by Teri Gilbert
“How can you be sure? Do you get a visual image of the typhoon striking land?”
He dragged his gaze from the screen, faced her, then blew out an exasperated breath. “Eleni...we have bigger things to worry about than some typhoon striking thousands of miles away.”
“Do you see this in your mind?” The rigid set of her jaw told him he might as well answer her and get this over with.
“No. I analyze the data in front of me.”
“But so did the National Weather Service.”
Dammit, she was stubborn. “And your point?”
“The descendants of Apollo have many gifts. Archery, healing, and sometimes, the ability to see into the future.”
A muscle in his face tightened. “You think I’m accurate about the weather because I’m psychic?”
She gave a small shake of her head. “That’s not the right word.”
Eleni’s assumptions were crazy. But...hadn’t he had a flash of insight, an...intuition that the storm would veer? Given the facts alone, if he had ignored what his gut was telling him, would he have come to the same conclusion as the other meteorologists? “Say I believe you. Then why don’t I win when I play the lottery? What about the car accident I had last year?” The drunk teen had come out of nowhere, slamming into the passenger side of his car. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt. “Shouldn’t I have been able to prevent it?”
“Stephanos would probably claim you’re too narrow-minded.”
Stephanos this, Stephanos that. Enough already. The man was six feet under by now. “How would you explain it?”
Her brow furrowed. “I’m not sure. If I had to pick, I’d say you’re too busy to notice, too focused on your job to allow anyone, or anything, to interfere.”
“I let you interfere, didn’t I?” He felt his temper flare. “Oh, right, you were assigned to interfere. Were you sent to seduce me, too?”
She shook her head. “To get to know you, yes. Persuade you to help us, yes. Sleep with you, no.”
“So you lied.” He faced her and noted the trail of tears, the bluish tinge beneath her eyes. But dammit, he deserved answers.
“I was going to sleep with you, Alec. After we met with Stephanos. Not because I’d been ordered to, but because I wanted to.” Her gaze flickered over his features.
“Why?”
She gave a self-deprecating smile. “I’m weak, like my mother.” Her brows furrowed slightly. “Looking back, I realize she never understood that the reason men flocked to her was her power. She only saw the attention men paid to her and decided they could give her what she wanted. I don’t want to be like that.”
“So you consider sex with me a sign of weakness?”
She seemed to consider that. “In a way. After getting to know you...I wanted more.”
“And that made you feel like your mother?”
“She used men.”
“What about your father?”
“He took off shortly after I was born.” She paused. “I’ve never quite figured out why my mom went through with the pregnancy. Maybe so my father would marry her.”
“You and your mother didn’t get along?” He shouldn’t care about the relationship Eleni had with her mother. But he hated the pain in her voice and wanted to know if the years had healed old wounds.
“We got along all right, until I was fifteen. When she slept with my boyfriend.”
Shock made him speechless. He pictured a teenaged Eleni finding out two people she’d trusted with her love had betrayed her. His chest tightened.
“She assured me she had a good reason when I caught them showering together afterward.” Her voice broke.
Of course it still hurt. It was her mother, not some best friend from high school. And, if Eleni’s boyfriend was fifteen at the time, her mother could have been arrested as well.
“She thought I was silly and naïve and wanted me to understand that all men will eventually break your heart. She figured, this way, I’d find out the truth with someone who didn’t have any real designs on my boyfriend. Mom thought it would have been far worse if some other girl had gone after Steve.”
Eleni lowered her head and picked at a stray thread on the comforter. “Turns out she lied. I found out later she continued to see Steve behind my back for months.”
She let out a trembling sigh. “My mother, oh, she knew how to use her beauty to get what she wanted. She devoured men, laughed about how she could twist them around her little finger, get them to do anything, give her anything she wanted.” She gave a wry smile through a sheen of tears. “And she couldn’t understand that I wasn’t like her.”
Wasn’t she? But she claimed the reason for her deceit was to save the world.
“My mother was a consumer. I never wanted to use you, Alec.”
He gave a harsh laugh. “Why should I believe you?”
“We could make love now.”
Zero to ninety in under a minute. He blew out a frustrated breath and took her by the shoulders. “You’re a beautiful woman, Eleni. But that’s not what I’m looking for.”
“What are you looking for?”
“No one.”
“Aren’t you lonely?” She ran a light finger down his arm.
He wasn’t about to pour out his life story to her, let alone show her how much her touch affected him. “I’ve got my career.” Which had now been tarnished, thanks to her. “You say you don’t want to be like your mother and use people, but you used me, didn’t you? I was your mark. Your own damn video proves it.”
Her eyes widened, and her pupils grew large before she shot up from the bed and strode away, back rigid.
A wave of remorse swept through him and curdled in his stomach. He’d never bullied a woman before. He fought the urge to gather her in his arms, to kiss away the pain he’d caused, to take her up on her offer to sleep together and ease the ache in his loins. But he knew making love to her would only make the need worse. Then, he’d know what it felt like to be inside her. Now he could only guess.
He turned back to the computer and hit play again. The idea that people, not the increase of pollutants in the atmosphere, were behind the severe weather was absolutely ludicrous.
