Chapter Eight
The Camaro hadn’t even rolled to a stop in the Dallas parking garage before Athena popped the lock and jumped out of the passenger side.
“Hey,” Thallium shouted. “Hold up, woman.”
Woman. No longer my queen. The power had shifted.
Thallium wasted no time in securing the car and coming around to stand beside her. “From now on, you are in my world. My job is to keep you safe. Do not interfere with my job.”
“Got it,” she said with a bite to her words.
He tilted her chin up with his finger. “I know you’re anxious. It’s almost over.”
Yeah. A lot of things were almost over. Their time together chief among them.
She stood up on her tiptoes and placed a soft kiss to his lips, but Thallium would have none of that. His hand shifted to cup her behind the neck and he dragged her closer, deepening the kiss until her senses were filled with nothing but him. He sensed it too. This was likely the last kiss they would ever share.
“Ha, I knew it,” a voice crowed from behind them.
The couple broke apart as three men approached them from the shadows. While their appearances varied, they all looked to be cut from the same cloth. The man with dark hair and a goatee, she recognized from the night the safe house had been ambushed.
“Fifty bucks,” said the wildly grinning blond man beside him who held out his hand. “Pony up.”
The frown on the dark-haired man deepened as he reached for his wallet. “The kid has never strayed once. I should have known even Thall would succumb to the power of a nice pair of tits.”
“Watch it,” Thallium growled at them in warning and hugged her tight against his side. “Athena, you remember Steele. And that’s Chrome, and Uranium.”
“Hello,” she said and the men nodded in return, except for Uranium, whose gaze was fixed on the car behind them.
He let out a little whistle and shook his head. “Boy, you have been holding out. Where have you been stashing this beauty?”
“A question he’ll have to answer later,” Steele interrupted. Somehow his frown managed to cut even deeper as a line between his eyebrows formed. “Titanium is ready to rip you a new asshole for dropping off the grid that way.”
In response, Thallium shrugged, and allowed his posture to say it all, which was basically, he didn’t give a shit.
With a chuckle, Chrome slapped Steele on the back. “That’s going to be one hell of a show, but let’s get going. Agent Rodriguez is expecting us at the courthouse in fifteen minutes. Once there, Mrs. Argyris, we’re going to escort you directly to a holding room, and wait for you to be called to the stand.”
Matching Thallium’s example, she nodded and kept quiet. His hand on her back was her lifeline as he guided her toward the stairs leading to the upper floor of the parking garage, where two black SUVs waited for them.
The tall black man guarding the cars she also recognized from before. He looked the group over and raised his brows in question. “Who won?”
Chrome smiled and held up his hands, snapping the crisp fifty-dollar bill between his fingers.
The man’s head fell back as he laughed. “Good for you, Forrest. That’s making use of your resources.”
Athena walked up to the man until she was nose to breastplate. “I hope you are calling him ‘Forrest’ because he likes the color green,” she said in a low voice. “If I find out you are mocking my man in any way, I will come back from whatever hell they put me and cut off your dick, grill it up, and feed it to you. Do we have an understanding?”
He began to chuckle, but when he saw how her gaze never wavered, the laughter died and he stared at her for several long seconds, taking her measure.
“Understood,” he finally replied, and a slow grin curled his lips as he looked over her shoulder. “Thall, man, your girl is a pistol.”
“Now that we’re clear,” she said and took a slow step backward. “Shall we get this circus on the road?
“Mrs. Argyris,” Steele said, gaining her attention. “Let’s suit you up first.”
The bulletproof vest they strapped her in was heavy but not as cumbersome as the one Thallium had jammed her in the night they met. A leather riding jacket was zipped up over it. They had her tuck her hair underneath a hat that looked like a baseball cap, but was lined with some type of heavy-duty material. Once dressed, she climbed into the back seat of one of the SUVs and Thallium took the seat beside her.
