Which was wrong on a multitude of levels. I was a twenty-first-century woman; I did not need a man to take care of me. And then there was the fact that he was not a man who would take care of me. He’d ruin me.
So it was a good thing that the danger was over. Hades was now out of my life. He had to be. I’d made that promise to myself after cleaning the entire house with The Spice Girls playing. Then I went for a walk with Sirius around the property, snapping pictures of cacti against the relentless blue sky, uploading them to my Instagram, my personal one which was just a bunch of photos of food, Sirius and the odd selfie. My Aunt Victoria was my biggest fan. She was the first one to like my photos, view my stories and comment. I had been expecting her call after I saw the like on our walk back.
“Are you wearing sunscreen?” she demanded when I answered the phone.
I grinned. “Hello to you too, Aunt V.”
“I checked the weather today, and it’s supposed to reach the high nineties with no cloud cover,” she continued. She was breathing heavily, probably on the Stairmaster at her local gym. My Aunt Victoria was in her late fifties yet in better shape than me. I was breathing heavily after a gentle walk with my overweight lab.
“You wouldn’t need to get all that Botox if you just used proper sun protection,” she chided.
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t get ‘all that Botox,’ ” I argued. “I get baby Botox, once every six months, which is actually quite restrained for someone my age, in my industry.”
My Aunt Victoria had known about what I did for a living since my first night. She was there that first night, cheering me on. Which was definitely kind of weird, but my Aunt V was definitely kind of weird in the best way. She had never married, had never had kids and had never moved out of the small town that she grew up in. She and my mother were not at all close, but she had always made an effort with me. Always. She was more of a mother than mine ever was. I loved her with all of my heart.
“And for your information,” I continued. “I am wearing a wide-brimmed sunhat, sunglasses that cover up half my face, SPF 40, a white, long-sleeved linen shirt and matching pants. Not an ounce of my skin is exposed to the sun.”
I wasn’t completely lying.
I was wearing a wide-brimmed, straw cowboy hat and huge, men’s aviators that looked absolutely badass. And I was wearing SPF 40 on my face and chest. But I was also wearing a string bikini top, high-waisted denim cutoffs and worn sneakers. What could I say? It was hot as balls, and I loved the look of a natural tan.
“You’re full of shit,” Aunt V scoffed.
I was a terrible liar. Even over the phone.
“So what’s new?” she asked. “Other than you practically begging for skin cancer.”
Fuck.
I definitely couldn’t tell Aunt V about everything that had happened in the past few days. She would drop everything and get her ass here. Then she would see Hades. She’d see my reaction to him, and it would be a whole thing. Even more, I did not want my beloved Aunt V, the only true family I had, to be put in any kind of danger. Nor did I want her to worry about me. She had done that plenty over the years.
So, I couldn’t tell her about the man holding the gun to my head, and I certainly could not tell her about the Sons of Templar. She’d smell a lie. Though not if I dumped as much information as possible on top of the lie.
“Things are great,” I replied, forcing as much sincerity into my voice as possible. “Marilyn and I are planning a trip to that fancy Hollywood resort that is by invite only. She knows someone who knows someone who’s sleeping with someone who can get us on the list.”
I hadn’t told Marilyn that I’d been invited to that resort by the promoters who expressed their hope that I’d post about it to my Instagram, the business one which had over five hundred thousand followers and was full of images that went with my ‘brand.’
“The house is finally finished, and I cannot wait for you to come try to convince me to redecorate since it’s not feng shui,” I babbled. “Sirius loves it here, although he’s afraid of lizards. And snakes. And birds that fly too low.” I looked at my dog who was eying the sky warily, as if he was waiting for a hawk to fly down and carry him away. As if a hawk big enough existed.”