Page 77 of Hell’s Weapon

“Sorry. He told me about it the other night. I won’t whisper a word to anyone, I swear.”

I tap a foot and tilt my head, demanding more.

“I told him to not shut down like he usually does. I see now that I was wasting my breath. Seriously, that guy is a martyr to himself.”

He’s not telling me anything I don’t already know, but hearing Garrick talked to him and not me hurts a little. I go to shoulder check him on my way to the door, but he speaks again.

“He’d be worth it. If you… you know… chased after him a bit.”

Stopping mid storm out, my gaze returns to Tarron once more. Does this idiot really expect me to woo Garrick like he’s some damsel wanting a prince?

He shrugs his shoulders. “I’m just saying. If you managed to get under that armour he wears, he would be worth it. Clearly you already trust him, if you’ve shown him your face.”

I can’t stop the huff that escaped my lips. Little does Tarron know he sees my face every day.

Showing my face wasn’t about trust with Garrick, it was for the job. But maybe I like that he knows both sides of me. He fucked the real me. The assassin and the female.

Swallow thickly, the revelation hits me harder than a gargoyle in their boulder form. All my muscles lock tight as something shifts, the ground beneath my feet remains solid but my sense of reality alters.

Garrick wanted me for me. Even if he’s regretting it now. That’s not something I’ve been able to experience in the last few centuries. Of all of the people I’ve slept with since becoming the Death Bringer, exactly zero have known that I’m Hades’s Assassin.

Overcome with emotion, I don’t respond to Tarron at all. I simply resume storming out of the monitoring room and stalk into the main offices. There’s a flurry of activity but Garrick isn’t amongst the shifters and demons. I beeline straight for Elisa, Garrick’s office manager. She straightens at my approach but doesn’t flinch. I respect that, but then again working for Garrick can’t be easy.

She also seems to read my thoughts because before I try to convey who I’m looking for, she says, “He’s already in the cell block, the monitoring room to be exact. Some of the Officers have already left to bring the second floor residents in for questioning.”

Softening my demeanour, I bow my head in thanks before spinning on my heel and heading straight for the lower level where the cell block is located.

Like him earlier, I don’t bother knocking. I simply slam the staff pass, which I snagged from a desk upstairs, against the lock and barge into the monitoring room for the cells.

Garrick is indeed inside, he spins in the chair he’s sitting in to face me as I enter. His face doesn’t show any sign that he’s surprised to see me. “Which of my officers am I going to have to punish now for letting you get a hold of their pass?”

“Does that matter?” I throw the pass at him as I lean back into the closed door. “It was on their desk this time.”

“I guess, but they shouldn’t be leaving them laying around.” Garrick places the pass on the desk beside him and goes to turn away.

Swooping, I grab the arm of the chair and spin him back to face me. He doesn’t move to touch me. I keep him pinned with my hands on the armrests and leaning down so our faces are level.

“Now is not the time,” he snaps at me, his eyes completely void, although they are shifted to the yellow of his cat.

“I think it’s the perfect time. None of your officers have arrived yet. We have a while before their questioning gets fun.”

“Tacita.” His voice wavers this time. It’s coated in anger but at least it’s an emotion.

“Why did you fuck me?” I ask, my heartbeat thudding in my ears. I’m terrified of his answer but use the courage of the Death Bringer.

“It doesn’t matter.” A low growl reverberates around the room.

“Yes. It. Does.”

“Aren’t you with them? I’ve watched you the last three days, you went straight back to them. You’re always with them, even sleeping in the same room.”

“One of them is my roommate. Remember? You assigned us to the same room.”

“But you’ve both been sleeping in Thirty-Nine’s room for the last three nights.”

It’s true, and if only Garrick knew that he was the reason I’d been sleeping in the spare bed whilst the guys shared Wyatt’s. But I’m not going to share details with him. Yet.

“So?” I’m the one growling now.