“I think they orchestrated all of what we went through, including what happened to you, to knock me out of contention,” Alex said.
Oz was stunned. “I’ll be damned! They knew if you were appointed, you’d put a stop to their money grab.”
“Right,” Alex said. “There’s no doubt about that.”
“So you think Galanis did it, and not Paddy?”
“Not the Prime Minister, no. He’s a coward in the end. But Marilyn would have pulled this shit. She wanted to finally get her revenge.”
“Revenge again,” Kari said, shaking her head.
“Why else would anybody go after my wife, instead of me directly?” Alex asked. “She knew how I loved Kari. She knew it.”
“Where can we find the bitch?” Oz asked. “Do we know?”
Alex nodded. The president would have just told her about her appointment, and in person no doubt. He nodded his head. “I think so, yes,” he said.
But then he looked at Kari.
“Are you kidding, go!” she said. “Or she may try to finish the job.”
Alex smiled, and kissed her.
“But remember Billy,” Kari said. “Don’t be a hero!”
Alex laughed. “I won’t.” Then he looked at Oz. “Take care of her.”
“What do you mean? I’m going too. It’s my country too!”
“I need you to look after my family until I get back. Until I’m certain there’s no more moving pieces to this situation.”
Oz exhaled. He understood.
“Be careful,” he said. “And don’t be Billy.”
Alex smiled, but then he took off.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
“I’m can’t wait to begin,” Marilyn Carrio said as Franklin Maurice escorted her out of the White House.
“We’ll send you the packet first thing tomorrow morning,” he said. “It’ll detail all of the protocols and the invites, your flight itinerary, and the meet-and-greet at the embassy.”
“Sounds wonderful, Franklin. Tell the president, once again, that I am truly appreciative.”
“He knows you are,” Franklin said. “But I will be happy to tell him again.” Franklin smiled, they kissed cheek to cheek, and then Marilyn got into the waiting limousine. The limo drove away.
Marilyn immediately pulled out her cell phone and placed a call. “It’s done,” she said. “The announcement has been made, and all that’s left is the swearing-in ceremony. That’s right. They call it here, I think, the cat bird’s seat. That’s it. We are in the cat bird’s seat now, darling. Yes. Oh, yes. Okay. I will phone you once I’m rested. Tar-tar.” Then she ended the call.
But when she looked out of the window, at her surroundings, she was surprised. “Excuse me,” she said to the driver. “Excuse me? Where are you taking me? I’m staying at the Hays-Adams. It’s just around the corner from the White House. Where are we going?”
But the driver did not respond. He kept driving.
At first, Marilyn didn’t know what to make of it. Was he hearing her? She even searched for an intercom button to press.
But the more he drove, and the further away they went, she knew something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
She grabbed her cell phone, and was about to calmly dial 911, but suddenly the driver slammed on brakes, turned his body around, and pointed a gun at her face.
“Throw it here,” he ordered her.
“Who are you?” she asked. He was not the driver that had picked her up and driven her to the White House.
“You don’t understand who I am,” Marilyn said.
“Give it to me, bitch!” the driver yelled. “Now!” And when he said now, he cocked the trigger.
Marilyn, terrified, quickly threw her cell phone to him. He caught it. Then he turned back around, and continued to drive.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked him again. He said nothing.
She was getting scared now. She attempted to slyly open the door. He was driving steadily, but not fast. If she could only open that door, she was thinking she would take the leap.
But the door was locked. And there was no mechanism to open it. She was as she thought she was: his prisoner.
By the time he was outside of DC, and was on a long, isolated road, her heart began to pound. Was she really being kidnapped? She was just named the ambassador to Greece, and was this fool really attempting to kidnap the ambassador to Greece? Or was Galanis playing a trick on her? Was that it? Was this all a cruel joke?
But she wasn’t laughing. Because it didn’t feel like any joke he’d ever pulled on her, and he’d pulled plenty. And for this to happen now, just when the U.S. bailout money was about to be released to their coffers, providing the ambassador gave the okay, was the height of rudeness. She was the ambassador. She was absolutely poised to give her okay. It was the absolute worse time!
But her warped thinking was only surpassed by her fear. She was deathly afraid. Especially when the limo finally came to a stop.
And the driver just sat there.
Marilyn looked out of the window. All she saw were woods and more woods. What was this?
But then she heard the door unlock. Was he having second thoughts and was going to let her go? Or was it some sort of trap?
She didn’t know, and she wasn’t waiting to find out. At least outside she stood a chance. In that vehicle, she was at his complete mercy. She got out of that limo, and took off.
Only she took off running in the opposite direction, back toward DC. The limo, she realized as she looked back, kept going too. Only it kept going away from DC. She began to feel a little better.
But she needed help. He had her phone. He had her purse. She had nothing!
Then a car began driving her way. A car on such a desolate stretch of highway was a sight to see, and she began waving her arms. If they would only stop and assist her!
