Athena
“No,” I replied, tightening my jaw.
“Athena,” Frederick sighed tiredly. “I saw the way he treated you today. I don’t like it.”
I shrugged then realized he couldn’t see me. “I don’t like it either. But I am not running away just because he was being an asshole.”
“You’re not running away,” Frederick snapped. “You’re obeying a direct order from your superior!”
I pulled the device away from my ear and glared at the screen. Really? He was going to play that card now? Superior my ass. “Are you giving the order as a superior? You’re asking me to stop a mission right in the middle of its course. You don’t know how close we are to finding something on him!”
“You don’t know how far either! For the sake of all things good, Athena, You need to back the hell away from Luciano. He’s too clean!”
“That doesn’t make him some fucking angel of light!” My voice came out in a yell I hadn’t intended. I was just so tired. So damn tired. My arms were sore. I felt like shit. I most definitely stank like one. But those were not good enough reasons to quit! Nothing would ever be a good reason to let Luciano go. He killed my father. He would pay.
Simple!
“I can’t believe you would ask that of me”
“Athena, Look I’ll assign someone else-”
“Do that, and I’ll take the fucking law into my own hands. He’ll be dead by tomorrow morning and you won’t be getting an ounce of information when he’s white and cold.” I interrupted. Anger pulsed in my veins at the thought of leaving that bastard. “Luciano is mine. Mine to kill. Mine to fucking destroy, even if it takes groveling on my fucking knees, I will end him, Frederick!”
The man I had come to see as a father sighed wistfully on the other end of the phone. “I never should have brought you this life” He muttered to himself. “I will always regret it, Athena.”
Before I could say a word, however, the phone beeped against my ear and he was gone, leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so stubborn. He was only looking out for me after all. I shouldn’t have shunned him off or yelled at him, or- Oh what the hell, it was too late to stew over it anyways. I had bigger things to worry about.
Like how I would survive another day with the devil.
***
“This isn’t Pearson’s file,” Luciano growled, holding up a brown file covered in dust and soot. It had to be the oldest shit I had seen in a long time. The same dust and soot coated my face as well as my hands, heck, all of my dress was covered in dust.
“You said Jackson, Mr. Moretti,” I said calmly, keeping my face as stoic as possible. “Jackson Mowry,”
“Are you daft?” The insult slipped from his lips. I couldn’t decide which one was much more unbearable. Was it the arrogant way he had said it? Or the cold demeanor with which he insulted me? Perhaps it was both of them.
Gritting my teeth, I forced a smile. “I assure you, Mr. Moretti, I have all my senses with me.”
His eyes darkened and he tossed the file at the table. “I asked for a Pearson Lowry. Search the fucking shelf again.”
“You’re messing with me,” I spat angrily, tired of the games he had put me through all morning. Luciano was insane. I had to have done all sorts of odd jobs in just one day and it wasn’t even twelve yet!
“Should I be scared, Miss Gonzalez?” He taunted, arching a brow in mockery.
He should be. I was so fucking close to gutting him in the neck with a damned knife.
When I didn’t respond to his taunt, he leaned back in his chair and gestured at the door. “You can always leave if you’re fed up. I would not hold it against you.”
Making sure I gave him a look I hoped would reduce him to ashes, I walked back to the stupid gigantic shelf in his office, held on to the ladder, and climbed to reach the top shelf. It had taken me a good one hour just to find the Jackson Lowry file. Or was it Pearson Mowry? I slapped a hand on my face. Why did the two names sound so fucking alike? Fuck it, I decided. I’d just search for a Pearson file. He could do whatever he wanted with the rest.
As I looked through the shelves, I eyed the jackass from the corner of my eyes. He seemed to have forgotten my existence with his head buried in the files on his desk. His forehead was scrunched up adorably as he read through the- wait a damn minute! Adorable?! Damn, the stress must really be getting to me. I had to be fucking delusional to think that monster was adorable.
Furious with myself, I grabbed a handful of files from the top shelf and raked them to the floor.
That jolted him out of his reading and he looked up with familiar blazing eyes. Heck these past few weeks, that was all they seemed to do. Blaze in anger at me. They were like deep dark coffee. Black but rimmed brown around the edges. I’d considered gouging them out because they were simply too gorgeous to be owned by an asshat like him.
“Are you possessed, Miss Gonzalez?” He asked, staring at the files on the floor.
I really must be, because in response, I stuck out my tongue. I would do anything to rewind time and never do that again. Stick my tongue out? What did I think I was doing? Arguing with a five-year-old? If anything, I blamed the ball last night. I had dealt with so many kids in one night, of course, I would act like one.
Luciano narrowed his eyes at my action and began rising off the chair. Ah, shit, I’d provoked the fucking tiger and now he would take a swipe at me. Refusing to be caught unguarded, I jumped off the ladder grateful that I had worn flats that day. His eyebrows flew up in surprise and disbelief, freezing him in motion. He glanced at the top shelf, at the floor then back at me.
“What the hell?!” He bellowed, regaining control of his limbs, and stalked towards me. “You crazy woman! You could have hurt yourself!”
“Better than you hurting me!” I spat, balling my hands into fists beside me. I packed a damn good punch. If he made a move on me, I would pummel the shit out of him.
“Hurting you?” He growled. “You think I would do that?!”
“I know you will,” I retorted. “I have tolerated every shitty thing you’ve thrown my way, but you do not get to lay hands on me or I swear I’ll beat your damned ass black and blue!”
Luciano looked mortified. I most likely shocked the anger out of him. I would have laughed at the sight if I wasn’t so tense. He parted his lips to say something but the door flew open and in walked his flavor for the week. Some witch named Sophie.
She had to have done plastic surgery because there was no one with eyes as wide as bambi’s on the fucking earth. And they were blue too! She was wire thin but somehow had two gigantic melons on her chest and hips that were definitely enhanced.
“Baby!” She shrieked and I snorted. Just the perfect voice to go with that look. And who the hell was she calling baby? This man would have tossed my ass into fire a few minutes ago!
She also had to be blind or immune to the tension in the air, because she simply walked past me and threw her arms around the jackass, giggling. “Did you miss me?”
Luciano gave her a tight smile, then looked past her. His eyes held something unreadable and honestly, I couldn’t give a shit about whatever it was. I turned on my heels, itching to get the hell out when he barked at me.
“You stay, Miss Gonzalez!”
I turned to look at him, eyes wide in disbelief. The idiot smirked, pulled the giggling woman flush against him, and held my gaze. “You still haven’t found the Dawson Mowry File.”
“I thought it was Pearson Lowry!” I was right, he was messing with me. There was no file with a name like that.
“Whatever it is,” He said, still holding my gaze. “You still haven’t found it, Raven.”
A tremor slipped through my body with the way he called my name and I mentally squashed the parts of me that got stimulated by the sound of his deep stupid voice.
Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I walked towards the ladder where he and Sophie the witch stood. Before I could climb on ever, the bastard winked at me and lowered his lips to kiss Sophie, all the while holding my gaze.