Apollo (7 page)

“Well, I can see things are going great here,” Sol said and grinned. “Couple of smooth talkers.”

The air near him turned sweet, almost sickeningly so. Apollo looked down at Val, whose face had gone stark white suddenly and then over to Sol.

“I need to use the restroom,” Val said. She slipped around Sol and rushed down the hall.

Titus raised a brow at him. “Vestal?”

He scowled. The idea of sharing that fact only pissed him off more.

“She’s…” Sol began. He frowned. “Different.”

“It doesn’t really matter what she is,” Apollo ground out. “She’s not going to be here long enough for it to matter.”

Titus ran a hand through his thick black hair and then stopped abruptly. Having it short now was clearly a challenge.

“We can’t get rid of her,” Titus sighed. “She’s cleared, and she seems to know what she’s doing.”

“But what if we’ve been hacked?” Apollo said, not backing down from his original thought. She was bad news right from the start. The fact they didn’t know she was a woman should have been a clear indication of that.

“Hacked?” Sol said.

Titus held up a hand. “We’ve been over this a thousand times. She’s cleared. And she was able to spot the issue, if there even is one.” He looked between the two men. “Let’s see how this plays out. She could be of real use to us.”

He was shaking his head, but there wasn’t much to be done about it. Titus had his mind made up, and that was all there was to it.

Sol cleared his throat. “Jenna has some notes for you,” he said to Titus and then turned to Apollo. “Doc said to remind you about your appointment.”

Apollo frowned.

“Just make sure she stays,” Titus said as he headed for the door and then stopped to look at him. “As much as you might not want to admit it, she’s the best woman for the job. All of them.”

Apollo thought about flipping him off but held his hands firm. Titus was not going to get to him on this.

Chapter Eight

Val flopped onto the mint green couch and closed her eyes as she rested. Today had been far more challenging than she could have ever guessed. Everything she tried seemed to be blocked by some weird interference.

She supposed she could take down the whole system, but that would mean everything they had would be useless, and the task would require for more work than she guessed they wanted. For starters, they would have to hire a team to come in and help. That sort of job was way too much for one person.

And a certain someone didn’t seem too keen on her staying any longer than she had to. All morning, Apollo had sat in the corner of the room, scowling at just about everything she did, his irritation filling the air around her. It wasn’t like she could help that there were issues. She didn’t put the damn system in. The last thing she needed was some walking muscle with a hard-on thinking he could push her around.

“Dick head,” she mumbled.

“Excuse me?”

Her eyes popped open, and she stared at Jenna, the quiet roommate that had been fairly scarce so far.

“Sorry.” Val gave a sheepish smile. “Not you. Just processing the day.”

Jenna raised a brow and took a seat in the chair next to her side of the couch. Her curly brown hair bobbed around her face. The whole place seemed to fit the somewhat mousy woman. Pale green furniture. Nothing that really stood out, but it was comfortable and clean. Val could appreciate a clean and simple place.

“Processing the day or a certain someone?” Jenna asked. Her glasses made her face look smaller than it was and, for some reason, gave her a childlike look.

Her mouth fell open, and she could feel her heart thump in her chest. Jenna knew. Somehow, she’d found out and now all her hard work was going to be ruined.

“Apollo can be…hard to know,” Jenna said but seemed to be having a hard time. “He just seemed so sure that he and Hannah were supposed to be together.”

Val breathed a sigh of relief and then frowned. “Hannah?”

Jenna nodded, and her cute curls bounced around. “She’s with Lucius.”

A good number of the men she knew something about, but the women were mostly a mystery to her.

“But he wanted to be with Hannah?”

Something in her chest hurt to even say it, and it didn’t make much sense to her. She didn’t have feelings for Apollo. Not real feelings. Sure, he kissed like the devil, and through his clothes, Val was pretty sure he had a body to match the kissing, but that was just physical attraction. There was no way she had feelings for him. At least those kinds of feelings. Pity. That’s what it was.

“That’s what the men are saying at least.” Jenna sighed. “If you can believe it, he used to be really friendly. He was probably one of the friendliest ones here. But something changed in him.”