The car drove past her, but it did put on brakes, and began backing up.
Marilyn, feeling some relief, began running toward it as it backed up. And then, when it stopped, she ran around, to the driver side window.
She was talking as the window was rolling down. “My name is Marilyn Carrio. I am the ambassador to Greece.”
When she saw the face of the man behind the wheel, she was shocked. Absolutely shocked. “Alexio?” she asked.
Alex could see the shock and terror in her eyes when she realized it was him. She never would have guessed it would be him. But then, she smiled. That was her way too.
“Alexio!” she cried. “Oh, how wonderful to see you. I was just kidnapped and taken to this desolate place. You must help me. You must help me at once!”
“This desolate place?” Alex asked. “This is the place where my wife was shot.”
A look appeared in her eyes, but she was too seasoned to give it away. She kept up the charade. “Please let me in. You’ve got to help me! He may come back.”
“Who may come back?”
“The driver!”
The driver worked for Alex. “He’s dead,” Alex said.
Her smile disappeared. “The driver’s dead?”
“No, not the driver. He’s fine.”
“Then who’s dead, Alexio? What are you talking about?”
“Paddy Jupe is dead. Your henchman? He’s dead, Marilyn.”
And it was only then did her fake look turn real. She knew there was no point in pretending. If he knew that Paddy Jupe worked for her, he knew everything else.
She took off running. She knew what Alex Drakos was capable of. She knew him when he worked for his father. She didn’t look back.
Alex sped up and drove past her, and then slung his car in front of her, causing her to have no choice but to change course, and run into the woods.
It was exactly where he wanted her.
He got out of the car and chased after her.
They were running uphill the entire time, up a steep incline, and such steepness slowed both of them. Marilyn was not a slothful runner, but she w
asn’t a particularly fast one either. Alex overtook her fairly quickly.
He grabbed her by the arm and slung her around.
“Let me go!” she cried. “Let me go! You lost and I won. Face it! I was the better choice.”
“The better choice to raid the people of Greece? Yes, you were.”
“Fuck Greece! What has it ever done for me but give me heartache time and time again? At least I can get rich out of it. You got rich out of it. Your money isn’t clean either!”
But she would not be tamed. She kept fighting to break free. “Let me go!” she cried again. “I hate you! Let me go!”
“Why did you go after my wife? Why didn’t you come after me?”
“We weren’t ever going to let you lord it over us,” she cried. “Galanis wasn’t going to allow it, and neither would I. And just when the bailout was about to take place? You would never approve it, and we knew it. But unlike Galanis, I decided to take matters into my own hands. That’s why I hired Paddy Jupalani. That’s why I hired those hit men. And it all worked. I was able to knock you down a peg or two, show you what a heartbreak feels like, and become the ambassador to Greece while I was at it. I was in charge of stopping you, and putting myself forward. Galanis didn’t know my methods, and he didn’t care. He just wants the money. And our president fell for it.”
“After you did everything in your power to tarnish my family,” Alex said.
She smiled. “You’d better be glad that’s all I did. She should have been dead.”
Those words stuck to Alex like bad glue. “You wanted to kill my wife,” he said to Marilyn, “when you don’t even know her? Come for me. Why didn’t your ass come for me!”
“You left me for her!” Marilyn cried. “You were the love of my life and you left me for that black bitch! How could you? How could you, Alex?”
And she reached out and bit his arm. When he grabbed for it because of the pain, she broke away from him, and ran.
But Alex ran after her, easily overtaking her again, and slung her by the hair and slung her backwards.
But he ended up with a fistful of extensions, rather than Marilyn, and she jumped back up and took off again.
Alex ran after her again, and was just about to overtake her, until he realized where they were. And where she was heading.
She had no clue.
When she realized she was running out of real estate, and was in fact at the edge of the incline, she tried to pump her brakes. She tried with all she had to stop on a dime. But her momentum wouldn’t allow it.
Alex was right there. He could have reached for her and pulled her back. He was just that close. He could have saved her life.
But she was the woman who tried to take Kari’s.
And he wasn’t about to give her another bite at that apple.
Alex let her sail.
And Marilyn Carrio, the newly minted ambassador to Greece, felt the earth disappear beneath her feet and she fell over the edge and all the way down to her death.
Alex leaned over and watched until she hit rock bottom, her hair blossomed out into a fan-like halo around her.
Still beautiful.
Still evil.
But no longer able to touch his wife.
Alex walked back to his car, got in, and took off too.
EPILOGUE
“One. Two. Three!”
Oz and Jordan ran as fast as they could across the length of the patio and dived into Alex’s massive pool. They both were fast, but once Oz hit that water, he was a beast. He smoked Jordan.
Kari laughed. Jordan was laughing too. “Can’t a kid get a break?” he was saying, and then took more laps.
“Oz is not playing though,” Kari said.
