by Anna Collins
“Was this your first attack?” I asked, and the little squirt shook his head, avoiding my gaze.
“No,” he replied, and my eyes narrowed at him.
“Don’t you dare lie to me, kiddo,” I warned him, and my son hung his head.
“It’s my second,” he whispered, and I sighed.
“Why didn’t you get your inhaler?” I asked him.
“I couldn’t find it,” he answered. Perseus leaned over and ruffled my sun’s hair, making the little one squirm and giggle as Perseus tickled him.
“You had us worried there for a second, sport,” Perseus said, and Ares grinned. I patted my son's leg before standing up and making my way to Daphne, who was standing outside her room, listening to us. She winced as I glared at her.
“I'm sorry,” she said. “I guess I overreacted.”
“No shit,” I said, shaking my head at her. “Why didn’t you have a spare inhaler?” I asked.
“I panicked, and I forgot where I put it, alright?” she cried, and I scoffed at her. I saw Ares walk over to us and I looked back at Daphne.
“This conversation isn't over,” I whispered harshly, and she looked at the floor, her face wrecked with guilt. I turned back to look at my son with a smile on my face.
“Daddy, can we go somewhere today?” he asked, and I nodded. It had been a while since I last spent time with him, so I might as well made up for my absence.
“Sure, squirt. Let’s go watch a movie,” I told him, and he raised his fists in the air, cheering loudly.
I took one last look at Daphne’s face before helping my son out with his coat, Perseus coming up behind me. It was funny how she turned from being the one person I yearned to have to the person I was beginning to hate.
Chapter Thirty
Callie
“So, what’s the big deal between you and my brother?” Helen asked, sounding a little too casual as she checked the clothes rack for something to try on. I tensed up a little, wondering what she knew about us and if I should tell her anything about it. She wasn’t exactly known as Miss Secret-Keeper.
“He hired me as his assistant a couple of days ago,” I said, keeping the details as vague as possible.
“Oh, please. You don’t expect me to believe that that’s the only thing going on between you two, do you?” she said, rolling her eyes at me.
“Well, what else do you think is going on?” I asked, challenging her. I’d rather know what she thought and play it off from there. I didn’t want to risk revealing anything Apollo didn’t want his sister, or anybody else, to know.
“I know he wants to fuck you sideways until next week,” Helen said bluntly, and I gasped, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks at her crudeness. She shrugged, not caring. “It was pretty obvious the way he looked at you earlier. He was contemplating whether to take your damn clothes off and have his way with you at the staircase, regardless if Perseus and I were still there to witness it,” she explained.
I couldn’t say anything to rebut her, because if I was going to be honest, that was exactly the kind of vibe I got from Apollo when he was checking me out back at the house, too.
“Okay, if you’re scared of telling me about the real status of your relationship, I’ll ask you a question you can answer,” Helen said, and I waited with bated breath. I highly doubted she could ask me anything I wanted to answer.
“What’s that?” I asked, and she tilted her head.
“How do you feel about my brother?” she asked, and I mentally cursed.
That was a loaded question. Even though she was technically right that answering that question wouldn’t have any repercussions on Apollo whatsoever, the question was too personal. Telling her, I was confused about what I felt would only reveal I was starting to want a relationship with Apollo that went beyond the professional one we had. But telling her I didn’t think of Apollo as anything would be a lie, and as far as I could tell so far, the Irons siblings were very perceptive when it came to lying.
“Your brother is quite interesting,” I said, and she narrowed her eyes at me. “I just got out of a relationship literally a few hours ago so moving on to someone this early isn’t ideal for me right now,” I said, choosing to admit something about my personal life rather than telling her anything about my feelings.
Helen hummed thoughtfully as she looked at me before shrugging again.
“I guess you’re right,” she finally said, and I closed my eyes, relieved she had bought it.
“But just for the record, I think you guys look great together,” she said, and I looked at her in surprise. She smiled back at me. “He doesn’t know it yet, but I think you’re exactly the kind of person he needs,” she said.
She picked up a dress from the rack and wordlessly went inside the fitting room, leaving me to think that maybe Helen was more intuitive than her brothers, after all.
After that awkward conversation we had, I honestly had a lot of fun with Helen Irons, and a lot of my preconceptions about her were obliterated the more I got to know her. She wasn’t the scandalous drunkard the paparazzi made her out to be. On the contrary, she was clever and sweet and incandescently joyful. She flitted around like a fairy despite her tall stature, and she didn’t treat me like I was from a different social class, like most people of the same background as she usually did.
The only thing I felt awkward about was how gracious and giving she was. She forbade me to spend a dime on myself and insisted we gave her credit card a “workout,” buying me clothes and accessories so way beyond my paycheck that I was begging her to stop.
“You’re my friend now, Callie. Friends are allowed to buy each other stuff,” she proclaimed.
“Yes, but not when one item costs a thousand dollars!” I exclaimed. She waved my words away and shook her head.
“That’s nonsense. A gift is a gift, and I can afford it,” she said.
