The woman in the chair opposite him remained silent, her arms crossed over the tight gray T-shirt she wore.
Gikas took a long sip from his glass, and then set it back down on the table. “You haven’t eaten much,” he said and motioned to the lamb and vegetables in front of her. “I assure you it is not poisoned. If I wanted to kill you I would have already done it. You must be hungry, so please, eat.”
She stared at the food for a few seconds, contemplating. She’d fasted before, but it was going on the third day since she had eaten anything. Water had been the only sustenance to pass her lips since she’d been taken captive. Her instincts gave in, and she devoured the food, first tearing into a piece of bread, and then some of the meat. In a few minutes, the plate was completely clean.
Gikas watched with a creepy smile, as if he were staring at a caged animal eating the morsels from his hand. “That’s better.”
Her eyes darted up from the plate, and her face washed over with guilt. She wished she hadn’t had to eat his food, but she couldn’t let herself starve. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
He folded his hands and placed them on his knees. “Now, tell me everything you know about the Eye of Zeus, Miss Villa.”
Chapter 3
Sean pulled the iPhone out of his pocket and entered the pass code.
“What are you doing?” agent Yarbrough asked, casting a wary glance out of the side of his eye, at the same time keeping focused on the road ahead.
Sean’s thumbs flew across the digital keypad with speed and accuracy. It only took a few seconds for him to finish the text to Emily and hit the send button. “Just doing a little background check on you.” He flashed a mischievous glance at the driver. “I hope you don’t mind.”
Yarbrough turned his head and looked directly at Sean with a quizzical expression. “Background check?”
“I know you showed me your ID back there, but I like to be thorough. Figured a guy from the Secret Service would appreciate that.” He smiled wickedly and looked out the windshield. “Don’t worry. Just a friend in the Justice Department who can tell me if you’re legit or not.”
The driver shrugged. “Would it make a difference at this point? You don’t really have a lot of ways to escape now.”
It was a valid point, but one Sean had already considered. His training and experience taught him to always look for an out, always keep your eyes open and be ready for when a window could appear.
“Probably not,” Sean agreed, while eyeing a grassy field that zoomed by. His phone vibrated, and he glanced down at the screen. There were only two lines.
“He checks out. You okay?”
“Emily says you’re okay, Yarbrough. Guess I’ll have to make my escape some other time.” His eyes took a moment to peer into the rearview mirror. There were so many cars out on the road between Destin and Pensacola, but Sean had seen one in particular that caught his eye for the last hour. It wouldn’t have been strange, given the fact that there were hundreds of thousands of vacationers in Florida at that time of year. The black BMW sedan had remained several cars back over the course of the last forty minutes, almost as if they were trying not to follow too closely. In their attempt to remain inconspicuous, the driver of the sedan had made it obvious as to what they were doing.
Sean looked back at Agent Yarbrough with a blank stare. He waited for a second, as if hoping to get a reaction. When Yarbrough said nothing, Sean spoke up. “You do realize that you’re being followed, right?”
Yarbrough’s face contorted into a frown, the kind that people get when they feel like something they just heard is crazy. His eyes took a quick peek in the rearview mirror. “Who’s following us?” he asked finally. “I haven’t seen anything unusual.”
“Maybe not,” Sean said, slipping his phone back into a pocket. “But that black BMW five cars back has been five cars back ever since we left Destin.”
Yarbrough took another look in the mirror. “So? There are a lot of cars on this road.”
“That’s a 5 Series, Ger. Those things were made to run. When was the last time you saw one of those driving so slow?”
“Maybe it’s an elderly person behind the wheel?”
Sean raised a skeptical eyebrow. He noticed a convenience store ahead, which gave him an idea. “Pull into that gas station up there on the right.”
“Mr. Wyatt, we really are in a hurry. I appreciate your concern, but—”
“A. don’t call me Mister Wyatt. You can call me Sean. B. just trust me. Wouldn’t kill you to top off the tank anyway. If they don’t follow us in then we pull back on the road.” His rationale made sense, especially considering the implications. “You lose thirty seconds at worst if I’m wrong.”
The filling station was approaching quickly. Agent Yarbrough had to act fast. Sean stared at him from the other side of the car, as if willing him to do what he requested.
“Fine,” Yarbrough said and flipped on his blinker. “But I do believe you’re being paranoid.”
“Maybe I am,” Sean said and leaned back in his seat. He cocked his head to the side to watch the rearview mirror to see what the BMW would do.
As Yarbrough slowed down and steered the SUV into the gas station, Sean watched as the black sedan continued down the road. He couldn’t see through the darkly tinted windows, but within a second the car had passed on down the road. His heart sank at being wrong, but he also felt a twinge of relief.
Agent Yarbrough noticed the BMW passing the entrance to the station and shook his head. He pulled the SUV into one of the pumps and switched the car off.
Sean expected him to say something about being paranoid, but instead Yarbrough let it go. “We need to get gas anyway. It will just take a second.” Sean was glad to see the younger man was respectful enough not to gloat.
The other guys in the back were not so forgiving. “Probably a good thing you hung it up with the Justice Department a few years ago, huh?” one of them said.
Sean didn’t even turn around. He’d seen young guys like that before. They were cocky and arrogant, but the most important thing they seemed to forget was that they were in a job where their lives could change within the second. Maybe they got used to it, always being in the line of fire for the president. Sean never got used to it, which was why he walked away from Axis after only a few years of service.
He stared at the leather dashboard for a moment, ignoring the laughter from the backseat when he caught something out of the corner of his eye. Sean turned to the left and saw the black sedan turning into a fast food restaurant a few hundred feet down the road. He peered through the window as the BMW looped around behind the restaurant and disappeared on the other side.
Agent Yarbrough finished pumping the gas and got back in the car. Sean looked at him and wondered if he’d seen what the driver of the other car had done.
“Yeah, I saw it,” Yarbrough answered the unspoken question.
“Saw what?” asked the disrespectful guy in the back.
Sean turned halfway toward the rear. “The car that was following us pulled into that burger joint over there.” He pointed in the direction of the restaurant.
All three of the men in the back twisted their heads to the left. “So? Maybe they’re hungry,” said the one in the middle.
Yarbrough interjected. “You don’t think it’s odd that they skipped the drive-through and all those empty parking spots on this side?”