I lift my head to look at her. “You did great, zoí mou.”
Her fingers find my head and she pulls me closer. Our lips meet in a soft kiss that soon turns ravenous. I bite on her bottom lip and tease her tongue with mine. She whimpers when I nestle on top of her between her thighs and grind against her. My dick is aching to be inside her, but now’s not the time. Not when I have to get answers. She claws at my tie and manages to loosen it. Banging can be heard at the front door, but I ignore it for a few more seconds with my wife.
“Mr. Demetriou,” Basil bellows. “We heard gunfire. Are you okay?”
I groan, pulling from Talia’s lips. “I’m fine,” I call out. Aside from the fucking blue balls. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
My lips meet Talia’s once more for a brief kiss. “I need to take care of business.”
“What business?”
“Interrogate the man who tried to take you,” I snarl.
Her brows furrow. “Like Cy the liar?”
“Probably more intense of an interrogation. Cy was a liar. This motherfucker tried to hurt my wife. It carries a heavier offense.”
She nods as though she approves of my monstrous intentions. “I want to come with you.”
“It’s probably best if you stay and rest.”
Tears flood her eyes. “Please don’t leave me again.”
Fuck.
“Fine,” I relent. “Let’s get this over with. I have a big fucking PR mess to deal with.”
“Your dad?” she croaks.
“Alive. They didn’t get to him, but they shot a lot of people at the hospital.”
“I’m sorry.”
I kiss her once more. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”
Once I coaxed Talia out of the closet, I changed out of my suit into something a little more comfortable. A pair of navy shorts and a red T-shirt. No sense in dirtying up one of my good suits. Talia also changed from her dress into something that looked better suited for the beach—a pair of jean shorts and a black tank top. Now, we probably look like a tourist couple who got lost and ended up in a torture cellar.
Lucky for us, we’re the torturers and not the other way around.
Three men sit in chairs, tied tight by my men. The one who tried to take Talia has his ski mask sitting in his lap. My men wanted me to know which one should get the most of my attention. This is why I pay them well. They know my preferences.
“Care to sit, zoí mou?” I ask, lifting a brow at her, motioning to the sofa where Aris is already seated wearing a hateful scowl.
She shakes her head and reluctantly releases my hand. “I’ll stand here.”
I kiss her cheek before turning to regard the hunks of shit tied to the chairs. They stink and I want them gone. But I want answers first.
“Names,” I bark out. “I want your names.”
Nobody responds.
Okay, I suppose we’ll do this the hard way.
Walking over to the guy on the far right, I slam my fist into his throat. He gasps and chokes for air, struggling against his restraints. When I pull back my fist, he sputters out a name.
Gio.
“Next,” I state in a bored tone.
The middle man, also wearing a suit, scowls at me. His body tenses as he awaits my blow. I give Basil a hard look and he tosses a knife at me. When I catch it by the hilt, the middle man tenses.
“We both know I’ll do whatever it takes to get your fucking name,” I growl. “One, two—”
“Jordan,” the man barks out, sweat beads racing down his forehead.
Turning my attention to the asshole who tried to take Talia, I give him an expectant look. He trembles like a motherfucking girl at a horror flick. When I’m done with him, he’ll be less than a man and there’ll be enough blood. I can see where he’d be confused. He must sense my malevolent intentions because he pisses on himself. The middle man, Jordan, curses in disgust.
“P-P-Pauly,” the wannabe bitch cries out.
“Okay, P-P-Pauly,” I taunt. “Why the fuck were you trying to steal my goddamn wife?”
He sobs. “I fucked up, man.”
He fucked up.
This pussy has no motherfucking idea how badly he fucked up.
“Hmmm,” is all I say as I approach him.
The man stills when I run the blade along his carotid artery, cutting just deep enough to open his skin. One wrong move and I’ll puncture the vein that keeps him alive. He cries out in pain but doesn’t move a muscle. Crimson runs quickly from the cut. I take a step back and admire my handiwork.
“I need more of an answer than ‘I fucked up’ because that’s not a fucking answer. I want to know who hired you.”
He trembles, his dark eyes darting all around. “Niles Nikolaides,” he blurts out.
Talia gasps from nearby. Betrayal cuts deep. I cut fucking deeper. This motherfucker is about to learn: you mess with a Demetriou and you’ll pay the hard way. Talia Demetriou is mine to avenge.
“Niles Nikolaides wanted you to what? Kidnap his daughter and be a hero? I’m sorry,” I tell him, shaking my head. “Seems a little out of character for that worm.”
“H-He thought with you d-distracted by your f-father, he could sneak in and sneak out with her.”
“So he sent a pussy to do his dirty work?” I demand. “A little bitch who pisses himself in the face of true danger? A cunt of a man who thought stealing a Demetriou would make him a tough guy?”
“N-No,” he whimpers. “I had other plans. I wasn’t going to hurt her. I was g-going to contact you. Return her in exchange f-for more cash and offer up that N-Nikolaides was behind this.”
I set my knife in his lap on top of his mask and dig my fingers into his cut. He howls in pain when I rip open his flesh, baring his veins and muscle. “So you thought you could blackmail me, bitch? Is that what you thought? A little Nikolaides errand runner thought he could go toe to fucking toe with me?”
The man screams and squirms in pain. I push my fingers into the meat of his neck, rolling my thumb over his carotid that pulses furiously. His head lolls as he nearly passes out, but when I spit in his face, he jolts awake.
“Apologize to my wife,” I snarl, massaging his fat vein.
“I’m s-so sorry,” he moans.
“Sorry for what?”
“F-For trying to steal her.”
“Tell her you’re just a little bitch who couldn’t even capture a woman right. Tell her you’re a fucking failure. Tell her you’re a piece of shit who doesn’t deserve to share the same motherfucking air she breathes,” I roar, inches from his face.
“I, uh, what was the first part?”
I yank hard on his slippery vein, breaking it like a piece of liquorish. Blood sprays outward in a high arc, and I sidestep it to avoid the mess. I grip his chin and make him look at my wife.
“Talia, he’s sorry.”
The man twitches and convulses as his life bleeds out of him. Too easy. Too quick. But the fact he’s denying me of time with Talia pisses me off.
“Now,” I growl, turning toward Jordan. “I want to know why you thought you could try and kill my father. Who fucking sent you?”