Chapter 20 – Serena
“Excuse me, miss, can I trouble you for some cash? I’m hard on my luck,” a voice called out from the heap of trash beside me, breaking the turbulent mental gymnastics of the pie slice and the dilemma it posed.
There was no reasonable explanation for showing up with the dessert, but I was loath to let my conquest go to waste.
I was half contemplating shoveling it down my throat when the voice stopped me.
So focused on hurrying back to Delphi before I was missed, I nearly stepped on his sprawled legs.
I moved nimbly around him before pausing.
“I don’t have money. But...here!” I said brightly.
The pie was going to be my declaration, the symbol of my choice to stay. There was something here, some attraction with the Greek, and I wanted to explore it rather than resume my previous life of haunting the halls of my brother’s mansion.
The man swatted the Styrofoam box away. “I want money!”
I reared back, more angry that the pie fell than scared. Just because I’d realized I needed to dispose of it before going back into Delphi didn’t mean I wanted to see it splattered on the pavement. But there it was.
“Hey! That was my pie,” I protested.
“Money,” the man threatened. “Give me.”
He stepped forward. The motion finally clicked, and fear trickled down my spine.
I jumped back, leaning precariously on the base of my heels.
With more speed than expected given his lethargic position against the wall, the man stumbled after me. I didn’t move quickly enough, and he pawed at my dress. Disgust roiled through me.
“Get off me!” I shoved him.
He reached for my breast. “Where’s the money?”
I jerked to the side, dug my heel in, and took off running.
The sound of his rapid footfalls said he was equally as fast.
A crack in the cement snagged my heel and sent me pitching forward. The ground rose to meet me. Sprawled out on the dirty ground, my body screamed in multiple places, but I twisted around. “I don’t have anything! For the first time in my life, I am penniless, and I love it!”
“A rich girl like you always has money,” the man sneered. He was gross, smelling as bad as the trash he’d been snoozing on, while dirt and filth painted his clothing. “Just give me something for food and I’ll leave you alone!”
“I gave you my pie!” Unbelievable! Un-freaking-believable!
“That’s not what I wanted,” the man slurred.
Great. He was likely drunk, and in my frenzy of emotions, I missed that detail.
But it didn’t matter. I was done with masculine nonsense. This man was harassing me. Leo was pissed at me. And Markos? Well, Markos was a lot of things, but he was on my shit list too.
“If you were ssooo hungry, you would have eaten that,” I shouted.
“You took the lady’s pie?” a dark voice cracked through the night like a thunderclap. “Big mistake—your second, in fact.”
Markos unfolded from the shadows and caught the man behind his throat. The thug started twitching manically. But he was no match for the raw violence pulsing around the creature of the deep.
“What was his first?” I muttered, pushing to my feet and dusting the dirt off my dress. The action was futile. The white skirt was streaked.
“He chased you. I’m the only one allowed to do that.”
Huh. That shouldn’t be hot. There shouldn’t be a rush of eagerness shooting straight between my legs.
But there was.
All because this big, bad mobster leapt out of the dark to rescue me.
“What are you doing out here, Markos?” I asked dryly.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
The thug’s movements slowed. Here we were having a normal conversation while he was strangling my aggressor.
Maybe I should scream or freak out. I probably seemed too calm in the Greek’s eyes. Yet as I looked at the face turning blue and purple from lack of oxygen, I didn’t feel a drop of remorse. He’d accosted me, chased me, and tried to rob me.
I was done with men thinking they could walk all over women because they were physically stronger.
“Why don’t you go back inside?” Markos jerked his chin to the door.
I arched a brow. “Where are you going?”
“To play a little game with this lump.”
Lump. That made me cringe. “No, don’t do that.”
Markos tipped his head to the side. “He assaulted you.”
“Yes, so kill him and be done with it,” I snapped. “Don’t play with him for some sick, twisted reason.”
Markos blew a short laugh from his nose. “Of all the surprising things.” He cracked the man’s neck and dropped the limp body. “You’re something else, Serena.”
Yeah, the kind of messed up only someone with a very fancy degree and access to pills could possibly hope to treat. Because I found this monster insanely attractive—even though he was emotionally unavailable, wanted to marry someone else, and was holding me prisoner. A damn fine mess.
