Page 79 of Hercules

“Trust? You?” She canted her head far enough to tap Herc with a glance. “Ah. And Mr. Hunksicle too. Because that makes so much sense…how?”

Lois didn’t quiver by a millimeter—officially making this the moment in which Herc fell hardest for her. In the middle of her terrified ice, she inspired him the most. Made him spin around all over again, prepared to go one-man army with Ito’s gang if he had to.

But he didn’t have to.

Every member of the goon squad suddenly stopped in their tracks—obeying the eerily calm signal of their commander’s hand. Ito maintained the position as Lois pushed closer to Natasha. Just like his Scribester, Herc didn’t trust any of this by a mile.

“Natasha,” Lois pleaded again. “They’re not shooting an ad for bad business suits, okay? You’re looking at a platoon of borykudan. That means—”

The starlet’s upsweep of a palm shouldn’t look so similar to that of the big yakuza boss. But the impression hit Herc’s psyche like a knife into fast-dry clay. It was there, and definitely not moving—

“I know what it means, darling.”

Especially as Natasha smoothed her reply with an Ito-like smile.

Thankfully—whatever there was here to still use the descriptor for—the starlet’s smirk wasn’t lost on Lois either. Her head rocked back as if her boss had fully smacked her. She recovered swiftly, new words ready on her grimly parted lips.

“Okay. That’s good. Then take a few guesses why there’s an army of these assholes waiting for you here.” Her grab at the starlet’s elbow wasn’t as governed as her tone. “They have their hooks into Reks, okay? Your Reks. He’s gotten into high stakes gambling games with them. Dangerous stakes. The payment for the debts is no longer just money. He owes them an artifact…of sorts…and—”

Natasha punched her hand higher, now splaying all five fingers. But again, the move evoked rehearsed choreography instead of actual reaction. Aside from the woman’s initial reaction at finding her assistant in the middle of the Terminal Three arrivals hall, her every nuance had served those polished vibes.

Polished—to the point of peculiar.

“An artifact? My goodness. Like something from a museum? Pottery painted with naked people? Jewels the size of eggs?”

The woman was only half-done flaring her huge eyes when the word resounded louder for Herc.

Peculiar.

Herc’s instincts popped with it, expanding wider than Natasha’s expressive silver stare. Impressions hit him at a dizzying rate, speeding to become full suspicions.

Fuck.

So many suspicions.

Ones he fought with every neuron in his cranium and clench of his jaw—only to endure their betrayal when the starlet kept posturing. That “innocent” hand at the base of her neck. Those “captivated” blinks of her big eyes.

Did she think she was fooling anyone?

The thing was…she didn’t.

Herc wasn’t just assuming it. He watched it unfold across Natasha’s face, steady but stealthy. She was a cat playing with its food, toying as if Lois was already a dead mouse. There wasn’t a schism of fear in her I-already-know-your-fate energy.

Not if he had anything to do with it.

Mentally clutching the resolve, he willed himself to move now. Two steps closer to them. Another.

Close enough to hear what Lois rasped in return to her boss.

“Something rarer than those, okay? Something a human building can’t contain.”

“Oh!” He felt more than heard the responding gasp from Natasha. “Something like what?”

Lois didn’t waste her own pause on shit like breathing. But at the moment Herc decided he was going to stomp over and force the air into her, she inhaled hard enough to infuse her cheeks with incensed color. It faded as she pushed out a tight reply.

“Like something…from a dimension besides ours.”

“Ohhh,” Natasha crooned at once. “You mean like outer space? Or one of those dimensions from the sci-fi series I did that cameo in? Does it glow? Or grow a tail?”