In a few more minutes, he felt better, though worry still pulsed along his veins. He’d done all he could over the years to teach his nephews the importance of fulfilling this task for the Goddess. Surely it couldn’t be so difficult now there were so many modern technologies at their fingertips. Not to mention the special abilities the Goddess had gifted them with.
He straightened in his chair, setting his jaw. They would do this job, by the Goddess. He would make certain of it.
He glared at the photo on the front of his desk, an old black and white picture of a young man. “You fool, Iphis. Look what you have brought us to. The Goddess would kill you all over if She knew what you’d done. All these years later, and I am still cleaning up your mess.”
He reached for the phone on the corner of his desk.
These boys would come to heel, and they would do it now.
Several hours later, Aristotle glared down his nose at the younger Tassos men seated in front of him. “I’m depending on you two to do this job properly.”
“Of course, Uncle Ari.”
He studied Baltasar for a long moment. His nephew sat erect in the chair, fully at attention, his dark gaze focused on Aristotle’s face. Unlike his older cousin, Georgios, who lounged in the next chair, looked far more relaxed. However, his gaze was also focused on his great-uncle Ari. His talents were far different from Baltasar’s--he was currently the best tracker in the entire Tassos family. Georgios had more technological abilities, as well as a very handy talent with locks, even better than his late cousin Nestor.
“I know your cousins understand the importance of finding and eliminating this Medusa,” he said after a minute. “But I am going to trust you two to lead the hunting party into Pennsylvania. While the rest scour the houses, I expect you will find leads to her present location. If you can find her nephew, use him. Or her mother. I don’t care how, but we must kill her. And we need that amulet.” His mouth pinched. “Do not disappoint me.” He did not add, “as your cousin Kallan did.” Everyone in the family knew of his treachery, and he was now as hated as the vile monster Medusa.
He waited while they made all the appropriate noises of agreement, then dismissed them. After they’d left the room, he sank into his chair and reached for the pill bottle again. His heart raced too fast.
His nephews had to find her this time and kill her. The longer the Medusa lived, the more likely it was someone in her family would discover the secret he kept about his own family, a secret that would cause the Goddess to sever all ties to them, perhaps even wipe them out. He couldn’t allow such a thing.
He reached for the phone. “I am ready for him.” He glanced at a sheet of paper on his desk, then looked up when he heard footsteps. “Ah, Elek, come in. Have a seat.”
The younger man who entered moved purposefully across the room, easing onto the chair Aristotle had indicated. “I came as quickly as I could, Great-uncle.”
Aristotle smiled a little and sat back in his own seat. “Thank you.” He studied the other man for a few moments. “I don’t believe I can stress enough how vitally necessary it is for us to eliminate this monster,” he said finally. “The Goddess is still very angry about your cousin’s betrayal with the last Medusa. Our failure thus far to kill this monster does not help our cause.”
The younger man’s somber expression didn’t alter. “I understand, Great-uncle Ari.”
Aristotle shook his head. “I’m not certain you do, but I believe you grasp the urgency better than your cousins, which is why I have chosen you for further training and to more closely assist me.”
Elek lifted one eyebrow. “Assist you with what, if I may ask? I thought you wanted me involved in the hunt.”
“I am thinking more of you coordinating the search. Your skills will be useful to that end.”
A hint of disappointment flashed over the younger man’s face, but then he nodded once. “As you wish.”
Just as he’d thought--moldable.
“I want you to collect as much information about this monster as you can, including her extended family. Also, this man who killed your cousin. He clearly knows about us, and I want to know about him, too. Everything.” Aristotle clenched his fingers tight, tighter. “If he is so willing to kill one of ours, we must be willing to kill him to get to the Medusa.”
Aristotle intended to make sure they got this Medusa, one way or another. One man would not stand in their way.
Philomena sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace, staring blindly into the low flames.
She’d been cooped up here for four days already, and it was driving her crazy. She wondered how her cousin Andi had managed weeks in hiding from the Harvesters after they’d found her eight years ago. While she wondered it, she sent off a quick email to Andi to ask. Just for a distraction.
Not that Ryder had failed to distract her. He had kept her much too distracted to think of the trouble they’d left behind, and she’d let him. She ached in places she’d never imagined aching. Still, there were moments when her head wasn’t clouded with desire and the danger to her family returned the forefront of her thoughts.
Behind her, his heavy footsteps sounded on the wood floor as he paced. She resisted the need to turn around to look. He was on the phone again, speaking too low for her to hear.
He’d had several of those calls the past few days, and she suspected they had to do with her.
She scowled into the fire. Of course they did. What else could it be?
His footsteps drew nearer, and she forced herself to clear her expression. “How would you like a day trip tomorrow?” The cushion beside her sank under his weight.
She shot him a wary glance. “A day trip? Like getting out on work release for good behavior?”
One corner of his mouth turned up. “It’s not your bad behavior keeping us here, Mena.” He touched her knee, lightly. “I was thinking you’ve got to be stir crazy by now, so we should get out for a while.”
She narrowed her eyes to study him, trying to figure out if this was a trap of some sort.
