Chapter Eighteen #2
“You don’t actually believe that, do you?” Theo asked, sounding somewhat concerned.
“How can I not? Move away for college? Dad gets in an accident. Go to Europe? I get kidnapped. The cards are stacked against me.”
“You know your dad’s accident had nothing to do with you leaving. And this?” he said, putting his arms up and motioning to their situation, “This is pure dumb luck.”
“You mean bad luck,” she grumbled.
“Maybe the problem isn’t that you left Grand Rapids. The problem might be that you haven’t left enough.”
Dani stopped what she was doing to look at him.
She was surprised by the sincerity in his eyes.
The worry that she might actually believe the things that were coming out of her mouth.
She’d never told anyone how she’d felt about sticking around Grand Rapids.
She wasn’t sure she could trust the words coming out of her mouth, either.
“I thought…I thought I’d be doing something different with my life, is all.
I look at you, and you’re the director of…
of…” Damn it, she couldn’t remember what exactly Theo did.
“Director of fancy shit,” she said, and he laughed.
“Adulting. Traveling the world. Going to fancy charity auctions with your well-behaved Triple G girlfriends who’ve got their shit together.
Living in your fancy row house. And here I am, living in my parents’ garage.
No wait…I’m sorry. I was living in my parents’ garage until they decided to sell it. ”
“Juicy,” he said, scooting closer to her, “first off, I don’t think I’ve ever described a single aspect of my life as ‘fancy.’ Second, don’t whittle your life down to your living arrangements.
You’re so fucking smart—you got your master’s degree while working full-time in a year.
You’re brave and don’t put up with anyone’s bullshit, mine included.
And you’re the most caring person I’ve ever met, putting your family first when they needed help. ”
“Only because I was scared,” she said, her voice quivering. “And they didn’t…they didn’t even need me. That’s what my parents told me before I left on this trip. I feel like no one needs me. Watch, I’m going to become an old cat lady librarian.”
“I need you.”
His words caught her off guard—and seemed to catch him off guard, too.
Theo cleared his throat and stood up, running his hand through his hair before setting the book he’d been holding on to the stack with the others.
“Maybe we should find Andreas and go get those kebabs,” he said.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m beginning to think Papantonis didn’t actually exist,” Theo said, obviously trying to change the subject.
“You saw his journal this morning. How can you say he didn’t exist?”
“I’m not saying the journal wasn’t real. But the person? There’s so little about him outside of his own texts. Maybe he was the alter ego of some other person. Maybe Theseus. Like he didn’t want people to know it was him.”
“Or maybe that’s what Papantonis wanted people to think,” Dani said, excited by the prospect.
“Huh?” Theo’s confusion couldn’t be masked. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Dani’s shoulders deflated. No, it didn’t.
“I must be getting hungry. And all these Greek letters are turning my brain into Greek alphabet soup.”
Theo snickered. “Yeah, it’s time for food.”
He turned his back to put the room back in order, but as Dani got up from the chair, something caught her eye.
The corner of a book peeking out from the top of the shelf.
Something pulled Dani toward that book. It beckoned her.
Teased her with its teensy little corner peeking out over the edge. Daring her to go for it.
Dani was never one to pick truth when it came to truth or dare. Besides, that book would niggle at her mind if she left it now. Murphy’s Law, and all that.
She brushed past Theo and placed both her hands on the shelf, tugging at it to check its stability.
“Juicy, what are you doing?” he asked in a hushed, cautioning tone, glancing over his shoulder at her to make sure no one could see them from out the window.
“I see something,” she said, placing her hand on the shelves.
“Leave it,” he commanded.
“It will take two seconds,” she said, lifting herself up the shelving like it was a ladder.
The wood creaked as her weight shifted. Steady. Steady.
Her shoe slipped and a tiny “ope” slipped out of her mouth as she braced herself to crash on her ass. But instead of the feel of the hard floor, two large hands propped up her butt. She glanced behind her, seeing Theo holding her up.
“Hey, watch where you’re putting those things,” she said, smiling.
“I can let go if you want.” He winked.
No, she didn’t want. She liked the way his hands molded around her curves.
How strong they were as he cupped her. Or how they might feel without this barrier of clothing.
How dangerously close they were to the other sensitive spots of her body.
But now wasn’t the time for her imagination to run wild, despite how badly her body wanted to run buck wild.
“Give me a boost,” she said.
He raised her up as she climbed the shelving.
Only a few more inches. She stretched to reach the book, her fingers grazing the edge so that they accidentally pushed the book back farther onto the shelf.
She didn’t need the help anymore, but Theo held her by the hips now, steadying her body as she reached.
“Juicy…” he said, his voice low and warning.
“Just a sec,” she said, grunting and biting on her lip as she stretched.
Almost. There.
“Juicy…they’re here.”
“Who’s what?” she said, looking down to find Theo staring out the window at something.
She glanced toward the direction of his gaze down the hallway outside of the room. No, not something.
Maurice.
Th-crack!
The shelf beneath her feet gave way, breaking under the weight of her body. Dani screamed, struggling to grab something, anything, to keep her from tumbling down. But it was no use. She clung to the bookcase as best she could when suddenly, the entire thing started to topple over.
“No, no, no!” she cried out, more afraid of getting pancaked by a five-hundred-pound bookcase than getting caught by Maurice.
Before her mind had time to process it, however, her body was shoved to the side, missing the crashing bookshelf by mere inches.
She held her eyes shut, clenching every part of her as she stiffened for impact as the clatter of the falling wood and books crashed through the cavernous room.
