Acheron

topic.'

She narrowed her eyes at him. 'How do you know it's a myth?'

'How do you know it's not?'

She leaned forward, so close that they were almost nose to nose. 'Because the man who brought my grandfather over as a child told him stories of Atlantis and the ancient island of Didymos to entertain him and to take his mind off the severe burns he'd received from the Nazis. My papou said that the way this man described Atlantis and its marvels was as if he'd lived there. The man described the same exact buildings that I've found buried in the Aegean.'

Ash went cold as she pricked memories he'd buried. Why had he ever told Theo those stories?

Because he'd been a terrified child and Ash had wanted to comfort him. Reassure him. Damn. How could he have known that that one act would come back to burn him so badly sixty years later?

'But the most important is this.' She reached into the wooden box on the table and pulled out a coin he hadn't seen since he'd placed it in Theo's tiny hand when he'd left the boy with an adoptive family in New York with the promise that he'd be back to visit. It held the image of Ash's mother on one side and her sun symbol on the other.

Fuck.

Tory tapped the coin. 'The writing on one side is something I'd never seen anywhere else until our discovery last summer. On the other side, it's Greek and though I don't know all of it, I can make out the name Apollymi. Now tell me this isn't from Atlantis.'

'It's not from Atlantis,' he said, his voice sounding hollow to his own ears. It had actually been from his pocket. 'It could be anything. Might not even be a coin. It could be a necklace. Maybe she was someone's wife.' Or his mother.

'I never said it was a coin. They wouldn't have had money at the time, would they?' Her gaze pierced him. 'You know the truth, don't you?'

Ash made his phone ring. 'Hold that thought.' He pretended to answer it and got up as he tried to think of a plausible answer.

Damn her for being so quick.

Tory watched as Ash walked out of the room to take his call. He came back a few minutes later.

'I have to go.'

'But you can't. I've got more questions for you.'

He seemed frustrated about something. 'I really don't have time to answer them.'

'Can you come back?'

He shook his head at her. 'I doubt it. I travel a lot for work and I won't be in town much longer.' He grabbed his backpack from the floor and headed for the front.

She followed him. 'I can pay you for your time.'

'It's not about the money.'

She pulled him to a stop. 'Please, Acheron… please.'

Ash wanted to shove her away and frighten her. The god in him didn't like to be grilled.

The man in him wanted to taste those lips that beckoned for a kiss. 'I can't, Tory.' I can't… His resolve set, he gently took her hand from his arm and left.

Tory wanted to scream as she watched him descend the stairs in front of her house that led to the street. He turned right and headed toward Bourbon Street.

There had to be some way to get him to help her. He was the only one who could read that book and by all the conviction inside her, she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

At the end of the day, she was a Kafieri and no one told a Kafieri no. 'You can run from me all you want, Mr. Parthenopaeus, but you won't be able to hide. You will give me what I want.' She was going to make sure of it.

CHAPTER FOUR

Ash did his best to get Tory out of his mind, but it was impossible. There was just something about her that beckoned him.

He hated that.

But not half as much as he hated the way he'd bailed on her like a coward the day before. He kept telling himself it was for the best and yet he couldn't quite convince himself of it. There was something about being around her that was comforting which given her normal hostility toward him made no sense whatsoever.

Now he sat up on the roof of the house he was helping to build, trying to clear his head and get back to business.

Someone touched his foot. He glanced up to see Karl in front of him. Ash pulled one of the earbuds out. 'Yeah?'

'Visitor.'

Assuming it was one of his associates in New Orleans, Ash set down his hammer and headed for the ladder. It wasn't until he was halfway down that he saw Tory waiting for him. Her hair was pulled forward into wavy pigtails. She wore a long beige skirt and brown blazer.

But it was her large brown eyes that seared him.

Looking at them and not at what he was doing, he missed a step and went slamming down the ladder, straight to the ground where he landed in a most embarrassing lump that wasn't helped when the ladder then fell across him, drawing all eyes to his clumsy stupidity. Pain hit him hard in his back, hip and shoulder as he struggled to find some semblance of dignity.

Given the way he was sprawled, it was actually hopeless. Sighing, he moved the ladder off his legs.

Tory came running over to kneel beside him. 'Are you all right?'

The answer had been yes until she placed her hand on his chest. In this position, all he could think of was pulling her across him and making use of her hand for something much more pleasurable.

'Yeah, I'm fine.' Then he glanced around at the other people staring at him in concern. His face heated in embarrassment. 'I'm fine, everyone,' he said louder. 'Just a small slip.'

They went back to work while he wanted to make himself invisible. He never did stuff like this.

'You should be more careful,' Tory said in a chiding tone. What happened to her concern for him? Obviously it'd gone the way of his last vestige of dignity. 'You could have broken your neck or as big as you are landed on someone and killed them.'

Okay… the woman was nuts.

'What are you doing here, Tory?' He rolled over and pushed himself up, then realized he'd done some real damage to his leg as it throbbed painfully in protest at being used again. It was all he could do not to grunt or limp.

Her smile dazzled him. 'I've come to tempt you.'

It was too late, she already had and he knew she didn't mean it the way he did. 'I can't be tempted.'

'Yes, you can. All people can be tempted.'

But he wasn't a person. He picked the ladder up and returned it to its previous position. Then he went to pick up the nails that had spilled out of his tool belt. When he started back toward the ladder, she planted herself firmly in his way.

'Tory…' he growled.

'Look, I'll be honest, there has never in the whole history of mankind been a more stubborn human being born than me.'

'Yes, there has. Me.'

When he started around her, she ran around him to the ladder and put herself on the first rung. He should be pissed as hell and yet she was so adorable standing there in her long skirt and flats with one arm wrapped around the rung over her head that it was all he could do not to smile at her. 'Fine, you don't have to translate it. Just