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working with you.”
    “Hey, I’m not exactly jumping for joy right now. We don’t have a choice.”
    As Kyana stomped down the tunnel that led back to the river, Ryker met her stride for stride. “Tell them no. At least, tell them to put someone else on the job.”
    Great. The ferry was gone. She’d have to wait for it to return from toting Artemis out of the cave system. More time with Ryker. Yippee.
    “How ’bout you tell them to find a new tracer?”
    “Because I’m the best.”
    “Ditto.” Ryker grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him. “The faster we get this job done, the faster you can run and hide from me again. You should try to be a little more cooperative.”
    “And you should try cyanide.” She glared daggers at him, wishing they were real and at this moment making him bleed. “I never hid from you. I hide from no one .”
    She’d left because her assignment in the Everglades had been complete. Leaving Ryker behind had only been a bonus. Sure, she hadn’t gone out of her way to run into him since she’d thrown herself at him like a bitch in heat. But that wasn’t the point.
    “And,” she said, the need to ooze out the venom inside her nearly crippling her, “for the record, you’re not the best. You’re just a product of nepotism. If your daddy wasn’t the God of War, you wouldn’t even be here—”
    “Enough.” He straightened, suddenly looking too tall and broad for her comfort. Kyana found herself fascinated with the swirling silver in his eyes and the way the gray gave way to blood red. Ryker hissed. “Don’t underestimate me, Kyana.”
    “Back atcha, Ryker .”
    Charon’s ferry putt-putted over the black, glassy river, coming to a bouncy stop at the dock.
    Without touching Kyana, Ryker managed to swoop around her and board the ferry. “Come or don’t come, Kyana. But I have a job to do, and I’m not waiting for you to get your head out of your ass long enough to do it with me.”
    Zeus, she wanted to push him into the river and let the restless souls beneath the water have their way with him. However, if she kept lashing out at him, he’d know how much his presence bothered her. She’d be damned if she’d let him know how much baggage she still carried where he was concerned.
    Kyana stepped on the ferry, but she wasn’t about to let this go. “Go to Ares. When he realizes I’m the tracer assigned to work with you, he’ll pull you off duty, no questions asked.”
    Ares hated her kind, or maybe her in particular. She didn’t know for sure and didn’t care enough to ask. Normally, his contempt irritated her. Now, it might work in her favor.
    “It was Ares who assigned me to this duty when he found out who the tracer would be. He doesn’t trust you, remember? So I’m your babysitter, ready and willing to make sure you get what you’re after and leave the bad guys to me so we can figure out who all is involved in this mess.” Ryker raised his eyebrows. “Tell you what, you go to him and explain why you’re unwilling to work with me and maybe he’ll take pity on me and pull you from the job. While you’re at it, tell him why you find the idea of working with me so repulsive. He’d get a kick out of that.”
    “You want me to go to Daddy and tell him that I was desperate for a fuck and you weren’t game? It must be such a disappointment for Ares to know his son doesn’t follow in his womanizing shoes.”
    His jaw clenched. His eyes flashed red. Bingo. She’d found the nerve she’d been prodding for. Kyana put her hand on her hip, not so much because she wanted to look sassy, but because it put her fingers that much closer to the dagger hilt protruding from the back of her pants. Zeus, she wanted to hurt him. Badly. If he gave her just one reason, she’d have him flat on the ground and her dagger at his throat.
    “Just a fuck, huh? Didn’t feel like that to me when you were begging me to—”
    She wasn’t quite sure how her dagger ended up in