Chapter Four #3
With the way Pierre’s nostrils flared, she assumed the word no wasn’t in his vocabulary.
At least not when directed at him. Right then, at the worst possible time, Dani dropped the olive she’d been holding near her lips, the tiny fruit hitting the concrete coffee table with a dull thud before rolling down the patio and straight toward the pool.
Kerplunk.
Dani winced. But her embarrassment was washed away by the look Pierre gave her. A look that said he was only now remembering that she was even there.
“And who are you exactly?” he asked her.
Before she had a chance to respond, Theo cut in. “She’s no one. A tourist I saw at the museum.”
“Nice try,” Maurice chimed in, catching Pierre’s attention. “We already covered this. She’s his fiancée, and he tried passing her a note.”
Where was this fiancée idea coming from? The way Maurice had said it made it seem like he truly believed she and Theo were engaged.
Wait a minute. Theo’s words from earlier echoed through her head: She’s not her.
Oh my God. Theo…is engaged?
Dani looked at Theo, who, in turn, appeared to be trying desperately to avoid eye contact.
Engaged.
Theo.
Getting married.
To someone else.
The squeeze on Dani’s heart almost took her breath away.
Apparently a lot had happened since they’d last seen each other, after their night of drunken debauchery. She wished she could remember everything that had happened.
They hadn’t planned to spend the evening barhopping, but Dani was feeling like a night out after dumping her most recent pendejo of the month. “You can be my wingman,” she’d told him.
Not that any other guy could even get close to her that night.
She and Theo were thick as thieves. Doing shots.
Playing pool. Singing “I Got You Babe” at karaoke.
Dancing. She remembered putting her hands on his hips, trying to teach him how to do a merengue even though the song playing was decidedly not a merengue.
Her recollection of them stumbling home was a bit fuzzy, though not as hazy as the whisper of a vision with his hand cradling her face and a vague memory of waking up in the middle of the night with the two of them sleeping beside each other on the couch.
When she woke the next morning with the world’s worst hangover but no Theo, she knew something wasn’t right.
Especially when he wouldn’t answer her calls or texts a few days after.
So when he followed up a few weeks later with a text—I have something I want to talk to you about. Fries and micheladas soon?—she’d figured it had to have been related to something that had happened that night.
Apparently she had been wrong. Theo was getting married, and he’d planned to tell her…over french fries? He had to be joking.
She glared at Theo and finally got his attention, questioning him with her eyes. He furrowed his brow and gave her a slight shake of his head.
What was that supposed to mean?
The shake was likely imperceptible to someone like Pierre who didn’t know every one of Theo’s mannerisms, but Dani had studied his face enough times to know when something was off.
My God, what is going on? She wanted to scream. She wanted answers. Theo couldn’t go and get engaged and then not tell her.
Even though an engagement didn’t make sense. His family had talked to his long-term girlfriend, Giorgina, after Theo had disappeared, and she’d said they’d broken up a few weeks before he left for Greece.
Had he really already found someone else?
Oh God, that was it. He’d met someone else. While she was busy horsing around with Beau, Theo had met the love of his life and gotten engaged in a matter of weeks. That was what he wanted to tell her.
“Let me see the note,” Pierre said, holding his hand out to Maurice but staring straight at Theo.
Now Dani was really wishing she knew what was written in that note.
“He tore it up and threw it in the water so we couldn’t read it,” Maurice offered.
Pierre’s gaze homed in on Theo, like lasers boring into his pupils. “What did it say?” he demanded.
“None of your business,” Theo spat back.
“A love letter to your sweetheart?” Pierre asked.
“I told you. I’ve never seen this woman in my life.” Theo tossed his head in Dani’s direction with disdain.
Pierre pursed his lips, shifting his eyes back and forth between the two of them, trying to read their expressions.
Funny. Dani was trying to read Theo’s expression, too.
“Well, if she’s truly no one to you, then I guess we don’t have a need for her,” Pierre said. Um, Dani didn’t like the sound of that. “Maurice? Louis? Get rid of her.”
The words turned Dani’s blood to ice. Oh God. Forget what she thought earlier. This is it. This is how I die.
The air stilled, everyone’s gaze shifting from one to another. But when Maurice took a single step forward, the patio broke out in a blur of commotion. Theo hopped out of his seat so quickly it skidded on the floor behind him, and he immediately backed up to shield Dani.
“Stay back,” he said, holding his hands out wide.
“Out of our way,” Maurice said, practically foaming at the mouth with delirious pleasure.
“Put your hands on her, and I swear to God I’ll break them,” Theo spat.
His right hand curled around Dani’s waist, tucking her behind him, as his left hand remained outstretched, holding off Maurice and Louis.
The surrealness of the situation caused her knees to buckle.
So she gripped his broad shoulders, which blocked her view, and she pressed her forehead against his back between his shoulder blades.
She’d always marveled at Theo’s height compared to her own, but she’d never realized how perfectly built he was for protection until now.
He smelled of saltwater and the sun, or at least what Dani imagined the sun would smell like. She could bask in his glow all day, soaking in his scent like she took in the sun’s rays, filling her with warmth. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to consume him. To be with him.
If only he weren’t with someone else.
And, oh, you know, if only her life weren’t on the line.
“You are awfully protective over some tourist,” Louis said.
“And it’s quite interesting that you have a cozy nickname for her,” Pierre said. “Juicy, was it?”
