as Dirk was concerned, death was too good for him.
Gaius spied a piece of Etruscan pottery Ethan had picked up cheap from an impoverished aristocrat he met playing cards. He picked it up and rolled it back and forth in his hands with an expert’s air. “Exquisite.”
“You must have fascinating tales to tell Lord Gaius, of Rome… ”
Gaius raised an eyebrow at my forwardness, but laughed and replied, “It was long ago. What I remember I may have read in books, or seen in the pictures. I could tell about battles and life in camp. I spent most of my mortal existence a soldier. I’m not sure if you’d find it interesting.”
“How did people think then? That’s what I’d really like to know.”
“I’d rather talk about how you think. Now there’s a riddle.”
“You’re being evasive, my Lord.”
He set down the vase and turned back to me. “I’ll tell you this. I knew fascinating women of power and education. We didn’t shut our women away like other peoples, like the Greeks. I dined with Tiberius’s mother Livia, and survived to tell the tale. She was the brains behind the empire and woe to any who stood in her way.” He turned back to Dirk. “Mark me Dirk. Respect the fair sex. They’re capable of destroying fools like you. You’re not so easily dismissed as Dirk believes.”
“’What on earth is so special about me?”
“You’re the Bird of Prey.”
“Uh-huh, now tell me in words even Dirk can understand.”
“Cunt,” Dirk said.
“There’s another, thank you, Dirk.”
Gaius threw back his head, laughing. “Ethan is the luckiest man I know to have uncovered you. Ah, when the Northman sees you he’ll spit with rage.”
My blood ran cold. Why? A car approached, large, sleek and formidable, just like Ethan. Gaius clammed up, taking a seat in a chair and striking a casual pose. Dirk glared at me, plotting my future ravishment behind yellow-green eyes.
Ethan opened the door and flashed a look at me that said that I’d better have a good explanation. Gaius sat back in his chair and waited for Ethan to do the dance.
Ethan bowed to him. “Lord Gaius, sorry I wasn’t here to greet you, I had business in Naples.”
“We’ve also business to discuss.”
Ethan flinched. “We’ll go to the terrace. Can he be trusted?”
Gaius looked to me, a smile softening his face. “I wouldn’t worry about her. She’ll outwit this dolt every time.”
Ethan stared Dirk down. “If he touches her, I’ll take his head.”
Gaius replied casually as he paused at the door, “It’s almost worth the trouble.”
Nothing gave me the creeps more than being left alone with Dirk. There was no sense of control of the situation. He wasn’t intellectually gifted but he was endowed with animal cunning, superior strength and a total disregard for anyone’s rights.
“What I endure,” Dirk muttered.
I opened the carved chest against the wall to put my materials away. “Doesn’t think much of you, does he?”
He scowled, lurching to his feet. “Not as much as you think of yourself.” He hovered over me, trying to intimidate by sheer size and bulk.
“You don’t scare me.”
Moving in closer he breathed down my neck, “Did you dream of me in your childhood bed?”
Nightmares actually, of human skeletons trampled by jackboots, grinning death’s heads on black caps, skulls that came to life with yellow-green eyes. Dirk’s ilk had been considered the elite of the Third Reich. Himmler himself had hand picked them from photographs, not one could stand less than five foot eight, they had to be proven racially pure as far back as eighteen hundred and they possessed the idealized Nordic physical attributes most of their leaders lacked. Except for the yellowish eyes, Dirk was the poster boy.
He tugged hard at my hair. “I’ll teach you the meaning of pain.”
“Let go of me, mindless butcher.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and looked me over from head to toe. “You aren’t that much to look at.”
“Good enough, your distaste is showing all too prominently.”
He grabbed my jaw. “Can this mouth do anything other than fling insults?”
“Not unless you want to lose something very dear to you. Let’s test your powers of regeneration. I’m curious if you are.” I twisted out of his grip, a move Ethan taught me.
“Gaius made an offer for you to Brovik when we saw him in Rome.”
“Brovik? What kind of offer?”
“To buy you of course— for me.”
I was flabbergasted. The door opened and Ethan and Gaius stepped inside. Ethan frowned, looking about the room curiously.
Gaius barked, “Dirk come.”
After they left