“He’ll destroy a child’s self-esteem if it means he’ll win in the end,” Alex said of his competitive brother.
“And you won’t?” Kari asked, and Alex couldn’t help but smile.
They were on the patio of his Hudson Valley estate, and Kari was relaxing on a lounger. Alex, though in trunks himself, had been seated beside her the entire time. It was her first time outside, getting some sun, and he wasn’t leaving her side.
A fact that wasn’t lost on Kari. “You can do a few laps, honey,” she said to him. “I’m fine.”
“I’m good,” Alex said. And he leaned back on his lounger too.
Kari looked at him. “It’s been a long couple weeks,” she said, “but I’m on the mend. I don’t want you worrying so much.”
“A week ago you nearly died,” Alex responded. “I have every right to worry.” Then he took her hand. “But I’m on the mend too,” he said, and meant it. Before she was on the road to recovery, he had been an emotional wreck.
“The papers are saying her death was accidental,” Kari said. “They said the limo she was in lost control, drove off of the road, through the woods, and ended up some sort of hill. The driver was believed to have drown in the lake, but his body hasn’t been recovered.”
Alex nodded. His men set up that scene after he left, to make it look like an accident. An improbable accident, but plausible enough. “Sorry to hear that,” he said.
Kari knew that was going to be his line forever, and she wasn’t going to ask for any details. “Dez called me,” she said.
“What did she want?”
“Just to check on me. But she said she hasn’t heard from Hector.”
Alex’s people found him in Jersey, and handled him too.
“But you know what she said?”
“What?”
“She said she’s glad he hasn’t been in touch. She’s still got bruises from that beating he put on her that hasn’t healed. Those bruises keep reminding her of what he did to her.”
Alex nodded. “Good,” he said. “She’s a good woman, but she’d better understand that love has limitations. At least, that kind of love.”
“Not our kind?” Kari asked him.
Alex squeezed her hand. “Not our kind,” he said.
And then his cell phone rang as Oz got out of the water.
“What’s the matter, old man?” Kari asked Oz. “Tired?”
Oz was breathing heavily. “You bet cha,” he said, and Kari laughed.
“Hello?” Alex answered his phone. “Yes. Yes, I’ll hold.”
Kari and Oz looked at him. “Who is it?” Kari asked.
“The White House,” Alex said.
Oz smiled. “Oh, hell yeah,” he said. “They’re going to offer him the ambassadorship. He was their second choice, after all.”
Alex looked at Kari. She was smiling, but she looked down, at her hands, and suddenly seemed nervous. But she looked back at him, and smiled again.
And then the president came on the line. “Hello, sir,” Alex said. And then he mostly listened. “Okay. Yes, I heard.” He listened some more.
Jordan got out of the pool. “I won because I stayed in the longest,” he said.
But Oz shushed him. “The president is on the phone,” he said.
“About what?” Jordan asked.
“Ambassadorship,” Oz said. “What else?”
Jordan looked at his mother. He was terrified of moving to another country where Alex would have to work alongside a prime minister who might have had a hand in what happened to Kari, if what Oz told him was true.
But he also remembered what his mother said. Alex sacrificed so much for them, and never asked anything in return.
“Yes, sir,” Alex said, got up, and moved away. He walked to the opposite side of the pool, still on the phone with the president.
Oz sat down on the side of the lounger Alex had vacated. Jordan sat down beside him.
“What do you think he’s going to do?” Jordan asked his mother.
“He’s going to say yes,” Oz said. “Why wouldn’t he?”
Jordan hunched his shoulders, and Kari looked at him. Jordan didn’t even want to live in New York, let alone Greece. He actually liked Apple Valley. But he had to keep reminding himself that his moth
er was right. Alex had a right to pursue his dreams too.
Alex finally ended the call and made his way back to the group. And he stood before them.
“What did he want?” Oz asked him.
“He offered me the ambassadorship,” Alex said.
“And you accepted it, right?” Oz said.
“No,” Alex said. “Wrong.”
Oz was shocked. Kari and Jordan were too. “Why not, Alex?” Kari asked. “It’ll be a chance for you to do a lot of good.”
“What good would I be doing,” Alex said, “if it means putting my family at risk? That government, from top to bottom, are as corrupt as hell. They aren’t going to let me come in there and take their cash cow away without putting up a fight to the death. It’ll be hell.”
Oz smiled. “Sounds like a great adventure to me,” he said, rubbing his hands together.
“No,” Alex said, sitting on Kari’s lounger with her, “I think we’ve had enough adventures for a while.”
“But what about your dream?” Kari asked him.
“You and Jordan, and even that lug over there they call Oz, is my dream come true.” Then Alex smiled a great big, affectionate smile. “I’m good,” he said.
Jordan jumped up and pumped his fist, and Kari smiled too. And she actually exhaled. “I was praying you’d say that,” she said. And they all laughed.
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Alex Drakos: For My Lover Page 19
