Chapter Nineteen
Chapter
Nineteen
Theo
“How did they find us?” Dani asked after Theo slowed down the boat.
He meandered along a wharf, looking for a spot to ditch it.
“I have no idea. Maybe they saw us at the Acropolis Museum and followed us here?” Theo said.
“But it’s been hours. Why would they have waited so long?”
Good question.
“Maybe they wanted to see if we found anything.”
It was the only explanation he could come up with. Otherwise, how did they find them?
Finally, Theo found a slip, far on the outskirts of the marina so hopefully no one would notice the boat for a while.
The last thing he needed was to get arrested for theft.
He maneuvered the boat into the spot and then cut the engine.
But before they got out, he searched the compartments for the owner’s contact information.
“What are you looking for?” Dani asked.
He found the registration and copied the name and address. “So I can send an apology and directions to their boat,” Theo said, tucking the information in his bag. “Come on, let’s go.”
They left the port and started walking in silence. Tired. Beat. Wet. Good thing Andreas had given them Christos’s address. Hopefully they could catch a cab that would take them there and then Christos could pay. It was the only option they had, at the moment.
He spotted a cab from down the street, and Theo put up his hand to wave him over, but Dani immediately grabbed it and pulled it down.
“What are you doing?” Dani asked.
“We need a cab so we can get back to Christos’s,” he said.
“No, we need to go home. We’re not safe here,” she said, worry all over her face.
“We lost them. I don’t think Maurice and Louis are suddenly going to drive up on the side of the road here.”
“You almost died, Theo!” Dani yelled. “He had you pinned under the water, gasping for air. You could have drowned.”
Her words stopped him in his tracks.
“What happens the next time? Huh?” she continued as cars whizzed by them. “Do you think they’re just going to let you go? You may not know where the eye is, but you have something they want. Your loyalty? Your silence? I’d say your intelligence, but you’re being pretty stupid right now.”
He winced internally. It felt like a stab through the heart. But he had no retort.
Because she was right.
He thought of all the times she took risks back when they were kids. She’d always been so stubborn, never listening to anyone when they told her no or said she was being foolish.
And now there he was, the foolish one.
“I know you think this means something. That your papou told you those stories because he wanted you to make this discovery someday, but you said it yourself—it was just a story.”
Her voice pleaded with him to understand. Pleaded with him to believe his own words, the very words he said to Vautour to convince him of his ignorance.
“I thought you were dead, Theo. Please don’t make me watch you die, too. I don’t think I could take it.”
Theo stared at her, picturing himself in her shoes. If he had to witness her death, he would never be able to live with himself.
“You’re right,” he finally said. “We’ll go home.”
She closed her eyes, let out a long breath, and smiled.
“We still need to get to Christos’s, though,” he said, and her eyelids flung open, but he tamped his hands to calm her down. “Just so we can go through Andreas’s connection at the embassy.”
“And then we go home?” She looked at him with those eyes that could make him do anything.
Even give up his search for answers.
“And then we go home. I promise.”
* * *
By the time they made it back to Christos’s, Andreas had already beaten them there. The relief on his face when they pulled up in the cab told Theo all the answers he needed: they were cousins, regardless of whether by blood or not.
They spent the evening making arrangements for Theo and Dani to meet Andreas’s contact at the embassy in the morning, and then after another one of Christos’s meals that they would most certainly miss, and Andreas agreeing to send some money to the boat owner on Theo’s behalf, Dani went to bed.
Theo and Andreas stayed up a bit longer, telling stories about their grandparents and becoming surer of their blood relation with each similar mannerism.
Theo said he’d send a photo of his papou as soon as he got back to the States so Andreas could compare.
Though they still weren’t sure how—or even if—they’d bring it up to Lydia or their parents.
Truthfully, Theo didn’t want to leave. He wanted to verify Papantonis’s existence. He wanted to explore his roots.
But he’d made a promise.
Theo snuck into the bedroom a little after midnight, but Dani was already sleeping on her side.
Even with the windows open, the room was hot.
So he stripped down to his boxers and snuggled up behind her, careful not to rouse her.
It had been a long day, and tomorrow would likely be just as grueling, even if not physically.
Her vanilla scent soothed him quickly to sleep, however.
And as he dozed off, he wondered if he’d ever sleep the same without her again.
