‘Anna—’ Leo’s voice was temporising.
She turned on him, snapping, ‘Don’t you dare take his side!’ then whipped back to Markos. ‘If Vanessa’s finally seen sense and walked out on you then I say thank God for that. She can do a whole lot better than a jerk like you! Leo.’ She glared at him. ‘I want to go. Now.’
She stormed out, not waiting to see if Leo was following.
‘What the hell—?’ said Markos slowly.
His cousin shrugged heavily and reverted to Greek.
‘Bad word to use—mistress. Doesn’t go down well.’
‘Why the hell not? What’s their problem?’
Leo just looked at him.
‘Maybe, little cousin, one day you’ll wise up and find out.’ His voice was dry and sombre, but it held a note of something in it that Markos had never heard before from Leo.
Pity.
Markos stiffened. He didn’t need pity. And certainly not from his cousin. A cousin who’d quite clearly lost his marbles. ‘Why on earth have you gone and got married?’ he demanded.
For a moment Leo’s eyes narrowed belligerently. Then, deliberately, he calmed.
‘Marriage can work, Markos. There are good marriages in this world. I’m proof of that.’
Markos threw him a jaundiced look. ‘Honeymoons are the easy bit,’ he said. ‘It’s what comes after that screws it up. And screws up anyone who gets trapped in the middle.’
The look of pity came again in Leo’s eyes.
‘You got a raw deal, I know,’ he said quietly. ‘But you don’t have to damn the whole game just because of it—’
‘It’s best to just stay clear of it, that’s all,’ finished Markos. ‘Which I have every intention of doing.’ He straightened his shoulders. ‘Look, I’m not in the mood right now for any of this. If you’ve gone and got yourself married, I’m staying out of it—just let me know when you need a good divorce lawyer, and I’ll find you the best.’
Leo shook his head and gave a resigned laugh.
‘I won’t need one. Listen, little cousin.’ His voice changed. ‘I’m sorry about Vanessa. More than I can say. If ever a woman thought the sun shone out of you, she did. What
ever went wrong, I hope you can fix it.’
For a moment Markos’s eyes were bleak. Then his mouth tightened.
‘Maybe it’s just not worth fixing,’ he said. ‘Maybe I should just damn her to hell and be done with it. I’ll get along just fine without her.’
Leo looked at him. Looked at the tension webbing his eyes, the tic high in his cheekbone, the haggard look around his mouth.
‘Yeah—right,’ he said.
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘IT’S MRS DIMISTRIS again, Mr Makarios,’ Markos’s PA said apologetically down the line to him as he picked up the phone in his office.
An expletive was instantly suppressed.
‘Put her through,’ said Markos grimly. This was not the first time Constantia Dimistris had phoned, but it was the first time he’d spoken to her. Time to get rid of her permanently.
‘Constantia,’ he said levelly, as he was put through.
The conversation that followed was neither brief nor pleasant. But it was at least, Markos hoped, effective. In the end he was reduced to bluntness.