Page 50 of Her Greek Protector

Aimee gasped. “You speak English?”

The man gave her a dismissive look, signaling one of his men to unlock a heavy steel door. As the women were bundled inside, he followed, keeping his gun on them. “I speak eight languages and their various dialects, but we are not here to talk about me. We are here to talk about Leo Moustakas.” He used the gun to indicate two chairs at the other end of the warehouse. “Tie them up and then start the video feed.”

Aimee and Kassi were dragged to the center of a very bare space, forced into chairs and then tied in such a way they couldn’t move either their arms or their legs.

Terrified, Aimee had long since stopped fighting, but Kassi continued to belittle the men with her words, drawing evil glares from several of them.

“Kassi, you should be quiet. Don’t anger them any more than they already are, please?” Aimee looked around the room, searching for anything that might give her hope. “How are we going to get out of this? We should have stayed with the bodyguard.”

“It’s a little too late for that now, don’t you think?” Kassi snarled. “Besides, these guys must want something.”

A video camera was hooked up to a computer situated ten feet away from where they were tied up. The lights were dimmed, and then all of the men left the room.

“Hey! You can’t just leave us here!” Kassi yelled after them.

The man Aimee assumed must be the leader simply laughed as he slammed the door shut on them. Aimee felt like crying, but Kassi was strangely quiet for several minutes.

“Kassi?”

“We’re in trouble, Aimee. I mean, big trouble.”

“I kind of figured that out when I saw their guns. What do they want?” Aimee asked shakily.

“Leo.” Kassi turned her head. “I heard one of those goons call the leader Drossos.”

“The man after everyone?” Aimee asked in a hoarse whisper.

“Look, I didn’t tell you what I saw in that email written to Leo. It was horrible. Whoever wrote it seems to think they caused Alexi’s accident. It didn’t sound like…”

“Hey, they could be listening to us.” Aimee cautioned her with a look. “Be careful what you say.” She hoped Kassi remembered the plan Alexi and Leo had explained to everyone a few hours earlier.

Kassi shut her mouth and then nodded once, Aimee’s meaning clear. “If they were responsible for killing Alexi, what do you think they mean to do with us?”

“I don’t know, but something tells me we won’t have to wait long to find out. Damn it! I was hoping to make my first commission as a photographer today.”

Kassi blew out a breath. “Someone will find us. I bet the guard is already looking for us. When he doesn’t find us amongst the stalls in the marketplace, he’ll know something has happened. Leo will come for us. I’m sure of it.”

And Alexi. Alexi will come, won’t he?Aimee swallowed, feeling a new kind of fear.What if I never see him again? He was so mad earlier. What if these men kill us and he never knows how I really feel about him?The thought left her feeling empty.I should have apologized this morning. I shouldn’t have been so scared of losing my freedom.

*****

The Moustakas Estate…

Alexi strode into the suite of rooms Leo shared with his wife. “Leo, you had better come see this.”

Leo exited the bedroom, shushing his brother as he pulled the door gently shut. “What is it? Gemma just got to sleep.”

Alexi gave him a grim look and handed him his phone. The screen showed the video he’d received just moments earlier. Leo glanced at it and cursed loudly.

The video showed Kassi and Aimee tied up in what looked like an abandoned warehouse. They looked terrified. Alexi wanted to kill the person behind this act of cowardice. It was one thing to come after him or his brother, but another thing entirely to target the women of the family.What if Damien had been with them? What then?

“Have you shown this to Piotr?” Leo asked.

Alexi nodded grimly. “He’s on his way over here. Kassi was angry with the guard he assigned to go with them and gave the man the slip.”

“How long ago was that?” Leo paced across the floor.

“An hour at most. He was only minutes behind them, and then they just vanished. Aimee was supposed to meet the person she was going to photograph twenty minutes ago and never showed up. The guard went there, hoping to catch up to Kassi and Aimee.”