“It took me a fucking year, zoí mou. I failed you and our daughter.”
“No, don’t say that. You found us.” He can’t blame himself for this. The guilt will eat him up inside. I need my strong Kostas.
“After you put Zoe to bed, you’re going to tell me every fucking thing my brother did to you and our daughter, every lie he told you, and I can promise you, I will make him regret every single goddamn thing he did and said.”
If words weren’t so matter-of-fact, the steely look in his eyes would tell me he means exactly what he says. When he finds Aris, he’s not going to quickly kill him. He’s going to slowly torture him for every day he held me prisoner, every lie he told me, and the thought has me almost smiling.
“I want to be there,” I tell him. “I want to see Aris and Selene get what’s coming to them.”
Kostas grins. “Fuck, I’ve missed you.” He gives me a chaste kiss on my lips.
Zoe stirs in my arms and it reminds me… “I don’t have anywhere to lay her down.” I glance at the bed. I suppose I could lay her in the center and line pillows along each side…
Kostas, of course, is already calling someone. “Thomas, this is Kostas Demetriou. I need a portable crib brought to my villa right away.” He hangs up, and one side of his lips tip into a playful smirk. “The perks of owning and living in a hotel.”
While I’m feeding Zoe, Kostas makes several phone calls in the other room. He’s barking orders left and right, cursing and making threats like the mob boss he is, and my heart tugs in my chest. You don’t realize how much you love your life until it’s taken from you. And this life, the one with Kostas yelling at people, while our daughter snuggles in my arms, is all I want.
“What the fuck do you mean?” My body stills at his words and tone. Something is wrong.
Zoe knocks the bottle out of the way and climbs up into my lap. Kostas enters the room and points to the sitting room attached to our bedroom for the gentleman to set up the crib. He quickly rolls it in, pops it open, and scurries out.
“Let me tell you something, my fucking wife was locked in that fucking house for the past goddamn year. Are you telling me you had no idea?”
“Kostas, who is that?” He shoots a glare my way and I give him one right back. At one time, his glare would’ve scared me, but now, it only turns me on. “Kostas.” He ignore me, which pisses me off. I understand he’s mad, but I am too. I was the one taken. “Kostas!”
“It’s Basil,” he barks out. “They got to the house and they’re gone.” The blood running through my veins goes cold. My eyes dart around us, and I find myself hugging Zoe tighter. They got away. Kostas wanted to take them out right then and there and I begged him to get us to safety first. And now they’re missing. They can be anywhere. On their way here…
Kostas puts him on speakerphone. “Go ahead, Basil. Tell my wife how you were assigned to watch over that house and you never managed to find out she was in there.”
“Boss, I swear,” Basil sputters. “I never saw anything out of the ordinary. They came and went like everything was normal.”
“Kostas, there’s no way he would know,” I tell him. “I was never allowed to leave the house. I even gave birth there.” At my words, Kostas’s eyes go to our daughter, and they soften slightly. “Unless Basil was able to get inside, he couldn’t have seen me. Aris even had Selene drive across town to buy Zoe’s stuff. I didn’t even know that guy…Estevan, the one you shot his dick off, was guarding the place.”
At my words, Kostas roars, “What in the actual fuck. Did you hear her?” he barks at his men. “Estevan was there?” he asks me, needing me to confirm.
“I heard her,” Adrian says. “We’ll find him.”
“He’s the guy I shot,” I admit. “Several times. And then Aris finished him off. He’s dead.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Kostas growls. He scrubs one of his hands over his face in frustration.
“Several of their drawers are empty,” Adrian speaks. “And stuff is missing from the closet.”
“They took both vehicles,” Basil adds. “They’re gone.”
“Dammit.” Kostas punches a hole in the drywall. Zoe jumps and starts crying. “Shit, I’m sorry.” He gives her a pleading look, trying to convey how sorry he is.
She snuggles her face into the crook of my neck. “It’s okay. She just doesn’t know you yet.” My words aren’t meant to hurt him, but I can see it in his eyes how much they do.