“What you see is what you get with me,” I remind her. “Psychopath and all. And if you’re not only married to me, but also enjoy getting fucked all hours of the day by said psychopath, what does that make you, hmmm?”
“Dumb.”
I let out a chuckle as we step outside. “It makes you a psychopath too, zoí mou. Own it. You’re not the same woman who stepped onto Crete.” I give her hand a squeeze. “You’re one of us now.”
She doesn’t argue, simply rests her head against my arm as we walk.
The drive to the groundskeeper’s house isn’t long, and soon we’re walking down into the cellar hand in hand. When we reach the bottom, anger bursts up inside me to find the chair empty and no one tied to it.
“What the fuck?” I roar, my fury aimed at Basil.
Basil scowls and points to the corner where Phoenix stands smoking a cigarette. “I said I had Nikolaides.”
“You implied it was Niles,” I snarl. I yank my hand from Talia’s grip, eager to fuck someone up.
“Good afternoon to you too, Kostas,” Phoenix says coldly, dropping his cigarette to his feet and stubbing it out with his shoe. “Talia. Good to see you. Do I get a hug?”
Before I can forbid her to see him, she rushes over to him and hugs him. Jealousy lashes at me, which is fucking stupid. She’s his sister. They’re not long lost lovers finally reunited. Not one single thing about their hug should I be jealous about.
And yet I am.
I grit my teeth and level Basil with a hard glare. “You know better than this shit,” I growl at my family’s long-time bodyguard.
Basil has the sense to look ashamed. “He wanted to talk to you and—”
“You report to him now?” I demand, a tsunami of rage consuming me.
“No,” Basil grits out.
“He reports to me,” Aris says, clomping down the stairs. “I told him to keep it vague. We need answers, and you’d be pissed if you learned we didn’t have Niles. This conversation still needed to happen, and if you knew we didn’t have Niles, you would’ve stayed holed away doing your husbandly duties.” He smirks at the last part.
Talia clings to her brother, frowning at me.
“Then start fucking talking,” I bite out, my eyes on Phoenix. “Where’s your father?”
Phoenix’s eyes flare with anger. “Underground.”
“Where?” I seethe.
“That, I don’t know,” Phoenix grumbles. “He won’t even tell me.”
“Put him in the chair,” I bark at Basil.
Basil starts for them, but Talia clings harder to Phoenix.
“No, Kostas,” she begs. “He’s telling the truth!”
Fucking woman.
I knew I should have left her fine ass in bed where she fucking belongs.
“He’s telling the truth,” Aris agrees. “Two of our guys have been tracking Phoenix’s activity and can confirm this.”
“Then what the fuck is the point of this meeting?” I hiss, seconds away from yanking Talia from Phoenix so I can pummel his smug face just for the goddamn fun of it.
Aris scrubs his face in frustration. “We need him to draw out Niles. Something he’s agreed to do as long as he has contact with his sister.”
The hairs on my arms rise. I don’t take fucking lightly to people making plans behind my back. Basil keeps his gaze averted to the ground. He fucked up and he knows it. I’ll let Adrian deal with his misstep.
“I’m supposed to believe you’d sell your father out?” I demand, glowering at Phoenix.
“I’m not selling him out,” Phoenix snaps. “I’m telling you I don’t know where he is and I’ll give whatever information I have, which isn’t much, so you can find him.”
Anger rolls off me in waves hot enough to burn everyone in the room. “Why are you being so compliant?”
“Jesus, Kostas,” Aris grumbles. “It’s right in your face.”
Phoenix tightens his hold around his sister. “I don’t want to be cut off from Talia. I shouldn’t have to pay for the sins of my father and neither should she.”
I crack my neck, desperate to relieve some tension. “They’re paying taxes to the Demetrious now?” I ask Aris. “Every penny plus interest?”
Aris nods. “Now that Niles is gone, Phoenix has been doing damage control. The money is flowing in from Thessaloniki as it should be. Numbers look good now that Niles is no longer dipping his greedy fingers in the pot.”
“No more games,” I growl, darting my eyes from Aris to Basil. Then, I land my eyes on Phoenix. “I want you to do whatever it takes to get Niles out of hiding.”
“I will,” Phoenix agrees. “And I want to freely see my sister.”
The fact that this Nikolaides thinks he can negotiate with my wife has me wanting to choke the life out of him.
“Phoenix,” Talia finally says. “We can have dinner together or you can come swim every now and again. But ‘freely’ is a little overboard. Even before all this, we didn’t see much of each other.”
Her brother grits his teeth. She hugs him, standing on her toes, and whispers something to him that has him relaxing. I want to rip them apart, but I keep my emotions in check.
“I want him found,” I say coldly, not agreeing to his terms. “And until we find him, you can deal with me. I’ll collect the taxes.”
Aris scowls at me. “I can handle it. You’ve got enough going on now that our father is out of commission.”
I’m tired of him being the middle man. The power is going to his head. My brother isn’t cut out to sniff out lies and find hidden truths. I’ll do this shit my damn self.
“This isn’t up for discussion,” I utter in a low tone.
Once Talia realizes I’m not going to kill her beloved brother, she smiles at me and pulls from his embrace to walk over to me. I’m stiff when she hugs me, still thrumming with wild energy to make someone pay.
“I’ll call you and we can make a date to do something,” Phoenix tells his sister as he makes his way to the stairs. “And I’ll let you know if I hear word on my father.”
As soon as he’s gone, Aris opens his mouth, but I wave him on. “Not now. We can talk later.”
Aris’s jaw flexes as he bites back his words and gives me a clipped nod. He storms up the stairs. I pull from Talia and walk over to Basil. When I poke him in the chest, he glares back at me.
“Loyalty is everything,” I remind him.
His brown eyes gleam fiercely. “I’m always loyal to you, Kostas.”
Not my brother. Not my father. Not the Demetrious. Me.
“That’s what I thought,” I grind out, dismissing him with a nod.
Basil leaves without another word.
“Kostas…” Talia’s hand clutches my shoulder from behind.
I shake off her hold and turn to stare at her, my icy gaze freezing her where she stands.
“You can’t undermine me like that,” I hiss, my anger still needing an outlet. I’d come here hoping to fuck up Niles. Instead, I made an alliance with his fucking son.
Her plump pink lips part. “I wasn’t undermining you. I was protecting my brother.”