by Kali Anthony
Christo smiled blandly. ‘You underestimate my abilities.’
‘Perhaps... But you can’t rectify all your father’s mistakes. The antiquity smuggling, for one. If that’s disclosed your ruination will be complete.’
Christo grinned. Tito Lambros had no idea how deep a mire he was wading into.
‘I was hoping you’d come to that. My father left several letters before he died. One was to his solicitor, documenting what he knew about the stolen treasures he had unwittingly allowed Atlas to transport. Most interesting were his comments about your suspected involvement. And then there’s your link to a particular ship’s captain...’
A man who’d become suspiciously lax about documentation and the cargo that went onto each vessel. That was the information they’d sought from Thea, trying to weave her into their web of deceit. Getting more to blackmail her with when the need arose.
‘I’ve terminated his services, if you’re curious. Interpol want to talk to him.’
Tito sat back in his chair, his eyes darting to Demetri. ‘Your father’s letters won’t be believed. They’re the words of a dying man, bitterly regretting the errors he made, and trying to blame someone else for his folly.’
And this was where Thea’s help had saved him—yet even now she didn’t realise how much she’d done.
Christo took a long, slow breath, savouring the moment. ‘Perhaps. But the authorities will be interested to see the security footage from that secret room you have in your house. If I sent it to the lost antiquities register what would they find?’
Demetri stared at his father, wide-eyed.
Tito paled.
Christo had them—and he wouldn’t rest till they were finished. He stood, leaning forward and splaying his hands on the frigid marble of Tito’s desk.
‘All those times you locked Thea away, her only contact came from breaking into the computer in your office to speak to her friends. You may have changed your passwords there, but you forgot the passwords on your security system. It was only a matter of my consultants working through the list Thea gave me to find the right one. Apparently the hack isn’t complicated if you know how.’
‘You’re lying.’ Tito’s voice came out hoarse and raw.
‘You want to test that theory?’
The two men said nothing.
Christo smiled. ‘Now, let’s talk about the penalty interest...’
Two hours later Christo sauntered to his car. He slid into the back seat, took a folder from his briefcase and pulled out a sheaf of documents. Flicking through them, he came to Thea’s signature on the back page. He traced a finger over the feminine writing, sitting there with pain embedded in him like a knife as he stared at the blank space where his own signature would go.
‘Where to next, Mr Callas?’ his driver asked.
He swallowed the agony down. Later he’d dwell. For now, he could never forget that everything he did was for her. All for her.
‘To my lawyer’s,’ he said.
Christo slipped a pen out of the top pocket of his suit jacket. Scrawling his name on the line below Thea’s, he did what he had promised all those months ago. He set her free.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THEA FINISHED HER morning coffee. Christo hadn’t come for breakfast, and last night he hadn’t graced their bed. She’d woken that morning to cold sheets where his warm body normally lay and she’d been struck by the realisation that even after one night apart she missed him. Missed his touch, the way it filled her with liquid heat, with something aching, trembling. Out of control.
She didn’t know how she’d lived without it. In such a short time he’d become her every waking thought. Her night-time passion. Her secret addiction.
Should she look for him?
Thea knew he and Raul had been working long hours on the meagre information she’d given them. Trying to connect her father to something illegal and free Christo from Tito’s clutches. Perhaps that was what he’d been doing last night.
Anyway, this morning there was no time to find him. She and Elena were going out together. Maybe to do some shopping now she could spend something of her own money rather than save for a grand escape. It would be fun for a change, and it was her time for a bit of fun. She hadn’t thought about escaping for a long while.
She’d missed Elena desperately, thinking she and her friend would be separated permanently. Now the freedom to do normal things other women of her age did filled Thea with an almost girlish glee. For the first time in her life she felt valued. Cared for as an individual, not as a possession to be traded. Another thing to thank Christo for.
That list was ever increasing.
Thea smiled as she stretched in the morning sun, contemplating the number of ways she would thank her husband. A seductive pulse beat low in her belly...
As pleasant as it was, luxuriating in those thoughts, none of them would get her to Elena any faster. She sighed. Christo would have to wait.
Checking her watch, she made her way through the house, running into Anna.
‘Thea—Mr Callas wants to see you. He’s in his study.’
Thea grinned and her heart missed a few beats. She almost skipped to his office, not waiting to knock before she pushed the door open and walked in, snicking it shut behind her.
Christo sat at his massive oak desk. He clearly hadn’t been home last night. The clothes he wore were the same as yesterday. His usually pristine shirt was crushed and his hair messed, as if he’d run his hand through it too many times. In most men it would look unkempt. In Christo it made him ruggedly handsome.
Thea’s breath caught. The man could ignite her with a glance and she didn’t care. The walls no longer closed in on her in quiet moments. She wasn’t afraid of being trapped. Not anymore.
Christo raised tired eyes to hers. And there was something else she noticed. The lack of heat in them.
Every look he’d cast her way in the past weeks had threatened to singe her to ashes. Today there was nothing but...devastation.
