“We’ll deal with this tomorrow,” Aris says. “Clearly shit needs to change around here.”
Without saying another word to him, I slam the door in his face, and then I pray to God that Kostas comes back for me and Zoe. Because if he doesn’t, I’m not sure how much longer Aris is going to keep me alive.
Kostas
I’m seeing shit.
Losing my goddamn mind.
It. Was. Her.
I pinch the bridge of my nose and debate on what to do next. Either I can drive my ass back over to Aris’s house and find out for sure, or I can sit here like a pussy wondering.
I’m just downing the rest of my dinner in a restaurant between the hotel and Aris’s, when my phone rings. I could answer it and tell him right now that Father is dead. Most days, I’m a dick, but even I won’t do that to him. No, I’ll do like I intended when I drove over there earlier and tell him to his face. I send his call to voicemail. Seconds later, I get a text.
Aris: Did you come by?
The next text comes immediately after.
Aris: What did you need?
Aris: Want to meet up?
I groan and before I can reply, he continues blowing up my phone.
Aris: Selene said you had something important to talk about.
Aris: I don’t hit her if that’s what you’re wondering. She fell.
Fell?
I’m not stupid. That bitch did more than fall. Someone bashed her fucking head in.
My mind drifts to earlier.
“What do you want?”
I lift my brow and sneer. “Excuse me?”
“How did you even get on the property?”
“I used the fucking code,” I growl. “Were you trying to keep me out?”
Selene has the sense to stand down once she remembers who she’s talking to and shakes her head in vehemence. I’m not some pushover like Aris. I will drag her skinny ass back to the cellar by her fake-red hair to remind her if I need to. Luckily, she replaces her snotty expression with one of healthy fear.
“What’d you do to your face?” I ask, nodding to indicate the giant ass bruise that looks fresh and is forming beneath her swollen-red flesh.
She purses her fat lips before letting out a huff of exasperation. “I fell.”
Says every woman hiding the fact she’s being hit by a man.
“The floor must fucking hate you.”
“And I hate the fucking floor too,” she snarls out. “Aris went to…run an errand. Is there something I can help you with?” Her venom bleeds away as her green eyes skim down the front of my body in appreciation.
“Nah,” I grunt out. “I’ll come by another time.”
When I turn to leave, she grips my bicep. “Call him first.”
I glower over my shoulder at her. “Are you his keeper?”
“W-What? No. He’s just always busy and rarely home. You should call him first so you don’t miss him.”
“Hmmm,” is all I say before breaking from her hold and walking away.
The door slams shut behind me. I’m almost to my car when I feel eyes on me. Stopping, I turn and look back toward Aris’s massive house.
Blond hair.
A woman.
Talia?
But when I squint, the vision vanishes. That’s all she is to me now. A fucking ghost.
God, I miss her. I’d give up my entire fortune to have her in my arms just so I could inhale her hair. I don’t know that I even remember what she smells like anymore. The fact I’d give up everything to see her once more is disappointing. I’d always thought of myself as someone powerful. Someone who doesn’t need anyone else.
Like my father.
Turns out, I was never like him.
I was always like my mother.
After I pay my bill, I leave the restaurant and inhale the early fall air. The sun has gone down. It’s only just hitting me that my father really is gone. I extinguished him from this earth. Remorse or guilt should flood through me, but all I feel is relief. I was never allowed to figure out who the real Kostas was. He bred me into his monster. For his favor over my brother, I gladly heeded every instruction. And now I’m nothing but a shell. I don’t want to do anything but fill up my entire being with her.
My wife.
Fuck, I’m losing it.
I need to tell Aris Father is dead and then move the fuck on. At some point, I will have to accept that Talia probably is too. A year is a long time—too long in my world—to be missing without a word. If she’d run away, I would’ve known about it. Someone would have tattled.
She’s dead.
It’s a hard pill to swallow.
One I have trouble choking down because too much uncertainty rattles around inside my head.
I pull up to the gate and punch in the same four digits Aris uses for everything. It’d been a no-brainer when I’d come earlier, but after the way Selene acted, it made me wonder if they were trying to keep me away.
So I wouldn’t see that he beats on her?
Like I give a shit. She probably runs her fucking mouth too much and earned that knock to the head. We’re villains, not goddamn heroes. Who am I to judge?
No, if they wanted to keep me away, it’s for other reasons.
Reasons that niggle and tug at me, desperate to be thrown out in the open.
I pull up to the house and park in the driveway. Lights shine from a window in front of the house and then some upstairs. Climbing out, I pause to listen. Nothing but the breeze picking up as a fall storm rolls in. The wind whistles and I scent the promise of rain.
As I walk toward the front door, my eyes drift of their own accord to the window where I’d thought I’d seen someone. When a figure stands in front of the glass, the light shining around them, my heart does a squeeze in my chest.
I blink several times to clear my vision.
Still there.
Blond hair. A woman.
I’m storming over to the window before I can stop myself. Wide, teary blue eyes meet mine. Familiar blue eyes. Her blue eyes.
No. Fucking. Way.
“Zoí mou.” My life.
Her bottom lip trembles—lips I’ve ached to kiss for so long it’s maddening. This can’t be real. She can’t be staring back at me from behind the glass of Aris’s fucking house. It makes no sense. I’m truly losing my goddamn mind.
“Kostas.”
The voice of an angel carries through the glass, shattering what little bit was left of my heart. She’s alive. She’s alive and well and standing right in fucking front of me.
“Open the window,” I rumble, my words barely a whisper.
She looks over her shoulder and shakes her head. “I can’t.”
Fury swells up inside me to incredible heights. “Open the fucking window.”
Tears race down her cheeks as she moves her plump lips rapidly, speaking in hushed tones that are somehow supposed to send me away.
I’m not going anywhere.
Bending, I try to open the window, but it’s locked shut. I point at the lever and thump the glass hard. “Talia, unlock the window.”
“I can’t.”
I slam my fist on the window, making her cry out in surprise.
“I said open the window or so help me I’m coming right through it,” I growl. “Open it. Talia, open it!”