then, “I’d pay to see that.”

Sabina laughed, raising her eyebrows at Rose. “You’d have been there, if you weren’t preoccupied.”

I wished I had a picture of Rose’s blush. It was berry red and covered her cheeks and nose, deepening the green of her eyes. I cut in to save her, “My fault.”

“Clearly.” Lukas said, shooting me a glare. What the hell was that for?

“I wouldn’t have been able to get up and make your ass pancakes if I didn’t leave early,” Rose shot back, seamlessly relieving the tension.

Lukas nodded. “Fair point.”

“Dominic had the right idea, marrying you,” Sebastian said, shoveling another bite of food into his mouth. “I’d do it just to get food like this every day.”

Corrina looked at me with an unabashed jealousy. “She cooks for you?”

Not actually, but I wasn’t admitting that. “Yes.”

“What happened to your other cook?” Lukas said from across the table. “Mary, right?”

Rose choked on her tea. She brought her napkin up to her mouth then responded, “She wanted to work less hours, she’s trying to start a family, apparently.”

My fork clattered to my plate. Rose had just lied. She had Mary “redirected” because she wanted to cook for herself. The answer she gave the table made it seem like she had selflessly stepped in to give Mary more time with her family.

Every eye at the table shot to me, and I mumbled, “Seconds,” motioning to my thankfully clear plate before getting up. One of the cracks in the glass had just sealed back up. Rose was playing a part with these people, the kind, do-gooder to mask the killer underneath.

I’d just been momentarily distracted by her perfect lips and taunting eyes.

But that would change, starting now. It had to.

Chapter 14

Rose

Syrup, bananas, hazelnuts.

The trifecta, as Pine used to call it.

The key to a perfect pancake and the key to knocking me into a stunned stupor, apparently.

How Dominic knew that, I had no clue. That, the tea, and the kiss was enough to make my head explode. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been served food outside of a restaurant. And that was a rarity anyway.

I felt a momentary surge of peace, that maybe we could get past this, and then the illusion shattered. Because, of course it did.

If I wasn’t so tired from tossing and turning and trying to calm my feverish body down last night, maybe I would have remembered the excuse I’d given Dominic correctly. Maybe then he wouldn’t have looked at me like he did after he heard I killed Pine.

The rest of breakfast floated by in a tense haze. Dominic’s excuse that he wanted seconds convinced absolutely no one, and everyone could tell that the tension radiating off his shoulders was from something I’d said. Even then, I tried to participate as Jason and Sabina recapped the night and Sebastian made yet another joke about the Apollo House having a foot in both the Roman and Greek doors.

I fought an eye roll at that comment. He was sheltered from the chaos that had spring up over the last thirty years. Sabina had lost her mother, and Corrina her older sister. Lukas had lost his brother and father. Hopefully, I’d be able to give him his best friend back.

If I couldn’t, I’d hunt Daphne down for him.

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