Chapter 2
Two
E lias
A long, hot shower was all I wanted.
I never tolerated disloyalty. And if it meant covering my hands in blood as I disciplined an idiot who thought he could walk around sharing information not intended for the public, so be it.
The example I set today would make it clear that I tolerated no disrespect from anyone in my organization.
Elimination wasn’t my preferred method. However, I needed to soil my hands to clarify my point in cases like this one.
I hadn’t expectedthe time it had taken to delve into the discipline. Then again, allowing the fucker a quicker death wouldn’t have the intended impact on others who thought to betray me .
Why the fuck my father had favored that moron, I’d never know. My father’s outrage at being deceived amused me. I’d seen it coming but kept quiet, knowing he thought of himself as a pristine judge of character.
Then again, assholes stuck together. And as long as my father thought he was the boss around here, the head of the Xenos enterprise and our family, I gave him the illusion of appeasing him when I could and cleaned up his messes.
A traitor was a traitor, after all, and I wasn’t called a ruthless killer for nothing.
I passed into the corridor leading to the residential area of the Xenos estate, eyeing the stairs leading to my section of the house.
“Eli? A word,” my father called out, forcing me to pause and curl my lip.
Asshole wanted a word after I cleaned up yet another of his messes.
Was he even aware that the majority of his men thought him weak?
To breathe the same air in a room with the asshole was a vile prospect, but that was the role of an obedient only son. As always, I pushed back the loathing, the hatred, the disgust for the man responsible for half of my DNA and turned to stride in the direction of the hallway leading to my father’s office.
The stench of blood covering my skin wafted up, adding to my annoyance .
I expected some complaints about my appearance and pungent scent. So if I ruined his expensive, plush carpet, it was his fault.
Facing him was my version of torture. I’d allow my disgusting smell to be his.
One guard outside my father’s office inclined his head as I approached and gestured to his pocket, indicating his phone. He was an informant of mine embedded with my father’s men, and it seemed he had some information to share.
Age and circumstance had made my father the head of the family, but everyone involved in our sphere understood who really ran things around here.
It wasn’t him. Ozias Xenos was not the man making this family successful. Due to my blood and sweat, the family rolled in wealth and luxury. Because of my determination and hard work, everyone could live in opulence and with reverence.
Everyone, like the lazy asshole on the other side of that desk.
I entered my father’s office and kept my expression blank as he lifted his face toward me. He cared too much about the past and what everyone around him had. He only prioritized the territories he had no control over instead of developing the areas he ran.
Like a lousy leader.
He sat there expectant, dressed as if he were some elderly statesman ready for a night on the town and without a single care in the world. His office was more of a showpiece surrounded by the luxury of expensive art and antiquities. It was a display of his ego, not of his power, as he believed .
His lip curled as he took in my appearance.
“What is it?” I asked, not giving two shits about speaking to him with respect.
This man had long since lost it. The best I could muster was a somewhat civil conversation as I’d have with a soldier who annoyed the shit out of me, but I had to supervise and tolerate.
He grunted and smirked as he sat back in the ornate chair. Swiveling side to side, he sighed and regarded my disheveled appearance. “Rough day?”
“I took care of your misjudgment in character.” I shrugged. “It’s a messy business. You should try it sometime. Our men like it when the boss gets involved in the work and doesn’t lock himself away in the office.”
He narrowed his gaze as the barb of truth struck.
“I doubt you want me to stink up your finery. Tell me what you want so I can get out of here,” I said, wiping a smear of blood from my brow.
More than likely, this was another discussion about selling tobacco products for our potential alliances with the Italian contacts. Ozias had wanted an exchange arrangement for years but had yet to set it up.
Not until I stepped in.
I understood diplomatic maneuvering. Hell, I was more experienced and strategic in my approach to everyone. Maybe once upon a time, he had the touch to charm and negotiate, but he’d lost the edge. Greed compromised one’s thinking, and Ozias was all things gluttonous.
