Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
“ W hat did he say?” Trepidation twisted through Belle as she tugged her dress over her swimsuit.
“We need to get back to the villa,” Nick said. “Spiros just called. Mwana has sent the second package.” He grabbed her elbow and propelled her toward the steps. Behind them, Yannis gathered the remains of their picnic and followed.
Negotiating the rocky steps didn’t give her a chance to speak, but at the summit she turned to Nick. “Has he opened it? Do we know what’s in it?”
“No. But that’s not all.”
Face set in stone, he placed her in the seat before starting the cart. “News of your capture and rescue has been released to the press. TV stations, both national and international, are leading with the news. The phone’s been ringing non-stop for the last hour,” he delivered in a clipped tone. “I supposed it was inevitable.” Anxiety rippled through her. “God— Nick, my parents!” “We’ll call them as soon as we get back,” he said.
Having cleared an outcrop of rocks, she was thrown back into her seat when he floored the accelerator, wringing every single horsepower from the battery-powered engine.
“I should’ve told them. They don’t deserve to hear it on the news.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You were trying to protect them. They’ll understand. Let’s just get back to the house, okay?” He took one hand off the steering wheel to squeeze hers, a fleeting reassurance, which, although welcome, was gone before she could take comfort in it.
When he brought the golf cart to an abrupt halt in front of the villa and sprinted up the steps, she scrambled after him, almost running to keep up with his long strides. She tried to smile reassuringly at an anxious Demetra, who stood just inside the door wringing her hands, but she only managed a tight-lipped grimace as she dashed after Nick.
He entered his study, ushered her in, and shut the door behind them.
“We’ll call your parents first, then I’ll speak to Spiros?—”
They both froze as the phone rang. With quick strides, he walked over to his desk and snatched it up.
“Andreakos.” The greeting sounded like a swear word, and she winced with sympathy for the caller. “Yes, she’s right here,” his voice softened. “Hold on.”
Nick lowered the phone. “He beat us to it. It’s your father. He wants to speak to both of us,” he said, taking her arm when she reached the desk. He sat down and then settled her into his lap.
“Go ahead, Jon, you’re on speaker.” His warm breath brushed her ear, causing a frisson of awareness to tingle down her spine. She started guiltily when her father spoke.
“Belle, are you there? Have you seen the news? Is what they’re saying true?” The shock and worry in his voice cut straight to her heart.
Nick’s hand flexed at her waist, and she had to clear her throat before she could speak. “Yes, Dad, I’m here. I’m sorry you had to find out that way, but yes…it’s true.”
“ What? Dear girl, when Nick told us he was bringing you home, we thought you’d been unwell on your holiday. We had no idea this was what had happened. Why didn’t you tell us? Either of you?” His voice was gruff. Her heart sank, and she wished for the umpteenth time she had the power to turn back the clock two weeks—no, six months.
“I’m sorry, Dad, I…”
“It was my fault, Jon. I didn’t want to worry you and Annette,” Nick slid in smoothly, his hand tightening around her.
“Be that as it may, we would’ve preferred to have been told. We’re not children to be cosseted! Is what they’re saying true, Belle? That you were tortured ?”
She heard a break in his voice. A muffled sound, much like a sob, came through the speaker, she guessed from her mother.
“Listen to me, Dad, Mum. Yes, I was captured, but I was absolutely not tortured, I promise you that. As I told you when we spoke yesterday, I’m fine. The papers are grossly exaggerating.” She tried to project as much reassurance into her voice as possible.
“But how can it be exaggeration?” he asked, perplexed. “According to the Dutch couple on the TV now, you were held for almost a week.”
Her eyes widened. She glanced at Nick and found the same surprise reflected on his face. Grabbing the remote control on his desk, he turned on the TV.
And there on the screen, on channel after channel, were the images of Hendrik and Edda, the Dutch couple, sobbing as they told the story of their capture. Too shocked to speak, she just stared at the screen.
