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Odin

CHAPTER SEVEN

“He did what?”

“Ran away only a few hours after leaving here.”

“How the hell did he do it? I made sure all his accounts were cleaned out over a month ago.”

“That I cannot answer. The expert at digging up information that people want to keep secret is you.”

I take a quick shower, and then we're in my office on the first floor of the house. I go to the table and open the notebook. Whatever that bastard is planning, I'll find out.

It doesn't take me more than a few minutes to notice that a substantial amount of money was transferred to one of his accounts last night. Then he redirected the amount to another one that I still haven't been able to trace. That'll demand a little more work. Many precious hours will now be wasted, and my enemy will have the advantage and keep fleeing.

Still, I'm not worried. Money alone wouldn't make me lose ten minutes of sleep. Leandros owes me a lot, and when I find out which bank he transferred the funds to, I can reverse the transaction and again clear his reserves in no time .

The origin of the money, however, is what holds my attention.

Naim.

“Where is Elina?”

“Apparently, they left her behind.”

“ Motherfucker !”I punch in the code that gives me access to the cameras at the Argyroses' house, and what I see makes me stand up immediately.

The sheikh is in the entrance hall, as if he owns the place.

“Gather some men. We may have a little battle ahead.”

If what Grigori is saying is true and Elina is still in the house, Naim's visit can only have one goal in mind: to finish what he started last night.

His presence there just shows me what I already suspected: she was traded so that her miserable father could find an escape route. He put a price on her, as if she was just a commodity.

I have no doubt about who Leandros is, but abandoning his own daughter to the hands of a psychopath? Every monster or killer has something sacred in their life. Leandros is a different case. The motherfucker thinks only about himself. And her mother, how could she agree to leave Elina at the sheik's mercy?

I doubt either of them know exactly what kind of man Naim is.

I open the safe and take out my gun.

The first certainty I have is that my meeting with Naim won't be pleasant.

The second is that he won't take Elina.

I try to convince myself that the only reason I'm going after her is that with her father on the run, I need some kind of insurance.

What could be better than having someone close to him who knows the bastard’s ways?

As I expected, there are three security guards in front of Leandros's house .

The sheikh's arrogance knows no bounds. He knows he's on my property, and yet he thinks he's leaving here with a woman against her will?

The bastard is such a coward that he doesn't even dare to face someone half his body weight alone.

My men quickly neutralize his bodyguards, but as soon as I enter, I see that there are two more inside and no sign of Naim. I've never been to the house, but after watching the footage as much as I have, I can walk through the place with my eyes closed.

While my team takes care of the other two men, I try to figure out where Naim and Elina could be. I know where her room is, even though I ordered no cameras installed there.

In none of the bedrooms, actually.

Was she still sleeping when he walked in?

The thought of Elina being subdued in a situation of even more vulnerability makes me quicken my pace, so I start taking the stairs two steps at a time.

After finding her suite empty, I give up guessing.

“Elina, it's Odin! Tell me where you are!”

I start down the stairs again, and one of my men points to a door on the left. As I approach, I hear the noise of furniture being overturned. I go in, and I don't need more than two seconds to see the whole picture.

I keep my emotions in check.

Due to the history I bear, if I allowed people’s reactions to overwhelm me, I wouldn't be able to carry out my plans.

Pity, empathy, love, and affection are rare emotions for me and ones I only access in minimal doses, but something happens to me the moment I see Elina with the mark of a slap on the pale skin of her face, her mouth bleeding and nightgown ripped, almost exposing one breast.

She runs away from Naim, hiding behind a heavy wooden table. What I feel right now is something I can't identify, nothing like what I've experienced as an adult so far, but a mix of emotions.

Guilt because she is in danger due to my actions forcing her father to leave. Hatred because Naim has touched her, hurting her again. And soon after, the desire to kill him .

There is one other thing, however, that already flirted with me yesterday, peeking from behind the curtain, but that now settles in for good.

Admiration for the woman who, even against my will, makes my blood boil.

The physical disproportion between the two is ridiculous. Even though Naim is at least eight inches shorter than I am, being six-foot-two, he's still a lot bigger than she is.

The woman's arms, bare and reddened by the bastard's grip, look so thin they could be broken with a tighter grip. She's hurt, and I can see in her eyes that she's terrified too, but she still doesn't back down. She wields a card cutter, holding it in front of her body as if it were a weapon.

“What are you doing in my house?"

It seems that the bastard was in such a lust trance that he didn’t even notice my presence.

He turns and looks at me like a rabid dog.

