Chapter Five #2
“So why didn’t you?” she asked, leaning over the side of the pool and resting her chin on her forearms.
“I wanted answers. I wanted to know who took the effort to trick me into coming to Greece and why. I couldn’t let that go. I mean, would you have let it go?”
Dani tipped her head to the side. She didn’t need to answer. He already knew what she’d say. She never let anything go.
“Then what happened?” she asked.
“Well, I tracked down the IP address from the email that had been posing as Ford to an island in the Cyclades, so I chartered a boat to take me there. It was only me and the captain—Maurice. And thirty minutes into our journey, we were joined by a man in a smaller boat—Louis. I immediately knew something wasn’t right, and I tried to get them to take me back to the harbor, but, well, honestly, I don’t even know what happened next.
One second, I was arguing with Maurice to turn the boat around and the next I was lying in a bed on some remote farm on Crete with a goose egg on the back of my head.
I don’t know when or how I got there. I don’t remember much of what happened over those next few days.
Or, the hell if I know, maybe it was weeks.
Then once I was back on my feet, Maurice and Louis filled me in on their plan—I was to help them find the Minotaur. Or else.”
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t you try to get away?” Dani asked, lifting her arm and propping her head in her hand.
“You think I haven’t tried?” he asked. “I did. Numerous times. The first time I tried running away in the middle of the night. But somehow, they found me. The next, I managed to steal Louis’s car, but it literally ran out of gas.
I thought it was a cruel joke the universe was playing on me.
Though now that I’ve been around these goons for the last few months, I’ve learned this is a relatively common occurrence when it’s Louis’s turn to pay because he’s too cheap for a fill-up.
The last time, however, was when we were stopped at a gas station about thirty miles outside of Knossos.
I saw a cop across the street; Louis was in the bathroom and Maurice was pumping gas this time, so I figured I had time.
I ran up to the officer and told him I’d been kidnapped.
He took me to a station, interrogated me for five hours, and then he released me—to Maurice.
Apparently the local police were paid off.
So I resigned myself to being stuck in this situation. Until I saw you at Knossos.”
“So you’re going along with it?” She wrinkled her nose.
Theo shrugged. “I thought they would have given up by now.”
“What about that area where you were digging under Knossos?”
“It’s nothing. A dead end. Like every other dead end I’ve taken them to,” he said, leaning in toward her in case Maurice or Louis was nearby.
“But they think the Minotaur is in the center of a labyrinth, and despite me telling them a thousand times that there is no labyrinth under the palace, they don’t seem to believe me. ”
“Maybe that’s because you keep tricking them, so they know not to trust you anymore,” she whispered, giving him a look.
“Then why won’t they let me go?”
She shrugged. “Maybe they think you know something you’re not telling them…Do you?”
“Do I what? Know where the eye of the Minotaur is?” he asked.
She nodded.
“You heard me,” he continued. “It was a story for kids.”
He’d never told her—or anyone—about getting one of his stories published in a magazine, especially one geared toward children.
She spent her days surrounded by books and journals written by prolific authors writing serious research for adults.
And there Theo was still writing children’s stories at thirty-seven.
Maybe on the outside he presented himself as an established professional with a grown-up job, a grown-up apartment, and grown-up aspirations.
And also thankfully (according to his parents, at least), no longer “playing in sandboxes” on archaeological digs now that he had a respectable job as the director of research at the National Hellenic Museum.
But deep down, he was still that giant dork who geeked out over fictional stories about Greek gods fighting mythical beings and human heroes saving beautiful young maidens from the wrath of angry deities.
It didn’t exactly fit his parents’ vision for his future as a serious adult.
“But it must have been based on something,” she said.
“My papou said there is a secret journal from some ancient old dude—Demetrios Papantonis—that talks about the eye, but I’ve never been able to confirm either he or the journal existed, which is why I didn’t cite to any actual authority.
Besides, my story was clearly marketed as a fictional tale in a children’s magazine.
I didn’t think an adult would read it and assume it was true. ”
“Too bad for us then that someone did read it and now that person is holding you—holding us—hostage.”
“It’s not my problem he’s a gullible fool.”
“Well, it is now. It’s both of our problems.”
