Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
A vra
“Where’s the garlic?” Laya asked, pretending to gag after taking the first bite of her sandwich.
I wadded a napkin and tossed it at her face. “Oh, shut up.”
“It’s so plain. We’re Greek. Give me flavor.” She gestured with her hands and gave me a goofy smile that had me returning one.
“You can’t taste anything because you burned all your taste buds with all the spicy food you eat. Normal people don’t pick peppers from a plant in the garden and eat them.”
“You weakling. You can’t call it spicy if it doesn’t make your nose run and your eyes water.”
I rolled my eyes, took a huge bite of my food, and immediately regretted it. Hot cheese scalded my tongue.
I fanned my mouth and grabbed my cold soda. “Hot, hot, hot.”
“I rest my case.” Laya laughed, pointing at me.
“You’re lucky I’m willing to feed you. I’ve never known anyone who eats as much as you.” My comment brought thoughts of Cali to mind, and I glanced at my phone. “Has it really been three hours?”
Laya picked up her mobile and snapped her gaze to mine. “Where the hell is Cali?”
“Has she responded to any of your messages? She hasn’t read any of mine.” A chill ran down my spine. Cali always responded to texts, even if it was to say, I’m busy .
“Nothing.” Laya scrolled her screen. “Not a single comment to any of the pictures I sent her while we were cooking. And not a single post on any of her social media accounts, even the popular one with the million followers.”
Calista kept a “Day in the Life” account on one of the social media platforms where she posted about different places in the city. We teased her about the number of hand and foot shots we had seen since she never revealed her face.
I dialed her number. “Let me call. She knows to pick up if it is me.”
After a few rings, her chirpy voice told me to leave her a message.
“Voicemail?” Laya asked. “Okay. I’m scared. Calista doesn’t go this long without checking in. She’s a free spirit but a good girl. She’s not like us. ”
“Where the fuck is her protection?” I muttered to myself and dialed Cali’s security lead. When he picked up, I asked, “Where’s Cali?
“We can’t find her.”
I gripped the phone tighter. “What the fuck do you mean you can’t find Cali? It’s your job to keep her safe and to stay with her. You are her shadow.”
Laya furrowed her brow, gesturing to listen in. My hands shook as I set the phone on the counter. It was time to be the Vitalis, to take charge, and to help my family through this.
I would use rational thought, and then I’d punish.
“Tell me what happened.” My order came from a place I’d reached for before.
I remember Papa telling me there were times we put everything away and became cold and a predator. At fifteen, I had no concept of what he meant. Now I understood.
“She went into the library’s enclosed study room. Since some of the walls are glass, she was within sight to a certain extent. So we stood nearby to give her some privacy to concentrate.”
“She told us she was going to an information session.”
“This was after it finished. There are books in the library that they won’t allow anyone to check out, so Cali decided to look through them before closing. We didn’t see any harm in letting her sit in a lounger and read for half an hour.”
Laya cut in. “A single study room? She was the only one in there?”
“No. Several other tables were in there, but only one other woman was there,” he reported. “We scoped it before she entered.”
“Go on.” I set my hand on the counter and waited.
“When the thirty-minute time slot ended, we knocked on the door, but the room was empty.”
I ground my teeth so hard that the muscles in my neck strained. The air in my lungs burned with every breath. Laya covered her mouth, rubbing her hand to the side to grip the back of her neck.
I couldn’t lose the heart of our family. I wouldn’t lose the heart of our family.
“We were about to call you, then Elias.”
Laya glanced at me as though to ask whether I thought that was a good idea.
To the best of the men's knowledge, the Vitalis and Xenos forces were a unified group. No one was informed about the recent developments in my relationship with Elias.
I was confident that if the men had contacted my husband and reached him before me, he would have stepped in to help. I was confident he would do everything possible to locate Cali.
My soul said he’d help.
Was I a fool to believe this?
My arms and legs ached with the restrained anger building inside me. I wanted to lash out and rip into the soldier for failing at his one fucking duty.
But he was the last of my priorities. Calista came first.
Every bit of the chaotic, raging energy churning inside me needed to focus on finding Cali .
Laya’s eyes locked with mine. Anger boiled within them, matching mine. She stood at my side, speechless and brimming with the urgency to do something. She kneaded her fingers in a clawing rub on the back of her neck.
“Contact Vik right now, and don’t you dare stop searching. Your life depends on it.” I hung up.
Not a second later, my cell vibrated with an incoming call flashing Eli’s number.
“Eli,” I said with every emotion rushing around me.
“Avra. Are you home? Are you safe?”
I hesitated, desperate to tell him about Calista, needing him so much.
He spoke before I could. “Calista was taken.”
I shut my mouth so hard my teeth rattled. He knew? How?—
“Ozias is behind it,” he finished without me asking, reading my mind somehow.
“No.” I swallowed hard, wishing it was just a fluke—a coincidence. I truly believed that Elias would prevent anything from happening.
“I promise you, I will do everything I can to get her back. I swear it.”
How can I believe you? I thought he had gone over there to do this very thing and stop his father.
“Where is Ozias?”
He didn’t hesitate to reply. The deep growl of his car sounded in the background as he revved to drive faster. “Locked in a secure room. Guards are monitoring his every move. He’s not going anywhere. ”
“What does this mean?”
“There is no figurehead anymore. I am one hundred percent in power now.”
Those words gave me a kernel of hope.
With Eli in charge, Ozias couldn’t continue his plot against me and my sisters.
