Page 29

The day never seems to end.

Although I love my home country, now that Milena has departed, there is nothing keeping me here anymore. The desire to go home occupies my thoughts, but I never run away from obligations.

I'm meeting with one of the island's oldest residents, Dario. From what he’s told me, his family has lived here for generations.

I had already intended to investigate Ciro's death, especially after Grigori said that it must have been the work of some islander at the behest of Leandros, but I was surprised that the initiative to contact me came from one of them.

“What are you telling me exactly? I can't stay here all day.”I don't have the patience for people who prefer to stall instead of saying what they need to.

"Will Mister Leandros be coming back?"

“No.”

"Can you guarantee me that?"

“What is this conversation about?”

The man looks troubled. I have a feeling he doesn't want to be here .

“You are Aristeu's nephew. He was one of us,” he says without looking at me. “Your uncle was a good man.”

I raise an eyebrow at him. “I'm not my uncle.”

“Yes, I know, but you’re not Dr. Leandros either.”

“What does that mean?”

“All these years we've had problems here on the island and on those around ours.”

“What kind of problems? I'll give you five more minutes to tell me what you want, and then this conversation will be over.”

“Yes, sir. You must forgive me for that. It's about the girls...the girls who live on this island and on the others.”

“What about them?”

The man looks at me, very embarrassed. I know how to recognize shame when I see it. “There is a high number of missing girls on several islands. On ours too.”

“What? How are they missing?”

“When they reach a certain age, around fifteen years old, most are offered a scholarship to study in Athens. We don't even have a high school here.”

“I know that.”I’ve already thought about it and decided that when my plans are accomplished, I will set up a school so the young people won't have to be away from their families in order to study.

“If they accepted this offer to move to the capital, they would be granted a place to live and this scholarship. The problem is that none of them ever returned to visit their family.”

“Get to the point.”

“It was Mister Leandros who offered these scholarships.”

“Are you telling me that they disappeared and that your ex-boss is responsible for it?”

I see the color draining from the man's face and notice that he is shaken by a strong shudder.

Fear.

He's terrified.

“Y-yes . . .”

“Do you have their names?”

“Not from all the neighboring islands, but the ones who came from here, yes.”

“Why didn't they call the police in Athens?”

He shakes his head, and I can see the disbelief in his eyes. “Because they all worked for Dr. Argyros.”

It takes me a few seconds to understand what he is saying.

The bastard had the lawmen on his payroll.

“Bring me the list of names and surnames of the missing girls. I'll see what I can do,” I say, already standing up. “But I want something in return. I need you to tell me who, here on the island, would kill in the name of their old boss.”

He doesn't seem to think much before answering. “If they were given any incentive, anyone. Even the women.”

“Incentive?”

“No one would have the courage to defy an order coming from him.”

“Even you would kill if he told you to?” I ask directly.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I'm one of those dads whose daughter has disappeared. I haven't seen my Thalassa in three years. She was only sixteen when she went to Athens.”

I'm on my way to the island’s private airport, but this time I decide not to wait for the whole operation that needs to be put in motion whenever I move from one place to another.

I’m irritated and itching to leave.

The ride to the location where my plane awaits me is only ten minutes long, and I don't have the patience to let the bodyguards give me all the safety guidelines. It will steal time that I don't want to waste.

I’m not in the habit of running from my guards, and when I do, Grigori usually goes crazy, but I need to get out of here. He’s a strategist when it comes to protection and insists that the best way to protect ourselves from the enemy is to confuse them. Normally, men like me ride in a vehicle in the middle of a convoy, armored both at the front and rear. It's not like that with me. No one knows in which car I’ll go. Sometimes not even me.

I've already experienced a few kidnapping attempts, and I can't even say who was responsible. When you have power, you accumulate enemies along the way.

After the death of Ciro, the burial of Aristeu and Orien, and the conversation with the islander, my head is boiling with information and wondering what I will have to do over the next few days.

This time, however, all I want is to go home.

To forget the shit of the world I live in and shake off the feeling that I'll never have peace.

As soon as I buckle my belt, however, my cell phone rings, as if mocking my plans.

I hope it’s Elina, but like last time, she hasn't replied to my texts or called, and my mood takes a turn for the worse when I confirm it's Grigori.

“Where are you?” he asks.

“Inside the plane. Why?”

“I swear to God you're going to give me a heart attack.”

“What happened? Elina?”

“No. The convoy. Two of our men are dead.”

“How?”

“Bomb. Someone definitely doesn't like you.”

“See that their families are properly compensated. Don't skimp on resources.”

“Don't worry about it. I will.”

“Who do you think it was? Leandros or Naim?”

“We're not sure yet, but there's something you need to know.”

“Say it at once.”

“She got a call today from a disposable cell phone.”

“And how the hell do you know that?”

“Because my job is to keep you alive. I don't trust your girlfriend, so I monitor her phone calls.”

I don’t know what to say. Logically, it’s possible for her to betray me, but I refuse to believe that.

We've been together for a month. Does she have the ability to fake that long?

“Odin?”

“Yes?”

“I would be careful if I were you. Don't let her beauty addle your wits.”

As soon as I hang up, the phone rings again. This time it's her, but by then the doubt has already spread inside me.

"Odin, is everything okay?"

“Why wouldn't it be?”

“No reason. I just wanted to be sure.”

NEW YORK

I enter the apartment, and to my surprise, I find her pacing the living room.

She freezes when she sees me, apparently undecided on how to act, but finally walks over to where I am, still looking at me.

