Athena's Jewel (Aya Harris Collection 2)

Keeping my eyes glued to the tan speckled linoleum floor, I shifted my weight back and forth on my high heeled boots. If I didn’t play it cool, Gideon would know something was off. He was an investigator, after all. It was his job to sniff out lies.

“What happened? Did you see the HQ?” He grabbed my left hand and squeezed it. “Are you okay?”

I grimaced at him and fought off the nervous feeling of my stomach turning to jelly at the red hot touch of his hand. “I said I’m fine. Can’t a girl take a day off when her boyfriend breaks up with her without calling in the National Guard?”

He dropped my hand and instantly, I missed the feel of his skin against mine.

“Yes, but you can’t just disappear like that. Not with the HQ after you. I spent the whole day worried you’d been taken. That’s not fair to Angel or to me.”

A sour taste filled my mouth. “Not fair? Don’t get me started on what’s not fair. For instance – your boyfriend getting assigned to take down your murderous brother and having to break up with you. That’s not fair.”

Gideon shuffled his feet. The pain in his eyes told me that he didn’t like this anymore than I did, but he was trying to be strong. I felt awful for pushing him. It wasn’t his fault. His boss was the one I should hate.

“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I just had a rough day. A rough week, really. I shouldn’t take it out on you.”

He softly smiled, the warmth returning to his eyes. I longed to throw caution to the wind and kiss him right there and then, but we couldn’t. He had a manhunt on his hands, and I had a mission to find my mother. We couldn’t let our feelings get in the way.

“Really, where were you yesterday?” Gideon asked.

Inwardly, I groaned. Lying to him was like trying to stop the Titanic from sinking.

“I talked to your roommate, Johnny,” he continued. “He didn’t know where you were, either. That’s not like you.”

I blew a large breath through my lips and averted my eyes to the ceiling. “Nowhere. I just needed space.”

He stepped closer until we were nearly touching. “You’re lying. What happened yesterday?”

I blinked and sucked in my cheeks. “Nothing bad, Gideon. I swear. Don’t worry about the HQ. They don’t want to hurt me after all.”

With a sharp intake of air, he frowned. “You saw the Harpy Quorum? Where? What happened?”

I hadn’t intended on telling him anything, but maybe if he’d stop worrying about the HQ, then he’d finally give me the space I needed to get over him. At least, that’s what I told myself. “Yeah, they took me to their place in Chicago yesterday. Tha

t’s why I missed work. It was all a big misunderstanding.”

His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What did they want? If they don’t want to kill you, then why did they take you?”

I sighed. There was no way he was dropping this anytime soon.

“Because... because my mother’s still alive and they want me to help them find her.”

The words felt surreal coming out of my mouth. It was like breathing life back into someone who’d been dead for over a decade. My mother was still out of the picture, still practically deceased to me, but within a few days, that might change.

“Wait a minute. Did you just say your mother’s alive?” Gideon ran both his hands through his hair in disbelief. “How is that possible? How do they know?”

I gave him the quick and dirty rundown of everything I’d learned yesterday, leaving out the part about the pendant around my neck and the trials that I had to survive just to gain their trust. Ending with the plan to infiltrate the trafficking organization, I watched his face go from suspicion to shock to anger.

“And you’re just going to risk your safety on their information? What if this is all a trap?” he asked.

“They’re telling the truth.” I put on my hands on my hips and glared at him. “Besides, what kind of stupid trap would this be? I was already at their office and they let me go.”

“I don’t like it,” he said, his voice raising. “You can’t do it. It’s a dangerous plan and it’s going to get you hurt. I won’t let you.”

I raised myself to my full height and lifted my chin at him. No one was going to tell me what I could and couldn’t do. Especially not the man who had forfeited any rights to his opinion about me only three days ago.

“You don’t get to make that decision.” I could feel the angry sparks flying from my eyes. “You don’t control me and you never will. Let’s get that one thing straight.”

He stepped back as if I’d slapped him, hurt crossing his face. I should’ve felt sorry, but a righteous anger was burning in the pit of my stomach. If he thought I was one of those women who buried their heads in the sand when trouble came around, he was wrong. I wasn’t a helpless woman on the cover of a trashy romance novel waiting for a man to come to the rescue.