“Hello, are you still there?” her father asked.
“We’re here, Jon,” Nick replied. “But can we call you back?”
“Well, Annette and I were hoping to find out more?—”
“We’ll fill you in, later. But in the meantime please, rest assured, whatever happened, Belle’s fine now, okay?”
“Okay, son. But before you go, can either of you tell me if you know a man named Richard Francis?”
They both tensed. “Why do you ask?” Nick asked.
“Well, he’s been calling incessantly, wanting to know your whereabouts, Belle?—”
“When was the last time he called?” Nick cut across him.
There was a muffled sound as Jon spoke to his wife. “About an hour ago.”
Belle gasped, but Nick shot her a warning glance. She tried to breathe evenly as her father continued. “He won’t tell me what it’s about, but he claims to be from the Daily Bugle . What surprises me is how he got our unlisted number. Only a handful of people have it.”
Nick exchanged glances with her, his face hard and resolute. “It’s probably nothing, but I’m going to get my security chief to give you a call. The authorities will probably want to talk to this man, find out why he wants to contact Belle. And we may also need for you to agree to have your phone calls traced. Are you okay with that?”
“I—yes, I suppose. Look, tell me straight, son. Is my girl in danger?”
Belle’s heart squeezed at the pain in her father’s voice. “Not if I can help it, Jon. I’d die before I let anything happen to her.” Nick answered, his gaze holding hers in a solemn promise.
Tears welled up in her eyes. She bit her lip hard when Nick leaned forward to softly kiss her temple.
“Okay, thank you, son.” Her father sounded a little less worried. “Bye, then.”
The moment they rang off, Nick put the call through to Jameson with the instructions. Then he tugged her to the TV.
“Why would Richard Francis risk being exposed like that when he knows the authorities are after him?” she asked the question uppermost in her mind.
Nick shrugged. “If he’s been calling your parents, then he probably guessed they didn’t know you’d been captured. He was hoping to trip them up into revealing where you are in case you’d left the island after what happened last night. That’s the move of a desperate man.”
“You sound pleased about that.”
His smile was hypnotically menacing. “Desperate means they’re likely to make mistakes, show their hand.”
He moved closer to the TV and turned up the volume.
She raised her voice to be heard. “How are we going to deal with this?” She indicated the press conference with Edda and Hendrick.
His jaw clenched for a split second. “I know how much press intrusion upsets you, but we may have to deal with this head on, sweetheart. It may also serve to draw out Mwana and Francis once and for all.”
They listened for a moment. The news anchor traced a brief history of the unrest in Nawaka, then reeled back to the conference with the Morgensens.
Nick turned off the TV and threw the control on the table with more force than necessary. “At least we know how the news got out, and to some extent why,” he said forcefully.
She sank onto a sofa by the window. “And I can’t really say I blame the Morgensens. I think the world needs to know what’s going on in countries like Nawaka. Maybe if enough light is shed on the situation there, something will be done to ease the suffering, especially for those poor children.”
Nick frowned. “Personally, I have my doubt as to the impact of five minutes on the news. By tomorrow, another bigger story will take its place, and this circus will be forgotten. But I would’ve liked a heads up before the Morgensens went ahead with their interview.” He waved his hand at the now blank screen, pacing the room like a prowling tiger. With every step, his anger grew more apparent.
“What now?”
“Now we see what Mwana has to say.” He went to his desk and hit the speed dial. Spiros came on the line and connected to the videoconference seconds later.
This time he was alone. “Security has checked the package. This one, too, is clean.”
Nick nodded. Spiros opened the package. Another photo of Belle fell out, this one taken as she helped to string lights around a tree in front of the mission. She was laughing with a couple of kids, her face alight with joy.
The image tugged at Nick, robbing him of breath for a few seconds. When he glanced at her, her face was riveted to the screen, a small, sad smile lifting her lips. Nick had to dig deep to tear his gaze away, to focus on Spiros. “Is there another flash drive?”
