Page 26 of Cold Bastard
This is a nightmare.
The meet was tonight. Eleven PM. And now I had a prospect glued to my side, reporting back to Zeus about every move I made. There was no way I could make it to that gas station without him following. No way I could get my new identity and disappear.
Zeus had just destroyed my only chance at freedom.
And the worst part?
He knew it.
This wasn’t about protection. This was about control. About making sure I stayed exactly where he could see me until he figured out what I was hiding.
Twenty-four hours ago, I had a plan. Now I had nothing.
Nothing except a prospect babysitter, a brother who wouldn’t stand up for me, and a meeting I refused to miss.
I was trapped.
And somewhere out there, whoever owned that seventy-five million dollars was getting closer.
Chapter Eight
Poseidon
I watched my sister head upstairs to her room, her back ramrod straight. Abyss trailing behind her like a loyal fucking dog as my hands clenched into fists.
She’s lying.
I knew it the second she walked into church. Knew it in the way her shoulders tensed when Zeus asked about Rapid City. Knew it in the careful, measured way she answered every question, like she had rehearsed the answers beforehand.
Derek Walsh. Bad breakup. Cocktail waitress.
All of it was bullshit.
The question was:whatwas she lying about? And more importantly,why?
Alex had always been trouble. Even as a kid, she had a talent for finding the worst possible situation and diving headfirst into it. Sneaking out at fourteen to go to parties with kids twice her age. Getting caught shoplifting at sixteen, not because she needed anything, but because she was bored. Running her mouth to the wrong people and starting fights she couldn’t finish.
I spent half my life pulling her out of fires she started herself.
But this felt different.
This feltdangerous.
I turned and walked back into church, my boots heavy on the worn floor. The hallway was empty now, the photos on the walls watching me like silent witnesses. Brothers who’d bled for this club. Brothers who’d died for it. I’d bled for it too. More times than I could count.
But Alex was my blood in a different way. She was the only family I had left after our parents died. The only person in this world who knew what it was like to grow up in the chaos we survived.
And she wouldn’t let me help her.
Stubborn. Just like Mom.
I pushed open the door to church. They were all still there. Waiting as Zeus sat at the head of the table, his fingers drumming a slow, deliberate rhythm on the wood. Hades leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, his scarred face unreadable. Atlas had his phone out, scrolling through something, but his attention snapped to me the second I walked in. Hermes, Adonis, Caishen, Aries, Hyperion, Coeus, Asclepius, Apollo, all of them watching me with varying degrees of concern and suspicion.
“Well?” Zeus said.
I closed the door behind me and moved to my seat. “She’s lying.”
“We know that,” Hades said, his voice a low rumble. “Question is, what’s she lying about?”
