The Renegade Billionaire

Stavros inhaled sharply. “Then stay behind me.” After letting her go with reluctance, he walked to the pickup truck in question and took a look for himself. In the next instant, he climbed over the tailgate. Reaching down, he removed the tarp. Sure enough, a body dressed in jeans and tennis shoes was wedged between several packing boxes. A pair of brown eyes stared up at him in shock. His head was resting on his backpack.

“Darren Lewis.” Stavros spoke in English, standing over him. “Stay where you are.” He pulled out his cell phone and called the police lieutenant.

After a moment the other man answered. “Kyrie Konstantinos? I wish I had better news for you.”

“Our worries are over. We’ve found the missing teenager on board the ferry in Thassos town. He’s hiding in the back of a white pickup truck.”

“My men said they searched every car.”

“This teen has been elusive. Contact the ferry captain and tell him not to leave shore yet. Despinis Linford and I will detain the Lewis boy until you arrive.”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Stavros helped Andrea up over the tailgate. She thanked him and sat down on one of the packing boxes. By this time, the teen was sitting up, but he didn’t try to get away.

“Darren? I’m Andrea Linford from PanHellenic Tours. This is Mr. Konstantinos, the managing director of the Konstantinos Marble Corporation.” Not anymore. “We’ve been looking for you since you disappeared yesterday.”

He averted his eyes.

“Your tour director, Georgios, and your teacher, Mrs. Shapiro, have been frantic. Your parents were notified of your disappearance and are on their way here.”

The boy went a sickly ashen color. “My mom and dad are coming?”

She nodded. “That’s right. The police will take you to them in Thessaloniki.”

“I’m eighteen and don’t have to see them if I don’t want to.”

So that was what this was about. “Nevertheless, they want to see you,” Stavros stated. “Whatever is wrong, nothing can be resolved by running away.”

“I hate my father. I never want to see him again.”

The pain in his declaration wasn’t lost on Stavros or Andrea. “Then you have the legal right to be on your own,” he said. “But you’re in a foreign country and have broken the law by stowing away in a truck that isn’t yours. You have some explaining to do to the police and they’ll insist on speaking to you and your parents.”

Darren was fighting tears. “I don’t want to talk to them.”

“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice while you’re still on Greek soil.”

Andrea got on the phone to her boss to tell him the good news. Before long, everyone, including the tour bus group, would know that the crisis had been averted. But the boy’s nightmare was just beginning. From past experience, Stavros knew what it was like to be at loggerheads with his own father and had some compassion for Darren, whatever the problem.

“If you’re hungry or thirsty, I’ll get you something,” Andrea volunteered after hanging up. She had a sweetness in her that wasn’t lost on Stavros.

“I don’t want anything.”

“You must have had a bad night. Tell us how you got away from the quarry, Darren.”

“I hid underneath someone’s truck. When the police walked off, I got inside the back.” Andrea and Stavros exchanged glances. “After it stopped at a village, I jumped out and walked down here during the night. While the cars were lined up to board the ferry, I got underneath another truck.”

“Even wearing your backpack?” Andrea marveled aloud.

“Yeah. People do it all the time in the movies. When the man parked his truck and left, I climbed in the back and hid under the tarp.”

“You were very resourceful.” Stavros would give him that. Six miles wasn’t so great a distance. Obviously the boy had handled it without problem.

“Thanks.”

Thanks? Even though he was caught? Stavros saw a little of himself in the boy, who was hungry for approbation. Maybe even from his father? He sat down on one of the other packing boxes. “While we’re waiting for the lieutenant to come, why don’t you tell us why you hate your father so much?”

“He’s got my whole life planned out—what he wants me to be, where he wants me to go to college.”