They should turn themselves in. It was the advice he’d give any friend. But for some odd reason, he was reluctant to do so. Maybe Amalgamated was similar to a cult, and Eleni was merely a misguided member, following a charismatic leader.
“Why did you join Amalgamated?”
When she didn’t answer right away, he glanced at the ugly, overstuffed chair where Eleni sat with her eyes closed. Not a word since his harsh comments. He suspected she was trying to figure out another way to convince him of her lies.
When she finally spoke, her voice was thick with emotion. “Every job I’ve ever had ended the same way. Either I refused to sleep with my supervisor or the women in the office resented me because I’m beautiful. I’d get bad reviews, and no one wanted to be friends with me. At Amalgamated, I was accepted for who I am. No one hit on me. No one cared about my looks.” She shifted to a sitting position. “For the first time in my life, I was free to be myself.”
He opened his mouth to argue that the station wasn’t like her other employers, but hadn’t he heard the nasty gossip anytime she wasn’t around? Both men and women seemed to have it in for her. Men, because she wouldn’t look at them twice, and women, because the men turned into idiots anytime Eleni was around. He and Mike were the only two who seemed to see her for who she really was. Or thought she was.
“How did you get hooked up with Stephanos?” The man’s name almost stuck in his throat, but he had to know the extent of their relationship.
Tears pooled in her eyes. “Stephanos saved me.”
She’d used those exact words earlier. They fit with his impression of him as a cult leader. “What do you mean by that?”
“Like I said, I couldn’t keep a job. My bills piled up, and I couldn’t make ends meet. I got desperate.” Her eyes pleaded with him
. “If that’s how people viewed me, I couldn’t change their minds, so I decided, why not use my looks to survive?”
Alec swallowed. He didn’t like where this was going.
“I decided to join a high-class escort service. Stephanos found me, talked me out of there. He showed me another way at Amalgamated. There’s not much money, but I found my family.” Her chin crumpled. “And yesterday I lost them.”
Alec waited until the brief storm passed, then asked the question burning into his mind. “Did Stephanos find you before, or after, your first date?”
“Before. I asked him how his timing was so perfect, and he said they’d been watching me for a while. He showed up on my door at that precise moment because Myles had a premonition I was in trouble.”
“And...?”
“Stephanos convinced me not to go.”
“Did he ask for repayment of any kind?”
Giving a knowing smile, Eleni shook her head. “Stephanos is, was, a true gentleman. So is everyone at Amalgamated. They made me feel at home. They made me feel like one of them. They made me feel...normal.”
The silence stretched on until she spoke again. “I suppose you think poorly of me.”
“You were about to lose everything, your apartment, your car. You had no way to support yourself.” Something he could relate to all too well. “I understand.”
Eleni smiled and closed her eyes.
Alec returned his attention to the computer and opened the flash drive. He found several additional files and clicked on one labeled genealogy.
The screen filled with rectangular boxes of names connected by lines, seventy-five pages altogether. He clicked on edit, then find, and typed in his name. Nothing. He gave a heavy sigh and turned toward Eleni. “What did you say my surname was?”
“Androulakis.”
“Spell it, please.”
He typed in each letter as she said it, then hit find again. The cursor leapt and rested on his highlighted name. Stunned, he could only stare. They had his entire family tree, parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, cousins he never knew he had. His throat tightened at the word deceased beneath his dad’s name. After almost twenty years, it shouldn’t hurt so much.
When he found his brother’s name, Alec’s blood froze. Nick’s name was also marked in yellow. “Why’s my brother highlighted?”
Eleni extracted herself from the chair and came to stand over his shoulder. “I haven’t seen this. My guess is they suspect he’s got some hidden ability that hasn’t surfaced yet.”
Rage made his insides shake. “You people dragged my immediate family into this?” He snatched up his cell phone, punched a button. Unlike hers, his family wasn’t expendable. “Hi, Mom.”
“Alec, what a nice surprise. How are you?”
Oh, no. From the lilt in her voice, she was in the mood for a long conversation. When was the last time he’d called her? Two weeks, a month? Surely it wasn’t any longer than that.
“Frankly, I could be better.”
“Oh, what’s wrong, dear? Did you decide not to apply to CNN?”
Apply? He’d done that months ago. Had it been that long since he’d talked to her? He made a silent promise to call her more often. His dad would have expected more from him. “No, I got the job.”
“Congratulations. They’re lucky to have you.”
“Look, Mom, I don’t have much time.” He cringed at the brusqueness of his tone. “I need you to go to Aunt May’s. Today.” May wasn’t really their aunt. No, more of a close family friend, who lived in the middle of freaking nowhere. She’d be nearly impossible to link to him.
“But I have line-dancing tomorrow, and bridge is at my house the next day. Why do you want me to go? Did you hear from May? Is something wrong?”
Yes. And he had a strong feeling nothing would be right again. “Mom, do you trust me?”
“Of course I do. But what does that—”
“I need you to pack your things. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going.”
“Honey, you’re not making any sense.”
“What’s Aunt May’s home phone?”
