Thalia sat out in the lounge chair on the patio the next day, soaking up the sun. She’d refrained from wearing a swimsuit, favoring a lacey white sundress that made her look like an avenging angel. The darkest parts of me loved seeing her in white; loved the reminder of our wedding when the colorless fabric had been stained with the blood of the men who’d tried to keep me from her.
“Rafael and Ryker are here to see you,” Christian said, walking into the kitchen where I sat slicing fresh mango and pineapple for Thalia. I was determined to make sure there was always something she liked to eat readily available for her, because I suspected she wouldn’t think of it on her own. Old habits died hard.
I sighed, laying the knife on the island counter. Turning to the sink at my back, I rinsed my hands of the fruit juice and shifted my attention back to the entryway to the kitchen. Rafael and Ryker sauntered into the space that they’d become well acquainted with after we’d arrived in the city. Both men had stayed with me for nearly a week, carefully laying preparations for our attack.
Failure was not an option.
“Did you come to deliver more bad news?” I asked, moving around the island to greet them.
“Good to see you too, dick,” Ryker said, chuckling as he looked out the door to the patio. He couldn’t see Thalia with the way she’d curled up in a lounge chair with her back to the house, but he was far too nosey for his own good.
“Did you need to see me? Or did you just come to peek at my wife?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest as I quirked a brow up.
The hatchet-wielding madman shrugged as if it mattered very little to him. “Mostly to peek at your wife, yeah. I have to get back to Calla and the kids. Figure I should at least get to see what all the fuss is about before I leave. Is she outside?” he asked, gesturing toward the patio as he took a step forward.
I didn’t need to worry about Ryker in a way I might about other men. He’d been hopelessly devoted to his wife since the moment he’d seen her strolling through the park with her son, years before they ever got together. That didn’t mean I had to like his bullshit when it came to my wife, especially knowing he was doing it for the precise purpose of getting under my skin.
Thalia stood from her lounge chair, dropping her book onto it as she strode toward the open door and stepped into the house. She held Ryker’s stare as she walked, not bothering to back down as she crossed over the threshold. She approached me, reaching beyond me to grab a slice of mango off the wood cutting board and taking a bite out of the fruit before she chewed thoughtfully. “Could we at least pretend I am more than a zoo animal to come peek at?” she asked, tearing another bite off the mango pointedly.
I was far too aware of the knife at my back, resting on the counter, as Thalia took a step away from it and made me breathe a sigh of relief. The last thing I needed was for her to convince Ryker and Rafe that she’d enjoy throwing weapons at them.
They tended to throw them back and laugh about it.
“But you’re the prettiest zoo animal I’ve ever seen,” I said, wincing from the glare she threw at me with a swift turn of her head.
“I can’t decide if that was supposed to be a compliment and you really are that stupid, or if you’re mocking me,” Thalia said, shoving the last bit of mango into her mouth.
“Definitely a compliment, and he most definitely is that stupid,” Rafael inserted, moving to the island and snatching up a piece of pineapple. He popped it into his mouth and retreated with economical steps.
“And you are?” Thalia asked, folding her arms across her chest.
“The man who made him what he is today,” Rafe said, returning the gesture.
“I find it slightly disturbing that you’re so proud of turning him into a murderer,” Thalia said, scoffing as she sank her teeth into her bottom lip.
“Oh, don’t worry, Mrs. Regas. He was already a murderer when he came to me in Ibiza. I just made him enjoy it,” Rafe said, his lips spreading into a cruel grin.
Thalia swallowed, shifting on her feet as she turned her stare to Ryker, as if she couldn’t quite wrap her head around someone enjoying death. One day, I’d show her the beauty that came with it and the similarities between blood and paint.
“Little One,” I said, reaching out to touch her arm. She swatted me away, curling her hand to slap at my skin in warning.
“Don’t touch me,” she hissed, the soft woman from the night before fading before my eyes, as if she hadn’t already known I was a murderer. I’d certainly enjoyed killing her father, and my only regret was that it was too fast for my taste. “Every time I think just maybe you’re different, something reminds me that you’re not. You’re just like the rest of them, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Yes,” Rafael answered for me, shrugging his shoulders. It was totally inconsequential to him if my wife was happy with me, and his bitterness over not yet having his own woman was apparent.
I glared at him before I turned my full attention to Thalia. “No. I’m not like the rest. Do you know why?” I asked, taking her hand in mine. She allowed it, glaring down at where my ring glimmered on her finger. “Because my obsession with you knows no boundaries. I would do anything for you. Any of the others would have owned you, but it is you who owns me, λουλούδι μου.”
