Athena's Daughter Read Online Free Page B

five-finger discount, Athena welcomed how busy
she was. It kept her from casting the glances she wanted toward
Derek, to see if he was looking back at her. It didn’t, however,
keep her from thinking about when they’d come face-to-face in the
back of the store, and feeling a slow burn of anger at his
reaction.
    After that first moment of shock at seeing
her, his eyes turned as cold as blue Arctic ice. Before she’d been
able to utter a word to him, he snapped out a clipped, “Nice to see
you again,” and spun away on his heel. Since then, he ignored her,
but she could sense the contempt and anger radiating off him, even
from across the store. It infuriated her that she was still so
attuned to him that she could tell without looking just what he was
feeling.
    What the hell did he have to be angry about?
He must have thought he could keep his nefarious behavior a secret.
Did he even know she called and ended up talking to his snotty
fiancée? Probably not. If he did, he wouldn’t have bombarded her
parents’ mailbox with all those letters for the next year.
    For a moment she wondered again just what was
in them. Not for the first time she regretted not reading them;
she’d still like to know what pretty lies they’d contained. The
conceited bastard was probably mad she had enough sense not to
believe them. Well, fuck him and the guitar he rode in on.
    An anxious glance at the clock showed her
there were only fifteen minutes left before the signing would be
over. Good. Get the band out and back to wherever they were headed
next, let the crowd thin, and then her life could go back to
normal. Derek would go on his merry way and she need never think of
him again. Until she looked at Elizabeth and saw his eyes. And his
hair. And that little half smile. Damn it.
    Before she could stop herself, she looked
toward the table where the band held court. Despite her anger at
Derek, she admired the way they were handling things. At that
moment they were not only signing autographs and carrying on
conversations with excited fans, but fielding questions from a
reporter from the local newspaper and a disc jockey from the campus
radio station. It had been that way all day, with media outlets who
never acted as if they knew Stax of Wax existed stampeding through
the store trying to cash in on the band’s appearance. Though Athena
was glad for the free publicity that would result, she kept their
exposure to the band at a minimum so the guys could focus on the
people who lined up to see them and buy their records. Those were
the people who would come back to the store while she doubted she’d
see representatives from those radio stations and newspapers again
unless they wanted to sell her advertising.
    A waving hand caught her attention, and she
looked up to find the band’s manager, Simon Cooper, beckoning to
her. She wove her way through the crowd to where he stood just
behind the band.
    “Excellent turn out today, love.” He slipped
an arm around her and squeezed. After a rocky start, Simon had been
one of her biggest supporters during that blissful summer. “But
here’s the scoop. When we’ve wrapped this up we’re going to have
the lads head upstairs to the offices, right? Then the bus will
leave – empty – to draw attention away from the store.”
    “Good thinking.” She cast an eye over the
throngs of people crowding the aisles. “I’ll have Hal go out in a
minute to try to disperse some of the crowd still outside.”
    “Lovely.” Simon nodded. “After things calm
down a bit we’ll call some cabs to take us to the motel.”
    “Okay.” She noticed the disc jockey had left
but the newspaper guy was still buzzing around the band. “Let me
get rid of the reporter and then we’ll wrap things up.”
    “Have at it. I’ll go speak to the
driver.”
    As Simon headed to the back of the store,
Athena moved forward and touched the reporter on the arm.
    “Hi, there. I hope you got everything you
need, because the guys