Lure of Obsession (The Muse Chronicles Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

him. “If there’s no evidence, then why the sudden change of heart?”
    He looked up at her, and the urge to touch him swelled. She crossed her arms, no longer confident she could trust her hands.
    “You told me she never turned off the lights, and they were all off, even upstairs. Your alibi checked out, so if it wasn’t you and she never turned them off, then who did?”
    She tapped her fingernail on the printouts he’d brought. “Where does our pal Kronos play into all this?”
    He slid all the pages back together and put them into the manila file folder. “Call it a hunch for now.”
    She raised a brow. “Another hunch ? What aren’t you telling me?”
    “Look, when I have something concrete, you’ll be the first one to know.” He stood up, taking both the mythology book and the folder in one large hand. “Thanks for the information and the book.”
    He was hiding something from her. “You’re welcome.” He turned to go and her heart hammered in her chest. “Detective Malone?”
    He stopped and glanced back. “You can call me Nate.”
    Nate. She filed that away for later. “I’ll be finished here at three thirty. I was planning on grading a few papers at the café at the end of the block before I meet my sisters at the theater. If you come by, I could give you a crash course on Kronos and the Golden Age of Man.”
    The corner of his lips tugged up in a lopsided smile that awoke the butterflies in her stomach. “I can use all the help I can get,” he said. “I’ll see you there.”
    Her classroom door closed behind him, leaving her in the silence to replay the conversation. She didn’t know his secret yet, but she was going to find out.

    “We might have a problem.”
    Ted Belkin sighed and lifted his head.
    Marion was leaning against the doorway. “I just got word from the building inspector’s office that those women you wanted me to keep an eye on came in today for a new permit on that theater.”
    The damned theater. Les Neufs Soeurs, the Cult of the Muses.
    His blood pressure shot up as he tightened his grip on the computer mouse. “Thank you, Marion.”
    She nodded and headed out of the room, closing the door behind her. Ted snatched the phone receiver from its cradle, punching his frustration into the keypad.
    “Yes?” a man said on the other end of the line.
    He lowered his voice, staring at the back of his office door. “I thought you took care of them.”
    “As I reported last night, I was only able to eradicate one target. Urania, the Muse of Astronomy, is no more.”
    Ted tipped his leather chair back, shifting his gaze to the ceiling. “That’s not enough. They were at the permit office today.”
    “Panic isn’t going to further our cause.”
    “I’m not panicking, you little pissant. I don’t think you realize the importance of keeping that theater from opening.”
    He paused long enough for Ted to begin wondering if he’d hung up. “I’m well aware of what’s at stake, sir.”
    “Then get the damned job done. And for god’s sake, find a contact in the building department and see if we can stall their project in the meantime.”
    “I understand. For the good of mankind.”
    “Exactly.”
    Ted slammed the phone back down into its cradle and swiveled his chair to stare out the window. From his office on the sixth floor, he could see the expanse of the Pacific glittering before him. A few miles offshore, his oilrig continued cutting through the rock at the bottom of the ocean, carving through the layers of the Earth. He twisted the heavy gold ring around his finger. It had been in his family for generations, passed down to each eldest child along with the family mission of once again ushering in the Golden Age of Man.
    His great-great-grandfather had been the first of their Order to make physical progress toward the ultimate goal: to free the powerful prisoners from the center of the Earth. In 1896, off the coast of Santa Barbara, his great-great-grandfather used