Page 44 of Deranged
I threw my hands up showing him my palms. “I’d pay anything to help her.”
He weighed my answer while he stared me down. I didn’t flinch under his gaze no matter how much he seemed to press me into the chair with a simple glare.
He stood and buttoned his suit coat. “Then go home and wait for my call. But please, take Zeus with you, the last time I let him loose in one of my casinos, he made a mess of my female staff and took over a hundred thousand dollars in winnings.”
I left and went in search of Zeus. I found him at the roulette wheel with a blonde on each arm and a stack of chips in front of him. “Let’s go, Romeo. We need to get back.”
He kissed a blonde’s neck and glared over her curves. The dealer pronounced him a winner, and he gathered up the chips gleefully.
I trapped his hand in mine over the heavy plastic. “How about this…you take your winnings and come with me, and I won’t tell Hera where we’ve been and what you’ve been up to. You remember she was my friend before you were?”
He glared but snatched his chips and marched in front of me toward a sleek black car. It didn’t take long to get back home, Zeus refusing to speak to me the entire flight. Not that I minded. I wasn’t keen on talking to him anyway. Any time in his presence, it got harder not to reveal the truth to his wife about what kind of scumbag she married.
When I got home, I realized I’d be waiting again, but this time, I knew the plan would work. Donny—Don—always delivered on his promises, and he never backed out on a deal. I just feared what kind of payment he’d expect in return for his help.
Chapter Nineteen
Don
Hearing from Ash had been a surprise. We never got along well in school. He’d been born from money and opportunity. I’d been born from the streets and clawed my way to the university. Not that he would ever be so low class as to acknowledge those differences.
His request wouldn’t be terrible difficult, but I could tell he expected me to perform it the way he’d originally planned. Unfortunately, his idea of a plan was flawed. Men are so easily corrupted.
I picked up the phone and hit a few buttons and waited while the other line rang. A silky female voice cut through the line, one I’d heard a dozen times over the phone and in person. “Demeter, Darling, I have just made a deal, one I need your help to bring to fruition.”
She didn’t respond and losing a booty call whenever I ventured to Washington D.C. seemed a small price to pay when Ash would be in my little black book in the favors column. Getting Kory free from her mother’s clutches would be simple enough. It would be up to Ash to keep her, and himself, from Demeter’s crosshairs once the deal was set between us.
Chapter Twenty
Kory
Igot up early to shower, clean up my room, do my hair. There would never be enough armor or ammunition to deal with my mother coming here for a visit. Not just a visit but a negotiation. I didn’t tell her much on the phone only that if she didn’t come, the next call would be to a prominent journalist who preferred her opposition, and wouldn’t he love the support of her daughter on the upcoming campaign.
Even with the extra preparation and mental fortification, I wasn’t ready. She shouldn’t be here, and a year that goes by without seeing her face is decent year. This year I’d seen, and spoken to her, far too many times for my own sanity. If I had such a thing.
Styx poked her head into my room without knocking. “You ready?”
I shook my head no and then switch mid-stream to a nod as she narrowed her eyes.
“You don’t need to prove anything to anyone except yourself. Your mother isn’t your keeper, and no one should be responsible for you but yourself.”
I shook out my shoulders trying to loosen up my tense muscles. “Do you do bumper stickers too?”
Her thin lips stretched flat. “Ha ha. Do you want me to bring her in here when she arrives, or do you want to see her in the public visitor room?”
As much as I ‘d love to see my mother avoid putting her Chanel covered ass on the canvas couch cover in the day room, I didn’t want out conversation to be public. “Bring her here. We need privacy.”
I thought I’d mentally prepared for her entrance, but as usual, I’d deluded myself. She sauntered into my little white box like she not only owned the place, but was about to raise the rent. Her gaze fell on my books, my bed, my desk, sweeping over every inch of the space before landing on me filled with contempt.
No matter how old I got, she always looked at me the same, with pity and possibly a little regret. And, why wouldn’t she? I was the fuck up, not the arm ornament she could use to garner votes from younger constituents. She’s regretted my presence in her life a long time ago. But never more than I did.
I stood and smoothed out my already straight pants. “Mother.”
Her dark eyes met mine, the ones so very much like her own, and she arched a perfect eyebrow. “Persephone.”
Not daughter, not child of mine, not fruit of my loins. No, acknowledging me would be acknowledging I was a mistake, and Demeter Sito didn’t do anything so foolish as make a mistake.
I tried diplomacy even though I knew it would bite me in the ass. “Thank you for coming. I’m sorry it was such short notice, but this was kind of an emergency.”
