CHAPTER 131: HADES’S PAYBACK

All eyes were fixed on Milo

"I think now, we can go ahead with the plan," he said, his tone turning serious as he addressed Hades.

"What plan?" Hades asked in a bored tone.

Milo raised an eyebrow, a clear signal he was about to drop a truth bomb. "To have the Miss Boss in your palm! If she even has the tiniest bit of love for you now, it seems we have achieved our goal for you to seduce her. Now, we need to drill out information from her and have her really dig into her mother so we know what she is hiding." He looked pleased, even proud. He practically glowed.

Hades leaned back in his chair, lips curling into that familiar half-snarl. He looked like he was two seconds away from hurling Milo through the glass windows. "I’m not doing any of that shit."

Milo blinked. Once. Twice. His yellow blazer seemed to flare like a warning light. "Eh?"

"You heard me." Hades’s voice was flat, careless, and dismissive, the kind of voice that tried too hard not to reveal the violent pulse ticking in his throat.

Milo looked serious like a man delivering holy truth. "Boss. This... this is our chance! Don’t you see it? She kissed you! Do you realize what that means? She lowered her defenses. She... she—" he gestured vaguely to the air, "—opened her heart!"

"Do you think I pay you to dress like a clown and prance around?" Hades cut him off coldly. His gaze sliced across Milo. "If you cannot get that information yourself, then maybe you should consider working for someone else from now on."

Silence crashed down. Even Gavin stopped smirking.

Milo stood frozen. Not only because Hades had mocked his fashion choices... though that stung, but because his boss had just betrayed the entire strategy they’d been building. The strategy Milo had spearheaded. This was an insane betrayal. Hadn’t this always been the plan? To use her? And now... Hades was saying no.

"And you." Hades turned his glare onto Gavin. "Focus on your job. Since you have a lot of free time, use it to fix your relationship with Suzy. I don’t want complications."

Gavin sat up like he’d been electrocuted. All eyes swiveled to him.

"Relationship?" Rowan asked first, brows shooting up. He looked from Gavin to Milo and back again, utterly lost. Even Clarisse’s usually composed face wore a question mark.

"Gavin has a crush on Suzy," Hades said casually, picking up his coffee as if he hadn’t just detonated another bomb.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Three voices screamed at once.

Rowan. Milo.

And obviously, Gavin. Very horrified.

Clarisse’s jaw fell open.

"You have a crush on Suzy!" Milo bellowed.

"Now hold on—" Gavin started, but his usual smooth composure was cracking. "I do NOT. That’s ridiculous. She’s not even my type. Why would I... Boss, clarify this madness."

Hades sipped his coffee. Ignored him.

Rowan shook his head in displeasure.

"So are you saying Boss is lying? But dude... that is so wrong of you. You know our guy Milo likes her. How can you think of having a thing with—"

"DO YOU WANT TO DIE?" Gavin cut Rowan off, utterly annoyed. "I said I don’t like her! Why would I like someone as insane as her?"

"How do you know she is insane?" Milo asked calmly.

"What the hell do you mean ’how do I know’? Look at her. She always behaves so..." he couldn’t find the words and just settled with an odd "lunatical..."

"’Lunatical’?" Rowan repeated, horrified. "You even invented a new word for her? You’re in deep, my friend."

"WHAT THE HELL!" Milo bellowed, pointing an accusing finger at him. "You, Gavin, never care about others. You don’t even look at them twice, but you’ve always been annoyed by her from the beginning. And now you’re saying she’s not your type, which means you’ve observed her to know she doesn’t suit your type and—"

"Shut up!" Gavin snapped, color rising in his usually pale face. He was annoyed.

"Enough!" Clarisse exploded again, raking a hand through her hair. She turned to Hades, exasperation radiating from every line of her face. "Boss. Please. Send me away on an errand. I can’t deal with this childish circus anymore. I’ll travel anywhere."

But Gavin wasn’t done. For once, he looked wronged. Truly wronged. "This is slander," he said icily. "And I won’t stand for it."

"Enough," Hades cut in, finally reclaiming his authority. His gaze swept the table. "I don’t care what nonsense you all come up with, but getting involved with Suzy is a bad idea. She’s a Wildfire. It won’t work. So cut the disgusting romance out of your heads—"

Just then, his phone rang.

Nobody moved. Except Gavin who looked like he still desperately wanted to argue that HE WAS NOT INVOLVED IN THIS LOVE SHIT!

But he was quiet, silently fuming as their eyes went to the phone.

It wasn’t unusual for the others to answer Hades calls for him, so Rowan reached for it casually. His brow furrowed. "It’s Miss Boss. I’m going to answer—"

A subtle shift swept over Hades. His head snapped up.

Rowan answered and, as usual, put the phone on speaker. He said nothing at first, a trait they had all developed due to security protocols.

Then her voice, hesitant and soft, filled the room. "H-Hades?"

In an instant, Hades snatched the phone from Rowan’s hand. His glare could have melted steel. "Why are you answering my calls?" he said as he stood up. He took the call off speaker and went to face the window, phone to his ear, one hand inside his pocket.

His next words into the phone were so soft they nearly didn’t sound like him. "I’m listening, little girl."

The room froze.

They had no idea what stunned them more: that he’d ripped the phone away like a dragon hoarding treasure, that he’d scolded Rowan for a perfectly normal task, or... or the tone he was using. Soft. Gentle. A tone they had never heard from him before.

The same man who had just told them to cut out all "disgusting romance thoughts"... was now speaking like that?

They all exchanged looks, silently screaming the same thing:

What the hell was happening to their boss?