Dani felt Theo’s muscles tense under her palms. That fucking nickname.
“Theo?” she whispered. Whatever was happening, his current approach wasn’t working.
He craned his neck to look at her behind him, then reached around bringing her to his side. Dani stared into his eyes, searching for an explanation, but all he gave her was a halfhearted smile and a whisper back. “Trust me. It will be okay. I promise.”
Theo then wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into his side. “Fine,” he said to Pierre. “You’re right. She is…she is my fiancée.”
Warmth spread across Dani’s cheeks, and she fought to keep her body from flexing under his touch.
“That’s more like it. There’s no reason to lie, Dr. Galanis. Things will be much easier if you don’t try to play tricks on me,” Pierre said.
“Just let her go. I’ll do whatever you want, but don’t hurt her,” Theo pleaded.
“I find it fascinating the number of people who think I’m some sort of murderer,” Pierre said to Maurice and Louis, amused. Then, turning to Theo, he continued, “I was never going to hurt her. I only needed to know whether I could use her as leverage. And it seems I can.”
Theo’s head hung a little as if realizing he’d put her in even greater danger than before.
“So, now, tell me, Miss…?” Pierre said to her, waiting for her name.
“Daniela,” she answered, immediately wishing she’d been quicker on her feet and given him a fake name.
“Daniela. Beautiful name. Tell me, what are you doing here? Had he found a way to communicate with you? I need to know what damage has been done, and please, please don’t lie to me. I’m not in the mood.”
“I…” She needed to think fast. “I came looking for him. For my…fiancé. I didn’t believe the stories that he was dead. I would have known. I would have felt it.”
“That’s quite the bond you have.”
It may not have been quite the truth, but the idea that he was dead never sat right in her stomach.
“And the letter?” he asked.
“I never even got the chance to read it before your goons over here found us.”
Maurice and Louis glared. Good. She hoped she offended them.
Pierre eyed her curiously then turned his gaze toward Theo. “Well, now that she knows you are alive, my whereabouts, and what you’re doing here, I’m sure you understand, Dr. Galanis, that I simply cannot let her go. She’ll need to stay here with you in Greece.”
“Please,” Theo said, taking back his arm from Dani’s waist and moving a few steps toward Pierre. “If you let her go, I’ll do whatever you say. You don’t need her here.”
“She knows I am alive.”
“She won’t say anything,” Theo assured him.
“I’ve trusted someone with that promise before, but I’ve learned my lesson. She’s staying here.”
“What about my family?” Dani asked, her voice trembling. “And the tour group I was with? People will know I’m missing.”
“We’ll handle that,” Pierre said.
Dani pictured another headline: American Tourist Missing in Greece. After Theo had already disappeared, their families would be shattered. Even if their families put their disappearances together and sparked a manhunt, would that honestly be any better?
“Please,” she pleaded. “Please, I don’t want my family thinking I’m missing. Or dead. It will destroy them. We already lost so much after Theo…” Her voice cracked and her throat seized up.
Theo looked down at her, his worried eyes bouncing around trying to read her face. Dani’s eyes welled with tears. Tears of fear. Of sadness. Of…she wasn’t going to go there.
“I’ll tell you what,” Pierre said after a moment, tearing their attention from each other. “I’ll make you a deal.”
“What sort of deal?” Theo asked.
“How long was this tour to last?” Pierre asked Dani.
“Ten days,” she said.
“And how many days in are you?”
“This is day four.”
“All right. We’ll deal with the tour company. Check you out of the hotel. Explain that you were homesick and returned to the United States.”
Pierre seemed to know her better than he could have even imagined.
“Then, you’ll spend the next six days searching for the eye. So long as you find it, I will let you return home, and your family will be none the wiser.”
“Six days?!” Theo said, exasperated. “I’ve been looking with your men for over a year and now you’re giving us six days?”
“Perhaps you should have been working a little harder.”
“Harder? I didn’t even know what I was supposed to be looking for!” Theo protested. “And even now that I do, I have no fucking clue where it might be. I told you it was just a story.”
“You’re a smart man,” Pierre said matter-of-factly. “Like I said, I’ve been following your career. You’ve been quite successful at finding things. This should be no different.”
“And what happens if we don’t find it?” Dani asked.
“Then I make no guarantees,” Pierre said, yet again turning Dani’s blood ice-cold.
Pierre stood up. “You will stay here tonight as my guests. Please, feel free to enjoy my island. Eat my food. Raid my wine cellar. Swim in my pool. I’ve already had some clothing left for you in your room.”
Um, creepy.
“Understand, however, that we’re the only inhabitants on this island,” he continued.
“There is no phone, and Maurice has the only key to the boat, so please do not even bother with trying to steal it. I’d like to enjoy my evening without having to worry about the two of you trying something foolish. ”
“And tomorrow? After this little holiday getaway?” Theo asked.
“Tomorrow, you will return with Maurice and Louis to Crete to continue your search for the Minotaur. All of you.”
“She doesn’t know anything about this,” Theo said. “She’s not an archaeologist.”
“Then I suggest she start learning.” Pierre then turned his attention to Dani. “What is it that you do, Daniela?”
“I…” She paused for a moment, debating whether to lie. But what difference did it make? This man clearly had money. He already knew who Theo was, and it wouldn’t be difficult to confirm who she was, too. “I’m a librarian.”
Pierre clapped his hands together and smiled. “Seems your fiancée, Dr. Galanis, is your perfect complement.”