I watched with an unhealthy level of detachment as Markos tossed the body into the alley behind Delphi. The feelings swirling in my chest weren’t normal. It should bother me that the mobster disposed of a still warm body as though it was nothing more than a trash bag.
I blamed it on growing up in the mob—not that my brothers let me see family business.
“I’m done being bullied,” I said with a shrug and took a step toward the entrance.
The broken stiletto reminded me how the pavement felt. This time, my graceless crash tore the skin clean off my flesh.
A violent curse left my lips.
Strong hands scooped me into the air. “What was that, beautiful?”
Distracted by how nice it felt in his arms, it took a moment for the details to fall into place.
Holy shit. Panic iced my veins. Those words hadn’t been in English.
Sure, I’d slipped a few random cuss words in Italian, but that was the first time I spoke a string of words aloud.
One of my secrets was revealed, out in the open, unable to be retracted .
There would be questions, and I wasn’t ready to answer them.
“Nothing,” I muttered, scrambling for a reasonable answer. “Just something my granny used to say.”
Markos hummed. The sound was rich and comforting, vibrating through his chest.
I stared at him, trying to assess his thoughts, but I couldn’t even see his features clearly.
“Are you ever going to stop hiding from me?” I whispered, reaching out to touch his cheek.
Bouncing me hard to adjust me to a one-handed grip, he caught my hand right before my fingers made contact with his skin.
“Someday,” he said through clenched teeth.
It must be bad. The flickers of light against the dark made the puckered scars on his face more pronounced. I hadn’t asked Evangelia what happened to him, because it felt too personal, too much like gossip.
Someone hurt him. Badly.
That thought made a small knot of sadness ache in my chest.
But I couldn’t feel completely bad for him. This was the man who’d kept me prisoner. Who’d kissed me when he planned to take another. That was going to change. If I stayed here, if I didn’t attempt another escape, he would need to be open to some basic freedoms—and some healthy distance.
No more kissing.
Instead of going into the building, Markos took me to his jeep. He set me down on the back and reached for a metal closed box near the raised wheel well.
“You came back,” he stated.
Warmth flooding my cheeks, I shifted about. “I did.”
“Why?”
“Unfinished business.”
His dark gaze flicked to mine. I could feel it grazing against my skin. “And what would that be, prinkípissa?”
As he spoke, Markos took a first aid kit from the storage box and began to dab at my skinned knees.
I bit back a hiss as the gauze made contact. “I wanted to know what you were going to do with the woman you were supposed to kidnap?”
His fingers stilled, but only for an instant. “Marry her.”
Butterflies roused in my stomach. “Why haven’t you?”
Markos placed a bandage over the first knee. “Fate had other plans.”
The colorful bugs began to race about inside me. “And those other plans...what do they consist of?”
Instead of cleaning the second knee, his fingers ran up the length of one thigh, stopping at the hem of the dress, only to trail back down the inside of the second.
“The winds sent me you,” he murmured.
The butterflies exploded in a frenzy. Good lord, something was very wrong with me indeed.
“Oh, and what are you going to do with me?” I smiled coyly. I was going to cross some forbidden line with my captor. The consequences be damned, I wanted him, and he wanted me enough to keep kissing his prisoner.
It was time I started enjoying the perks of captivity.
But just as I leaned forward, ready to close the distance, Markos pulled back.
“Here’s my dilemma,” he said gruffly. “You know too much.”
I didn’t like where this was going. There was no way in hell I was going to marry someone from his village. I thought we’d already covered that.
“I won’t tell,” I murmured, hoping my voice sounded as sultry out loud as I meant in my head. “I give you my word of honor, Mr. Pirate.”
He stilled at that. “Not good enough.”
I blinked in confusion. What just happened?
We were flirting, or at least what I thought was that, and we were giving in to the temptation swirling around.
It was at the heart of why I came back. I wanted to explore this thing between us!
Push him until he gave into the pull. Take things further than a kiss!
“You’re going to marry me, or I’m going to kill the owner of the yacht christened Fortune’s Favorite .”
Who the hell do I know that owns a—
Time seemed to stop as my brain momentarily went offline.
Only once, while escaping the law sent on a witch hunt, had I set foot on that yacht.
My brothers were utterly ridiculous. Sandro bought a big boat as a statement, but never had the time to use it.
