Legacy of Olympus (In the Gods' Secret Service)
Page 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Title Page
LEGACY OF OLYMPUS
TERI GILBERT
SOUL MATE PUBLISHING
New York
Copyright
LEGACY OF OLYMPUS
Copyright©2011
TERI GILBERT
Cover Design by Rae Monet, Inc.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, business establishments, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the priority written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Published in the United States of America by
Soul Mate Publishing
P.O. Box 24
Macedon, New York, 14502
ISBN-13: 978-1-61935-004-5
ISBN-10: 1-61935-004-1
www.SoulMatePublishing.com
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
Dedication
To Eric,
my best friend, husband, and soul mate,
whose unwavering support has made
my dreams come true
Acknowledgements
To Lori Polito, for reading every book I’ve ever written and always remaining positive.
To Patti Bennett, for supporting my pursuits, no matter how outlandish.
To authors Dawn Ireland and Karin Shah, my critique partners and great friends, for the countless hours of critiquing.
To the wonderful members of CNYRW, who are the epitome of professionalism and friendship.
Chapter 1
Clamping a hand over his mouth and nose, Alec Andrews fought the urge to be sick.
The rank stench permeating Amalgamated Associates reminded Alec of the time he and his brother, Nick, double-dared each other to enter the Jenson’s slaughterhouse on a hot summer day. The putrid stench, the screaming of who-knew-what-animal, and the sight of the blood-soaked butcher had driven them to their knees, puking their guts out.
Alec glanced at Eleni, who stared at him from a few feet away with wide blue eyes. Her normally tanned skin had gone pale, and her white cocktail dress shifted around her slender calves as she stepped toward him. Something was seriously wrong here.
The office of Amalgamated Associates was quiet. Too quiet. No hum of voices, no tapping on keyboards, no sound of any kind. He rapidly swallowed the bile burning the back of his throat, beginning to regret the prime rib he’d had for dinner. Some first date.
“Alec?” Eleni’s soft question brought him back to the present.
“Why don’t you just wait outside,” he said, motioning toward the glass office doors behind them.
Placing a trembling hand over her mouth and nose, she shook her head, sending her wavy blond hair bobbing around her shoulders. “No. These people are the only family I have,” she said as she darted past him.
Dammit. He whipped around the corner after her, following the rust-colored trail that disappeared behind the receptionist’s plush room-divider. At Eleni’s anguished cry, the fine hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
Time slowed as he entered Amalgamated’s main office area, and the room tilted as his brain tried to make sense of the images in front of him.
Blood spattered the fronts of computer monitors, streaked across walls, and pooled beneath the bodies on the floor.
Eleni’s low moan sent a shockwave through him. This was real.
All these people were dead.
He took several deep breaths to settle himself, only to inhale the foul, nauseating stink.
When he was sure he wasn’t going to throw up, he grabbed a cell phone on a nearby desk, dialed 911, and was promptly put on hold. Dammit. He headed for the closest victim, a woman slumped backward in her computer chair. As he neared, he saw he was too late. He couldn’t tell which of the bloody gashes crisscrossing her abdomen had ended her life, but it was over.
“Please state the nature of your emergency.” The feminine, almost mechanical, voice penetrated his hazy, numb brain.
“At least eight people dead.” Alec spoke between quick, shallow breaths. “Eight-seventeen Summerville, third floor.” So much blood. “Send an ambulance.” So many bodies. From their gray color and lifeless eyes, it was too late for any of them. These people needed a coroner.
At Eleni’s low whimper, he threw the phone back on the desk and headed toward her. His heart tightened as he watched Eleni race from body to body, her face etched with agony and disbelief. “No” became a litany as she backed away from each corpse, her eyes filled with horror.
Fighting a fresh wave of nausea, he picked his way around several bodies on the floor, then past two more women, obviously caught off guard while working on their computers. One had a jagged hole in the center of her forehead, the other a series of bloody patches on the front of her blouse.
His skin crawled, and a cold ball settled in the pit of his stomach. What the hell had happened here?
By the time he reached Eleni, she was kneeling at the side of an olive-skinned man, sobs racking her shoulders and back. Every part of her seemed to be quaking. “No, oh, no, please, please don’t die. You can’t leave me.”