“Then please let me buy you something,” I said desperately, and she looked at me with wide eyes. “That’s what friends do,” I added, using her words back at her. She stood frozen for a few seconds before suddenly wrapping her arms around my shoulders, giving me a hug. I was too surprised to react, and she pulled away, giving me a toothy smile that made her face brighter by a hundred levels.
“You are truly a good friend, Callie. I’m so glad my brother met you,” she sighed, and I couldn’t help smiling at her.
Something told me I had just made one hell of an ally in the face of Helen Irons.
We lost track of time as we had so much fun talking about mundane things when Helen excused herself, telling me she had to pick up something real quick. I offered to go with her, but she shook her head, telling me she wouldn’t take long and that I should go check out what movies were on and she’d be back later. I shrugged and nodded, wondering what the hell that was about.
I wandered around aimlessly when I heard someone shouting and then I felt something bump into my legs. I dropped my bags in surprise and looked down to see a little boy lying on the floor, and I immediately crouched down to help him up.
“Are you okay?” I asked, and my mouth fell open as I saw how beautiful he was. His dark curls were long and bounced around his head as he nodded, his lashes long framing his icy blue eyes and he looked every bit like a baby cherub. But there was something about this little boy that felt familiar, something recognizable I couldn’t figure out.
The little boy nodded and looked behind him.
“Hey, kid! Stop!” someone shouted, and I looked up to see a security guard running towards us. I picked the little boy up by his armpits, and he immediately hid behind me, wrapping his tiny arms around my legs.
“Is there a problem, officer?” I asked smoothly, and I waited for him to catch his breath before addressing me.
“That kid was running around the mall by himself,” he said.
“He was probably just keeping himself preoccupied. I told him to wait for me there while I went shopping for groceries. Kids tend to wander in the supe
rmarket, after all. I was afraid he might break something,” I lied, and I was impressed at how easy and almost instinctively I covered for this little boy I didn’t even know.
The guard eyed me suspiciously for a minute before shrugging.
“Just don’t leave him unattended again,” he warned me, and I nodded. I waited for him to walk away before I exhaled the breath I was apparently holding. I turned around to look at the little boy again. I was expecting him to look apprehensive, maybe a little scared.
I wasn’t expecting him to smile widely at me.
“Thanks, Lady!” he cried, and I think my heart melted.
“Sure, little man,” I called him, and he puffed his chest, beaming. “Mind telling me what you’re doing here all alone?” I asked him.
“I got lost,” he pouted. “I lost my Daddy at the movies,” he said, and I sighed. How could his father be so careless? I extended my hand towards the little kid, he looked at it and then back at my face curiously.
“How about I help you find this Dad of yours, huh?” I said, and he grinned, taking my hand. I should probably be worried at how trusting this kid was. He could seriously get hurt or even kidnapped with that kind of attitude and resolved to give his father a proper scolding. For now, I wasn’t going to let this kid out of my sight until he was safe and sound with his family, no matter how absent-minded his father seemed to be.
“I’m Callie, by the way,” I said, realizing that I hadn’t told this kid my name yet. “What’s your name?”
“Ares,” he said, grinning up at me.
Ares.
His name was Ares.
It was a pretty grown-up name for a cute little tyke like him, but I would take it.
I couldn’t help but think that his dad probably had a fetish for Greek shit.
Chapter Thirty-One
Apollo
How the hell could this happen?
How could two grown ass men lose a six-year-old kid in a shopping mall? It was ridiculous.
I’ve been running around like a headless chicken for- I don’t know how long anymore. But each minute that passed had me imagining a lot of things that could be happening to my son at this moment, and none of them was good. Actually, they went from dark to fucking scary.
I did not need to scare myself right now.
I called Perseus for the third time, hoping he had found him. I gritted my teeth as I waited for Perseus to answer, my mind already marking off the places I had already checked and wondered if I should circle back again.
“Have you found him?” I asked as soon as he picked up, and I could hear Perseus huffing as he tried to catch his breath.
“No dice. You?” he asked.
“Would I fucking ask you if I already had?” I yelled, causing a couple walking nearby to stare at me. I glared at them, daring them to tell me off. My skin was about to jump out of my bones, and I only needed one push to send me over the edge.
“Would you relax, Apollo? We’re going to find Ares, just calm down!” Perseus said, and I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, willing myself to calm down.
Perseus was right. Freaking out wouldn’t help matters. I needed to find my son. Maybe I should try the cinema again. I turned around and ran back, hoping I was right.
“Daddy!” I heard a voice that distinctly sounded like Ares, and I hoped I wasn’t hallucinating. I turned around, and all of my fears evaporated at the sight of my son running towards me with a huge smile on his face. I went down on my knees and opened my arms for him, wrapping them tightly around his small body as he tackle-hugged me. I closed my eyes and squeezed him tighter against me.
Thank God he was safe.
“Daddy, I can’t breathe!” he cried, giggling at me as I immediately let him go. “You’re silly, Daddy,” he said, laughing his little heart out.
I almost had a heart attack looking for him everywhere, and he called me silly? He was lucky I loved him so much, or I would have strangled him.
“Where have you been?” I asked, my frustration flowing out of me in droves. It was reckless of him to run off like that. The stupid kid could have been picked up by some random stranger, and I would’ve never seen him again. “Do you know how worried I was?” I cried, putting my hands on his arms and shaking some sense into him.
