The Greek Tycoon's Achilles Heel

PROLOGUE

THE lights of the Las Vegas Strip gleamed and glittered up into the night sky. Down below, the hotels and casinos rioted with life and money but the Palace Athena outshone them all.

In the six months since its opening it had gained a reputation for being more lavish than its competitors, and today it had put the seal on its success by hosting the wedding of the beautiful, glamorous film star, Estelle Radnor.

The owner of the Palace, no fool, had gained the prestige of staging her wedding by offering everything for free, and the gorgeous Estelle, also no fool where money was concerned, whatever might be said of her taste in men, had seized the offer.

The wedding party finished up in the casino, where the bride was photographed throwing dice, embracing her groom, throwing more dice, slipping an arm around the shoulders of a thin, nondescript young girl, then throwing more dice. The owner watched it all with satisfaction, before turning to a young man who stood regarding the performance sardonically.

‘Achilles, my friend-’

‘I’ve told you before, don’t call me that.’

‘But your name has brought me such good luck. Your excellent advice on how to make this place convincingly Greek-’

‘None of which you’ve taken.’

‘Well, my customers believe it’s Greek and that’s what matters.’

‘Of course, appearance is everything and what else counts?’ the young man murmured.

‘You’re gloomy tonight. Is it the wedding? Do you envy them?’

‘Achilles’ turned on him with swift ferocity. ‘Don’t talk nonsense!’ he snapped. ‘All I feel is boredom and disgust.’

‘Have things gone badly for you?’

A shrug. ‘I’ve lost a million. Before the night’s out I’ll probably lose another. So what?’

‘Come and join the party.’

‘I haven’t been invited.’

‘You think they’re going to turn away the son of the wealthiest man in Greece?’

‘They’re not going to get the chance. Leave me and get back to your guests.’

He strolled away, a lean, isolated figure, followed by two pairs of eyes, one belonging to the man he’d just left, the other to the awkward-looking teenager the bride had earlier embraced. Keeping close to the wall, so as not to be noticed, she slipped away and took the elevator to the fifty-second floor, where she could observe the Strip.

Here, both the walls and the roof were thick glass, allowing visitors to look out in safety. Outside ran a ledge which she guessed was there for workmen and window cleaners, but inaccessible to customers unless they knew the code to tap into the lock.

She was staring down, transfixed, when a slight noise made her turn and see the young man from downstairs. Moving quietly into the shadows, she watched, unnoticed, as he came to stand nearby, gazing down a thousand feet at the dazzling, distant world beneath.

Up here there were only a few lamps, so that customers could look out through the glass. She had a curious view of his face, lit from below by a glow that shifted and changed colour. His features were lean and clean-cut, their slight sharpness emphasised by the angle. It was the face of a very young man, little more than a boy, yet it held a weariness-even a despair-that suggested a crushing burden.

Then he did something that terrified her, reaching out to the code box and tapping in a number, making a pane of glass slide back so that there was nothing but air between him and a thousand foot drop. Petra’s sharp gasp made him turn his head.

‘What are you doing there?’ he snapped. ‘Are you spying on me?’

‘Of course not. Come back in, please,’ she begged. ‘Don’t do it.’

He stepped back into comparative safety, but remained near the gap.

‘What the hell do you mean, “don’t do it”?’ he snapped. ‘I wasn’t going to do anything. I wanted some air.’

‘But it’s dangerous. You could fall by accident.’

‘I know what I’m doing. Go away and let me be.’

‘No,’ she said defiantly. ‘I have as much right to take the air as you. Is it nice out there?’

‘What?’

Moving so fast that she took him by surprise, she slipped past him and out onto the ledge. At once the wind attacked her so that she had to reach out and found him grasping her.

‘You stupid woman!’ he shouted. ‘I’m not the only one who can have an accident. Do you want to die?’

‘Do you?’

‘Come inside.’

He yanked her back in, stopping short in surprise when he saw her face.

‘Didn’t I see you downstairs?’

‘Yes, I was in the Zeus Room,’ she said, naming the casino. ‘I like watching people. That place is very cleverly named.’

‘You know what Zeus means, then?’ he asked, drawing her away to where they could sit down.

‘He was the King of the Greek gods,’ she said, ‘looking down on the world from his home on the top of Mount Olympus, master of all he surveyed. That must be how the gamblers feel when they start playing, but the poor idiots soon learn differently. Did you lose much?’

He shrugged. ‘A million. I stopped counting after a while. What are you doing in a casino, anyway? You can’t be more than fifteen.’

‘I’m seventeen and I’m…one of the bridal party.’

‘That’s right,’ he said, seeming not to notice the way she’d checked herself at the last moment. ‘I saw her embracing you for the camera. Are you a bridesmaid?’

She regarded him cynically. ‘Do I look like a bridesmaid?’ she demanded, indicating her attire, which was clearly expensive but not glamorous.

‘Well-’

‘I don’t really belong in front of the cameras, not with that lot.’

She spoke with a wry lack of self-pity that was attractive. Looking at her more closely, he saw that she wore no makeup, her hair was cut efficiently short, and she’d made no attempt to enhance her appearance.

‘And your name is-?’ he queried.

‘Petra. And you’re Achilles. No?’ The last word was a response to his scowl.

‘My name is Lysandros Demetriou. My mother wanted to call me Achilles, but my father thought she was being sentimental. In the end they compromised, and Achilles became my second name.’

‘But that man downstairs called you by it.’

‘It’s important to him that I’m Greek because this place is built on the idea of Greekness.’

To his delight she gave a cheeky giggle. ‘They’re all potty.’