He crossed the room and took the pad of paper Eleni handed him, then jotted down the number. “I’ll call you. Don’t call me. I’ll be in touch when I can.”
“I’ll do as you ask, Alec, but I have to say you’re scaring me.”
Was he overreacting? No. He couldn’t take any chances. The killers could go after his family to get to him.
“Did Dad’s family change their last name when they got to this country?”
“What an odd question, Alec, but yes. It used to be Androulakis. His great-great grandfather shortened it to Andrews when he arrived in the country. Why do you ask?”
“Just curious. Mom, call Nick and tell him where you’ll be and to call me when he gets the chance.” A fist closed around his heart. Though they hadn’t been close in recent years, he missed his brother.
“I don’t know where Nick is. You know that job of his takes him all over the world.”
A stab of fear quickened his pulse. But if his mom didn’t know where his brother was, chances were the killers couldn’t find him either. Nick would be all right. He had to be.
Alec told his mom he loved her, then hung up. She would have tried to continue the conversation, and he couldn’t afford the time. Not now. Later, when this was over, he’d talk to her and find out more about his dad’s family, although Eleni seemed to know more than all of them put together.
Eleni scrubbed her eyes and leaned back against the headboard. She adjusted the computer on her lap, then read the email again. She’d used the backup email account they’d set up in the event Mallaki caught on to them. Finally a bit of luck.
Eleni, if you’re out there, I made it. I went out for coffee at the time of the attack. I’m still in shock. I can’t believe what happened to our family. Please get back to me a.s.a.p. We have to meet. I’m staying at The Strathallen.
Love and kisses,
Charissa
A grim smile tugged at Eleni’s lips. Some things never changed. While she hid out in a nondescript, rundown, fleabag of a motel, Charissa had chosen one of Rochester’s premiere hotels.
Eleni zipped off a reply, stating she and Alec would meet Charissa in her room within the hour. They could take some side streets and walk the couple blocks to her hotel.
She was about to sign off when the ghost-like text indicating a new email floated onto the screen.
Eleni, if you receive this message...
That was fast. Her cousin must have been waiting for a response.
Eleni clicked on the email and read it. Her heartbeat kicked into double-time, then she read it again. It couldn’t be. But every fiber of her being said it was true, no matter how unbelievable.
She turned to Alec. He sat in the worn chair next to the bed, head back, eyes closed. From the uneven rise and fall of his chest, she knew he wasn’t sleeping.
“You’re assuming I’m lying, Alec. You haven’t considered, what if I’m not?”
He opened one eye. “Right.” He closed his eye and shifted slightly away from her.
Computer tucked beneath her arm, Eleni scooted across the bed, then swung around so she sat inches from him. One of her legs brushed his, sending the familiar current of awareness spiraling through her.
Alec shifted, frowned, then glared at her.
Did he feel the electricity, too?
“Can’t a man get some shut-eye?” His eyes were red, and harsh lines of fatigue creased the edge of his mouth. She wanted to smooth her hands along them, tell Alec everything would all right. But she couldn’t. Not until he believed her. Then, only then, maybe they’d stand a chance.
With a tap of her finger, she maximized weather.com and pointed at the computer screen. “I want you to look at the typhoon update.”
Alec rose from the chair, an irritated expression on his face. “Can’t you leave it alone?”
“Not if you’re still thinki
ng of going to the police. Now more than ever, I, we, need you.” Freudian slip, Eleni? But she did need Alec, and more than to go up against Mallaki. She needed his strength, his comfort, and his power. To gain those things, she had to make him trust her.
He looked upward, briefly, then dropped onto the bed next to her.
Wordlessly, she handed him the computer, then held her breath as he stared at the screen.
Several long seconds later, he threw her an exasperated glance.
“So? I’m supposed to believe I have special powers because a storm went the way I predicted? I’m a meteorologist. That’s my job.”
She’d been prepared for this reaction. She reached across his lap and pulled up the other window, this one with her most recent email. Heart pounding, she watched Alec’s face as he read the note. A crease formed between his eyes when he got to the part she knew would shock the hell out of him.
“Even if you don’t believe me about your ability to see the future, you’ll have to trust in your other gifts.” She met his stunned gaze with a triumphant smile. “Stephanos is alive.”
Chapter 5
An image of Stephanos’s lifeless body flashed into Alec’s mind. “That’s not possible.” Dammit, he’d placed his hands on the man’s carotid artery. Nothing had moved beneath his fingers. Not even a faint fluttering. “I’m sorry, Eleni, your friend had no pulse. This must be a hoax.”
“Stephanos thought you’d have the ability to heal.”
Was that a hint of admiration lurking in her wide blue eyes?
He took a deep breath, struggling to control his rising anger. Was Eleni completely deranged? Had grief taken hold of her senses? “First you want me to believe I can see the future...”
“Not in the psychic sense, but you are highly intuitive.”
“Now you want me to believe I can bring the dead back to life?”
“I didn’t want to show you this, not until I was sure you were ready.” She slipped one arm out of her sleeve and tugged it downward, exposing a thin white streak across her upper chest. “I didn’t have a scar here before.” She gave him a wry smile. “And I’ve never had breast work. This appeared after my car exploded.”
