Chapter Six
Hailey took her time in getting herself ready and showering. She walked out with her hair in a towel and one of the hotel robes around her body. Seeing Owen alone she frowned.
“I thought I just heard voices. Is everything okay? Or did you give the guys their marching orders so that they can get those papers all destroyed, so that this asshole can’t make money from me?”
“They have their marching orders,” he told her. Getting to his feet, he walked toward her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he drew her in closer to his warmth. “All the electronic files have been erased. I’ve already begun to input your visits to the office. Once I have the papers I need from the guys I can finish up and then they can slip them into the filing system in the appropriate places. I chose someone for you to meet who’s been away the last week, and will be away for another couple of weeks on vacation. Totally unreachable so they can’t question him about your meetings if your ex raises a stink.”
“I don’t understand. Why would I need to meet with someone? Who do I need to meet with? I don’t do this whole cloak and dagger sort of thing very well, I’m sorry. I’m trying hard to be very easygoing because I know you are protecting me, but I just don’t understand.”
“Sorry, I’m babbling,” he said. “You’ve had an imaginary meeting with the individual I chose to ‘terminate’ the policy that Brown took out in your name. We’ll be doing up the paperwork to support it. You would have requested meetings with the man after hours because of your own work not permitting you to get to their office during their regular hours of operation. His electronic calendar will back it up.”
He frowned, and then nodded slightly. “I’ve also ensured that Brown is backed into an incredibly tight corner by putting a hold on his account. He’s limited to about fifty dollars a day currently due to some rather nasty activity that the bank will be investigating. This should keep him busy for a few days, and throw him off whatever plan he might have. Has he called again?”
“No. Nothing since the last call.” Hailey told him. “Which is rather odd. Thank you again, for doing everything that you are doing. I don’t know how you do it. You truly amaze me with the things that you can do. If you guys had a week, you could take over the world, I’m sure.”
“Way too much work to take over and then hold onto the world. I get the intrigue of world domination, but there’s always some asshole that wants the toys you have. Sounds much too stressful,” he told her. Smiling he brushed a kiss against her lips. “Come sit with me while we wait on the guys to complete their tasks.”
“Ah, well, I suppose that you do have a point there.” Hailey moved so that she could sit beside him. It was lovely, the feelings she was developing so quickly for these men. She liked being able to be comforted by Owen and Nolan and to be able to trust them implicitly.
There was a rap on the door and Owen looked up. There was a frown on his face as he rose to his feet with a weapon suddenly in his hands. He pushed Hailey behind him and looked at the laptop and then frowned. “What the fuck?” he muttered and went to the door.
Before he opened the door however he called down to Mik. “Mik, you might want to get everyone to the living room. We have company of the big kind here.” She listened for a moment and then heard Owen add, “You also might want to make a call out to Ares. Seems Hailey’s Uncle Moe is here.”
Hailey was shocked. “Uncle Moe is here? What if he gets hurt?” The whole reason he’d hired these men was to protect her and keep her safe. “You have to send him home. Please.” But she wanted to see him. She wanted to hug her uncle and then send him home. “Why are you calling for someone else? It’s my uncle for God’s sake, let him in!” She moved around Owen and opened the door herself.
“Uncle Moe!” She threw herself into her uncle’s arms and sobbed, hugging him tightly because she hadn’t seen him in more than a week. She had missed him. It had been the longest she had gone without seeing him and she now realized how much it wore on her.
The big man chuckled. He was olive skinned, large, and heavily muscled, but he was her uncle and she loved him dearly. He was kind, lovable, and as vulnerable as she was.
“You can’t be here,” she told him. “You could get hurt. That’s the whole reason that you hired these men.” She pulled him into the suite and noticed that Owen closed the door behind Moe, laughing at something that she had said to her uncle. She had no idea what she said that was so funny, but obviously, it was something that had Owen chuckling.
“Hailey, honey, you need to learn something about me,” Moe told her and led her to the sofa, sitting her down.
She noticed all the men walking in, but a new man as well. It was a man that she hadn’t met before, a man that radiated power, one that had her leaning into her uncle and clenching his hand. The man scared her, in a massive way.
“Don’t fear him, Hailey. Ares, tone done the power bullshit. You’re scaring her. Can’t you feel it?” Moe said with a low growl.
What in the hell? She hadn’t said anything aloud about being afraid of the new man, so how had her uncle known?
“It’s part of what I need to tell you, kiddo,” Moe said as he hugged her closer to him on the sofa. “I need for you to listen to me closely, honey,” he said softly and then looked to Ares. “Brother, I might need you to convince her because I refuse to pull her into my realm.” When the man named Ares nodded Hailey was even more confused.
“Realm? Huh?”
“Hailey, sweetheart, you are a Descendant of a goddess.”
“What?” She felt like she was going to be ill. “I don’t—what?” She felt a headache coming on. She didn’t understand what he was saying. Her uncle had to be mistaken. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Uncle Moe, you are just having one of your moments, right?”
“Hailey, sweetheart, I’m a god. I don’t have moments. The moments that you thought I was having were times when the demons in dreams were trying to get out. I’m the God of Dreams. My name is Morpheus if you recall, though I do prefer it when you call me Uncle Moe.”
She did. She just never used it because when she was younger she couldn’t say his whole name. It had been far too difficult for her, so she had always called him Moe, especially when he took over her care when her parents died. “But the God of Dreams? Seriously?” She chuckled now; she had to. Someone was pulling her leg. This was a way to get her mind off the danger that was stalking her, right?
“No, Hailey, this isn’t a way to get your mind off anything. Dr. Tom, by the way, was Thanatos, yes, that Thanatos.” She watched as Uncle Moe looked to the man he called brother, and then Ares. “Ares, show her.”
Ares walked over to her and presented his hand to her. “Take my hand, Hailey. I won’t hurt you, on my honor, I swear.” He smiled as he spoke and added, “You look just like your long-ago ancestor, Aceso. She’s no longer walking the realms, but she would be so proud of you. She was such a wonderful woman. I would like to take you to see her in her stasis. You see, some of us have to go into stasis when we become too tired, and sadly she became too tired and too disillusioned with humanity. If she could see you now, however, I think she would change her mind.”
Hailey put her hand into Ares’s. She didn’t know why she did, but she trusted him. He pulled her to her feet, and she felt every man in the room shift. She heard Mik growling Ares’s name and saw Ares looking at the man. “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt her. I gave her my word, and you know that as a god I can’t break my word. I’m taking her to visit the woman that she’s descended from and not one of you can stop me.” Before Hailey knew it, they were gone from the room, while every man in the room was rushing at them.