I tipped my head, the slightest indication of a shrug. Yes, I was mocking them.

Odin shook his head sadly. "Oh, dear."

Desire heated in my belly at those two little words.

"How'd it go?" Zeus asked.

"As planned." Thor ran through the details of our day, the things he'd seen around the beauty salon and the restaurant. It shocked me, just how closely he'd been monitoring our surroundings the entire time. Odin informed Thor the diamonds were a no-go, whatever that meant.

"And they still don't know anything about the bank," Zeus said. "The cops held a press conference. Your sisters were there."

"How did they seem?"

"How do you think they seemed? Pretty fucking upset," Zeus said. I caught his accusing gaze in the mirror. "You're their sister. You were taken as a hostage. You left."

"I had to."

"In the moment we took you, sure you had to. But don't act like you can't be back there now. This extra job with us is your game plan. You could say the word and call it off and be back there tonight."

"They'll have the message and the money now," I said. "They'll know I'm okay."

"A message and money," Zeus said-practically spat-"can never make up for a person."

His words were like a punch in the gut. "I had to leave," I said.

"There are other ways to leave."

"But this is how events happened," I snapped. I didn't know how to make him understand that if I hadn't left as I had, been broken out of their atmosphere as a hostage, I'd still be there. That they'd helped me.

"How events happened." Even through the rearview mirror, Zeus's eyes pierced into me. "Like you have no responsibility for it." Zeus looked away with disdain. "How convenient." His disdain felt sharp as a knife; Zeus seemed uniquely able to affect me like that.

"Maybe it is convenient," I snapped. "Maybe I'm a horrible person."

"Well now," Odin said. "I do believe Isis has taken responsibility for not taking responsibility, so maybe we can tone it down."

"It's in your power to put it all back together again, that's my point," Zeus said. "You should watch the press conference. When we get to Omaha, you can watch it for yourself."

"That'll be constructive," Thor said.

"She needs to see," Zeus said.

"I want to see." I crossed my arms over my chest. It would rip me apart a little bit, but it was only right.

"She rode an opportunity." Thor crossed his long, lanky legs. "She's exploiting an opportunity. You want to act like we don't do that every fucking day of the week?"

Zeus's eyes burned into mine through the rearview mirror, but hell if I'd look away. And soon enough, with an extra beam of disgust, he did, because of course, he was driving.

Even with him looking away, though, something was growing between us, and that something was dark and angular now. And strangely alive.

"Well, you'll be back soon," Zeus grumbled. "I was thinking we might be able to get away with just a day of surveillance. Just rip in and ride that bank."

"One day?" Odin barked. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"We rip in, just clean out the front," Zeus said. "It'll still be a robbery. We have the diamonds, there's no reason to go deep on this one."

"If we're gonna do it, let's do it right." Thor said.

"That is doing it right," Zeus growled. "Best to shake up our pattern. This one's in an urban area, too. Getting out'll be a cakewalk."

"Why'd you pick my bank?" I asked. "If it's easier to escape in an urban area?"

"We heard it was lax," Zeus said. "Somebody else would've knocked it over if we hadn't."

"One day. You're crazy," Odin said.

"Who's the expert here?" Zeus demanded. "It's my realm. Is it not my realm?"

"Let's survey and see," Odin said.

"No, let's do," Zeus growled.

Odin said, "Let's take this offline."

Meaning, fight about it not in front of me. I thought about my conversation with Thor. Zeus, itching to get me gone. I wondered, here, if I ought to go. For the good of the group. Was my presence forcing a rash robbery?

But the bottom line was, I couldn't go back. I needed all this as badly as they did.

Chapter Four.

We spent a number of hours in the van listening to the audiobook Odin had picked out for the road-evidently my badass Peter Pans favored sci fi tales. The fun space adventure story evened out the harsh edges.

We stopped at another lonely gas station where we picked out candy.

I grabbed a Kit Kat and took it up to the counter.

A voice from behind me: "Hey."

Zeus.

My heart skipped a beat. I turned to find him scowling at me, standing a bit too near, using his intimidating bulk-unfairly, I thought. "What?"

He plucked the Kit Kat bar from my fingers and looked at the code on the back of it. "Come here." He went back to the chocolate area and I followed. He put my candy bar back and picked one from the back of the display and examined the wrapper. "Gas candy can get really old." He handed it to me. "This one's fresher. Okay?" He said the okay like I was about to argue.

Was this an apology?

"Got it," I said softly, nodding slowly, like he was a wild animal and any loud reply or fast movement might spook him. "Thanks."

"And FYI, I wouldn't've shot you in the head. The idea was to separate you two."

I tried not to smile.

"What's so funny?"

"That you just said 'and FYI, I wouldn't have shot you in the head.' Not the kind of thing you hear every day. But it worked," I said. "The ol' bullet piercing the skull speech."

"Yup."

"I guess it was pretty awesome in hindsight. At the moment however..."

Just the corner of his lip tipped up, a half smile. Then he closed his eyes, a beat longer than a blink, and it was as if that blink washed the smile right off, letting the pain back in. He turned and sauntered to the counter.

