Legacy of Olympus (In the Gods' Secret Service)

by Teri Gilbert

  “No. That takes more than one of us.” Jules’s disembodied voice came from the area where he’d been sitting.

  Quinn planted his massive hand on the spot where Jules’s head should be. His hand suddenly jerked to the side, as Jules struggled to twist himself free from Quinn’s grasp.

  Quinn plucked off the cap. Jules reappeared, shot a disgruntled look at Quinn, and then coolly smoothed his hair back into place.

  “I’m not about to let all the men go first,” Adara said as she shifted her attention away from Jules and latched onto Alec. She met his gaze with eyes the deepest blue he’d ever seen. At first, Alec thought she wore contacts, but he couldn’t detect a rim or the hint of a reflected lens. And her eyes had a similar intensity to Quinn’s, however, Quinn’s look was warm, where hers was ice cold. “I’m a distant relative of Oceanid, a muse, but I have Poseidon’s blood in me, too. And Ares. My specialties are sea animals, but I’m an excellent warrior.” Her gaze practically shouted out the challenge.

  Alec didn’t doubt for a second. There was an undeniable tenacity about her, from the rigid set of her back to the directness of her stare. She wasn’t a woman to mess with.

  Her chin tilted upward. “I can take on almost any man.”

  “Except me.” Quinn gave a wide smile.

  A frown creased the area between Adara’s thin brows. “Maybe. It would depend on the circumstances.”

  Quinn stretched his arms wide. “Any time, baby.”

  She shot him a patronizing look, then nodded toward the third man. “Go ahead, Adrian.”

  “There’s not much to tell. Since Ares is my ancestor, I’m pretty good in a fight.”

  “That’s an understatement. Even I wouldn’t want to take you on. You go for the throat and don’t let go.” Quinn wrapped both hands around his own neck and made choking noises.

  When all eyes turned in his direction, Alec cleared his throat. To measure up to the rest of them, he’d have to hit the gym more than the once or twice a week he’d managed in the past few years. He wasn’t overweight by any means, but he suspected he’d lose an arm wrestle with any of them, even Adara. “I’m a descendant of Apollo. As you saw, I can shoot a bow and arrow and have some ability to heal minor injuries.”

  Stephanos gave him a quizzical look, but Alec still wasn’t ready to buy that he’d brought someone back from the brink of death.

  “That’s it?” The woman arched a brow again. “Surely, Stephanos wouldn’t have brought you on if you couldn’t fight.”

  He thought of the man he’d stabbed. “I can fight.”

  “What’s your reason for being here?” Adrian gave him a pointed look that bordered on sullen.

  At first, Alec thought Adrian meant in the philosophical sense, but finally decided he meant it literally. “To stop Mallaki, just like you.”

  “Yes, but why are you involved?” Adara tilted her head.

  Alec’s jaw tightened. “I’ve seen the devastation Mallaki can wreak.”

  Jules studied him. “That’s not all of it. You’re holding something back.”

  “I agree.” Adara’s strange eyes flickered over him.

  Heat rushed to Alec’s face. “He’s kidnapped a woman I care about.”

  Quinn pounded the table in front of him, causing everything on top to jump, then clatter back to the surface. “The bastard. I say we take the man out.”

  The others murmured their agreement.

  That was the plan, wasn’t it? When you got down to it. Alec tamped down a surge of guilt. They were plotting to kill a man. But this was a man who’d killed innocents at Amalgamated and murdered countless others around the world in cold blood. A man who’d tried to kill him.

  A man who now held Eleni against her will.

  An old adage kept running through his mind—If you could go back in time and take out Hitler, wouldn’t you do it? No matter what the cost?

  “You’re worried about her.” Adara turned her perceptive gaze on him.

  I’ll be all right. An image of Eleni’s face, eyes teary, chin raised and slightly trembling, rose before him. “Yes.”

  “Men.” Adara scoffed and looked at each of them in turn. “You think women are all helpless and need protection.” Her upper lip curled. “You forget research has proven we can withstand more pain, have greater patience, and are infinitely more resilient than the average male.”