The mile ride to the courthouse took as long as a blink in her mind, and the scene as they approached reminded her of the stuff she’d seen in movies. News vans, cameramen, and reporters lined one side of the street, while several policemen in riot gear lined the other. On the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, she spotted more men in black focusing on the courthouse.
Over and over, she had been told how important her testimony was, but seeing the extremity of all the attention made the weight of responsibility on her shoulders far heavier than even Atlas could possibly bear.
Thallium’s hand was strong against hers as she clutched at him. The tips of his fingers were exposed where his gloves ended and she brushed her own fingertips against his, desperate for that last little bit of skin-on-skin contact.
Several federal officers approached their vehicle as Thallium exited. They popped open umbrellas, shielding her from view.
“Y’all are making me feel confident about my security,” she drawled.
“We’re not taking any chances, Mrs. Argyris,” one of the officers replied.
They ushered her and Thallium through the main doors, with Tin and Uranium following. Instead of taking her through the primary security checkpoint, they whisked them down a hallway to an area that had a separate armed security detail and metal detector.
The marshal at the metal detector stopped them. “We’ll take her from here on out, fellas.”
“We stay with her,” Thallium replied.
“Only authorized personnel from this point on. You can go through the main checkpoint or wait out here.”
Thallium and Tin shifted, forming a wall between Athena and the officers.
“We stay with her, or she doesn’t move one step forward,” Thallium said in a low, clipped tone that didn’t carry a hint of his stutter.
The marshal also shifted his weight and placed his hand on the butt of his pistol. “Don’t be a dick. You’re not authorized.”
“I authorized them,” came a voice from beyond the security gate, and Agent Melinda Rodriguez stepped forward and stood toe to toe with the marshal. “These are my men and they’re protecting my witness. Let ‘em through.”
“It’s your ass on the line,” he said with a sniff of indignation before walking away.
“When isn’t my ass on the line?” she muttered and turned toward the quartet. “Come on, guys. Can the wall of muscles move so I can properly greet my friend?”
None of the men moved, except for a flex of biceps.
“We get it.” Athena tapped Thallium on the shoulder. “You’re badasses. Now step aside.”
She pushed through the giant hunks of manliness and greeted the woman who had become a dear friend with a hug.
Melinda’s fingers curled into the back of her vest and released a sigh that Athena felt through all the layers of fabric.
“Do you have any idea how terrified I was when you disappeared?” Melinda whispered in her ear, dropping the tough agent persona. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
“You know it’s going to take more than international assassins to take me out,” she joked with a tremor in her voice. The terrors she had experienced that night were never going to leave her in peace. She nodded at the men. “Besides, you were the one who hired these wild cards. Didn’t you have faith in them?”
“I did, which is why I still have my hair. Otherwise, I would have pulled it all out by now.” She stepped back and gestured with a nod. “Come on. Let’s get you in a more secured location. They’re running a little behind. There’s one more witness before you.”
It was quite a production getting Thallium and his crew through the security checkpoint. The staff didn’t want to let them through with their weapons and the men were in no mood to be left vulnerable to the unknown. Unfortunately, the marshals won that round, and the men had to check all of their pistols. If Athena was a betting girl, she’d have given good odds that each man was able to smuggle at least one weapon on their person, a thought that was both a cause for concern and a blessing. Who knew who else was able to sneak in a weapon of some sort? And for what purpose?
“So,” Melinda said after they got through the checkpoint. “Do you want to tell me why tall, blond, and brooding is watching you like you’re the crown jewels?”
“Because you paid him to.”
“I paid him to watch you, not to steal you and keep you all to himself. Just what have you been up to the last few weeks? Or should I ask who have you been on?”
Athena smiled and shook her head. “Let’s just say he is very good at his job.”
Melinda grunted. “Girl, I hope you tore the house down. You deserve a little something-something after all of this.”
The chuckle on Athena’s lips died as she looked down the hall and spotted a man she almost didn’t recognize.
