Chapter 21
Twenty-One
N erine
“Cara, let me look at you,” my mother, Delia Angelos, exclaimed in Greek and stretched her arms out when she spotted me under the driveway terrace.
Even with everything she’d endured over the last few years, she was breathtaking. For a woman in her mid-fifties, she could pass for someone twenty years younger, except for her eyes—dark and piercing. She’d seen things and experienced loss on an excruciating level. She was the epitome of strength and resilience. Her whole demeanor radiated those two words.
My sisters rushed from the car, shooting past me and gathering around Theo and Xander, talking a mile a minute.
The fact neither of them seemed fazed by the onslaught that was the tornado of my sisters made me want to kiss them senseless.
My heart overflowing with happiness, I smiled and stepped into Mama’s open arms. Immediately, she wrapped them around me, and for the first time in years, I felt the comfort of the past. It was the unconditional love of my childhood.
My throat burned as tears gathered.
No matter how much I pretended otherwise, there was nothing like feeling Mama’s love.
“Mama, I missed you so much.” I responded back to her in Greek, closing my eyes and holding her tight, then said in English, “You don’t know how happy I am that you’re here.”
“Things are going to be different now,” Mama whispered against my ear. “Just you watch. You will get the life you deserve.”
“I have big shoes to fill. I’m scared.”
“You’ll be fine. Just remember whose daughter you are at all times.”
I pulled back and studied her face. She lifted a brow, the same gesture I’d perfected. I wanted to shake my head, but I knew better. Yes, I was most definitely Delia Angelos’s daughter as much as Peter’s.
“I hear you,” I muttered.
“I knew you would.”
She’d conveyed without words that while I may have taken over Papa’s role in the organization, she would still run our family of five. Papa knew the rules and never questioned her authority with us children. Now she expected me to fall in line, and since I had no plans to jump into raising my sisters, more power to her.
However, something told me Mama planned to meddle in my life more than I wanted.
I peered over Mama’s head toward Xander and Theo.
They caught the message, too.
I wondered how long she’d wait until she cornered the men for a private conversation.
“Theo, Xander, tonight I’d like to speak with you.”
Not long at all, it seemed.
“Anything you wish, Theia Delia,” Theo answered in Greek.
Hearing him use the language gave me pause. It reminded me that everyone used to go seamlessly between English and Greek depending on who they spoke to in the house.
We would move back into the norm soon.
Mama’s attention moved to Xander. “Do you have time, Xander?”
Xander shifted as if uncomfortable with her scrutiny. “Name the time and place, and I will be there.”
“Excellent.” Mama nodded. “There is much to discuss.”
Yep, Mama Angelos was back in town.
My youngest sister, Fiona, snickered. “Oh, I think you’re in trouble already.”
Ignoring her, I said, “Mama, why don’t you and the girls get comfortable in the new section of the house before you jump into your routine? I’ve had the suites readied for all of you.”
Christina slid an arm around my waist. “I’m so ready for you to take the brunt of her attention.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“Girls, what did I tell you in the car? Just because we are in America doesn’t mean you stop speaking our language. Don’t forget Papa’s rule, in this house, we speak Greek.”
Christina smirked. “What did you say, Mama? It all sounds like Greek to me.”
Knowing a head slap was in my sister’s future, I jumped in. “Mama, a lot has changed. That rule doesn’t apply anymore.”
I heard some giggles as my mother muttered something about taking the house back from the interloper’s ways.
I just shook my head, not bothering to say anything further, to her annoyance.
“Man, I missed how you always knew how to handle her without trying.” Christina searched my face with eyes as blue as mine. “Are you okay?”
“I am now that you all are here. I have my family under one roof. That’s what I needed.”
Ariana approached my opposite side, cocking an elbow on my shoulder. “I’ll remind you of those words when you complain about all the noise.”
“Honestly, I welcome the chaos. It’s been a long time since this house had life.”
Christina and Ariana passed each other smirks, and then Ariana said, “She says that now, but in a few days, she’ll wish to gag one of us.”
I couldn’t help but smile. I needed this. My sisters surrounded me, and Mama was being Mama.
“So, Tina, tell me about this boyfriend of yours. Mama said he’s a looker.”
Her shoulders sagged. “We broke up. I want college and a career, and he wants marriage and babies. It was never going to go anywhere.”
She left off the part where he lived in Greece, and she’d returned to the US.
I led them toward the stairs to the renovated part of the house. “What, isn’t he eighteen? That’s a bit young to think about the next phase in life.”
“He’s the firstborn and the heir. You know, expectations and all that.”
I nodded.