Letting emotions rule oneself is a sort of vulnerability, but that's not what makes Naim weak. Now, in the morning, dressed in Western clothes and lacking all the poise of a ruler of his little Emirate, he's nothing more than a damn worm. An unfortunate person unable to accept a no from a woman and who needs to humiliate her and physically attack her until she bends to his will.

“We're leaving soon.”

“No, you will be leaving. She's my guest and she'll stay.”

He finally seems to return to reality and runs his hand through his disheveled hair. “I warned you yesterday and I'll say it again: don't meddle in my relationship with Elina.”

In one stride I reach him, but unlike the despicable man, I don't flinch when I slam him against the wall the way he did with Elina last night.

“We already had this conversation,” I say, looking into his eyes, my forearm pressing into his throat, immobilizing him. “But maybe you have memory problems, so I'm going to pretend I'm a nice guy and repeat it: you're in my house, on my island, not the fucking country you were born in. Here you won't touch a woman against her will. Elina is free, and there's no way I'm going to let you take her.”

“She's mine—I bought her.” The bastard still struggles to speak.

“Do you hear yourself? She's not a thing, asshole. Out of consideration for your father, who is an honorable man and is not to blame for fathering an idiot, I'll let you out of here alive, but you have five minutes. If I see you after that, you won't be leaving here again.”

I loosen my grip a little, waiting for him to make up his mind.

“You wouldn't be crazy enough to do something to me, Odin. My family would kill you. They would make your life hell.”

Without me planning it beforehand, a grin escapes me. “A ride through hell? I've lived in it for a long time, Naim. Do you want me as your enemy? Do your worst.”With my arm still around his throat, I look at the Rolex on my wrist. “Four minutes and three seconds.”

He stares at me for a moment. “I'll go.”

I release him, and the men watching us from the door pull him out, but he still turns around one last time.

“We'll meet again, Odin. You just wait,” he says and I almost smile. “And as for you, Elina, I'll make you regret this disrespect. You'll pay dearly.”

After he leaves, I turn to her. “Put down the paper cutter, Elina.”

Her eyes glaze over, and I wonder if she's not in shock. She points the object at me, trying to scare me. Despite this, there's no recognition of who I am on her face.

“Elina...” I use my calmest voice. “He's gone, and now I need to see if you're hurt.”

I can't remember the last time I spoke so patiently to someone, but intuition tells me she's still disconnected from reality.

“Look at me,” I command. “We're not friends, but I give you my word that you're safe with me. I just need to know if you're hurt.”

I take a slow step closer, but she shoves the card cutter at me again.

Instead of insisting on it, I look at her.

In fact, I don't just look—I see her.

I know she's five years younger than I am, but no one would put her at more than twenty-five years old. I also know that she doesn't leave the island often, not even to go to Athens .

I know almost everything about her.

The world as she knew it has just collapsed. What must be going through her head right now? Her parents abandoned her, and a damn pervert broke into her house to...

I know what would have happened if I hadn't arrived in time. She wouldn't have stood a chance. There would have been no way for her to protect herself from that human garbage.

Few things are able to impress me, but the fact that she's not in tears amazes me. Anyone in the same situation would have succumbed to tears by now, but despite being shaken, she keeps fighting.

Still, the beautiful woman is not indestructible. At some point, she'll break.

“You don't have to believe what I'm saying,” I start again, moving closer. Her eyes have already regained some of their sparkle. “You are a smart girl. What I'm asking is that you follow your instincts.”

For the first time since I walked in, she looks at me.

“You knew Naim was untrustworthy, didn't you? So now tell me what your instincts tell you about me.”

The hand that holds the paper cutter shakes, but she still doesn't budge. “You're not my friend.”

“No, I'm not, but I would never hurt you. I just want to see if you're okay.”

After a few seconds, she finally rests the object on the table. “Why do you care? Why did you lie and say I'm your guest?”

I wasn't prepared for her to turn the tables on me like that.

I can't answer her questions for the simple reason that I don't even know myself. Even though I made the excuse that I went to see if Leandros had really run away, I was beside myself when I realized that Naim was alone with her. So instead of trying to explain something I still don't understand, I decide to take the softer side of the issue.

“I didn’t lie. You are my guest for now.”

She embraces her own body, perhaps unconsciously, showing fragility. “Is the deadline you gave my father still in effect?”

“What?”

“You said yesterday that we still have seven days. Can I stay here for the remaining six?”

I've never felt so ashamed of myself before. I've always justified my actions in the name of revenge, but something about the brave way she doesn't let herself be defeated makes me regret that I'm being her tormentor.

“Let me call the doctor. After he makes sure you're okay, we'll talk.”