His smile widened. “No strings, I promise.”
“Where?”
“Philly.”
She shifted her gaze back to the fire, trying to keep her excitement from showing. Out of the cabin. Somewhere away from a bed and too-close proximity to Ryder for a while so she could think. “What’s in Philly?”
“Lots of historic sites, shopping, food, my new office.”
She slanted another glance at him, resigned. She knew there was a catch. “You need to go to work.”
He shook his head. “No. The office is fine. But I was thinking maybe you’d create our website for us, and you might like to see the office.”
Intrigued, Philomena leaned forward to prop her elbows on her knees, displacing his warm fingers. “You want me to do your website?”
“Mm-hm. I’ve seen your work. I like it. I’m sure you’d come up with something just right for us.” He mimicked her pose, elbows on his own knees, shifting close enough so their shoulders brushed. “Right now, we’re mostly getting new clients from work of mouth, but we’d like to increase our visibility. What do you think?”
Her pulse quickened. She wanted to do it. She needed something to do. She’d managed to finish off two smaller websites for other clients already in the last few days, and now she didn’t have another job due for over a week. And if she wasn’t working, her busy mind circled around two subjects: the Harvesters who were hunting her and her very sexy relationship with Ryder.
She caught her lower lip in her teeth, her gaze following the flickering flames behind the screen. “I’d need to know exactly what you’re looking for. What kind of info you want out there. What style.”
He nudged her shoulder with his. “I’ll take you to the office tomorrow, and you can see for yourself. Then we can sightsee if you want.”
She couldn’t resist any longer, turning to look more fully at him. “Really?”
He smiled, the slow, sexy gri
n that made her blood heat in her veins. “Really.”
“Okay. But I make no promises on the website.” He didn’t need to know she already wanted to do it.
He swooped in and kissed her, hard. “Deal.” He pushed to his feet. “What do you feel like for supper?”
She didn’t care, really. Already, her brain had shifted to work mode and was considering possibilities for his security firm’s website. “Do any pizza places deliver out here?” she asked after a moment.
“I don’t think there’s a pizza menu in the stack.” He moved to the table in the opposite corner, flipping through the small pile of restaurant menus. “Nope.”
She realized she was staring at him and shifted her gaze away, heat that had nothing to do with the fireplace warming her cheeks. “It doesn’t matter.” Work. She’d been thinking about work. Needed to be thinking about work. Not Ryder.
His booted footsteps crossed the floor to her side, and she tried to concentrate. Coding. He blocked her view of the flames, and she lifted her gaze from his groin at her eye level to his face, forced to tip her head back.
A wicked grin curved his lips, making her want to shift her focus to eye level once more. “How about we get room service, and eat in bed?”
“Will you tell me what the phone calls have been about?”
His smile vanished. “Work.”
She sighed and sat back, away from him. “Paying work, or me?”
He squatted in front of her, his expression sober. “Both.” He touched her knee, and she ignored the heat of his fingers seeping through the heavy denim of her jeans. “Mena, there’s no news. The Harvesters don’t know where you are, they don’t know where Jason and Aggie are.” His dark gaze held hers.
“And have they come looking for the first guy yet?” She watched him carefully.
Something flickered in his eyes, and he hesitated.
“Yes.” Her heart beat a little faster, this time in fear. “How many of them?”
His mouth tightened. “Two.”
She considered that. Two more men on the hunt for her now. Two more men in her mother’s house. Probably in her house, as well. Her stomach wrenched.
“The crews already cleared the houses of anything related to your family, Mena. They have no clues to where you are.”
But they’d already found her once. And now they’d been in her home. She shut her eyes, nauseous.
One of Ryder’s hands stroked over her head. “I’m sorry.”
Even if somehow she wasn’t the Medusa someday, she’d never feel safe there again. It would remain tainted, since she knew would-be murderers had been there. She bowed her head, but his hand stayed there, warm and comforting. It annoyed her that he could distract her even when she felt so lousy.
Still, she didn’t move, letting him stroke her hair, while she tried not to think about the loss of her safe haven.
“Come on,” he said after a few minutes, catching her shoulders and drawing her to her feet.
She opened her eyes, and he steered her away from the fire. “What--”
He snagged a bottle of bubble bath from the vanity and then guided her to the stairs leading to the glass bathtub.
She laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Am I laughing?” As they climbed the steps, his expression remained serious, though his brown eyes gleamed.
“I...you’re crazy.” She shook her head.
He smiled at last, releasing her arm to turn on the water and dump in some of the liquid from the bottle he carried. “Maybe. But I am also willing to try new things, and I’m willing to get in this tub with you and give you a back rub.” He set the bottle on the ledge and yanked at the hem of her sweater.
“A back rub, huh?” She lifted her arms when he pulled her sweater up, up, feeling more excited about this than she should.
“Yes, and I am very good at them.” He dropped her sweater behind her, catching her gaze. “So pretty,” he murmured, sliding one finger over the blush-colored bra she wore. Her nipples tightened, both because of the cooler air washing across her skin and because of his warm finger teasing her.