“In their family, they arrange things early. Plus, I knew it wouldn’t last. His mother wanted someone without a ‘modern American upbringing’ to join her family.” She air-quoted the last part.
“Whatever,” I muttered, wanting to punch that asshole and his mother for hurting my sister. “What does his family know about modern anything? They lost a catch, if I have anything to say about it.”
“I love it when you get all big-sister fierce.”
“I’m so over these old-fashioned patriarchal views.” I’d dealt with enough of the bullshit from Andraius. “Plus, you need to live life and explore the world, not decide to shackle yourself to some guy you were seeing in high school.”
“You are one to talk.” Ariana elbowed me. “Didn’t you have your life planned out?”
I frowned at her. “What are you talking about?”
“Weren’t you shagging two enforcers from the time you were in high school and into college and planning a future with them?”
“Umm.” I caught the amusement on Theo’s face and then glared at my mother. “You told them?”
“I did no such thing. Fi is nosy and has a habit of listening to private conversations. I didn’t know she was hiding in the bathroom.”
“Fi knows?”
“I’m not a baby.” Fiona came alongside me.
“You’re still my baby sister.”
“I’m well aware of how sex works.” She rolled her eyes. “If you only knew half the things the good Greek girls do. It makes us Americans look like prudes.”
“I feel like I’m in a parallel universe.”
“I told you things are going to be different now. Come.” Mama gestured with her chin. “Show me to my rooms.”
* * *
A little after eleven in the evening, after changing into my pajamas, I took the hidden passageways leading to my mother’s room. Hopefully, she remembered to unlock the latch from her side. It was how we’d always said good night before our world had turned upside down.
The good thing about this new area, unless opened from a special access point, the hidden pathways behind our bedrooms were only connected to each other. Papa had installed a sliding panel to give him some way to connect to the main passageways. Still, the reinforced wooden and metal door had an old-school style dial lock on it, and Mama and I were the only people who knew the combination.
I was sure if people thought hard and long enough, they’d figure out it was the date Papa had married Mama in Greece, but it would take some time. They’d only ever celebrated the date of their stateside wedding since that was the one considered legal in the US.
I never understood all the details behind why they’d had two weddings. All Mama said was something about stupid people not filing the correct paperwork and making it look like she was living in sin with her mother-in-law.
I loved my yia yia, but the woman was a battle-ax, and she’d made Mama’s life hard until I came along. Then she’d spent all her time feeding me and left her poor haggard daughter-in-law alone.
As I neared the outer wall on one side of Mama’s room, I heard echoes of a discussion. It sounded like the people in the room with her were men.
Oh, the conversation she’d planned with Theo and Xander.
The right thing to do would be to turn around, hang out with one of the girls, and wait for Mama to find me.
But curiosity got the better of me. Besides, one never learned anything useful by being a good girl.
I inched closer. Hopefully, the skills Lilly and Devani taught me worked to keep Theo’s stealthy hearing from detecting me. As I approached the section with the sliding panel that opened into Mama’s closet, I noticed the wall was still closed.
What the hell?
Mama knew it was our ritual to say good night. The rule was to leave it cracked. She’d broken the rules.
I scowled at the wall.
I wouldn’t hear anything from the closet. I might as well go back where I could listen to some of the conversations.
“I trust you two with her. She likes to pretend she isn’t, but she is fragile.”
“She is stronger than you believe,” Xander defended me.
Of course, the guys would indulge her need to speak Greek after what I’d said earlier. I’d forgotten how Mama was modern in so many things but very traditional when it came to preserving our Greek culture, one of them being the family speaking our language at all times while in the house.
Then Theo said, “If you only knew half of the things she endured, you wouldn’t put fragile in any context to describe her.”
Their confidence in me settled the uncertainty I’d felt ever since I learned of the rumors about the three of us.
“I know a lot more than you believe. I have eyes in place, even if physically my body lived in a villa overseas.” The clang of decanters told me Mama poured drinks. “Here, I need to say something, and you’ll need this to handle it.”
“If you are planning to tell us to walk away, our answer is no.” Theo’s direct approach to Mama surprised me.
He was the eloquent one. He used tact and the right words with everyone but me. For me, he took the in-your-face, I-want-to-throw-you-over-my-knee-and-spank-your-ass approach.
My pussy quivered at the thought. Then I pushed it away. If only Theo would do that instead of holding it in. Over the last few days, since we’d reconnected into our unit of three, I’d seen it. The beast was waiting for Theo to set him free.
“I have to concur with Theo’s sentiment.”