“Eddie,” she said as if she had seen a ghost.
In the year since she had seen her younger son, he had grown into a man. Tall and broad-shouldered, he had grown a goatee, and there was a haunted look in his eyes as if he had seen far more than a man of twenty-three should ever bear witness to. That look reminded her of Thallium when his thoughts turned back to his time in the Marines. Even though he never said a word about it, she knew he was thinking of those experiences.
When Eddie heard his name, he glanced in her direction and a flare of joy lit up his eyes that reminded her of when he was a child and she would pick him up from school. That joy died a quick death and a veil of hatred that pinched his lips together and brought his brows down into a scowl took its place.
“Well, if it isn’t the traitorous bitch,” he sneered.
Behind her, Thallium growled like a pit bull and took a step forward. She stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Nice to see you too. I’ve missed you.”
“Right. That’s why you had me thrown in jail.”
She took a step closer, then another one, and behind her she felt a rise of tension coming from the men and even Melinda, who she knew wanted to hold her back, but she continued, stepping right up to her son. She had to tilt her head way back to stare him in the eyes. All of the arrogance and swagger of his indignation was in his stare as he glared at her with a snarl on his lips. But she didn’t flinch, didn’t move at all. She allowed the love she felt for him, and her disappointment, to shine in her eyes as she stared at her baby boy.
The curl to his lips softened, and after a few blinks he looked away, then down at his feet.
“You know why,” she said softly and without judgment. “You know I wanted more for my boys than a life of constantly watching their backs. Of wondering if they were going to come home alive or with blood on their hands. I raised my boys to be better than destroyers. I lost your father a long time ago. And Kurt, I’m afraid, is a lost cause. But there’s still hope for you, Eddie. And it’s that hope that keeps me going. Because I love you. You are my child and I love you. Club or no club, I will put what’s best for my children first every time.”
All she received in reply was a series of blinks. The silent treatment, though not unexpected, sliced through her like a .22 caliber, hollow-point bullet—clean upon entry, but fucked you up something fierce on the inside.
She laid her hand against his smooth cheek and held back the tears as he flinched. This was probably the last time she’d ever touch her baby again.
Did he know that? Did he understand that he wasn’t the only one to lose everything? Yes, she had destroyed the world he knew and took away people he loved. Hopefully he would understand why and find it in his heart to forgive her, but obviously, today was not that day.
“Be good,” she said through lips numb with pain. “Be the man people look up to, not be afraid of. I love you, and your brother. Tell him that for me, although he’d probably punch you in the face for mentioning my existence. But I do love you, and I wish you a long and happy life, Eddie.”
Since he didn’t pull away, she took the risk and stood on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek as his image swam in her vision. Before she broke down altogether, she stepped back and addressed Melinda. “Shall we continue?”
The other woman nodded and led her down the hall. Athena didn’t dare look at Thallium. If she did, she knew she’d throw herself into his arms and lose it right there in front of God and everyone. She needed to be on-point when she took the stand. How credible would she appear if she were a sobbing mess?
“Right in here.” Melinda opened a door and gestured for them to proceed her. Thallium joined them while Tin and Uranium stood guard outside of the door. “The courtroom is on the other side of that door. They’ll call us in when they’re ready.”
“Awesome.” She took off the hat and shook out her hair. Between the protective gear and her emotions, she felt as if she were going to melt into a puddle at any moment.
“What are you doing?” Thallium asked as she reached for the zipper of the vest.
“I’m dying of heat.” And choking. God, it was hard to draw a breath.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “You will be protected at all times.”
“That’s what you’re here for.”
“The vest stays on if I have to wire you into the thing myself.”
“I hate you,” she said, but she let go of the zipper.
“Back at you, my queen,” he replied with a wink and a smile.
“‘My queen’?” Melinda said with a roll of her eyes. “Ah, hell.”
