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58

Ares . . .

I can't take my eyes off him. He's laughing at a story that Gregory is dramatizing with his hands in the air. They are both shirtless, sitting in the sand with the beach in the background. The sea breeze moves my hair back. I'm sitting on a log close by, enjoying the view.

The sunset is here, and I don't know how we spent the whole day on the road when the beach was only two hours away. Well, actually, I do know. At every stop, we were joking and talking nonsense for a long time.

Apolo, Marco, and Yoshi are playing with a ball we bought along the way, running around in the sand like kids. Dani is walking along the shore, enjoying a moment of solitude and tranquility, I guess. Samy is sitting next to me on the log.

"Beautiful view, isn't it?" she asks.

"Yeah, it was worth the trip."

She offers me a metal cup.

"Would you like a drink?"

I take the cup and sip. The strong whiskey flavor burns my throat.

"Whiskey?" I give it back to her and watch her drink without even wrinkling her face.

"I guess hanging out with the guys has affected me. I picked up a lot of their likes and dislikes."

I swipe the back of my hand across my mouth, as if that will take the taste away.

"Do you have any other friends?"

"No, it's always been them." Her eyes travel to Gregory and Ares, and then to Marco and Apolo. "But I'm fine. They've been great to me."

"It must be nice knowing them since they were little," I comment, hoping she'll say more.

Samy laughs to her herself. "Oh, believe me, I know so many embarrassing stories! Although Claudia beats me, she knows way more than I do." I give her a look full of questions, and she seems to read my mind because she raises her hand in a sign of peace. "No, I don't know what's going on between her, Artemis, and Apolo either."

"Apolo?" I frown.

She opens her eyes wide, her expression indicating that she said something she shouldn't have.

"Hey." She tucks her hair behind her ear. "I mean. . . . Not that there's anything wrong, I just assumed. . . . Just forget it."

My mind travels back to that time in the hospital when I realized that Artemis had hit Apolo, and it all makes sense. My gaze falls on Dani, and my need to protect her wins out over everything.

"Does Apolo have something with Claudia?" She doesn't say anything, so I push her. "Samy, I don't like to pressure people, but Dani is my best friend, and I would do anything for her. I need to know if I should tell her to forget about Apolo."

"If I knew what was going on, I'd tell you. Really, Raquel. But I have no idea. Artemis is an indecipherable block of ice. Apolo is so honorable that he would never talk about a girl. And Ares, well, he's honest about everything except his brothers' stuff. They have an incredible sense of loyalty."

I believe her.

The few times I've tried to get information out of Ares about that situation have been a failure, including once when I tried to use sex as a weapon for informative extraction, and only ended up fucked and just as curious.

Ares joins the other guys to play ball as Gregory walks over to us.

"Tropical beauties!"

That brings a smile to my face. Gregory is so energetic and cheerful that he reminds me of Carlos. Samy offers him a drink.