I’d figured out how to compromise and still achieve my goal, specifically the group we dealt with in the northern territories. Showboating had never worked with them. Unfortunately, that was my father’s signature antic. Instead, I laid everything out on the table with a clear pair of options: they took it or walked away—all or nothing. The Italians were aware that we had other avenues to move our products. Once they realized my proposals indicated a mutually beneficial process, things fell into place.
Still, Ozias insisted on trying to look like the bigger power, thinking he possessed the influence to exert more expectations on the Italians. If he tried that tactic, he’d never get it.
He stared at me, keeping me in suspense, his fingers steepled together and pressed to his lips. I’d pissed him off, and now he wanted me to stew in my filth and need of a long, hot shower.
“I’m not in the mood for games,” I warned him. “Either tell me what you want or?—”
“A marriage offer has come to the table.”
I went still, pausing to take in his statement.
Marriage?
That was the last thing I expected.
An offer for a bride wasn’t unusual. Arranged marriages were common in our world. They linked syndicates, creating alliances and business ties.
For me, an offer of marriage wasn’t something I had ever anticipated hearing from Ozias’s lips.
I studied Ozias for any signs he was lying or fucking with me and found none .
Who could it be? The only eligible woman he might consider was my last lover, Francesca.
If that was the case, then the answer was no.
She was beautiful, skilled at pleasing me in bed, and came from a family of standing among Ozias’s circle, but I’d made it clear from the very beginning that I had no plans to marry her. I’d recognized her clingy and needy nature and set the rules so there was no miscommunication. Our relationship was casual at best, a dalliance over the last year where we enjoyed our time together, nothing more.
Yes, every man would want a gorgeous woman on his arm. But Francesca?
No. Fucking Francesca and marrying her were two very different things.
Besides, the last thing I wanted was to marry anyone or have sex with the same woman over and over again for the rest of my life.
I wasn’t a cheater like my father. Marriage meant vows to honor. To marry meant I would only fuck my wife, and I wasn’t in any rush to settle like that. I’d managed to avoid marriage for forty years.
Why was the old man pushing it now?
For one obvious fucking reason.
To control me since he hated how everyone knew the truth that I ran the family for him.
“Is that so?” I asked, sarcastic and curious.
I wouldn’t show him how intrigued I was by this game he played. Revealing my emotions would be an error with him .
He grinned, slow and sly. “It’s Avra Vitalis.”
He had to be lying.
I clenched my teeth to avoid betraying a single sign.
Avra Vitalis?
First dropping the bomb of marriage, and now Avra, of all women
I cleared my throat, and I tried to connect the dots. “I thought you eliminated the Vitalis sisters.”
My father had never accepted the Vitalis family’s power. He’d loathed them so much that he’d stolen it all from them. The Vitalis family had held all the power in Greece. They had been the rulers for many generations—until my father killed them off.
Or, I guess he didn’t.
Despite the years that had passed, I remembered everything about the events leading up to that gruesome night, especially Eudora Vitalis’s murder, as though it had only happened yesterday.
Ozias had ordered me to “help” him with some work. My job was to start paying my dues for spending years in England finishing my graduate degrees. Fucker told me nothing about his plans outside of taking back what he believed the Vitalises owed to the Xenoses generations ago.
I knew it was bullshit the second those words came out of his mouth. No one owed us anything. Our family history went back over a century, and the Xenoses had started with no land and no prospects. All we had came from a territorial war, unlike the Vitalises, who were gifted their original territory centuries ago by the Greek royal family .
When we arrived at Vitalis’s villa outside the city, I questioned Ozias, who told me to follow orders and shut up. As a young idiot, I went inside. He’d set the whole thing up to corner Eudora Vitalis. He knew the remaining Vitalis family wouldn’t arrive until morning, and she was alone. Ozias never got over Eudora’s rejection of him for Juno. He believed killing her was the prize in his coup on Juno Vitalis.