It still wouldn’t make any difference to Cali.
“I will be home in a few minutes. Please, wait for me before you do anything.”
Please . It wasn’t an order but a request.
“Okay. I’ll wait.” I nodded, not caring if he could see the gesture or not.
I disconnected, the numbness after the incident with Eli nothing compared to the cold, ice-filled wrath surging through every one of my cells. Fury ate me from the inside out, burning out the pettier issues like heartache and confusion. Having already been torn and chewed up from the ups and downs of so many big emotions, it was time to unleash the hard, icy woman so many had labeled me.
I couldn’t break.
I had a long to-do list—killing Ozias Xenos at the top of it. The need to punish him and inflict pain filled my mind. I envisioned killing him with my bare hands, shaking the life out of him as I strangled him and watched his eyes gloss over with death. Maybe I’d play with him first, torture him, then end his life.
I now had the opportunity. With Elias’s update, I knew I could move forward. As an additional assurance, a few of Vik’s Vitalis spies, concealed among Ozias’s men, confirmed everything Elias had conveyed to me.
Ozias was under lock and key, confined and surrounded, kept like prey awaiting his fate.
Yes, I chose to believe Eli and have faith in his intentions. However, Vik was always Vik, and when it came to his girls, it was a matter of “trust but verify.” I couldn’t blame him. He had played the role of a surrogate father for most of my life, and that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
A small part of me wondered why Elias hadn’t done the deed himself, but now, a dark and malicious morsel of my soul was happy he hadn’t. I wanted to end that bastard’s existence. I wanted his blood on my hands.
No one would stop me. I could go there, open the door, and the soldiers could hold him still while I executed him however I saw fit.
But I couldn’t do it. It would be wrong. Yes, Ozias deserved to die. Ozias would die, but not right now.
My time and efforts were needed elsewhere before it was too late.
Papa and Mama would understand avenging them came second to protecting my sisters.
My sisters mattered more. They always would.
Laya paced near me, and as she spun, mumbling under her breath, I faced her and met her worried gaze.
It was also time to accept the truth and blame our current circumstances on the right person.
“It’s my fault Ozias took Cali.”
She frowned, shaking her head. “No. ”
“If we’d stayed in Prague, none of this would have happened.” I hung my head for a moment. “I failed her. I failed you.”
“No!” She hurried over to me, taking hold of my upper arms. “That’s not true. That’s bullshit. All we had there was a life of looking over our shoulders and worrying while we hid. That’s not a real life. At least not according to me.”
I tugged out of her hold, unable to listen to anything else she argued.
The front door opened and shut, announcing Elias’s return. I rushed out of the kitchen and stopped in the entryway.
We stared at each other. I didn’t want to wonder or second-guess anything.
This man, my husband, vowed that he loved me. I should hate him. His father destroyed my childhood, killed my mother, and took my sister. But Eli wasn’t like Ozias.
He wanted me, not my name or what I came with, but me.
“Eli,” I whispered and ran to him.
He caught me, wrapping his arms around me and engulfing me in strength and security.
He released a deep, heartfelt sigh into my hair and pressed his face to my head. “I can’t lose you, Avra. I can’t.”
“I should have believed you. I was?—”
Eli placed a finger to my lips.
“If I heard just half of what Ozias planned, I’d question myself too.”
“I’m scared.” My admission felt like acid in my throat .
He lifted me in his arms and held me close. “They took Calista before I reached the estate.”
“I know.” I nodded and then said, “Tell me what happened.”
He carried me to the couch and shared all the details with Laya and me. From the moment he arrived at the estate, where he learned from the guard about the talkative recruits, which corroborated Laya’s account, to the events during Ozias’s party.
“I could have killed him. I wanted to,” he admitted, taking my hand. “But I couldn’t deprive you of that satisfaction.”
“Oh, isn’t it sweet? He’s giving you the top kill on your hit list as a present,” Laya cooed, and I narrowed my gaze at her .
Instead of commenting on Laya’s stupid words, I stated, “He lives until he reveals Calista’s location.”
Laya nodded. “And the details about the hits on us.”
“Ozias won’t crack easily. Plus, we need to find out what else he plans,” Eli added.
“I don’t care about Ozias right now.” The anxiety inside me bubbled up again. “We need to use our time and resources to find Calista.”
Eli turned me to face him on the couch and took my hands. “I want to make this clear and know that you understand me.”
I waited for him to continue.
“Our marriage is real, Avra. ”
I stared into his intense eyes, seeing the true meaning behind his claims.
“It started as a business, an arrangement. We were openly using each other.”
I smirked. “That we were. I remember something about actions and consequences.”
His lips curved at my response, but then he grew serious.
“I love you, Avra.” He slid his hand around my neck until he cupped the back of my head. “I will never stop loving you.”
I drew in an unsteady breath and nodded.
“I swear to you, we will find Calista. I will do everything in my power to make it happen.”
I let his firm words settle into my frantic thoughts.
“I believe you.”
He crushed his mouth to mine, stealing thoughts and overwhelming my senses. And just as fast as he captured my lips, he pulled away. Anything more would come later.
I stood, still holding his hand and squeezing his fingers as he rose.
“I’ll call Vik and see what he can figure out.”
Elias nodded once. “I’ll start with Ozias. Time to give him a taste of his own medicine and see if we get some answers.”
“Make it hurt, Eli.” I held his gaze as his pupils dilated, and that attraction that lived as if it were a sentient being called out.
“The two of you can eye fuck later. We have work to do.”