The Phoenix

‘I can’t tonight, I’m afraid. But thank you again.’

For the second time in a day, she put the phone down on him.

It’s a gauntlet, thought Mak, feeling happier than he had in years. She wants me to chase her.

Be careful what you wish for, Mrs Hamlin.

It was almost two weeks before ‘Persephone’ finally relented and agreed to a ‘date’ of sorts. Two weeks that were every bit as hard on Ella as they were on Makis.

‘You did what?’ Gabriel erupted when he heard the news. ‘Are you out of your mind? No. Cancel.’

Ella was perplexed. ‘Why should I cancel? You were the one telling me I was in danger of stringing this out too long. You literally instructed me to accept him.’

‘Yes, for dinner.’ His voice quivered with frustration and anxiety. ‘Surrounded by other people, and where you stand a chance of intercepting any email or cell-phone communications he might receive. Not on a boat! Alone! With no cell reception, no means of rescue. He’s a killer, Ella. You seem to have forgotten that fact.’

‘Of course I haven’t,’ said Ella, slightly sheepishly because the truth was she often did forget it, especially when Mak gave Persephone his hungry lion look. ‘But a boat is more intimate than dinner,’ she countered. ‘Just the two of us, on the open waves.’

‘That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.’

‘But I’m here to get close to him. To invite confidences. Isn’t that the whole point?’

‘No!’ Gabriel said angrily. ‘The whole point was for you to use your special abilities to gather intelligence about Athena. Which you can’t do, alone on a boat or some godforsaken private beach with a psychopath.’

‘Mak wants to seduce Persephone, not kill her,’ said Ella stubbornly. ‘I’ll be fine.’

You hope, thought Gabriel despairingly. He hated these calls with

Ella, hated not being close enough to help her if she needed it. Nikkos Anastas was the ‘man on the ground’ for this mission, but Nikkos was so fat and slow these days he could barely break into a jog without risking a heart attack, never mind execute a daring, last-minute rescue mission, should Ella need one. They had to provide Ella with some sort of backup.

‘I’m surprised Big Mak suggested a fishing boat, and not a superyacht,’ he said, trying to drag the conversation back into calmer, more civil waters. ‘That’s hardly his usual style. He’s normally so flashy he makes Kanye look low key.’

‘True, but Persephone isn’t, remember?’ said Ella. ‘She’s the opposite. And flashiness was one of the things she came to hate about her husband. The fishing trip was her suggestion.’

Gabriel groaned. He wasn’t going to win this one, but he didn’t like it.

He didn’t like it at all.

Miriam Dabiri didn’t like it either.

Watching through the blacked-out windows of her town car as Makis Alexiadis helped the odd-looking Hamlin woman down from the jetty into a simple, rustic wooden fishing boat, she felt a lump of bile lodge painfully in her chest. Mak looked as dashing as ever in a sea-green polo shirt and Ralph Lauren shorts, his dark hair slicked back and his eyes hidden behind tortoiseshell Prada shades. The girl, Persephone, by contrast, appeared to have made no effort at all, and in fact looked more like a boy than ever in loose-fitting harem pants and a black tank top, teamed with a simple headscarf and flip flops.

Who are you? Miriam thought bitterly as she watched the two of them push laughingly off into open water. Where the hell did you come from?

Two weeks ago she, Miriam, had had the great Makis Alexiadis eating out of her hand, begging for her attention. True, there had been other girls around. But no one Miriam was confident she couldn’t outclass, in bed and out of it.

‘You have a body built for sex,’ Makis had told her, the first night they made love. ‘You’re incredible.’

It was true. She did. And she was. Until all of a sudden this androgynous, small-breasted, American Uma-Thurman-lookalike appeared out of nowhere and somehow managed to blow Miriam out of the water. She wasn’t even pretty, for God’s sake! Not to mention her rude, sullen manner. It was beyond Miriam what it was about Persephone Hamlin that had her almost-beau so utterly obsessed.

I’m watching you, bitch.

Miriam Dabiri might look like a sex-doll, but she was far from stupid. Nor was she about to let a hot ticket like Big Mak Alexiadis slip through her fingers without a fight.

There was more to Mrs Persephone Hamlin than met the eye.

Miriam intended to find out what it was.

Mak watched as Persephone sat perched on a cushion at the bow of the boat, trailing her delicate fingers in the water while he rowed. How he wished those fingers were caressing his naked body instead, clawing at him, begging him to make love to her harder, faster, deeper …