But her body remained upright, finally coming to a stop with her back pressed against the shelves next to the ones that had fallen.
Yet despite the shelves digging into her back, the only thing she felt was warmth.
Hard, verbena-scented warmth.
Slowly, she opened her eyes, peeking in case dust and debris still fell through the air. Curled on top of her, however, was Theo. His arms and head created a protective barrier around her own, tucking her into him rather than protecting himself. He was…solid. Firm.
Delightful.
But they didn’t have time for delightful.
Theo unfurled himself from her and the two of them looked toward Maurice, now barreling toward the room.
He wrenched the doorknob, but it didn’t budge.
Unfortunately, it was Dani and Theo’s only way out.
Maurice yelled at the top of his lungs as he slammed his body into the door, trying to bash it down.
In the distance, Dani saw a library employee rushing up the stairs, yelling at Maurice in Greek, with Louis right behind them.
Dani and Theo looked all around the room, trying to figure out another option, when the doorjamb started to give way.
Theo slung his bag over his shoulder and then grabbed a chair, raising it above his head.
“What are you doing?” Dani said.
“Getting us the hell out of here.”
Theo threw the chair at one of the windows on the wall away from Maurice, shattering the internal window right at the same moment Maurice busted through the door. A piercing alarm reverberated throughout the building, sending the entire library to a halt.
Without a second of indecision, Theo climbed through the window and reached back to pull Dani along as Maurice rushed at them. But Dani grabbed a book and threw it at his head and then took off in the opposite direction of Maurice and Louis.
Dani glanced behind them for a second, only to see Maurice and Louis climbing atop the pile of books, screaming for them to stop.
“Don’t look back,” Theo said.
She snapped her attention toward him as they weaved through the collections, making their way down the stairs toward the exit.
The other patrons had pulled out their phones and began filming, calling out to them words Dani didn’t understand.
The once-quiet library was now as loud as a bustling train station with everyone gathering to see the action.
“Βο?θεια! Μα? κυνηγο?ν!” Theo shouted to the onlookers. “They’re chasing us!”
People started moving out of their way, and then promptly got in the way of Maurice and Louis.
“Get back here!” Maurice screamed. But it was no use. Theo and Dani were already to the revolving door. As they spun through the turnstile, Dani got one more look, seeing Maurice and Louis swinging their fists at the crowd.
Once outside, they turned toward the canal. Fuck. Andreas. Where was he? Right then, Maurice came busting out of the main entrance.
“Quick, he can’t swim,” Theo said, pulling Dani toward the canal.
The narrow waterway was at least four hundred meters long.
But as they approached the water and despite it being full of kayakers, they realized it was only a few feet deep.
Maybe deeper toward the center. Dani looked behind them, and Maurice was closing in fast. By that point, they had no other choice.
So without further delay, they ran into the water until it was deep enough to swim and then swam as fast as they could toward the opposite end.
But Maurice had other plans. He ran into the water and yanked a passerby out of their kayak, then paddled quickly toward Dani and Theo.
Once they could stand again, they ran through the water, but Maurice swiped at Theo’s legs with the paddle, causing him to fall with a big splash.
Maurice launched out of the boat onto Theo, pinning him under the water, trying to drown him. His arms flailed as he gasped for breath. It was like watching a film in slow motion, watching him die. But she’d thought she lost him once. She wasn’t going to lose him again.
Dani grabbed the paddle and swung it at Maurice, but he noticed just in time to release Theo and turned to catch it before impact.
As Theo struggled to get away from him and recover his breath, Maurice jerked the paddle, bringing Dani to her knees in front of him.
He then wrenched her wrist, and she screamed out.
A revolting grin stretched across his face.
“I told your fiancé I wasn’t above hitting a woman,” Maurice said, clearly getting pleasure out of hurting her as he twisted.
But as he raised his fist, Theo called out from behind him, “And I told you to keep your fucking hands off her.”
Maurice looked up at Theo standing over him right as Theo side-kicked him in the face, instantly knocking him out. Dani stared in awe. Where had Theo learned how to do that? Maurice fell into the water face first with a ker-splat, and Theo rushed over to her.
“Are you okay?” he asked, checking her for injuries.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Well, good, because Louis just came out of the building,” Theo said, helping lift Dani to her feet and then moving over to drag Maurice from the water.
“What are you doing? Leave him,” she said.
“I can’t let him drown,” Theo said.
After they got Maurice’s unconscious body back on dry land, they took off on foot, running along the pedestrian path that crossed over the roadway toward the sea.
“Don’t stop,” Theo said.
The adrenaline must have kicked in because her legs weren’t tired, even though it was hard work keeping up with Theo’s long limbs.
They were at least two hundred feet in front of Louis, but she remembered how fast he was, so she didn’t allow herself to let off the gas for even an instant.
Sweat dripped down her face, but she didn’t care.
There wasn’t time to worry about wiping it away.
They made their way across the bridge over to a marina, and Theo pointed.
“There!”
A man was at the end of the dock, untying a speedboat. She wasn’t sure what the plan was, but she kept running toward the boat.
“Get in, get in!” Theo shouted at her as he swiped past the man and took the keys straight out of his hand.
The man started screaming as Theo launched off into the boat, which had the effect of pushing it away from the dock.
“Συγγν?μη!” Theo said, placing his hands together in an apology and starting the boat just as Louis made his way down the pier. But he was too late. The engine roared to life, and Theo pushed the throttle all the way forward.
And only once they were out of the marina and into the harbor did Dani finally take a breath.