AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Everything inside him turned to stone as he put on his boots, grabbed his jacket and his tac gear.
Three days.
He headed out into the dark, rainy night.
* * *
“It’s toobad that Greece doesn’t have an American football team.”
Hudson looked up at Iris’s words, spoken as she studied the breakfast buffet menu on a card. She sat opposite from him on the eighth-floor restaurant of Athens Gate, a hotel in the historic district of Athens, overlooking the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
It was chilly this morning, in the mid-sixties, and the sun had yet to warm the open spaces, but the waiter had lit an outside heater, and Iris seemed nonplussed at the slight chill. She’d even taken off her jacket.
Seemed right, her being from Minnesota.
He hadn’t needed the heater either, really, given he still wore his jacket, but his head pounded this morning, and frankly, he wished he were back under the Egyptian cotton sheets, the drapes closed despite the view.
The headache had started last night, on the red-eye to Athens. Now, he rubbed his temple.
Iris looked up. Frowned. “You okay?”
“Just…a headache. Yeah, I’m fine.”
She put down her menu as a waiter came over. He wore a long white apron and carried a couple fluted glasses of orange juice. As he set them on the table, “Help yourself to the buffet.”
Iris picked up her glass. “I can admit, these are better digs than what the ELF contracts for.”
He grinned at that. “Yeah. I usually stay here while I wait for my boat to be delivered.”
She eyed him, one eyebrow up.
“It’s not like that. I rent it. But it’s a nice boat, and the drive takes about three hours. You can take a high-speed ferry—it’s about five hours—but I like to drive.”
“Must be nice.” She took a sip. “Refs don’t make that kind of money. And we spend most of our time traveling, reviewing tape for missed or questionable calls, and even training.”
“You sound like an athlete.”
She cocked her head at him. “I am. I have to run down the field as fast as you do so I can see the play—or penalty—accurately. I have to dodge you. I have to make sure I’m not interfering with the play at all. Basically, I have to be omnipresent yet invisible.”
Right. “Sorry. I hadn’t really thought of it that way.”
“Mostly because the only time you see us—or me—is when we have to call you out. Or don’t call out the other team. Or when you make a mistake.”
Aw, she was right. “You’re not the most favorite person on the field.”
“I am if I call it a catch, or a touchdown.” She smiled at him. “Listen, I like my job. But don’t think for a second that I don’t have to be in shape.”
He could attest to that. She had muscles and curves and seemed pretty able to take care of herself. No wonder she’d been a little peeved at her brother’s request for Hudson to babysit her.
Maybe that ran through her mind, too, because she set down her glass. “You really think I’m being hunted by a killer?”
“I don’t love how you put that.”
“Well—?”
“Ziggy said that the hit hadn’t been accepted yet—at least a couple days ago when I last talked to her.” He took a sip of his own juice.
“So, maybe I’m safe—”