Theo hung his head. “I’m sorry I got you involved in this. I swear, had I known this was going to happen, I never would have tried slipping you that note.”
“How did you even find me?”
“Maurice and Louis were set on finding you after what happened at Knossos. Said we couldn’t let you get away.
They looked up the name of the tour company on the bus and found where you were staying.
So this morning, we were staking out the hotel, but we didn’t see you when the rest of the group got on the bus, so we waited until you finally left the building and followed you to the museum.
Once there, I pretended I had to go to the bathroom so I could sneak away and, well, you know the rest.”
“They just let you walk away out of their sight?”
Theo shrugged. “I told you. Once I realized the cops were in on it, I stopped trying to escape. That garnered me a little trust, I suppose, though I don’t know whether we can count on it any longer.”
“What’s the deal with them? I can’t tell if they are idiots or just as bad as this Pierre guy.”
“Maurice is bad news. He’s given me a fat lip, a broken nose, and more bruises than I can count,” he said.
“He broke your nose?” Dani exclaimed. “Didn’t you have to go to the hospital?”
“It wasn’t that bad. Though it did leave me with a little scar,” he said, tipping his glasses down to expose the tiny mark on the bridge of his nose.
Dani leaned in to get a look, squinting to see the scar under the moonlight. Theo’s heart kicked up a beat as he stared at her examining his face, sending a swirl through his stomach.
“Not your perfect Greek nose,” she said, mimicking his mother and jokingly putting her hands on her cheeks.
He snickered and shook his head, recalling all the times his mom bragged about her children’s perfect Greek noses.
“I know. My chances at becoming the next top nasal model are shot.”
“Your mom will be devastated.”
“Guess she’ll have to find something else to boast about,” he said, resituating his glasses.
“Too bad it was your best feature.”
“You’re just jealous,” he teased.
“Of your schnoz? Please. I’m thoroughly satisfied with this sniffer, thank you,” she said, brushing her fingertip across her nose in a display.
He couldn’t help but smile. He’d always liked her beautiful Nubian shape much more than he liked his own.
“So then what’s up with Louis?” she asked, pulling him back into reality.
“Louis?” Theo said, turning around and resting his arms atop the rim of the pool.
“He’s not quite as awful. He lets Maurice boss him around and he’s a bit of a nitwit, but he doesn’t seem to have any interest in hurting me.
He actually seemed to feel a little sorry for me after we talked about our families one night and how worried I was about everyone back home thinking I was dead. ”
“Like your fiancée?” Dani stared at him pointedly, and his stomach sank like a bowling ball had been dropped into the center.
He’d been waiting for her to bring this up, even if he’d been unrealistically hopeful that she’d forgotten until now.
“About that…”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Theo wrinkled his brow. Shit. Did she know how he felt about her?
“That…that you were engaged,” she said, her voice cracking. She looked away and bit her bottom lip. “I mean, when did this even happen?”
Theo opened his mouth to explain, but the words “Giorgina said the two of you broke up” came out of her mouth and ripped like a record scratch through his brain.
“Wait…you talked to Giorgina?” he asked.
“Of course we did. We were looking for you everywhere, Theo. We had to tell her you were missing. She was your girlfriend.”
The operative word being was.
“What did she say? Did she tell you why we broke up?”
Dear God, what had Giorgina told her?
“No, Theo, she didn’t,” Dani said, turning to face him and clearly a little pissed. “Though, oh, I don’t know, I’m guessing maybe you having a new fiancée had something to do with it?”
“What? Wait, no, no, no,” he said, pushing off the wall, waving his hands, and squaring his chest to hers. “Juicy, I’m not engaged.”
She tipped her head to the side. “But you said—”
“I made it up,” he said.
“Oh.”
What kind of oh was that? A relieved oh? A confused oh?
“Why would you do that?” she asked, furrowing her brow.
“When they first caught me, I’d told them I was engaged for sympathy,” he said, “so they’d think I had someone waiting back home for me.
A fiancée had seemed more plausible than a wife—a wife could be looked up, but a fiancée?
But now that you’re here, and seeing as we clearly know each other, well, they put one and two together and assumed you’re her.
They obviously didn’t believe us otherwise, so what was I supposed to do?
It’s not like I ever imagined that you—or anyone—would actually find me. ”