My flower froze, staring at me for a moment as if I’d grown a second head. “You hardly know me,” she whispered, glancing at the two other men, who were now witnessing our intimate moment. It was clear she expected me to care; she expected me to be mortified by the admission that she was my everything, but I would never be anything less than proud to have her standing at my side.
“Just because you hardly know me doesn’t mean the same can be said in the reverse. I know you better than anyone, I suspect, after all the hours I’ve spent watching you in the privacy of your bedroom. I know you enough to love you and everything you will grow to be outside of that prison,” I murmured, watching as her eyes widened.
“You love me?” she asked, tearing her hand out of my grip.
“I’ve always loved you,” I admitted. Even if that love had been something different when we’d been younger, it had been just as present.
“What am I supposed to do with that exactly?” she asked, tilting her head to the side as her face twisted with pain.
“You could say it back,” Ryker observed, ever the helpful bystander.
“I don’t even know him,” Thalia said, taking a step back. She’d been raised to expect certain aspects of her marriage. Rape, coercion, but not love. What would she do with the knowledge that I was wrapped around her finger? “I don’t know what’s worse—that you genuinely seem to believe you love me or that you left me in that house if it’s true.”
“Thalia—” I said, wincing when her brow furrowed and tears pooled in her eyes.
“You left me there!” she screamed, the shrill sound filling the kitchen. “You don’t leave someone behind if you love them. I never would have left you. Never.”
“λουλούδι μου,” I murmured, my heart breaking at the sound of pure betrayal in her voice. “I tried to come back for you. I swear to you, I tried more times than I can count.”
“My father had him beaten every time he tried to leave our island,” Rafael interjected, stepping toward her as I stripped my shirt over my head. Thalia watched me, only shifting her attention back to Rafe when he stopped directly in front of her. He touched her cheek with a gentleness I hadn’t known he possessed, staring at the touch as if it unnerved him greatly. I wondered for a moment at the oddity of my tolerance of him touching my wife, and realized Rafael was the closest thing I had to a brother. If I could trust anyone in this world, it was him. “He tried, Thalia. I swear it on my mother’s grave.” He swept his thumb through the tears on Thalia’s cheek, wiping the moisture away as I grabbed her hand and touched it to one of the scars on my abdomen.
Her thumb swept over the puckered flesh that had faded some in the years since the injury. “Eventually, Rafael’s father and mine allowed me to leave. They said if I got myself killed over a stupid girl then I didn’t deserve to live, anyway. I was only a few blocks from your father’s house when I was ambushed,” I explained, guiding her other hand to the second scar on my abdomen. “Damianos Hasapis had the honor of shooting me, then they left me to crawl my way out of the city before I could bleed to death. Christian got me out. I would have died otherwise,” I said, nodding my head toward the front door where I knew the other man waited, guarding us while giving us privacy.
“Damianos shot you?” Thalia asked, turning a shocked, teary-eyed stare up to me as Rafael stepped away. He and Ryker made their way out to the patio, leaving me with my heartbroken wife who didn’t understand anything of the events that had led us here.
“He knew even then that he was going to fight for your hand, Little One. Your betrothal to Damianos was no surprise, and he wanted me out of the way because he knew I would protect you,” I said, carefully avoiding mention of the marriage contract that had marked Thalia as mine. It had been the very thing that had brought us together, but it had become irrelevant just as quickly.
I’d come to care for her as a girl in her own right, her sweetness and innocence something I wanted to protect at all costs. In the years since they’d separated us, she’d grown into a fierce woman I wanted to possess, but neither of those things existed because of our marriage contract. They existed because of who Thalia was and who she’d become.
“You tried…” She trailed off, her bottom lip trembling as she leaned forward and her forehead rested against my chest.
“Of course I tried, λουλούδι μου. You don’t leave someone you love behind,” I said, raising a palm to the back of her head. I cradled it as her body shook with the force of her sobs, holding her tight to my chest.
She raised her arms, wrapping them around my waist as she pulled me in tighter. Her nails dug into my back on either side of my spine, as if she couldn’t pull me close enough.
I wished I could do more to soothe her. “Shh, Little One. I’m here now,” I whispered, holding her tight as I grabbed her by the backs of her thighs and lifted her into my arms.