He’d been asleep for a few hours before eventually needing to relieve the pressure on his shoulder.
Throwing the chair at the window in the library earlier in the day definitely didn’t help with his healing.
Plus, it was hot as fuck in that room. Theo turned onto his back, trying not to displace the mattress and disturb Dani too much, but where he expected their bodies to dip toward each other in the center of the bed, Theo felt nothing.
His hand darted over to her side of the bed.
Empty. Theo flung his eyes open, ready to fly out of the room to search for her, but when he shot up, he saw a light coming from underneath the door of the adjacent study.
With the slightest, slowest of movements, Theo climbed off the bed and crept over to the other room.
He twisted the doorknob and opened the door a crack. And there she was, sitting at a tiny desk in the corner of the room with one leg pulled up to her chest and the other dangling below her as she hunched over a couple of books, a pencil in her hand.
His movement in the doorway caught her attention, and she spun the chair in his direction. The light cast a halo around her, and Theo lifted his hand to shield his eyes as he quickly slid into the room.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you,” she said, angling the light away from the door. But now that he could see her, he almost wished she’d turn it back.
Because seeing Dani sitting there in the world’s shortest black shorts and a hot-pink low-cut tank top sans bra wasn’t going to help when and if he tried going back to sleep. How did he not notice that’s what she was wearing when he got into the bed?
“You didn’t wake me,” Theo finally said. “It’s…it’s too hot to sleep.”
“Yeah, I got up a few hours ago. You’re like a furnace.”
You should feel me now.
“Sorry,” he said.
She laughed and ducked her head. “You don’t need to apologize. I swear, it’s like another part of Vautour’s evil plan. Torture us with this heat.”
Oh, it was torture, all right.
“What are you doing?” Theo asked, trying to take his mind off how hot he was.
“Translating.”
“Translating what?”
“This?” she said with a wince, holding up a book—the book that had been peeking out over the top of the bookshelf in the library.
“You stole a library book?” Theo said, folding his arms and leaning against the doorjamb. “Tsk, tsk, Juicy. That’s very un-librarian-like.”
She twisted her pretty face with a devilish grin. “Look, you know I’ve never been one for rules. A leopard doesn’t change its spots.”
He had to admit that he never pictured her as the straitlaced-librarian type.
Theo always thought Dani would be some sort of recreation guide or a travel writer.
Something that gave her independence and adventure.
Sitting behind the counter at their hometown library wasn’t something he ever imagined for her. Not Dani, high school daredevil.
“I’m glad to see library sciences didn’t change you,” he said.
“You’re one to talk. You literally stole a boat today. But don’t worry. I’ll always be a muchacha mala at heart,” she said, waggling her brow.
And sending a jolt straight to his cock. He hadn’t heard that phrase in years. Not since they were kids and Dani’s parents chastised her whenever she got in trouble. But he didn’t want to think about Dani being a bad girl. It hit differently now.
He needed to change the subject. Fast.
“You know you could have asked me to translate that,” he said.
“You were sleeping.”
“Once I got up, smart-ass.”
“Yeah, well, I couldn’t sleep, so I figured I might as well make myself useful. Maybe something that would help Andreas after we leave. Though Duolingo apparently didn’t teach me shit. Seriously, did I really need to know how to say ‘carrot’ in Greek?”
Theo snickered. “I think you’d be surprised.”
“Well, actually…I think you’ll be the one who is surprised.”
He furrowed his brow and ticked his head to the side. “How so?”
“Papantonis. I found a mention.” She smiled wide.
His eyes lit up. “Really?!” he asked. “Where? What did you find?” he asked.
“Here’s what I have so far,” she said, handing over a piece of paper.
Theo reached over for the paper, but it was too dark to read, so he walked the three feet over to the lamp, resting his backside on the desk beside Dani. He read over her translation:
Demetrios Papantonis birthplace unknown. Born fishing village Attica coast. Lived Crete years return mainland Athens.
“Is this it?” he asked, flipping the page over to double-check she hadn’t written anything on the back side.
Dani snatched the paper. “Yes, that’s it. You try translating a book in a language you can’t speak with nothing but this,” she said, waving a pocket-size Greek phrase book in his face and tossing it back on the table.
“And you were able to get all this from that book?” he asked.