They took stock of each other. He was as handsome as she’d first sensed, with clean cut features, deep set eyes and an air of pride that came with a lifetime of having his own way. But there was also a darkness and a brooding intensity that seemed strange in this background. Young men in Las Vegas hunted in packs, savouring every experience. This one hid away, treasuring his solitude as though the world was an enemy. And something had driven him to take the air in a place full of danger.

‘Demetriou Shipbuilding?’ she asked.

‘That’s the one.’

‘The most powerful firm in Greece.’ She said it as though reciting a lesson. ‘What they don’t want isn’t worth having. What they don’t acquire today they’ll acquire tomorrow. If anyone dares to refuse them, they wait in the shadows until the right moment to pounce.’

He grunted. ‘Something like that.’

‘Or maybe you’ll just turn the Furies onto them?’

She meant the three Greek goddesses of wrath and vengeance, with hair made of snakes and eyes that dripped blood, who hounded their victims without mercy.

‘Do you have to be melodramatic?’ he demanded.

‘In this “pretend” Greek place I can’t help it. Anyway, why aren’t you in Athens grinding your enemies to dust?’

‘I’ve done with all that,’ he said harshly. ‘They can get on without me.’

‘Ah, this is the bit where you sulk.’

‘What?’

‘During the Trojan war Achilles was in love with this girl. She actually came from the other side, and was his prisoner, but they made him give her back, so he withdrew from the battle and sulked in his tent. But in the end he came out and started fighting again. Only he ended up dead. As you could have done on that ledge.’

‘I told you I wasn’t planning to die, although frankly it doesn’t seem important one way or the other. I’ll take what comes.’

‘Did she do something very cruel?’ Petra asked gently.

In the dim light she could barely see the look he turned on her, but she sensed that it was terrible. His eyes were harsh and cold in the gloom, warning her that she’d trespassed on sacred ground.

‘Stop now!’ howled the Furies. ‘Run for your life before he strikes you dead.’

But that wasn’t her way.

‘She?’ he asked in a voice that warned her.

She laid a gentle hand on his arm, whispering, ‘I’m sorry. Shouldn’t I have said that?’

He rose sharply and strode back to the gap in the glass wall and stood gazing out into the night. She followed cautiously.

‘She made me trust her,’ he whispered.

‘But sometimes it’s right to trust.’

‘No,’ he insisted. ‘Nobody is ever as good as you think they are, and sooner or later the truth is always there. The more you trust someone, the worse it is when they betray you. Better to have no illusions, and be strong.’

‘But that would be terrible, never to believe in anything, never to love or hope, never be really happy-’

‘Never to be wretched,’ he said harshly.

‘Never to be alive,’ she said with gentle urgency. ‘It would be a living death, can’t you see that? You’d escape suffering, but you’d also lose everything that makes life worth living.’

‘Not everything. There’s power. You’d gain that if you did without the other things. They’re only weaknesses.’

‘No,’ she said, almost violently. ‘You mustn’t give in to that way of thinking or you’ll ruin your life.’

‘And what do you know about it?’ he demanded, angry now. ‘You’re a child. Has anyone ever made you want to smash things and keep on smashing until nothing is left alive-including yourself?’

‘But what do you gain by destroying yourself inside?’ she demanded.

‘I’ll tell you what you gain. You don’t become-like this.’ He jabbed a finger at his heart.

She didn’t have to ask what he meant. Young as he was, he lived on the edge of disaster, and it would take very little to push him over. That was why he dared to stand here, defying the fates to do their worst.

Pity and terror almost overwhelmed her. Part of her wanted to run for her life, get far, far away from this creature who might become a monster if something didn’t intervene. But the other part wanted to stay and be the one to rescue him.

Suddenly, without warning, he did the thing that decided her, something terrible and wonderful in the same moment. Lowering his head, he let it fall against her shoulder, raised it, dropped it again, and again and again. It was like watching a man bang his head against a brick wall, hopelessly, robotically.

Appalled, she threw her arms around him and clutched a restraining hand over his head, forcing him to be still. His despair seemed to reach out to her, imploring her comfort, saying that only she could give it to him. To be needed so desperately was a new experience for her and, even in the midst of her dismay, she knew a kind of delight.

Over his shoulder she could see the drop, with nothing to protect him from it. Nothing but herself. She gripped him tight, silently offering him all she could. He didn’t resist, but now his head rested on her shoulder as though the strength had drained out of him.

When she drew back to see his face the bitter anguish had gone, leaving it sad and resigned, as though he’d found a kind of peace, albeit a bleak and despairing peace.

At last Lysandros gave her a faint smile, feeling deep within him a desire to protect her as she had tried to protect him. There was still good in the world. It was here in this girl, too innocent to understand the danger she ran just by being here with him. In the end she would be sullied and spoiled like the rest.

But not tonight. He wouldn’t allow it.

He tapped a number into the code pad and the glass panel closed.

‘Let’s go,’ he said, leading her away from the roof and down into the hotel.

Outside her door he said, ‘Go inside, go to bed, don’t open this door to anyone.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘I’m going to lose a lot more money. After that-I’m going to do some thinking.’

He hadn’t meant to say the last words.

‘Goodnight, Achilles.’

‘Goodnight.’

He hadn’t intended what he did next either, but on impulse he leaned down and kissed her mouth gently.

‘Go in,’ he said. ‘And lock your door.’

She nodded and slipped inside. After a moment he heard the key turn.

He returned to the tables, resigned to further losses, but mysteriously his luck turned. In an hour he’d recovered every penny. In another hour he’d doubled it.

So that was who she was, a good luck charm, sent to cast her spell and change his fortunes. He only hoped he’d also done something for her, but he would probably never know. They would never meet again.

He was wrong. They did meet again.

But not for fifteen years.