  “There you go. That’s the flaw in your logic.” Quinn crossed his arms, an enormous, self-satisfied smile on his handsome broad features. “We’re not average men.”

  Adara’s cheeks colored in either embarrassment or anger, but Alec suspected the latter. There was something going on between her and Quinn, something that had started long before today.

  He thought Stephanos would comment or step in, but he remained strangely quiet. Alec shifted in his chair. Everyone seemed to be looking to him. He cleared his throat. “I agree with Quinn.”

  Adara shot him an angry look.

  Alec held up his hands. “In regards to the fact we’re not average. Even if we didn’t possess any special abilities, the mere fact we’re willing to go up against Mallaki and his men puts us in a different category.”

  “Damn straight.” Quinn stared at Adara, as if waiting for a response, but she just swiveled and looked the other way.

  As they finished eating, Stephanos recounted what they knew about Mallaki’s involvement in severe weather across the world and showed them the footage of the aftermath. He then filled them in on the exact details of what he’d seen at Amalgamated.

  Jules grew paler, if that were possible. “If Mallaki’s as bad as all this, we have to stop him. There’s no time to waste.”

  Alec scrutinized each of them as they nodded in agreement. Eleni’s well being depended on them. They all had to be fully committed. “No one’s forcing you to help us.”

  “Stephanos is.” Quinn’s lips turned upward into a brief smirk.

  At hearing his name, Stephanos turned from his side conversation with Adrian and raised a brow.

  “I was just telling your weatherman how you’d kick my ass if I refused to accompany you.” Quinn crossed his meaty arms in front of his chest, flexing his inordinately large biceps on purpose.

  “Hell yeah.”

  Laughter bulleted around the small room at the American slang spoken with a heavy Greek accent.

  Once everyone quieted, Alec’s thoughts wandered. Who would win such a competition, Quinn or Stephanos? Alec suspected Quinn would respond with brawn, Stephanos with brains. With those combined qualities, they made a good pair. Add a slim Amazon, a pit bull of a warrior, and the invisible man into the mix and they had one helluva team.

  Alec surveyed the group as they huddled up like a football team awaiting the next play. He gritted his teeth. They’d arrived at this marina hours ago, and it felt like they were getting nowhere. The sun hung low in the sky, and thunderheads formed on the horizon. Late afternoon showers weren’t too far away.

  Tension crept along his temples, then settled north of there, tightening his scalp muscles, making his eyes hurt as he tried to study Stephanos’s ship The Argon. They had to get moving. He stepped closer to the others.

  “I tell you, the weakest point of entry into Mallaki’s estate is by water.” Stephanos strode to the front of The Argon and ran a loving hand down the teakwood bow of his vessel.

  “Why attack by sea?” Adrian made a face. “I mean, if he’s a descendant of Poseidon, isn’t that a little foolish?”

  “Our intel tells us he’s got men posted at all the mainland entrances. The ocean is our best hope.” Stephanos met each of their eyes in turn. “Don’t forget we have a pretty formidable team ourselves. With Alec going as Mallaki’s guest, we have the element of surprise.”

  “But...”

  Alec couldn’t hear Quinn’s retort.

  Adara shook her head, walked away from the bickering, and came to stand at his side. He thought he heard her mutter “men” under her breath. He
glanced at the group, still engaged in a lively debate. “Can we really go up against someone like Mallaki and expect to win?” he murmured.

  She gave him a stony stare. “We have no choice, do we?”

  “I’ve been curious. What are Stephanos’s abilities?”

  “No one knows.” She shot a look toward the man in question, then lowered her voice. “We heard he could control both the seas and earth, but something happened, years ago. No one from recent times has seen him use his power.”

  Recent times? Just how old was Stephanos?

  Adara got a faraway look. “You know, before forming Amalgamated, Stephanos was pretty famous. He practically lived on his ship. He even participated in major sailing competitions around the world, winning more than he lost.”

  “Why’d he give it up?”

  She shot him a sharp, patronizing look. “Why did we all give up our past lives?”