Val thought on that. She couldn’t picture it. He seemed to always have a scowl on his face, irritation radiating off him. The thought of him smiling was almost weird for her. She didn’t know if she even wanted to see him smiling genuinely. It would likely involve him standing over someone he’d just kicked the shit out of.

“What about you?” Val asked. “I’ve seen you with the dark-haired one.”

Jenna snorted loudly.

“Rem? No.” Her body language was snappish and almost hostile, but still, there was something sweet that lingered behind all that. Not love but something. “There’s no way that egotistical, smart ass would ever…” Jenna took in a slow breath. “These men aren’t for me. Besides, I’ve got my uncle to care for.”

Val nodded, although she didn’t really understand. For someone who didn’t want a relationship, Jenna seemed to be spending a lot of time with one man.

Jenna stood and walked to the kitchen. Val followed. This was the best opportunity for her to get information without looking too suspicious.

“What about the other men? Do they have women? I met the doctor,” she said slyly. “Is she with Sol?”

Jenna laughed loudly. Her eyes twinkled, and Val couldn’t help but smile back. For being a mousy little thing, she sure had her moments.

“Not even close.” Jenna grinned. “Rachel is with Marius. We were all a bit surprised when you were paired to work with Apollo. He’s not really much of a computer guy, and Marius is usually the one they call.”

Jenna opened up a few cabinets and pulled out some meat from the fridge. Val watched as Jenna started dinner with a sure hand. She quickly chopped onions on the cutting board and then swept them into the hot pan with oil.

“I kinda got the feeling that Apollo might be on babysitting duty because he was in trouble,” Val said and sat in the chair at the breakfast nook.

Jenna glanced at her from the corner of her eye. Despite her appearance, she was a woman who noticed details. All Val could hope was that she didn’t notice too many details about her.

“He is,” she said and sighed. “Sorta. If he could just control himself a bit more.”

Val frowned. “He’s known for not keeping his hands to himself? I knew it couldn’t be the first time.”

Jenna turned fully to face her now. A clear expression of shock on her face.

“He’s harassing you?”

Val looked to the side. She could already feel the heat as it flamed her face. “I wouldn’t call it harassing,” she mumbled.

Jenna shook her head and snickered a bit. “No,” she said and turned back to her pan. “I suppose you wouldn’t.”

Val could feel her neck turning red from the embarrassment. Of course, Jenna hadn’t been talking about him messing with women. His hot temper was the trouble.

“Well,” Jenna gave a little laugh as she dropped the ground beef into the pan. “At least we know being assigned to you was the right decision.”

She turned to look at Val and gave a warm smile. “You are just right for him.”

Val’s stomach did a little flip. Part of her was happy to hear that, but the other half knew that this wasn’t what she was seeking. She opened her mouth to protest but stopped when Jenna suddenly handed her plates.

“Set the table,” she said quietly. “Rem will be over soon.”

Val closed her mouth and raised a brow. Jenna turned back to the stove, clearly not wanting to talk about it, but it didn’t stop the felling of anxiousness from coming across.

Clearly, she wasn’t the only one with secrets.

* * *

“You’re late,” Rachel said and shut the door loudly.

Apollo frowned and glanced up to the clock on the wall.

“I’m right on time,” he huffed.

Rachel crossed the office floor and made her way to the other side of the desk.

“No, you’re about four days late,” she said. The corner of her mouth turned up a little.

He cringed a little inside. So he hadn’t come. It wasn’t like he wanted to spend a lot of time talking about the damn chip. There wasn’t much he could do. It was stuck, so whatever.

“It has to come out,” she said and leaned back in her chair.

“Why?” He knew it sounded more like a pout, but Apollo didn’t care.

“Because we don’t know what it’s doing in there,” she said and sat back upright. “You are special, and we need to know why.”

“So I can play guinea pig for you?” he spat out.

Immediately he regretted the words. She hadn’t done this to him. Rachel had done so much for them, even when he was being a total dick to her. His hand went to the little lump, and he frowned. She didn’t deserve his venom.

“What do I need to do?” he asked quietly.

