“Bubba said he’d never hurt you—that he’d always look out for you, no matter what, and now he’s dating your mother. How do you think that’ll end? He put his own selfishness above your best interest. Sooner or later, all things come to an end. He will hurt you. You both know that.”

Stepping away from Nick, she bit her lip seductively. “When this affair with your mother implodes … and it will … you won’t ever speak to him again. Because it’ll be too painful for your mother for you to have a relationship with him. So the only real father you’ve ever known will be ripped out of your life. Bubba knows that. You know that. Maybe it’s what he really wanted. Maybe he wanted you gone and just didn’t want to come out and say it.”

Those words slammed into Nick. Could there be any truth to that? Could Bubba truly want him out of his life?

Was it possible that he was nothing but a nuisance to the big guy?

“And what about Mark?” she asked. “Do you really think he enjoys playing babysitter to you all the time? They’re grown men, Nick. You’re just an annoying little kid. And you’re not even theirs. You’re nothing to them. Just a cling-on they can’t get rid of.”

He ground his teeth as those words stung him hard. She was right. He’d had those fears in the past, but hadn’t wanted to believe them.

Now …

“Then there’s your boss, Kyrian. The two-thousand-year-old Greek general who hid that truth from you of what he really was. Servant to the goddess Artemis. And don’t get me started on the secrets Acheron keeps. He’s not just a Dark-Hunter, Nick. Nor an Atlantean. He’s an ancient god. Yet he would die before he ever allowed you to know that about himself. And when the day comes and you find out the truth, you will become his worst enemy. He will condemn you to death for your knowledge. And that curse is what will set you down the path you can’t divert. That very path you’re trying so hard to run from.”

A shiver rolled down his spine as she confirmed something about the ancient Atlantean he’d long suspected. Something that Acheron had deflected with great skill anytime Nick had tried to ask about it.