  “I didn’t. I won’t. Once we’re through here, I’m taking that job at CNN.” Even to his own ears, the words sounded hollow, almost desperate. Was he trying to convince her? Or himself?

  “Right.” She slanted her gaze downward, intently focused on getting the knot out of the end of the rope she held in her hands.

  When she met his gaze again, light danced in the depths of her frosty blue eyes. A sound escaped her, then another. “Sorry.”

  The ensuing titter of laughter from her caused the hair on his arms to rise into tiny spikes.

  She didn’t look sorry. In fact, she looked like she’d been on the receiving end of some hilarious joke.

  Adara darted away, got to mid-ship, then threw her head back and laughed, not a pleasant sound, rough around the edges with a bitter quality about it.

  Adrian walked up to Alec, a curious expression on his face. “What got her going? I haven’t seen her crack a smile, let alone laugh, since...” He glanced at Quinn. “Well, forever.”

  The muscles along Alec’s jaw and between his brows tensed. He bit out the words, half-afraid Adrian would find them as amusing as Adara. “I told her I fully intend to return to my job as meteorologist once we stop Mallaki.”

  “Oh.” The edges of Adrian’s lips twitched, and a gleam similar to Adara’s appeared in the depths of his dark eyes before he turned and walked away, shoulders shaking.

  “Just what the hell is so funny about that?” Alec shouted after him. He scowled and turned his back on the lot of them.

  About fifteen minutes or so later, Stephanos approached. “We’ll give you a night and a day. If we haven’t heard from you, we’ll come by ship.”

  “You’ll bring my bow and arrow.”

  Stephanos clapped a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll bring more than that.”

  “I hope you won’t need to come.”

  “But if we do, we’ll be ready.”

  The nervous tension in his chest released. With such a team, surely they couldn’t fail.

  Chapter 17

  Alec checked the address twice, then turned into the driveway. Two marble statues flanked an ornate wrought iron fence. From what he could remember about Greek mythology, one was of Zeus, king of the gods, the other, his wife, Hera, a formidable goddess in her own right.

  Anticipation churned low in his stomach as he stopped at the gatehouse. He was minutes away from seeing Eleni.

  He couldn’t manage a smile, so he pasted what he hoped would pass as a friendly expression on his face and gave his name to the gate attendant, another man with WWF biceps like Quinn.

  “We’ve been expecting you.”

  Of course they were. But they weren’t expecting the others by sea.

  “Hot day,” Alec commented as heat shimmered off the estate’s blacktop in waves.

  The man gave him an impatient look. “Master Mallaki is waiting.” He pressed a button, and the gate swung open.

  Alec shifted gears and sped the Porsche down the curved driveway. Stephanos had insisted on the high profile vehicle, stating Mallaki respected the flashier things in life. Like having his employees call him Master Mallaki? The first time, he’d thought it was a slip of the tongue. Obviously not the case. What kind of person was Mallaki to insist on that title? Arrogant, to be sure. Maybe that would prove to be his weakness.

  As Alec drove down the palm-lined driveway, he caught glimpses of the sun glinting off the Caribbean blue waters of the Atlantic. Orange trees dotted the lawn, and a light, citrus aroma filled his nostrils. One thing was certain; Mallaki had good taste. The setting was spectacular.

  Coming around the corner, he caught a glimpse of the mansion and squealed to a stop just off the semicircle in front of Mallaki’s estate. He had to keep his jaw clenched to keep it from dropping open. It was exactly like the one he’d seen in his vision.

  How could that be? Unless he truly possessed some psychic ability.

  Not knowing how long, or even if, he would be staying, Alec decided to leave his belongings locked in the trunk of the Porsche. As soon as he exited the car, the two armed men standing by took his cell phone, then led him to the front door, where he was checked out by another giant before being showed into a circular room with a domed ceiling. The first thing he noticed were the hallways, six in all, fanning out from the rotunda like spokes on a wheel. Four white, marble columns supported the structure. A series of floor to ceiling windows offered a panoramic view of the Atlantic.