Well, at least he didn't hate me. He just wanted me gone.

Not like I had a choice. After the Omaha job I'd go back to the farm, but I would leave again, as soon as possible. And on my own steam, too. Though when I tried to imagine what sort of life I might make, I couldn't think of one better than this-being with these lost Peter Pans with their road trips and the hotels. And the sex. And the connection, the sense of being on the edge of the whole world.

And being Isis.

Thor snoozed as soon as we were back on the road, splayed sideways, head on the door, legs on my lap, and I laid my hands on his legs, enjoying the solid feel of him. Our strange familiarity. His pant leg had bunched up just enough so that there was a gap between his cuff and the top of his sock, and I moved one of my hands there, enjoying the feel of his calf covered by pale, whispery-soft hairs.

It was strange to feel this sense of domination over his sleeping body, though in truth, I felt a bit like small prey, enjoying the body of a sleeping lion. One who might wake up and consume me.

Which I certainly wouldn't mind.

I squeezed my thighs together, thinking about the things he'd said over lunch. The anticipation of more sex with my unpredictable, hot bandits, it was killing me a little.

But not as much as the suspense, the stuff he wouldn't say. Some things that seem unpleasant in the telling can be quite enjoyable in the doing.

What things?

The audiobook droned on. Outer space politics. I'd long ago stopped keeping the names and alien races straight. How could I concentrate on it when every sign and mile marker we passed put us closer to the next hotel and more kinky sex? Also, Zeus had sort of apologized. Would he join in now? He seemed to be back in his cave up there, the sizzle of his gaze fixed firmly on the road. What did it mean? The anticipation was excruciating.

One time I looked over to find Thor awake, watching me, and I knew we were both thinking about the dirty things he'd said. A road trip had never made me feel quite so horny. Was it the vehicle's vibrations? The testosterone around me? Or really just Thor's talk? Thor shifted his legs, rubbing against my pelvis, which I tilted up ever so slightly. I didn't think he'd notice, but his eyes darkened. He raised his brows. An invitation-to what, lord knows-and he sat up, came to me, kissed me.

"Twenty minutes," Odin said. We were turning off.

"Patience is a virtue," Thor said.

I closed my eyes as he kissed my neck. And not twenty minutes later, we were walking into a new fancy suite in a different fancy hotel-the grandly-named Imperium. And as before, our elite top floor suite featured sweeping views, this time of Omaha, plus lots of marble, and a hot tub, which looked very inviting to my cold toes.

Zeus studied the room service menu.

Thor gave me a rather heated look.

Odin took off his glasses, a move that never failed to get me keyed up, and of course he knew this. He stripped off his black shirt, then sat and yanked off his punk-rock looking motorcycle boots.

"You guys have more costume changes than Britney Spears," I said.

"Did you just compare us to Britney Spears?" Odin asked. "Must we spank and fuck you before we even get into the hot tub?"

My stomach tightened. Yes, please, I thought. But then, my toes were a bit cold. Anyway, I could be spanked and fucked in the hot tub, right?

Isis liked to have her cake and eat it, too.

"Well, you said to always tell the truth of how I feel," I said. "So which look is real?"

Odin pushed down his pants, baring his sculpted body and half-hard cock. "All of them together are real. It's the whole gestalt." He went over and stuck a toe into the water. "Coming?"

"She doesn't want to get her hair mussed," Thor said to him, pulling off his own shirt.

"Is that so?" Odin stepped in, descended the steps, and sank into the water. "Even better. Come on, Isis."

I fingered the tie of my sundress bodice.

Zeus studied the menu with a fierce gaze, back on his policy of ignoring me.

A knock at the door. Zeus let in the room service waiter, who rolled in the cart of scotch and snacks they'd ordered at check-in.

This room service waiter, I'm happy to report, wasn't force-fed drugged champagne until he passed out. He simply parked the cart, took his tip, and turned to leave.

"Wait." Thor grabbed the vase of flowers from the cart and brought it to the waiter. "No flowers."

Yeah, buddy, or else Zeus will rip them up! I thought.

The waiter left. Thor bolted the door behind him, then he came back and poured and distributed drinks.

"Does anybody remember how the steaks are here?" Zeus asked. "Anyone else eating?" He picked up the phone to order.

I grabbed a handful of Chex mix. "I'm good for now."

"Me too. I'll eat later. Sooner or later," Thor added, then gazed at me, up and down. "Perhaps sooner and later. What do you think about that, Ice?"

I imagined his mouth on me. And Odin's hands. My libido went into throbbing overdrive. I wanted to say something witty, but all I could do was stand there trembling as he came up to me and undid the bow at the top of the bodice of my sundress.

Zeus proceeded to order enough food for a horse.

"So you guys aren't wary of room service now?" I asked.

Little crinkles appeared at the edges of Thor's blue eyes as he unlaced my dress little by little. "That won't be happening here." His confidence in this bordered on arrogance. "We don't get surprised twice in the same way." He unlaced another few inches.