A lump tightened Alec’s throat. He hadn’t known Eleni long, but he’d felt a strong link to her from the day she’d started working for Channel 7 News. He hated seeing her hurt like this.
He scanned the man whose hand she held, realizing at once that he wasn’t going to make it. The man was alive, but growing weaker by the second, with brackish blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.
Eleni met his gaze, tears streaming down her face. “Stephanos. I–I–I...”
Alec dropped to one knee beside her and pressed his fingers along the base of the man’s cool throat. No pul
se. Another one dead. He was about to remove his hand when a wave of heat surged through him, rising from the pit of his stomach, racing through his chest, then down his arm. White light shot from his fingertips into the dead man, then hovered in a nebulous cloud over the body for a second or two. He snatched his hand away in shock, then turned it back and forth, studying each finger.
His hand appeared normal and undamaged. What the hell?
He glanced at Eleni, who was trying to staunch the blood oozing from Stephanos’s chest.
Alec curled and straightened his fingers several times. Odd. Must have been some sort of static electricity. As a weatherman, he’d come across many types of natural phenomena, but this...? He wiped his hand on his slacks and stood.
“Stephanos is dead, isn’t he?” Eleni’s teary blue eyes gazed up at him. “Just like everyone else.”
“Yes.” His voice sounded hollow.
She rose unsteadily to her feet, then turned and clutched his dress shirt. “We have to get out of here.”
He could feel her slender form trembling through the silky fabric. “No. We have to stay. I called 911.”
“You what? You don’t understand. They must have found out what we planned.” She gestured for him to follow her out the glass doors, then pointed at the security camera mounted on the ceiling. “I doubt they left this tape behind, but I’m sure the one showing us entering the building is there. If we stay, the police will pull us in for questioning, then they’ll know where we are.”
Alec grabbed her arms. “Who, Eleni? Who will come after us?” She was clearly more afraid of the people who’d killed her friends than being caught by the police.
“There’s no time to explain. But I will. I promise. The proof is at my apartment. We have to get out of here. Now. Please, Alec.”
Whatever it was, her crazy allegations, her heart-wrenching expression, her soft plea, or a combination of all three, she’d convinced him of one thing-–she was involved in whatever this was, and she believed they were in danger.
What was it his brother always said? When in doubt, go with the people you know. He followed Eleni out the door, gaining a sudden, unwelcome, appreciation for how Nick must feel when embarking on his top-secret missions.
“Dead.” Grief assailed Eleni as she and Alec stepped into the elevator heading for her apartment. She placed a steadying hand on the elevator’s cool, steel wall, not daring to look at Alec. “They’re all dead.” Bowing her head, she cradled her cheek in the crook of her arm, taking several rapid, shallow breaths. “Myles can’t be dead.” She closed her eyes, saw the bloodless hole in the center of her friend’s forehead, and fought the urge to be sick. “He always treated me like a kid sister rather than a co-worker. Lydia and Tad, the couple next to each other on the floor, were married just a few months ago. I was a bridesmaid.”
Alec’s hands rested on her shoulders, and she didn’t stop him when he patted her back and stroked her hair. “If we’d gotten there earlier, we might be dead, too.”
“You don’t understand. Stephanos, he, he saved me. And I was too late to save him.”
“Eleni.”
The compassion in Alec’s voice nearly undid her. Her friends had been murdered by an unseen enemy, but not an unknown one. There was only one man who could be responsible for the attack. A chill snaked down her spine. Dorian Mallaki. And he would pay.
Wiping her eyes, she faced Alec, and her heart skipped a beat. She’d never doubted why the news station had cast him as their prime-time meteorologist. His classic features and intelligent black eyes would naturally be appealing to their viewers. A handsome man, yes, yet there was something more to Alec, an underlying intensity that drew her in every time he was nearby.
Keeping an eye out for any unusual movements, she led Alec to her apartment door, and slipped the key into the lock.
“No.” Alec nudged her aside. “I’ll go first.”
Without waiting for her to reply, he entered her apartment. She remained on his heels, not about to let him wander around unsupervised.
Alec motioned her forward with an impatient gesture. “Coast is clear. Let’s see this proof of yours that will convince me not to go to the police.”
And if the video clip she had couldn’t convince him, she would. She’d have to. The police had no place in this battle. “Follow me.” She edged past Alec and headed for her bedroom, Stephanos’s directions echoing in her mind. Get money, find a safe place, make a plan.
