Read Legacy of Olympus (In the Gods' Secret Service) Online
Authors: Teri Gilbert
Tags: #Romance, #ebook
Legacy of Olympus (In the Gods' Secret Service) (4 page)
She managed a faint smile. Her head hurt like hell, but if Alec knew the truth, he’d insist on taking her to the hospital. “What time is it?”
“About four in the afternoon.”
“Oh.” Only twenty-four hours had passed since he’d picked her up for an early dinner and her whole world had been plunged into hell.
Alec tugged on the wrinkled dress pants and silk striped shirt from the night before, then ran a hand through his damp black hair, only succeeding in making it stick out in all directions again. He shot another glance at her, brows furrowed. “You’re pretty pale. I should take a look at your wound.”
“I’m fine.” Eleni brushed him off with a backhanded wave. Alec wasn’t ready for what he’d find. “I just have a minor headache.”
“Maybe you should see a doctor.”
At his words, she renewed her efforts at finding the medicine. After a few excruciating minutes of searching, her hand found the tiny plastic case. Two extra strength tablets nestled inside.
She closed her eyes in relief, and immediately saw her friends again.
She mentally counted the bodies. Eight.
Hope lit a small fire in her chest. She hadn’t seen Charissa. She repeated her mental scan of the office. No, Charissa hadn’t been there. Maybe Stephanos had sent her cousin on an errand. Or maybe she’d gone out for coffee or had to use the restroom. Or she might have discovered what happened and was even now hiding out, just like they were. Though she didn’t have much in common with her cousin, she had to find her, make sure she was all right. Together they could rebuild. And go after Dorian Mallaki.
“Did you hear what I said? Or is the ringing in your ears too loud?”
Eleni frowned. Alec stood less than a foot away. She
hadn’t
heard him approach. “I’ll be fine.” She wouldn’t admit his words were muffled.
His face grew dark again. “Amalgamated means...a sort of grouping.” His tone had an ominous quality.
She grabbed the glass of water on the nightstand and gulped down the aspirin.
The humming in her head increased. She didn’t want to call on her power again...not that she was sure anything had worked on Alec anyway. He was a stubborn man. “Stephanos wanted to use a name that would represent the unity of our cause.”
“Which is?” His voice was tight and hard.
“To keep certain parties from throwing our world into chaos.”
“That sounds a bit radical to me.” He raised his head, and his piercing gaze bored into hers. “How are you paid?”
That threw her for a second. “Like me, most of us who are active have day jobs. We get a small stipend. There’s not a lot of money, but getting rich isn’t our objective.” And it certainly wasn’t hers. Amalgamated was the only place she’d truly been accepted for who she was. “It’s sort of like the reserves. We’re called upon when we’re needed.”
“Where’s the money come from?”
“People from all over the world contribute.”
“Sounds to me like a terrorist organization.”
The suggestion was so absurd, a raw, painful laugh escaped her. “Why would you say that?”
“Oh, gee, I don’t know. Let’s recap the day, shall we?” An angry glint in his eyes, he ticked off each point on his fingers. “One, we go to your office, where everyone’s been murdered. Two, your apartment’s been ransacked and thugs threaten your well-being.”
Eleni felt the color drain from her face at the reminder of the lust she’d heard in the one man’s voice.
“Three...” Alec leaned closer, eyes flashing. “Someone tries to kill us by blowing up your car.”
Eleni dropped her head and stared at her clasped hands. “We must have gotten too close.”
“To what?”
She raised her chin, relieved to find she wasn’t quite as dizzy as she had been a few minutes ago. The aspirin was finally taking effect. How could she make Alec understand? “Do you know anything about the Greek gods?”
“Some.”
“All members of our organizations are descendants of...ancient Greeks who wielded great power and believed sincerely in the old gods.” She paused, unsure how far to go.
“You’re telling me Amalgamated is some sort of ethnic group?”
“In a way. One of our goals is to stop Dorian Mallaki from destroying the earth.” And he would succeed if she couldn’t convince Alec to help.
“I knew it.” His voice was a hair above a whisper. “My mom always warned me about pretty women.”
Swallowing the knot at the base of her throat, Eleni leaned over and dug into her purse again. Hurt feelings had no place in the bigger picture. They didn’t matter.
She
didn’t matter. What needed to be done was bigger than any single person.
But maybe, once Alec knew she was telling the truth, maybe then he would trust her.
Eleni tugged the flash drive out of her bag. She should have remembered this long before now. The concussion must have marred her thinking. She held the tiny unit up in the air. “I can prove everything.”
Alec stared at the flash drive and scoffed. Nothing could prove her story true. What Eleni proposed was not only totally insane, it was scientifically impossible.
“All I need is a computer.”
“Lucky for you, I brought mine in from the car.” He’d half-expected her to balk. Instead, her face brightened, and the tension eased from her body. “I also brought in your overnight bag.” He tossed it in her direction. “You might want to think about putting on something more.”
Alec ignored the hurt in Eleni’s eyes and headed for his briefcase. How was he expected to think when she was running around half-naked? Maybe that was her plan. Distract him enough and he wouldn’t determine the truth. Well, this so-called evidence was Eleni’s last chance. If she were lying, he’d call Andrew Sorento, the lawyer who’d helped Mike’s oldest son get out of a minor drug arrest. He’d accompanied Mike to the initial meeting, and Sorento had struck him as someone who truly wanted to help.
His cell phone went off. Alec debated answering it, but he couldn’t risk missing a call from work. He was in enough hot water as it was. Whatever happened to putting his career first?