The door leading to the courtroom opened, drawing their attention. A young girl who appeared to be around high school age walked through the opening. When she spotted Athena, she came to a quick stop and gasped.
“Mrs. Argyris,” she said. “You—I-I-I didn’t think I would ever see you again.”
Athena squinted and searched her memory. There was definitely something about the girl that was familiar, but from where?
“My name is Caitlyn,” the girl said and took a step forward, pushing a lock of straight, blonde hair behind her ear. “I attended a party at your house a few years ago.”
“Oh my God,” Athena gasped. Time stood still and it felt as if her head were floating off her shoulders. “It’s you. It’s you.”
The girl from the pool party. Standing before her. Whole. Healthy. Alive.
“I can’t believe you’re here.” Athena stumbled forward and all of the emotions that had been building all day, all week, burst forth in a sob. “I thought you were dead.”
She raised and lowered her hands several times before finally reaching out and brushing her fingertips over the girl’s smooth cheeks. But that little bit of contact wasn’t enough and she drew Caitlyn into her arms, running her palm over her hair.
As they rocked back and forth, the two women cried, squeezing each other tight as if the other would slip away if they dared loosen their hold.
“You lived,” Athena sobbed. “You lived.”
“Thanks to you. I heard you. I heard you screaming and trying to save me. Because of you, they stopped.” Caitlyn’s arms tightened around her before she pulled back enough to look at her. “You saved me.”
“What happened? Smoke and Gauge dragged me into the house and no one told me what happened to you.”
“Your husband told the boys to get rid of me. Kurt was going to kill me and dump me in the river, but Eddie took me instead. Said he was going to earn his patch. But he took me to the hospital and told me if I said a word, he’d come after me and finish the job. A few days later, Agent Rodriguez found me at the hospital and took care of me.”
“What?” Athena rounded on Melinda.
“I couldn’t tell you,” Melinda answered. “When you told me about the girl, we searched every hospital and morgue until we found a girl who fit the description. You couldn’t know anything that happened to her. We took her into custody, and found her a safe place to live.”
“Thank fuck for small favors.” Athena patted the girl on the head one more time, then pulled back to cup her cheeks between her hands. “How are you? Are you good?”
Caitlyn shrugged. “I’m okay. Trying to go to school with a toddler is tough. But I have great foster parents.”
“You have a kid?”
Beneath Athena’s palms, the girl’s cheeks warmed. “Yeah. That night, you know. Things happened.” Then her blue eyes flashed bright. From her purse that was hanging across her chest, she pulled out her cell phone and held up a picture of a little boy with dark hair and his mom’s blue eyes. “I have a son. His name is Nathan.”
It was on the tip of Athena’s tongue to ask who the father was, but knowing what had happened that night, it could have been any of the club members who had been present, even one of her own sons.
“He’s beautiful, Caitlyn. And yeah. I know exactly what it’s like to go to school with a toddler. Finish school, and for the love of God do not date a club member. From any club.”
“I won’t,” she said with a giggle.
“Athena,” Melinda said. “They’re ready for you.”
“Take care, Caitlyn.” She gave the girl one more hug.
“You too. And thank you again.”
As she watched Caitlyn exit the room, she caught Thallium’s gaze as he stared at her with so much pride he looked fit to burst.
“She lived,” she whispered.
“She lived,” he repeated. “And a lot more will live too.”
Athena looked at the open doorway that led to the courtroom. On the other side of that threshold sat the man who had destroyed more lives than she probably even knew about. A man she had once loved with all of her heart and soul.
Behind her stood another man. An honorable man. A man she realized she loved as well. But not with the innocence of youth, but as a woman with the knowledge and experience to know what love truly was. What sacrifice was, and what that love cost, yet was willing to pay the price.
For the Thalliums of the world. For the Caitlyns of the world, she would give everything, and leave nothing on the table.
She looked at Melinda and nodded. “Let’s go.”