We all turn to see him standing behind us with a soccer ball under one arm.

“I’ve just been waiting for you to say the word about coming off birth control,” he informs me with all his family looking on. “And no, most Reapers don't believe in marriage. But if you want to belong to me on paper too, just say the word, angel. I'll take you to the courthouse tomorrow.”

I'm so shocked, I don't know what to say. Especially with all these people staring at us, like we’re the TV stars.

But then, the doorbell rings, saving me from having to come up with an answer.

“I wonder who that could be?” Kyra says with a frown. “Everyone who RSVPed is already here, and dinner’s over.”

The answer to that question drops my heart to my feet.

Hades strides in, wearing head-to-toe black underneath his Reapers jacket. And trailing behind him?

Persy…the woman I vowed to help get away from her captor.

CHAPTER 19

Stephanie is here….

Stephanie, the woman Hades makes everyone call Persy, is here with her eyes cast downward like an imprisoned goddess.

And forget me showing too much cleavage. She’s wearing a bodycon mini dress. It barely covers her ass, and it halters around her neck so that her PROPERTY OF HADES tattoo is on full display.

“You didn't tell me you were coming here!” Griffin says. He and Waylon immediately go over to give Hades bro hugs as if she doesn’t exist.

But I see her. And the Fairgood wives see her too.

“Oh my God, did she really tattoo his name on her back?” I hear Nitra whisper to Kyra like hot gossip just walked into the room. “I mean, he’s a smoke show, for sure. But some of these girls are truly desperate.”

June just looks away from her, like the sight of Persy’s terrible tattoo hurts her eyes.

As accepting as they were of me, none of them even attempt to talk to Persy.

And neither do I. Not because I don’t want to, but because as soon as I tried to take one step toward her, Waylon catches my eyes and shakes his head no with a warning look.

I stay where I am while the guys talk to Hades and the women side-eye Persy. I’m beginning to see why she’s never asked anyone for help before. Everyone but me seems to like Hades and distrust the scantily-clad woman he brought with him.

I bide my time, hoping I would get an opportunity to talk to her when neither Hades or Waylon are looking.

But in the end, I don’t have to wait that long. When Hades turns his back to start pouring everyone fingers of some old Glendaver bourbon he received as a gift for a business deal, she teeters over to me on her high stilettos.