  One of the windows had a jagged crack marring the center. Florida demanded everything built to hurricane specs, so what had happened. Earthquake? He moved over to the window, stood a couple inches from the glass and looked out. The ocean was less than thirty feet from the base of the building.

  Stephanos could be onto something. An attack by sea would be possible.

  His escort cleared his throat, and Alec turned to see a lean man coming toward them.

  “Mr. Androulakis.” The man continued forward, hand outstretched. “I’m Dorian Mallaki.”

  Mallaki was dressed in tan, cotton slacks and a short-sleeved white-shirt. The top buttons were undone, revealing a broad, muscular chest. The tiny scar Alec had noticed in the photograph seemed to be his only flaw.

  Alec accepted the handshake, then immediately wanted to wipe his palm off on his slacks.

  Mallaki’s white teeth flashed. “Let’s not waste time, Mr. Androulakis. We both know why you’re here.”

  Stephanos was wrong about one thing; Mallaki was about as charming as a piranha toying with a goldfish. “Where is she?”

  “You’ll see Eleni soon enough.”

  “The way I saw the people at Amalgamated?” Anger and fear flashed through him.

  “No. I assure you, she’s fine.” Mallaki indicated a hallway directly in front of them. “Come, I’ll show you to your room. I have houseguests in from out of town. You’ll meet some of them at dinner tonight. You can freshen up before we eat.”

  As they walked through the halls, the height of the ceilings and width of the floors made Alec feel small and insignificant. He was sure if he shouted, his voice would echo.

  They entered his suite, and Mallaki turned to him. “So, Mr. Androulakis, what do you think of my house?”

  “The only thing I can compare it to are pictures I’ve seen of Hearst Castle.”

  His reply seemed to satisfy Mallaki, whose dark eyes flashed with excitement. “That was my intent. Wait until you see the pool later on. It surpasses Hearst’s in every way.”

  Alec had to clamp his jaw tight. Mallaki did like to show off his wealth. Yes, Alec did like nice things, but all he really cared about was a place to call his own, one the creditors couldn’t take away. After that, all this stuff, the marble trim, gold-accented bathroom, the luxury bed, was expendable.

  But, he had to admit, he did like the tranquil view of the Atlantic stretched out before him. Several yachts and motorboats were tied to a pier out front, while a few fishermen were tying up their more practical craft to a neighboring dock. Judging from their work clothing, the temperature was still somewhere in the
mid seventies with low humidity. Non-threatening cumulous clouds hung low in the sky. He turned his back on the serene panorama and surveyed his room again. Were all the suites like this, or was Mallaki baiting him?

  Half an hour later, after a refreshing shower, he tested the doorknob. He half-expected to be locked in, but the door opened without resistance. As he walked out into the marble hallways, he found himself scanning the corridors for Eleni, but saw no sign of her. Where the hell was she?

  Eleni took a quivering breath and stepped back into the shadows, flattening herself against the cold marble wall. She’d used her power, briefly, to encourage Zander to look the other way while she snuck out of the room. All the houseguests had arrived and were so engrossed in what Mallaki had to say that they would never even notice her slipping in to view the presentation, she was sure of it. So she had followed silently in the direction everyone had gone.

  She peered around the doorway into a miniature theater that could accommodate around thirty people but was only about half full. The projector was mounted on the ceiling, and a white screen hung in the middle of a stage.

  Mallaki, front and center, held a remote in his hand. Her pulse quickened. Finally, she was on the verge of discovering what he was up to. There was a hush of anticipation as the lights dimmed and the presentation started. Eleni took the opportunity to slip in before everyone’s eyes adjusted to the lower light level.

  “This, ladies and gentlemen, is where all the money is.” Mallaki used a red laser pointer and outlined the United States Atlantic coastline. “Beachfront condos, vacation homes, billionaire’s estates.” The next image was a high-quality animated shot of the world. The camera zoomed in on the polar ice caps. “Scientists have been worried about the effect global warming has on these.” He tapped the ice caps with the red dot from the laser pointer. “After volumes of research, all the facts point to one thing. Get the temperature around them high enough, and they’ll melt. The result...” He paused for dramatic effect.