“Talk with Val about this,” she said. “At some point I’m going to have to talk with the others. I’ve held off because it’s a…” She stared directly at him. “It’s a sensitive issue, but we can’t wait forever.”

He knew this. The longer they waited, the more trouble they would be in. And after everything Rachel had been through, he didn’t want to be the cause of more trouble for her.

As much as he didn’t want to show weakness, he was going to have to. “Maybe it’s messing with my nose.”

Rachel frowned and shook her head. “Doubtful with where it’s located,” she said and stared at him for a moment. “Why would you think that?”

Apollo sighed. She’d find out one way or another.

“Something is weird about the way Val smells,” he said finally.

Rachel watched him for a moment and then grinned. “She’s a Vestal then?”

“Yes,” he said and then shook his head. “No.”

The smile slid from her face as she watched him.

“Well, what is it?”

He looked down at his hands. This was the worst.

“Both.”

“I don’t understand,” she said and leaned forward. Apollo looked to her concerned face. “How can she be both?”

“She can’t,” he sighed. “But her smell changes.”

“That can’t be,” she said and stood. He watched as she paced the room, thinking. “We ran a full scan,” she mumbled to herself. “There’s no way it could be linked to the other.”

She stopped and stared at him. “We need to run another scan.”

He nodded and had suspected as much. Even Sol had mentioned it. Vestals just didn’t work that way, and they all knew it. Unless she was using something. But more and more he suspected that it would be too difficult to actually do that.

“Maybe we missed it,” she said and sat back at the desk, flipping through the file there. “We’ll do a segmented scan. If it’s there, we’ll see it.”

He had no clue what that meant, but if she thought it was the best option, then it was.

“First thing tomorrow,” she said. “And don’t fight me on this.”

He nodded. Whatever was going on needed to be addressed. Apollo stood to leave but stopped when she called to him. She glanced up from the papers.

“You know I’ve got to talk with Val about this,” she said and lowered her voice slightly. “About you.”

Apollo shook his head but stopped when she held up a hand.

“We’ll just talk about the chips,” she said. “She’s got to know why it’s so important.”

He didn’t feel much at ease with that answer, but she wasn’t going to take no considering what he had said.

Apollo nodded.

There was nothing left to do but prepare himself for hell.

* * *

Rem grinned through most of dinner, and this really only seemed to piss Jenna off more. If she didn’t know any better, Val would say they were in some sort of lovers’ quarrel but neither spoke like they were.

Jenna was easier to read. A ton of irritation with a bit of sexual tension.

Rem was another story. He was sly, and maybe because of this, she was never able to get a true reading from him. Still, it wasn’t often she ran into this situation, and it felt weird not knowing. Like walking in the dark.

“That was such a great dinner,” Rem said. He smiled and leaned back in his chair. A twinkle lit his eye as he watched Jenna clearing the plates, and when he stood to help, Val couldn’t help but be surprised he would offer. Most of the men seemed so full of themselves, but maybe it wasn’t like that for all of them.

He moved close to the mousy woman, and Jenna quickly scurried around the table. Rem gave a small laugh.

“Is there chocolate cake?” he asked.

Jenna turned to look at him and frowned. “No.”

He turned to Val and winked. “I bet Val would love to have some of your cake.”

From her seat, she could hear as Jenna slammed around the kitchen. She wasn’t quite sure what sort of game Rem was playing, but she hoped he would quit before Jenna started launching those plates at him.

Jenna stomped into the dining area and stood right in front of Rem. Anger radiated off of her.

“I’ve held up my end,” she huffed. “Time for you to go.”

Rem held his hands in surrender and walked to the door.

Val didn’t think she could be any more shocked unless Jenna picked him up and gave him the bum’s rush out the door. He paused just inside the frame. One arm up high on the frame, Rem leaned against it. Val had to give him points for perfecting his cool gene.

“Tomorrow?” he asked. The corner of his mouth twitched as he stared at her.

Jenna frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m busy.”

Rem gave a little chuckle and leaned in. “Don’t be like that. I was only teasing.”

Jenna huffed a little and then turned to Val with a bright smile.