He plucked the cell off the nightstand and flipped it open. Mike’s name came up on the caller I.D. Great, just great. No doubt Cheryl had blabbed, and now his best friend wanted to get in a few digs of his own.
“I guess you win the office pool.” Alec decided to beat Mike to the punch.
Eleni was watching him, a question in her eyes.
“Of course,” Mike replied, sounding annoyingly pleased with himself. “A person would have to be blind not to see the chemistry between you two. But that’s not why I called.”
“No?”
“I wish it were. Look, Alec, some men in suits are asking about you. And Eleni.” Mike’s voice grew serious. “They act like feds. I’ve been eavesdropping and heard bits and pieces of the conversation. Things blowing up, people getting killed? What have you gotten into, buddy? She a relative of Tony Soprano or something?”
“Or something.”
“So the stomach bug’s a cover?”
“Yeah.” Though he’d managed the lie once, he couldn’t repeat it again, not to Mike.
“Klingerman’s been with the men for over an hour. I’ve never seen him so upset. Something tells me you’re going to need to watch your back.”
“I will. Thanks for the heads up.”
A sense of unease crept up Alec’s spine. Who were those men with his boss? F.B.I.? C.I.A.? He shook his head in disgust. All of Eleni’s talk of secret organizations had sent his imagination into overdrive.
He snapped the phone closed and turned to Eleni, who had donned a bright floral cover-up. “That was Mike Schaum.”
“You mentioned an office pool. Is someone pregnant?”
He’d have laughed if the situation weren’t so grim. “No.”
“So what was the pool?”
“Who would sleep with you first.”
“Oh.” Color rose high on her cheeks.
He raked a hand through his hair. “Hell, maybe it was just to call in sick at the same time. I don’t know the details. Guess I’m the lucky guy.”
Hurt flashed in her eyes at his sarcastic tone, and he could have sworn he saw a glimmer of tears before she cleared her throat.
“That’s why Mike called? Good thing we haven’t slept together.”
An image of a stark-naked Eleni waiting to welcome him into her body popped into his head. He tried to shove this picture aside, but it wasn’t easy. He’d spent many a night wondering what it would be like to make love to Eleni.
He cleared his throat. “Mike didn’t call about, uh, that. He wanted to warn me. Some men are asking questions about us.”
“Who?”
“Mike didn’t know, but I don’t like it.” He especially didn’t like the fact they were talking to his boss. He had an impeccable work record and was in the final stages of landing a job at CNN. Now everything he cared about was in jeopardy.
A sense that his life was spiraling out of control sent a corkscrew of panic zipping along his spine. All his carefully crafted plans were threatening to unravel. He faced Eleni. “Let’s see what’s on this drive of yours.”
Five minutes later, Alec adjusted his laptop on the center of the bed so both he and Eleni could clearly see the picture, then settled back against the headrest.
Eleni’s shoulder brushed his, sending a jumble of mixed emotions through him.
Anger, lust, frustration, and the need to protect coalesced into a confused mass in the pit of his stomach. Even the light, flowery scent of her hair proved distracting.
Biting back another curse, he started the video clip. The sound of whipping wind preceded the actual storm footage. From the speed and direction of the horizontal rain, he suspected a hurricane, or typhoon, depending on where they’d been taping.
“Hurricane Henry.” A man’s heavily accented voice narrated over the devastating footage.
“Stephanos put this together.” A shadow crossed Eleni’s face, as if saying his name out loud caused her great pain.
He fought the urge to take her hand and instead kept his attention on the video as the narration continued. Any kind of physical contact at this point would lead to something he couldn’t afford.
“This footage was taken two years ago, in a summer marked by severe storms.” The camera jerked several times as the operator battled the gale-force winds.
“Twenty-three dead and millions of dollars in damage.”
There was a brief pause, then another storm transitioned onto the screen. “Typhoon Dan struck fourteen months ago off the southeast coast of China. The figures put out by the government indicate three-hundred-fifty dead. Our sources there estimate the fatalities at closer to three thousand.”
Alec scanned the disturbing images. The roar of the surf had to have been deafening to those filming. And the wind had to be a hundred-plus miles per hour. How were they even standing?
A retaining wall gave way, and the South China Sea flooded the nearby area. Boats tipped on their sides and started sinking. Dots of water beaded on the camera lens. The filmmakers could have made a pretty penny selling their footage. But he’d never seen this before. He was sure of it.
The camera panned, showing a wide swath of broken palm trees. Overturned cars, boats, bikes, and debris that had probably once been dwellings were strewn about, no rhyme nor reason to where they lay.
“Nauru, after a tsunami struck. The people here had no warning. The official report states the fifty-foot wave was the result of an underground earthquake, but seismographs in the neighboring countries of Australia and Papua New Guinea picked up no unusual activity.”
Alec leaned closer. Were those
bodies
floating in the muddied water?
“Life lost, an estimated ten thousand, maybe more. They don’t have a census here. The entire village of Nibok gone. The over-water bungalows, the tourist hotels, gone. Nothing left, except a loss of nearly one billion dollars.”
The picture changed again, and enormous icebergs rose from azure water. “We’re at the South Pole.” The camera rocked, confirming they were on a ship of some kind, then trained on a wall of ice. A chunk of glacier sheared off the side, followed immediately by a loud cracking noise. White thunder. It had to be deafening to the sound crew. No wonder they needed the voice-over. “There’s been a lot of talk about the effects of global warming. That changes in climate, extreme storms, severe draughts are occurring worldwide. Here, we have undeniable proof the polar ice-caps are melting.”