I would never shake the guilt for my part in her death. I’d tried to stop him, but there was nothing I could do short of taking the bullet for her. He’d killed her right in front of me and told me to grow the fuck up.
And that’s what I’d done.
My father’s actions had hardened me.
I’d always known he was despicable, but that night changed me.
When I learned of how far he’d stoop, how greedy he’d dare to be, he’d squashed any lingering softness I’d possessed from my deceased mother. He’d forced me to change, to evolve from a young twenty-five-year-old into the heartless killer everyone knew today. Witnessing the effects of Ozias’s brutality was a rude awakening, enabling me to accept the life I lived at present.
He stared at me with that knowing smirk I loathed so much. I especially detested how he kept secrets. In other words, I hated the asshole.
Now, it looked as if he’d led me—and everyone else—to believe that the sisters had died with their parents.
“Why?” I narrowed my eyes, daring him to mess with me. “Why did you lie? ”
He scoffed. “I don’t answer to you, son .”
The fuck you don’t.
It wasn’t the time to challenge him like that. Soon, but not now.
“Why did you tell everyone that the Vitalis sisters died?”
With a lazy shrug, he swiveled to the other side, his chair squeaking with the move. “I didn’t expect them to survive. You remember that night. All that bloodshed.”
From your orders.
“I never bothered to look for them. I’d killed all who were loyal to Juno Vitalis.”
Apparently, you missed someone, dumbass.
“The sisters have been living in hiding. One of Pello Korba’s soldiers heard they had been in Prague all this time. Rumor has it they’re back to take what is ‘rightfully’ theirs.” He laughed, easing into a chuckle as he shook his head like it was a stupid joke.
What he said was nothing but the truth. Patras and the territories around it rightfully belonged to the Vitalis family. They had owned them before my father and his three counterparts stole them.
What the fuck are you doing?
I wiped away another smear of sweat and grime from the discipline I’d dished out before coming here. I couldn’t understand why Ozias would even consider this marriage offer. He’d be selective. He could resent me for being more powerful within the family, but I was his only son. My choice of a bride would be significant for him, and the fact that he was contemplating Avra Vitalis, the eldest daughter of his former rival, raised suspicions.
I stared at him, trying to pick at his cool indifference and root out what he was scheming. What are you up to now?
“Why would you want me to marry her?”
He sighed, scooting his chair back to stand. “The optics would be good.”
“What fucking optics?”
He was delusional if he thought he’d fooled anyone. He’d killed his rivals and stolen what was theirs, without remorse or regret.
He pushed to his feet and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I killed her mother, and now my son would be marrying the dead woman’s daughter. We’ve come full circle. It will look like our strength and power brought them out of hiding. That they need us to survive.”
How the fuck do you think that if they’ve been surviving all this time without us?
It hit me then. The truth behind Ozias’s statement struck me. If I married Avra, it would legitimize the Xenos claim on the Vitalis territory. Juno Vitalis’s will transferred all the deeds and land rights to the Vitalis sisters upon his death. This stately residence, this entire grand estate—all of it. Everything would have gone to the sisters. Now that they were alive and returning, they might want it back.
Still, I found it too convenient. No one offered themselves up to the enemy like this. In our world, the men held the land. The men called the shots.
Ozias may believe this was good fortune falling in his lap. He seemed ready to assume that Avra’s return and offer to marry me would be a twist he could manipulate.
But I wasn’t an idiot. I wasn’t blind. I understood plots and deceit. I was no stranger to manipulation, and it was good that I knew how to set up and avoid traps.
I see how it is.
I would enjoy being her prey. Then, when she least expected it, I would spring my trap.
“By the way,” my father added as he rounded his massive desk.
I tilted my head to the side as he paused before passing me.
“Avra and her sisters will arrive for dinner in thirty minutes. You might want to freshen up for your engagement celebration.”