The familiar scent of her favorite lilac perfume comforted her as she entered her roomy walk-in closet and headed for the personal safe, tucked behind a curtain of clothes.
She knelt, swiftly dialed the combination, and removed a stack of money and her flash drive.
Alec gave a low whistle. “That’s a lot of cash.”
“Five grand.” She straightened, then pivoted toward the opposite row of clothes. “Could you grab the pink and white shoebox for me? There.” She pointed to the one on the far right.
Alec’s expression was grim as he handed her the box.
“Thanks.” Their fingertips brushed. As always, heat seared her flesh at the point of contact. Shaking off the momentary spark of awareness, she removed a second bundle of cash and another flash drive from the box.
“Are you mixed up in something shady or illegal?”
A bubble of hysteria formed in her chest. Nothing could be further from the truth. “What we’re doing, what we were doing, at Amalgamated only helps people.”
“No one I know could afford an emergency stash like yours.” He threw her a pointed look. “They don’t need one, either.”
There was no answer he’d believe, so she shoved the money and flash drives into her black vinyl bag, already packed with a change of clothes and some toiletries.
A faint popping sound broke the strained silence.
She spun in Alec’s direction. He caught her by the waist, dragged her against his chest, then cupped his hand over her mouth. He leaned toward her, his breath fanning her ear. “Air pressure’s changed. Are you expecting anyone?”
Eleni shook her head, then heard the unmistakable sound of heavy footsteps on the hardwood floor.
“See, Roy? We’re wasting our time.”
Her breath hitched. The intruder was standing in the middle of her bedroom.
“We’ll see about that. You take the kitchen.”
More footsteps, followed by the methodical thunk of her dresser drawers being opened and closed. Eleni’s pulse quickened. What were the odds he’d skip the closet? Zero?
A floorboard creaked nearby. Images of her friends’ bloody bodies flashed into Eleni’s head. If these men were responsible...
Trembling, she pressed her face against Alec’s chest. If they died, Dorian Mallaki would win, and that was unacceptable. They would get out of this alive. Mallaki would pay for what he’d done.
Alec inched her through the rack of dresses until her back pressed flat against the closet wall. Planting both hands on either side of her, he closed in tight, shielding her. Not able to stop herself, Eleni molded her body to his and inhaled his masculine scent, drawing comfort from his strength, before resting her cheek against his shoulder. His lips brushed against her forehead.
Her body warmed and started humming in places she’d almost forgotten existed, except when she was around Alec. She was aroused by the man she’d been assigned to, the one whom she’d been told to build a relationship with, the man who could help save the world.
“Any info on the guy she was with?”
Eleni’s stomach turned. The man named Roy was talking about Alec.
“Nah. Got someone working on that. As for the chick, I hear she’s hot. Think we can do her first?”
She cringed, but didn’t make a sound.
“Focus on the job. We find her, and we waste her. Period.”
The hinge on the closet door let out its characteristic squeak. Eleni jumped.
Alec placed a steadying hand over her mouth, his mes
sage clear. They had to remain absolutely still.
As long as the men didn’t look below the clothing and see their legs...
A cell phone’s shrill ring jumpstarted her heart. She didn’t dare move, and knew from the way Alec’s muscles tensed, the noise had startled him, too.
“Uh-huh. Yep. Got it.” Roy moved away from the closet and called to his partner. “They want us out of here. They’re going with the back-up plan.”
Several nerve-wracking minutes passed after they heard the door close before Alec stepped away from her. Eleni immediately felt the loss. She wanted to be pressed against Alec’s solid male frame again, to feel his arms around her. To have him reassure her with his physical presence that everything would be okay.
“We have to go to the police.” Alec’s voice held no room for argument.
“No.” Her tone was as stubborn as Alec’s. “No police.” Dorian Mallaki owned people in every walk of life.
“Why are you being so unreasonable? You’re not safe here.” He exited the closet at a rapid pace, forcing Eleni to grab her black bag and dash after him.
She glanced around the room and let out a soft gasp. Not a drawer had been left ajar, not a piece of clothing was out of place. Her brass four-poster bed looked as freshly made as when she’d left it that morning. A chill came over her. “I’d never have known anyone was here.”