So of course, Leo had to one up him and buy a better yacht, christen it a similar name, and become a boating enthusiast just to subtly outdo his big brother.
“Leo? You mean Leo?” I hissed. Markos knew. How did this monster find out about my family? And now.... Oh, madonna, no! I just watched this man snap the neck of a man attacking me.
Markos’s body practically vibrated with wrath. “Do not say his name around me again, prinkípissa.”
What the hell did this man know about Leo? “Who told you?”
“Evangelia might be an airhead, but she’s picked up on a few useful things from you,” he said smoothly, doing a damn fine job of concealing the storm behind his words. “You recognized the model of a yacht in our marina. You said—”
“I’d been on the Fortune’s Favorite ,” I breathed. That small slip, that momentary lapse in judgement, and my secret was out. I remember that conversation with the girl, but it must be how he knew. There was no other way he could have found out about my brother.
A wicked glint flashed in the monster’s eyes. “I already have a hit lined up to take out the Chicago businessman.”
He was going to hurt my brother. “That makes absolutely no sense. Why would you hurt him? He’s done nothing!”
Leo might not be an active part of our lives, his business facade separating him from us, but he was still blood.
“If you want him to live, you’ll never return to his arms. I will kill him. Without a moment’s hesitation. So you must think of your relationship with him as over.”
Wait. What? He thought we were lovers? A rough laugh bubbled up from my gut. It was either find humor in the mistake or be sick at the thought of being in love with my brother. “You have it all wrong—”
Markos grabbed my jaw, holding it in a terrible grip. Those hard fingers dug into my flesh, making me squirm.
“You will forget about him, and you will marry me,” Markos growled.
I whimpered, trying to pull away from his unforgiving grip. “Please! You’re hurting me.”
His touch softened, but only a fraction.
Air filled my lungs. Enough to spit out, “I’m not marrying you!”
I was planning to sleep with him, but after this? Abso-fucking-lutely not!
“Then look for Mr. Baldwin’s obit in the paper tomorrow.” Markos shoved me backward.
“You’re mad!” I lunged forward, stumbling off the back of the vehicle as the damn broken shoe twisted my ankle wrong. But that didn’t stop me from shouting at the monster in front of me. “What about your other woman? Hmm? The one you were supposed to marry?”
“She doesn’t matter.”
That was not elation flickering inside my chest. I was too angry to feel that.
“Of course she doesn’t,” I scoffed. “Because nothing matters to a cold, dead fish-man.”
“You have thirty seconds to decide, or I’m leaving on the flight to O’Hare and personally taking your lover’s life,” Markos growled.
I marched right up to him and stabbed him in the chest. “You bastard!”
His jaw clenched tight.
“I hate you.” I stepped closer, trying to get right in his face.
He didn’t even flinch.
It would be so simple to tell him he was wrong. That Leo was my brother, not a lover.
But some inner sense of preservation stopped me. The technicality wouldn’t matter. Markos would still use Leo against me to force my hand. And then I would have revealed one of my most well-kept secrets for nothing.
No...it was better this beast didn’t know I was also from the underworld. That I had two brothers, and one was a powerful mob boss. It would only put more lives in his crossfire.
“Five.... Four.... Three.... Two—”
“I’ll do it.” Such simple words to seal my fate.
There was no triumph in his voice when he said, “Get in the jeep.”
That was it. Done. My short taste of freedom was crashing and burning in an epic disaster. Life as I knew it was over. Body numb, I obeyed.
I couldn’t believe my luck before. I was going to stay. I was going to hide out here, feel like I was part of the community. But no, I was just a prize to be exploited after all. The monster wanted me, and he took me.
The drive passed in a blur. The hot, sticky air rushed around the open doors.
Earlier tonight, I would have let loose, thrown my hands in the air, and enjoyed the ride.
But I wasn’t sure if that light feeling was ever coming back.
The weight of captivity settled on my chest, turning every drop of joy into a dead weight.
Consumed by the change of circumstances, I barely noticed the breathtaking cathedral as we drove across the parking lot.
The vehicle pulled around the building to a smaller structure that was separated from the monolith.
It began to settle in as Markos leapt from the driver’s seat and banged on the door.
This was a church. That was a priest in a nightrobe.
And I was the girl who was going to marry a man who would kill my loved ones without hesitation, just to manipulate me into doing his bidding.