Thea’s heart pounded. Not even after his father had died had she seen him like this. Something terrible had happened.
‘Christo, what’s wrong?’
He motioned with his hand. ‘Take a seat.’
So cool. Businesslike. It made her nervous.
She dropped into a solid leather chair opposite him. Leaned back. Crossed her legs. Tried to look casual and relaxed when inside she was bound in knots.
‘I have to meet Elena soon.’
‘This won’t take long.’
His Adam’s apple rose and fell as he swallowed. Her hands clenched reflexively into tight fists. The cut of her nails into her palms settled her racing heart a fraction.
‘Is it about my father? Has Raul found anything?’
Christo shook his head. ‘That wasn’t a condition of granting what you wanted.’
His voice was so cold it chilled her bones.
He picked up a pen, tapped it on the leather desktop. ‘You’ve fulfilled your obligations. That’s all I ever required.’
She didn’t understand. None of this made sense. ‘What are you talking about?’
It was as if he wasn’t looking at her, but at a point over her shoulder. She turned, the leather of her seat creaking under her, but there was no one there.
‘Since Hector’s gone and the estate’s been settled, it’s time to talk about bringing our arrangement to an end.’
She jerked back as if he’d slapped her. After what they’d shared... All their nights together... How could he do this now? Surely things had changed. How dared he do this without talking to her first about the future?
‘You don’t get to say that without looking me in the eyes.’ She gritted her teeth. ‘Look at me, Christo.’
He didn’t, instead leafing through some papers on his desk.
�
��How did you think it was going to end, Thea?’
She hadn’t thought about an ending in such a long time. Now she understood the truth in her throbbing heart. She didn’t know how she wanted it to end, only that she didn’t want it to end immediately.
‘As for your settlement,’ he said, as if he was running through some awful shopping list, ‘your investment’s grown. That solar start-up in the States paid off. I’ve added half a million euros to the amount you had in the bank.’
Obviously Christo didn’t feel the same way as her. Nothing had changed for him. She couldn’t breathe. A tight band had wrapped around her chest.
‘Christo. Please.’ He was handing her everything she’d ever dreamed of and yet she wanted none of it.
‘Ours was only ever a short-term arrangement. You wanted a life. I’m granting it to you. Along with a fully furnished house in Glyfada.’
At the beach? She loved the beach. But it was just another possession. Another thing. She wanted to hurl it right back at him.
‘Is this what you want?’ she asked.
He looked at her now, and all she saw was blankness. Nothing but the cold, dark heart of him. The man from the night of her marriage, from the negotiations with her father. Where was the gentle, passionate person she thought she’d discovered? It was as if he’d never existed.
Christo gave a curt nod. ‘I signed the divorce papers yesterday and delivered them to my lawyer. It’s done.’
‘No!’
‘There are no happily-ever-afters here,’ he said, lifting the papers he’d been looking through and tapping them on the desktop till they were straight.
He put them in a folder and slid it across to her.
‘In addition to those settlements I’ve negotiated a ten-million-euro payment from your father. You’ll be a wealthy woman. Free to do whatever you want. The removal company will come tomorrow to pack your things. I’ve taken the liberty of delivering your motorcycle to your new home. I’ll leave all the necessary keys with Anna. The estate agent will show you around.’
She didn’t know this man. The man who stuck a knife in her heart with no remorse. There was nothing left of the husband who’d made love to her till she’d wept from pleasure. This man only caused pain.
‘You’ve been busy.’
He was casting her out. Moving on. Had these past months meant nothing to him?
‘You’ve kept me from the business I have to attend to. You wanted a life. I want my life back.’
The thought of him taking back his life made her ill. Living without her, seeing other women... She swallowed down the saliva flooding her mouth. Swallowed past the tight, choking feeling that crept into her throat, as if the world was trying to throttle her. He’d planned this all along, using her in the process. Well, she wouldn’t let him see her humiliation.
‘The wedding and engagement rings are yours to keep,’ he said.
She looked at the still twinkling gems on her finger. Funny how she’d forgotten they were even there, and yet they were mocking her now. She wrenched them from her hand and tossed them on the leather desktop. Christo watched their trajectory as they bounced and fell in front of him.
‘Since I’m not married any more I don’t want them,’ she hissed. ‘Give them to your next bride of convenience.’
He shrugged, then stood and walked out from behind the desk. ‘Your father has retracted his complaint against Alexis. He says it was an accounting error. The charges are in the process of being dropped. When that’s happened, Raul will give you Alexis’s new number.’
She slumped in the chair. At least some good had come from this disaster.
Christo stopped as he reached her. Sliding his hand into his pocket, he placed something carefully on the desktop. Thea saw the gleaming gold of her mother’s necklace. She picked it up. The metal was warm from his hand. Tears pricked her eyes, burned her nose as she blinked hard.
She didn’t look back as Christo walked away from her, as the door of his office clicked open. She felt his hesitation, heard the scuff of leather soles on carpet.
