The Bones Of Odin (Matt Drake 1) (32 page)
Read The Bones Of Odin (Matt Drake 1) Online
Authors: David Leadbeater
Alicia stepped back and held an arm out to help him to his feet. “I threw Wells
towards
the ropes at Mimir’s Well. I
didn’t
kill him at Odin’s Tomb. I diverted Frey’s attention
away
from Ben Blake. I’m not in this to destroy the world, Drake, I’m just here to have me some fun.”
“Acknowledged.” Drake steadied himself, just as Torsten Dahl heaved Abel Frey’s limp body off the wide rim of Odin’s coffin. It hit the floor with a wet crack, flopping lifelessly against the Italian marble pavers.
A cheer went up, echoed throughout the coalition troops.
Dahl pumped a fist as he stared inside the coffin.
“The bastard never got to see this prize,” he laughed. “His life’s work. Jesus Christ, guys, you’ve gotta see this.”
FORTY-SIX
STOCKHOLM
A day later, Drake managed to escape from the endless round of debriefings to catch up on a few hours sleep at a nearby hotel, one of Stockholm’s oldest and finest.
In the lobby, he waited for the lift and wondered why all his thought processes were shot. They’d been made crazy by lack of sleep, constant beatings and intense pressure. He needed several days of recuperation.
The lift dinged. A figure came up beside him.
Kennedy - dressed in Saturday’s usual pantsuit, hair tightly swept back, surveying him with those tortured eyes.
“Hey.”
Words weren’t enough. To ask her if she was okay was beyond lame, it was downright foolish.
“Hey yourself.”
“Same floor?”
“Sure. They’re keeping us all boxed off but together.”
They got in. Stared at their shattered reflections in the mirror. Avoided contact with the requisite video camera. Drake pressed the button for nineteen.
“You getting through this as well as I am, Kennedy?”
She laughed genuinely. “A crazy week, or
weeks.
Not sure. It blows my mind that I ended up fighting my nemesis and clearing my name at the end of all this.”
Drake shrugged. “As did I. Ironic, eh?”
“Where’d she go? Alicia.”
“Into the night where all the best secrets go, her and that computer geek, Hudson,” Drake shrugged. “Gone before anyone who really mattered noticed them. Probably banging each others’ brains out as we speak.”
“You did the right thing. They weren’t the masterminds here. Alicia’s dangerous but not crazy. Oh, and don’t you mean into
the still of the night.
”
He took a moment to process her Dino-rock reference. He guffawed. His spirits rose faster than mercury on a sunny day.
“And Hayden?” Kennedy said as the lift doors closed and the old car began to rise slowly. “You think she’ll stick with Ben?”
“I really hope so. If not, well at least he’s had sex now, I think.”
Kennedy punched his shoulder. “Don’t count them chickens, buddy. Maybe he’ll write her a song.”
“Call it -
three and a half minutes with you!”
They were clicking slowly past the seventh floor. “Reminds me. Back at Odin’s Tomb, what was it you said? Something about me staying in York and, um,
earning my keep.”
Drake stared at her. She gave him a seductive smile.
“Well . . . I . . . I . . .” he sighed and relented. “Am hopelessly out of practice at this.”
“At what?” Kennedy’s eyes glinted with mischief.
“The old Dino-rock group
Heart
called it the
immaculate seduction.
In Yorkshire we just say ‘chatting a bird up’. We’re simple folk.”
As the lift clicked past the fourteenth floor, Kennedy unbuttoned her shirt and let it fall to the floor. Underneath she wore a red see-through bra.
“What are you doing?” Drake felt his heart jump as if it had been electro-shocked.
“Earning my keep.”
Kennedy unbuttoned her trousers and let them pool to the floor. She wore a matching pair of red panties. The elevator dinged as it arrived at their floor. Drake felt his spirits and everything else rise. The door slid open.
A young couple were waiting. The woman giggled. The guy grinned at Drake. Kennedy pulled Drake out of the lift and into the corridor, leaving her pantsuit behind.
Drake glanced back. “Don’t want it?”
“Don’t need it anymore.”
Drake swept her up into his arms. “Good job it’s a quick walk to my room.”
Kennedy let her hair down.
THE END
If you enjoyed this book look for the second Matt Drake thriller,
The Blood King Conspiracy
, out now.
The third Matt Drake adventure will be released late 2012
.
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