I study her face for the slightest trace of guilt, but all I find is fear.

Fear of what?

That I survived?

Blurring everything I've been thinking on the flight home, Elina throws herself into my arms spontaneously for the first time since we've been together. I’ve always been the one to take the first step, and her initiative paralyzes me, so I wait for her next move.

When our bodies are glued together, both hands grip my neck.

I want her touch. Even after what Grigori said and the possibility that she has betrayed me, I need some part of her touching me.

“Thank God you're here. I was so worried.” She doesn' t give me time to answer, clinging to me like she's never going to let go. “You're here,” she repeats over and over again.

There's still a shred of willpower in me to reject the hug, until I feel her body shaking.

“I was terrified. I made so many promises to God.”

Finally, something inside me breaks. I’m a bag of mixed emotions, but there is one, the dominant one, which is very clear.

She’s mine.

I pick her up, and she wraps her legs around my waist. Elina hugs me tightly, and I sink my face into her neck. Her scent quickly clouds all my senses.

I take her to the sofa and lie down with her on top of my body.

I need to look at her.

I'm not in a hurry, but she seems to think differently and starts unbuttoning my shirt.

Until today, every time we've had sex, she's left the control in my hands. She always gives herself without reservation, but she’s usually not the one to take the initiative. So I watch, mesmerized, as she plants kisses across my chest, nibbles at my neck, and climbs up to kiss my mouth.

“He called me.”

“Who?”I'm on alert again, but she seems to be talking to herself.

“He said you'd never come back to me again, that you were—”Her voice cracks, and I know she's not faking it.

Grigori was wrong this time.

“Who called, Elina?”

I try to hold her face so she can answer me, but she won't let me. “I need you. Then we can talk.”

Still lying there, I watch her get up. Standing beside me, she pulls her dress over her head, and I notice that she's only wearing tiny silk panties.

“Take them off. I want to see you.”

She bites her lip and hooks her fingers into the sides of her garment, pulling it down. “You like to look at me.”

I nod in confirmation, already focused on the blonde fluff between her thighs. I know the delight that lurks beneath that seductive little mound. I pull her by the ass and make her lift one of her legs until I have her almost sitting on my face.

“I want to taste you,” she says.

“In a bit. I'm dying for you.” Giving her no chance to escape, I lick her already wet sex, and she grabs my hair.

My wild cat.

My Elina.

Mine.

She seems to have forgotten her determination to undress me, until, surprisingly, she rolls over my body, lying on top of me with her stomach against my chest.

The anxious hands start to pull down my pants and boxers again. Rushed, determined, as hungry as I am.

As soon as she gets even the slightest bit of access, her hot mouth engulfs me, and I need to close my eyes for a moment.

Elina devours me as if she can't get enough, and I eat her just as eagerly. She moans loudly, squirming in my face, looking even more determined to drive me crazy.

She sucks me softly, and my hips lift automatically.

"Is it good when I taste you like this, Odin?" she asks, twirling her tongue around the tip. “When we're like this, every time we make love, you're mine.”

The words sink under my skin.

Hers.

I want this. “Let me in.”

She doesn't hesitate and this time tries to take as much of me as possible into her delicious mouth.

“Relax your mouth.”

She slides her lips over my erection and then takes me until I hit the back of her throat.

We possess each other, delighting and losing ourselves in each other, and only when she comes a second time do I spin her around, trapping her beneath me.

"Was I not doing it right?"

“You were incredible, but I want to come inside your body.”

“But I'm not done. I love your taste,” my teasing sorceress says .

“And what else?”

“What?”

“What else do you love?” I ask, brushing my erection against her sweet sex.

“Every bit of you in me.” She moans, trying to lift her hips to welcome me. “Us together,” she continues, widening her thighs even more.

I kiss her mouth as I sink into her. “Us together,” I repeat. "How much do you adore us together?"

“I don't know how to measure it. I was terrified at the thought that I would never see you again.”

With every word spoken, I slip in and out of the warm shelter of her sex. I travel deep into her body, taking possession of my woman's wet insides. “Why? Why did the idea of not seeing me anymore make you afraid?”

“I don’t want to talk.”

“I need to hear it.”

“I'm breaking our deal,” she whines.

I kiss and nibble her neck and chin. “Forget the deal. We can be whatever we want. It's just the two of us. Always the two of us.”

Every time I enter her body, she rises to meet me halfway, making us a perfect fit.

“I'm changing the deal then,” she says, and I'm not sure she really knows what she's talking about.

“You are?”

“Yes. I promised myself I wouldn't worry or come after you like a wife every time you travelled, but I don't want to be so afraid anymore. I don't want to worry anymore that you might not come back.”

With her defenses down, I do my part, giving her what she wants, taking from her what I need. Allowing someone other than my family into my heart for the first time.

Now, instead of words, it is our private language that is spoken, creating a unique form of communication, a sublime union. Instead of exclamations, periods, or commas, we have biting, sucking, moaning.

It’s a race to possess and bestow in our endless, desperate need until we both find the release our bodies crave .

Still inside her, our foreheads pressed together, I promise, “I'm not going anywhere without you.”

Elina holds my shoulders, her legs locked around my body, pulling, trapping, making me a prisoner of her warmth, inviting me to live inside her.

“Say the same thing to me,” I demand.

"As long as you want me, I won't leave."

“No deadline,” I insist.

“No deadline,” she echoes.

“I thought you didn't care.”

“I'm good at faking it. I've done that my whole life, but I'm tired. I want to be myself.”