Spiros nodded and plugged it in.
The same room, same table with Mwana seated in front of it.
“Good day to you. I feel we’ve wasted enough time on this, so I’ll get right to the point. By now you’ll have met an associate of mine by the name of Richard Francis. Rest assured he wasn’t there to harm you, Mr. Andreakos. He had my express instructions not to do so.”
Nick couldn’t suppress the growl that stemmed from his soul.
“He was merely there to reassure me that Belle was on the island and unharmed. The men who followed were also instructed not to harm anyone.” He leaned forward. “I merely wished to make a point, Mr. Andreakos, and that was to show you that I’m not without the same power and influence you choose to abuse. So here’s what’s going to happen now—” He stopped abruptly as a phone rang nearby. He left the camera rolling as he went off screen. The low conversation was difficult to follow.
Nick exchanged glances with Belle and caught the haunted look in her eyes. “Easy, baby. I have a feeling I know what’s coming. Things are about to get interesting.”
She made a choking sound in her throat. He pulled her closer and ran his hand over her hair just as Mwana came back on screen.
The calm, level-headed despot was gone. In his place was a madman whose hatred shone from icy blue eyes as he stared into the camera.
“Once again, you’ve proven that you prefer violence to dialogue, Mr. Andreakos. You’ve killed good men who were only there to deliver a message. Obviously there’s now no point discussing how you’ll return to me what’s rightfully mine. Not that I’m surprised. Greedy, intransigent men you like are what’s wrong with the world.” He stopped to inhale loudly, and the scar on his face stretched grotesquely as he smiled. “Well, here’s a message for you. I’m coming for you, Andreakos. And I’m coming for what’s mine.”
The screen went blank. Spiros appeared, white-faced and wide eyed.
“What’s going on, sir?” he asked with a frown.
“A situation that will be taken care of very soon. I’m trusting your discretion here.”
Spiros nodded. “Of course, sir. I’ll lock everything in the safe right away.”
“Good. I’ll be in touch.” He turned off the screen and looked down at Belle.
“Why are you looking so pleased?” she asked.
“Right now, Mwana is pissed and not thinking straight. Just the way I like my enemies.”
She gave a worried frown. “Doesn’t that make him even more dangerous?
“Sure, but it also lowers his guard, and fuck if that doesn’t please me.”
“So what now?”
He sighed. “It’s only a matter of time before the press start mooring off the beach with their damned telephoto lenses. We can’t stay here forever, matia mou , much as I’d love to. It’s time to return to the real world.”
The thought of the media invading Althea made her shudder. But equally, the thought of returning to Athens or even London where her every step would be dogged by hungry paparazzi made her feel even sicker.
Her anguish must have communicated itself to him. His body lost some of its tension.
He cupped her face and kissed her. For a moment, his eyes dropped to the rings on the platinum chain around her neck.
Without conscious thought, her fingers moved to touch them.
Time to return to the real world .
Trying to distract herself from the path her thoughts travelled, she dropped her hand. “Can’t your PR people handle the publicity, as they always do?”
His eyes remained on the rings a while longer, the intensity in the grey depths branding the metal into her skin.
With another kiss, he stepped back. “They can, but this might be a way to bring things to a head. I also need to find out what the repercussions of this situation will be for the company—my board
members will be having kittens by now.” Almost on cue, his phone rang.
“I have to take this, then make a few arrangements. I’ll be as quick as I can, all right?” he murmured against her lips.
She knew a dismissal when she heard one.
“Okay.” Despite the horror of Mwana’s threats, she walked away without paralyzing fear gripping her. Whatever else was happening, Nick was starting to let her in, including her in his life in a way he’d never done before. And that made a world of difference to her.
The talk by the waterfall had set a solid foundation for whatever came next, and she felt a sense of quiet elation as she went upstairs to take a shower.
The next few days would be rough, but they had one last night on Althea. And she vowed to make it a night Nick would never forget.