“I hated you. I hated you because you didn’t come back for me,” she cried, snuggling into my neck. “And they shot you for trying to get to me.” I cradled her, letting her wrap her legs around my waist as I carried her toward the stairs. She clung to me, wrapping me up in an embrace with all of her limbs as if she couldn’t quite bear to let me go.
And my flower broke.
I emerged into the kitchen, heading straight for the bottle of Ouzo and taking a swig of it. I grimaced against the potent flavor of black licorice as it burned its way down my throat, turning to grab a bigger glass from the cupboard. I poured some into the tumbler, diluting it with ice water and a lemon wedge out of the fridge before I took another sip.
“Is she okay?” Ryker asked, stepping forward.
“She’s sleeping,” I said, nodding gently. Even if part of me wanted to throttle the two of them for the heartbreak they’d caused her and the realization that she’d never been abandoned in the city determined to destroy her, it was a conversation we’d needed to have.
Maybe with the truth out in the open, Thalia could move past her bitterness. She could move past the anger toward me that clouded her judgment.
“That could have gone better,” Ryker said, nodding in time with his words.
“It was necessary. She was furious with you because of old hurts. Now she can move on,” Rafe answered, standing from the counter stool where he’d sat while they waited for me to emerge from the bedroom.
I didn’t think Thalia would sleep for long, but she would probably sleep hard while she did. “I presume you came for some other reason than to antagonize my wife.”
“Jeno’s body is still missing. You need to deal with him quickly. You know better than anyone that revenge makes men do desperate things. Thalia and her sister won’t be safe until he’s dead,” Rafe said, raising a brow at me.
“My men are already searching the city for him. I can’t exactly kill him until they find him. Unless Ryker would like to stay in the city and hunt him down, I fail to see what else I can do at this time,” I said, my irritation with Rafael coming through.
“You need allies within the city,” another male voice said from the entrance to the kitchen. Christian lingered at his back, his gun already drawn and pointed at the one who’d intruded on our conversation.
“He refused to wait,” Christian said, answering the unspoken question lingering between us. “As he is an heir to one of the six families, it seemed wise to let you make the choice whether he should live or die.”
“And who are you?” Ryker asked, his fingers twitching at his side.
“Elias Lykaios. The son of councilman Nico Lykaios,” the man said, and I vaguely recognized his words to be true. Elias had been only a few years older than me when we were in school, attending alongside Jeno and me.
“Do you mean to pledge your father to an alliance with me?” I asked, not bothering to beat around the bush. This conversation and business needed to be over with before Thalia could wander down. The last thing she needed was to be worried about her safety.
“Fuck no. My father will never waiver from his loyalty to Karras and Hasapis,” Elias said, a bitter chuckle escaping him.
“They’re dead,” I said.
“Not all of them, seemingly,” Elias said, raising a brow. I glared at Christian for allowing him entrance without consulting me first, and the other man shuffled his feet but held my gaze. “There are those of us who no longer agree with the antiquated ways that our elders conduct business. We didn’t agree with the choices that were made and led to your banishment. We could be persuaded to assist you if you were to help us with our own shifts in power.”
“You’ll separate from your father?” I asked, wondering what an heir would expect in return for that kind of loyalty.
“Of course not. I’ll kill him and take his seat on the council. I just may require a few men to make sure I survive the transition. After that, we can agree to cooperate with one another on the council. The Hasapis, Karras, and Galanis families have had far too much power for too many years.”
“What of Atticus Ariti? Will he vote with us or against us?” I asked, knowing damn well Elias and Atticus had been the best of friends in school. The younger man had taken his father’s place after the elder was killed in a drug raid years ago.
“He votes with me,” Elias said, tipping his head to the side. “But we do have one condition.”
“And what’s that?” I asked, staring him down.
“Eugene Regas cannot be the head of your family if we are to move forward in this. You must deal with your father; whether you kill him or simply keep him under control is your choice, but he is just as bad as Origen was, if not worse. I’ll not be complicit in his return to power,” Elias said.
“I wouldn’t have respected you if you would have. My father knows his place, and it has required him to do as he’s told for years now. He won’t be a problem. I’ll be the Regas family member to assume the council seat,” I answered, nodding toward Christian to see him out. “Give me the night to consider it. I’ll contact you with my answer in the morning.”
Elias nodded, allowing Christian to guide him out of the room and out the front door of the house.
“You’d be a fool not to take his bargain, but equally foolish to trust him,” Rafael instructed, heading for the door.
“I am quite aware, and despite what you may think I am no fool. Now get out so I can see to my wife. Find Jeno before he ruins everything.”