‘Goodbye, Thea.’
The door closed behind him and he was gone from her life for ever.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THEA TOYED WITH her lunch, chasing a rogue olive around the plate. Another meal. Another hour passing in this, the eighty-seventh day since she’d walked from Christo’s home with everything and nothing.
Not that she’d been counting since that moment. Not at all. Not since those awful minutes when she’d left his office and a distraught Anna had handed her a bunch of keys and an envelope. No, it was done now.
She sipped at a glass of wine, which could have been vinegar for all she cared. Today her mission was to choose a gown for a function at the American Embassy in a few days’ time. She was having fun. It was what she’d always wanted. It should have been perfect. No, it was perfect. It was...
‘Are you missing Alexis?’ Elena sat opposite, her lunch long devoured. She peered at Thea over a pair of oversized sunglasses.
A week earlier Alexis had left for Australia to visit his father. And, yes, she missed him. Their reunion had been full of joy and hugs and tears, and it hadn’t been long enough after everything that had happened. Now he was spending six months travelling the world, and when he returned to Greece he was taking up a role in Raul’s security company. She suspected that was Christo’s doing too...
‘Paidi mou. You’re not happy.’
Wasn’t she happy? She had everything she’d ever desired. A house. Wealth. Freedom. And what she didn’t want—her father’s money—she’d put to good use in funding a refuge for women who were escaping family violence. Achieving something worthwhile.
She had a wide circle of acquaintances. Her life was hers to control. All the freedom she’d ever wanted and yet those old fears returned late at night. Of being trapped in a cage. Rattling the bars till cold sweat prickled down her neck. The same fear which once had her clenching her fists till her nails bit into her palms.
Now those fears took her out early, riding her motorcycle in the predawn air. Riding till the sun rose. Pretending she could fly. Always pretending...
Elena reached out and squeezed her hand. ‘What happened, Thea?’
Why did she feel so rooted to the ground when she could do anything she wanted?
Thea stared into her empty glass.
Christo.
She’d hated him in those days after she’d left his home. In those lonely days when she’d forgotten the words he’d repeated so often. ‘It’s all for you.’ Now, everywhere she turned, that was all she heard. His voice, whispering that truth in her ear.
When she’d walked into the exquisite house he’d chosen for her...when she’d waved Alexis away at the airport...when she’d heard the rumour that Demetri had betrayed her father to the authorities to save himself.
Christo had given it all to her. Everything she craved. Almost. But the most important part was missing. Leaving an ache which hadn’t eased.
Thea looked up at her friend.
‘I fell in love.’
Those simple words freed her. She smiled at the power of her admission. Felt a spark telling her that if she acknowledged that truth, anything was possible.
‘I love Christo.’
Elena slapped her thigh. ‘I knew it! So what are you going to do about it?’
Thea flopped in her seat. She had no answers. Did Christo love her in return? He’d loved her body—there she had no doubts. As for the rest...she didn’t know. Their last conversation had left her questioning everything, hearing the chill in his voice as he froze her out of his life. But his actions... His desolation when he’d let her go...
Because in the end everything he’d done had all been for her. She couldn’t sit back ignoring the truth any longer. She loved him. She wanted him. And moping abou
t it was not an acceptable option.
‘I’ve got to go.’
She stood, bumping the table as she rose. Her wine glass teetered. She steadied it.
Elena raised her eyebrows. ‘Where?’
There was only one thing to do. Her first real choice. No more pretending.
‘To tell Christo I love him.’
* * *
Thea rode her motorcycle through the open gates of Christo’s mansion, pulling to a stop near the immense pots overflowing with the magenta riot of bougainvillea. As she removed her helmet the cast-iron gates behind her slid to a close. She tried to ignore the ominous clang as they locked.
Swinging from her seat, she stuffed her gloves into the helmet and hung it from the handlebars. Everything would be fine.
Tell that to her terrified heart.
She stopped and took a few deep breaths, catching the scent of citrus blossom drifting on the warm air, reminding her of a day when all she’d wanted to do was run. Well, she wasn’t running away now. Instead, she strode to the front door, which opened as she reached it.
Anna.
Thea pulled her into a tight hug. ‘I hope I haven’t made things difficult for you by coming?’
‘As I said when you called, you’re worth the trouble. Anyway, nothing could make things more difficult than they are now.’
Anna led her into the bright foyer and closed the door behind them.
Thea unzipped her jacket, the cool air of the house washing over her. ‘If anything happens today, you’ll always have a job with me.’
Anna waved her hand, a tightness pinching her eyes. ‘I’m not worried about my job... I’m hoping you can help Mr Callas.’
At his name, Thea felt a shock of adrenalin spike through her.
‘How is he?’
‘Unforgiving. Of himself, mostly. But there’s more. Your room...he got rid of all the furniture. Curtains. Tore up the carpet. It’s all bare. He refuses to allow us to speak of you. It’s like you were never here.’
