Warriors of Poseidon 01 - Atlantis Rising

of friendship that maybe both of them needed.
     
    Atlantis Rising – Warriors of Poseidon 01
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    Then he stretched, pleased to find his body in working order again. He'd need every ounce of energy. "So both my ascension and my matrimonial obligations to a long-dead virgin are delayed," he said drily. "I find myself unable to summon much concern about the latter."
     
    "Not dead. Merely sleeping, awaiting your need. It is your destiny," Alaric reminded him.
     
    As if he needed reminding. As if he hadn't had that particular duty drummed into his head for hundreds of years. Love didn't figure into the breeding patterns of the Warriors of Poseidon; most especially not into those of royalty.
     
    He scowled at the whimsy. Love. A myth to coddle children, at best. "I'm out of here. I'm going after that bastard Reisen. I will retrieve the Trident, Priest. And justice will be meted out to the House of Mycenae."
     
    Alaric grinned at him, giving Conlan a glimpse of the boy he'd once been. "We leave now. Ven is preparing for the journey. So much for the welcome-home processional."
     
    Conlan tried to return the smile, but his mouth had lost its memory of how to smile, after so many years of grimacing in agony. Years of howling out his rage and despair.
     
    Alaric raised one eyebrow, his mouth flattening into a grim line. "That's an…
    interesting… expression. You'll have to tell me one day exactly what they did to you."
     
    "No," Conlan answered. "I won't."

Chapter 2
Virginia Beach
    Atlantis Rising – Warriors of Poseidon 01
    Page 19 of 351
    "Dina, think about your baby." Riley Dawson crouched down next to the room's single window, hands loose and open at her sides.
     
    Nonthreatening, nonthreatening, nonthreatening.
     
    Riley forced her facial muscles to relax into an expression of calm, as she watched her massively pregnant sixteen-year-old client jam the lethal end of the very large and very ugly pistol farther down the unconscious man's throat. His skin was pasty white, but she could see his chest move in shallow breaths.
     
    He's not dead. Let's keep him that way, Riley.
     
    "I'm thinking about my baby, Riley. Stay out of it! No way my baby is gonna grow up with a skanky alley cat like this for a daddy." Dina's gaze darted around the room, skittered off Riley's face, then back to Morris, lying still and pale on the edge of the bed.
     
    Riley could see that his chest was moving. He was still breathing, in spite of the force of the gun crashing into the back of his skull that she'd witnessed as she'd walked in the open door for her monthly visit. But she'd been in enough rooms crowded with the noises of EMT personnel and the smell of death to know that a life could end in an instant. And Dina's hand was trembling on that gun.
     
    "Dina, listen to me. I'm sorry you found Morris with another girl. He made a terrible mistake. I'm sure he's very sorry about it. But you have to think about your baby. She needs you, Dina. If you hurt him, you'll go to jail, and then who will raise your baby? You know your mother can't do it." A cramping pain burned through Riley's leg muscles, protesting at squatting on the floor for so long. She shifted a little, careful not to make any sudden or abrupt movements.
     
    Dina barked out a laugh that sounded rusty from disuse. "That crack ho? She ain't no mother. She ain't getting near my baby."
    Atlantis Rising – Warriors of Poseidon 01
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    "That's right. You know you're the best person in the world to take care of your baby.
    Have you thought of a name for her yet?"
     
    Keep them talking. Distract them with more pleasant topics; ones with which they feel a personal connection. The voice of the lecturer from one of Riley's hundreds of hours of training pounded in her head.
     
    Right. Pleasant topics, when she's got a gun jammed down his cheating throat. And how about the fact that I'm going to pee my pants any minute? The manuals never mentioned that little fact.
     
    Dina smiled a little. "I'm going to call her Paris. Like that city in France? With the tower?
    It's so beautiful. We learned about it in school. I'm gonna take her there someday. Paris Marguerite, after Grandmama."
     
    "That's a beautiful name, Dina. Paris Marguerite. Now please give me the gun. You don't want Paris Marguerite to grow up without her mommy, do you?" Riley slowly straightened up off the floor, ignoring the screaming muscles in her thighs. She stretched her hand out, palm