She tried to concentrate on his words. “How do you know?” She swallowed a moan when he tugged at her nipple, sending a bolt of heat rushing into her middle, leaving her panties damp.
He bent and dropped a quick kiss on her open lips. “Jason told me.”
She laughed, then sucked in a quick breath when his other hand eased to her waistband, fingers slipping between denim and her skin as he undid the button, then slid the zipper down.
“If that’s not a testimonial, I don’t know what is.” He flicked the front clasp of her bra open and peeled the sheer garment away from her flesh, making her shiver. “Nice.” He cupped her breast against his hard palm. “Soft.”
Philomena tried to concentrate, but her mind had given up and let sensation take over. Her knees turned to water when he gave her jeans a shove, sending them down around her ankles. Then he slipped his other hand inside her panties, squeezing the handful of her bottom that he got, before gliding his fingers lower, lower until he found slick, hot flesh.
She heard a high, soft sound coming from her throat, and she didn’t care. Ryder knew just how to distract her from her worries.
Ryder knew they needed to get out of the tub before the warm water went cold. But with Mena resting against him, relaxed finally, dozing, he didn’t want to disturb her.
Yeah, he could stay here a while.
But that wasn’t what she needed.
He got them out of the tub and dried off, then carried her down the steps to bed. He climbed in behind her. “We didn’t get supper yet,” he murmured, settling one hand on her belly to hold her close.
She rolled her head to look at him when she opened her eyes. “I’m not hungry.”
He smiled. She was clearly exhausted. He touched her lower lip. “Go to sleep, baby. I’ll wake you when it’s time to call Jason.”
Her eyes closed, and she snuggled nearer, one hand over his on her abdomen.
Ryder’s smile faded as he listened to her breathing even out as she drifted off to sleep. He’d successfully distracted her for now, but he knew she’d think about it again, and eventually he’d have to let her deal with the fear.
When he was certain she was sleeping, he eased out of the warmth of the bed and pulled on a pair of clean jeans. He added some wood to the fire, then called the lodge to order dinner for them. Mena might not be hungry yet, but when she woke later, she may feel differently.
While he waited for their meal, he sat on the overstuffed armchair and watched her sleep.
Whether she liked it or not, whether she fell in love with him or not, Philomena Gregory was a part of his family, and he intended to keep her safe.
She’d asked him who’d keep her safe from him. He should have countered with who would keep him safe from her?
Absently, he rubbed the heel of his hand over the scar on his ribs. She had touched it earlier, her warmth seeping into his chest as her fingers glided over the old knife wound, but now his heart hurt.
Yes, indeed, who would keep his heart safe if she didn’t fall in love with him?
Elek ignored the curious, disgruntled and outright hostile gazes of his cousins and uncles and studied the pages in front of him for several more minutes. While he finished collecting himself to speak, he listened to the hushed sounds of movement. Finally, he took a measured breath and exhaled slowly, raising his gaze to the men in the room.
“This man with the Medusa is well-trained, but his military background, his training will be fairly standard. Nothing we don’t also know how to do.” He focused on Petr, slouched in a chair in the far corner. “And we outnumber him tremendously, so our chances of locating him are much better than Odysseus’s chances for a quick trip home from Troy.”
Petr flushed and looked away, probably embarrassed to have his words parroted back at him in front of the room. As he should be.
“A small group
will be going from here to the Pennsylvania properties to do a more thorough search. This man is too meticulous to work without a plan. We simply need to decipher his method for creating that plan.” Elek scanned the room again. “Petr, Demos, and Vasily, you will return with Baltasar and Georgios. Great-uncle Ari also wants us to look for her immediate family. Chances are good they haven’t gone far. An older woman and a young boy--” He paused, his gaze skimming his family once more--“if we get the opportunity to use them to get her, we will.”
Several sets of eyebrows lifted around the room, while some of his cousins narrowed their eyes at him. Elek sat back in his chair. “Phillip, Cyril, Gregos and Doran, we would like you to stay. The group heading to the house should move out within the hour. Everyone else, that is all for now, but don’t go far.”
Ari nodded once, and Elek felt a surge of satisfaction. He could do this.
He reined in his satisfaction, though, watching his cousins and uncles filing out of the room. Except for the four he’d called out.
Ari waited until the door shut behind everyone else before he cleared his throat. “I have another task in mind for you,” he said, his sharp gaze covering all of them. “I want you to find out all you can about this man, this Ryder Ware. Then I want you to keep an eye on his interests, his apartment, his business. Everything. He has killed one of ours, and I want him stopped.”
Elek watched the comprehension in his cousins’ eyes.
“I will expect a report after you complete your investigation. The sooner, the better,” Ari said, settling back in his chair. “You can be in Philadelphia in a couple of hours if you leave now.”
His cousins understood it was a dismissal, and they rose almost as one and left the room.
Elek looked at his great-uncle again. “What would you like me to work on now?”
“Take a break. Get some fresh air, a meal. I know you have closeted yourself in your office for the past two days. You need a break.”
He nodded once, though he thought of the notes on his desk with a pang of longing. “All right. I will get something to eat before I return to work.” He nodded and headed for the open door.
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