Xander was the dominant and passionate lover. He gave me tenderness, emotion, gentleness. It was what he needed to do. The outside world only saw this beast of a man, all muscles and with a do-as-I-say attitude that took no one’s shit. With me, he let down his guard. He softened.
No, he wouldn’t allow me to run all over him, and he would force me to answer his questions as he’d done in the library this afternoon. But with him, I could talk to him about nothing and everything for hours.
Theo, on the other hand, kept his fire hidden from the world, rarely unleashing it unless it was on the poor souls who fucked with him in the Caves. However, with me, he pushed all my buttons. He jacked with me for the sake of annoying me. It was a game, foreplay. Domination was part of it, but I also needed to defy and goad him into reacting.
Watching the ultra-controlled, utterly refined man snap turned me on like nothing else.
Fuck, just the thought of it had my pussy contracting.
Why he wouldn’t let that side of him out frustrated the hell out of me.
“No, of course, I wouldn’t say that to either of you.” Mama’s words snapped me back to the conversation. “In fact, that is the last thing I plan to tell you. My aim is to have one of you marry Nerine.”
Was I losing my mind and misheard her? Or maybe she’d lost hers.
I hadn’t even been a widow for an entire week. The fuck? Andraius’s body was still fresh in the ground.
“She won’t marry again,” Theo interjected. “I doubt she ever will, considering her experience with marriage.”
“Are you so sure?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe with anyone else. However, she’d change her mind if it were one of you two.”
“I’m not following.” This time Xander spoke. “Why do you want her to marry?”
“I won’t have anyone jump in and force her into a situation like the one with the impostor. With one of you, her place is secure. With the two of you, love surrounds her. As the men standing by her side, the two of you will give her the support she never had. No one will think to overthrow her.”
“She is more than a figurehead or an ornament while we make the decisions. She knows how to run the organization. She’s made more decisions in the last few days than that asshole did in the last three months.”
“So quick to protect her, Theo. You’ll need to keep doing that when you marry her.”
I held in the cough that bubbled up.
“Me?” The shock in Theo’s voice was comical, and then my heart broke when he added, “Why on earth would you pick me over Xander? He’s the stable one.”
“Because you need a family more than anyone I know. Xander’s family is here. He is rooted here. Marrying Nerine means you can’t run away. You can’t just one day say ‘Nerine and Xander are happy. I’ll leave them to live their lives and go my separate way.’”
The room grew quiet, thick with tension, as the truth of Mama’s words settled in the air.
A tear slipped down my cheek. Knowing Theo, he would leave if he thought it would make my life easier than to live an unconventional relationship.
“Okay, we need to take a step back,” Xander said after a few minutes. “Before we decide Nerine’s future for her as if we are in some prehistoric era, you need to discuss this with her.”
“No, I need to make clear my wishes with the two of you.”
“Xander is the better choice. As you said, he has a family. That means Nerine has a line to look back on for her children.”
I heard movement and then an angry Xander order, “Sit your ass back down, dickhead. I’m accepting what we had is over, but you’re committed to Nerine. Wouldn’t some of those children be yours if your scenario plays out?”
My mind reeled hearing what Xander revealed in front of Mama. Xander and Theo kept everything about them to a very small circle. The syndicate world wasn’t open and accepting of relationships other than those they viewed as traditional.
“I have no family stateside. They are all dead. I have nothing to offer her.”
“Do you think that makes a difference to her?” Xander asked with the same irritation prickling at the back of my neck.
Theo being the man he was despite all he endured with his father and brothers was something I admired.
“You know what kind of crap I come from. Someone like me isn’t worthy of Nerine.”
“Theia Viola was my mama’s best friend and gave her life by taking a shot meant for you. Just because Theios Mik and your brothers became pieces of shit because they couldn’t get over her death doesn’t mean you forget her. Don’t ever say you come from crap.”
“She died because she went to hug me. What bullshit is that?”
“Theo,” Mama said in her soothing tone. “She was my friend, too. Believe me when I tell you she would do it all over again in a heartbeat.”
“We also need to get something very clear into your head. You aren’t the one responsible for the hit. Uncle Mik was. He went against Theios Peter’s orders and went after a group he knew better than to target. All to initiate your brothers into the life.”
I remembered the fury on Papa’s face when I’d gotten home from school. He’d sat in his office, gripping his hair and shaking his head. He’d raged about how Theios Mik killed an innocent child, the youngest son of a local boss when he’d arrived home in the boss’s car instead of him. The boy had been eleven.
“It doesn’t change the fact I’m the one they targeted, and Mama died.”
“Does it make you unworthy of my daughter? Want to know a secret?”