Ares’ face went from happy to horror in a matter of seconds. My heart broke to see that look on his face, and it was even worse to know I had made him look like that. He started sniffing, and I was about to apologize when I heard someone shout and try to pull Ares away from my arms.
“Hey, quit scaring him, you asshole!” she yelled, and I looked up to see Callie’s infuriated face directed at me, holding Ares in her arms as he buried his face in her stomach, his shoulders shaking as he sniffled softly.
Callie’s face turned into shock as she realized she just called me an asshole and I thought she was going to take it back until her face turned back into a scowl and she pulled Ares tighter against her.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing to him, Apollo?” she said, and I just looked at her, not saying anything. “You don’t have to yell at him. He’s been through enough!”
“Were you the one who found him?” I asked, my heart beating faster at the thought.
“Let’s be grateful that it was me instead of somebody else, alright?” she said, and I had to agree with her. She was a hell of a lot better option than anyone else.
“Where’s Helen?” I asked, changing the subject, and she screwed her eyes shut, her brows furrowing.
“Oh shoot, I completely forgot. She’s probably freaking out right now,” she said, pulling her phone out of her bag and started texting. I tilted my head as I waited for Ares to turn back to me, and I sighed when he didn’t. I crouched and placed my hand on his shoulder, urging him to look at me.
“I’m sorry for yelling at you, pal. Daddy’s not angry at you. I was just worried because you ran off and I thought I would never see you again,” I admitted, and he turned his head to look at me, tears glittering in his eyes.
“Do you swear?” he asked, and I nodded, smiling at him.
“I swear. Now come here,” I said, opening my arms to him. He removed his hands from Callie’s legs and jumped into my arms, clutching my neck like a lifeline.
“I’m really sorry, Daddy,” he whispered, and I shook my head.
“It’s okay, buddy, just don’t do it again. Let’s just be grateful it was Callie who found you and not someone dangerous, okay?” I said, and I felt him nod his head. We pulled away from each other, and I wiped the tear tracks on his face with my thumb.
“Callie is really nice, Daddy,” Ares said, smiling up at her. I looked up, and Callie and I just stared at each other. “I’m really lucky she saved me from the scary guard chasing after me earlier!” he cried, and my brows furrowed.
Luck, huh? I wonder about that.
Was it really a stroke of luck, though? Or did Callie find him on purpose?
Chapter Thirty-Two
Callie
I couldn’t believe it. I should’ve figured it out when I looked at the little kid’s face, and I thought he looked so familiar.
He was the spitting image of his father…his father and my boss, Apollo Irons.
The kid couldn’t have been more than four or five years old, so Apollo probably had him when he was, what, in his senior year in college? But how could he have managed to keep his kid’s existence a secret for so long?
I saw Perseus and Helen running towards us, and I waved at them, their faces etched with worry until they saw the little kid in Apollo’s arms. Perseus grinned and nodded at me.
“I guess it’s true that the lost have a way of finding each other,” he mused, and I furrowed my eyebrows at him in confusion until Helen snorted.
“You got that right. I’ve been looking for Callie for the past half hour, and I would never have thought she had gotten lost with my nephew,” she said.
“Hi, Auntie Hell,” Ares greeted, waving his
hand at her, and Perseus snickered, making Helen glare at him.
“Now look at what you did. Do you see what he’s learning from you? He called me ‘hell,'” Helen accused, and Perseus smirked.
“I think it’s quite apt, don’t you think?” he replied, and Helen glared at him.
“Can the both of you take care of my son for a minute? I need to have a word with Callie,” Apollo said, standing up and staring at me with an indecipherable look on his face.
The air felt tense and different as soon as he said those words and Perseus wordlessly pulled the little boy from Apollo’s grasp and walked away, Helen following beside him.
I fiddled with the sleeve of my dress as we stared at each other’s eyes, not saying a word. I took a deep breath and decided to start the conversation.
“Listen, if you’re worried I’m going to talk to the press about--,”
“Oh, but that’s exactly what you’re planning to do, aren’t you?” Apollo sneered, and I looked at him strangely. What the hell was he talking about?
“What are you--,” I asked, but he interrupted me again.
“You were probably waiting around until I got separated from him, weren’t you? And then you snatched him out of my sight and wanted to play it off like you saved him?”
“I don’t understand where you’re coming from, but I did not kidnap your kid,” I said, glaring at him. Who was this guy and what did he do to Apollo? Why was he accusing me of this?
“Oh sure, Callie, play dumb. I’m sure you expect me to believe that this was all just some happy coincidence and that it’s you of all people who found him for me! Well thanks a lot, I am eternally grateful! What would you like in return, huh?” he asked, his eyes lighting up with madness and hatred.
I didn’t know who this man was.
“Do you want me to pay you? Do you want to be credited for my autobiography?” he asked, and suddenly he had his arms wrapped around my waist. I tried to push him away, but he was too strong, and his eyes were too scary. “Or maybe you want something else?” he whispered, and my eyes widened as I felt the huge bulge from his crotch digging into my hip.
