Swiss grinned wickedly.
I stepped back immediately, out of the man’s grasp and farther away from Hades whose eyes were now firmly on me.
This was a bad idea. This was a really fucking bad idea.
“It isn’t Friday,” Hades said, voice tight, thick.
Something inside of me unfurled at his words, the tone, the flatness to them. At the possession in his gaze, a possession he wasn’t entitled to. There was a familiarity there, but there was a fury too. Every time he looked at me, it was like he was pissed I was even breathing. Forgetting that he might not even be breathing if it wasn’t for me.
Then I remembered the way he spoke to me at Fate, the way he’d made me feel. Then I remembered I was pissed off at this guy.
“No, it’s not Friday,” I agreed, my voice suddenly snippy, no longer shaky and weak. It felt good, made me feel a lot less like a victim. “I’m not here to party with you or get paid handsomely by you to take off my clothes. I’m here because somehow, for whatever reason, some of your friends—well, not friends considering the man in question was holding a gun to my head—wanted me to pass along a little message. And in case it’s not obvious, I don’t like being a messenger, and I certainly don’t like having a gun held to my head in a Trader Joe’s parking lot because now I’m here instead of at home which means my cookie butter ice cream is going to be melted.”
I sucked in a huge breath, having just said all of that without pausing to inhale or exhale. Because I was on such a roll, I did not notice the way the air had completely and utterly changed, hadn’t seen the tightness that marred Hades’s features, how his fists clenched at his sides and his eyes darkened the more I said.
“Someone held a gun to your head,” Hades stated, his voice even, the words coming out slowly as if through gritted teeth.
I nodded, unable to speak.
Luckily, Swiss was here, looking between Hades and me, still smiling despite the subject matter and the air of menace shimmering around Hades.
“They wanted to deliver a message to us,” he offered. “Think it was Segadores Sombríos, trying to scare us off the deal.”
Hades did not take his eyes off me. “If they were trying to scare us off the deal, why in the fuck did they threaten Freya?” he snapped. I wasn’t sure if he was still talking to Swiss since he was still staring at me.
“Because for whatever reason, they thought I was sleeping with someone here,” I explained before Swiss could speak for me.
Hades’s eyes darkened even further, if that was even possible. “Are you having sex with someone here?”
I froze at his tone, at the threat threaded through those words.
“No,” I replied, proud of my voice for not shaking. “Of course I’m not sleeping with anyone here.”
“Unfortunately,” Swiss muttered.
He must’ve had a death wish, considering the look Hades directed at him. He only grinned wider at his death glare.
“I don’t know why they thought I was connected to anyone here since I’m definitely not,” I added, interrupting the badass stare off and hopefully stopping Hades from coming to blows with his brother. “Now that I’ve delivered the message, do with it what you will. I’d appreciate it if I could shop in peace and not get a visit like that in the future. So the next time you talk to this guy, if you could communicate my lack of connection to the club, I’d really appreciate it.” My gaze swung between Hades and Swiss, both of whom were now looking at me. Swiss was no longer grinning flat out; he was smirking but with something deadly in his eyes.
Hades was nowhere near grinning, and the second my eyes met his, I darted my gaze away like a coward.
I cleared my throat. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some ice cream to try to save.”
I turned to leave, even though the prospect of leaving the compound and the scary, muscled macho men with guns to go back to my empty house in the middle of nowhere with my cowardly dog was somewhat nauseating.
But I forgot that I was in a room with two alpha male, badass bikers with too much testosterone. Both of them moved, Hades was quicker, blocking my path to the exit with his large form. I held my breath as he moved close to me. Almost too close. Not close enough. His body wasn’t pressed up against mine, but he was close enough for me to feel his heat, and there I was, thinking he was carved completely from stone.
He was just as handsome as I remembered. Even more handsome, considering how pissed off he looked. How deadly.