Yeah, I wanted to know whatever she planned to spill.
“I knew about the both of you and I knew the moment things changed with the three of you.”
My mouth fell open. Oh my God. I was still in high school then, a senior in high school, but only seventeen.
Shit, that sounded really bad, now that I thought about it, especially since they were older than me by a few years.
“Why didn’t you say anything? About Theo and me or the three of us?” Xander asked. “I’m sure it wasn’t exactly what you wanted for your eldest daughter and heir.”
“I’ll address both parts of the question. First, the two of you needed each other. You were best friends, who were more. I saw nothing wrong with it. Not everyone from my generation is closed-minded.”
The love I felt for Mama was beyond anything I could describe. I had no doubt she was instrumental in protecting Xander and Theo as teenagers.
“Now to the second part. You made Nerine happy and kept her out of trouble. And we know how much of a troublemaker she is, don’t we, Theo?” Mama asked with a humorous inflection to her words.
She wanted to lighten the mood after the heaviness of moments earlier.
He grunted. “You tricked me into babysitting her. Why didn’t you tell me her old school kicked her out?”
“Because her Papa didn’t know. He believed she only used her viper tongue for select purposes instead of at every inappropriate time possible.”
“She gave me hell. I wanted to throw her off the nearest bridge.”
“And now you love her.”
“Now I love her and still want to throw her off the nearest bridge.”
“Then it is settled. You will marry Nerine as soon as we can convince her to go through with it.”
He sighed. “Xander, are you good with this?”
“I was always going to tell you to be the one to make it legal for the same reasons Theia Delia gave.”
“I swear, I’m surrounded by conspirators.”
“Okay, give me hugs and go to bed. If you can’t find Nerine, she is probably in one of her sister’s rooms. The girl loves the secret hallways her papa built in this house. I’ll never understand why she enjoys walking around in the dark so much.”
“This side of the house has them, too?” Theo asked. “I assumed it was only in the old section.”
I winced. Mama and her big mouth.
That was our secret.
“Oh no. Peter and Nerine insisted the addition have them, too. They wanted ways to avoid people, meaning their security. It was all fun and games until Nerine used the sneaky tactics Peter taught her on him. I can only imagine the trouble she gave you.”
“You have no idea,” Xander muttered. “She could drive a man to drink.”
“How did you keep her from barging in here? Your daughter is nosy and believes she needs to be in the center of every conversation about her.”
I frowned at Theo’s words, having visions of clocking him in the mouth. I wasn’t that nosy.
Umm. Yes, I was.
“I kept the latch sealed, so even if she thought about coming down, she’d make it as far as my closet and then have to turn around.”
“That was a good call. And thank you for the information on the passageways Nerine conveniently forgot to mention.”
Mama laughed . “Forgot, my foot. We all know she did it on purpose.”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Mama and her big mouth.
They weren’t stupid and had to know I was hiding in the walls or at least suspected.
Those two men knew me too well.
Fuck, I had to make it to one of the girls’ rooms quickly.
I tiptoed away from Mama’s room, trying to make as little noise as possible. And, of course, the floorboards decided to creak.
Dammit. Shut up, you stupid pieces of wood.
Okay, almost there. One more hallway, and I’d be near Fiona’s room. She slept like a log and wouldn’t even hear me come inside.
I froze as the sound of footsteps vibrated from the other side of the wall. I waited, not daring to move a muscle, in case I gave away that only wood and plaster separated us.
“You and I need to have a discussion, soon,” Theo said.
About time they had a conversation. Everything unsaid between them put a barrier in what we all shared.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Xander asked.
“Yeah, it’s time. The three of us can’t work otherwise.”
“Let’s wait until after the meeting.”
“You want to wait? That’s a surprise. Why?” The confusion in Theo’s voice was evident.
“There are other things on our plate. Just answer one thing.”
“What?”
Xander waited for a second and then spoke. “Are we done?”
“Do you really believe that’s an option?”
It would never be over for them, for us.
“Where are you going?”
“I need to take care of a few things before I hit the sheets,” Theo said.
“Same. I’m sure Nerine is still up. Let her hang with her sisters. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.”
I sagged against a wall as relief washed over me.
Okay, back to my room, I go.
Releasing a deep breath, I strolled down the corridor toward my rooms. My nosiness had caused me more tension than was necessary.
As I neared the panel opening into my bedroom, I cocked my head. I distinctly remembered closing the sliding wall since I wanted to keep the draft from seeping into my rooms.
That’s when I felt the familiar presence, and the hair on the back of my neck prickled as my heartbeat jumped.
“You’ve been a very naughty girl.”