Chapter 24
Ries followed the sound of the men’s voices to the small boardroom, adorned with lush carpets and a dark wood table. He was pleased to see that he wasn’t the last one to arrive: Damon was. Nicolai didn’t seem surprised to see him there, but when Damon arrived a few minutes later, he clearly was.
“I thought you would have been celebrating with your girlfriend?” Damon murmured as he took a seat between Ries and Nicolai.
“There will be plenty of time for that later.” Ries smiled, anticipating. “Right now, we need to get our hands around this security threat.”
Damon’s eyebrows went up, and he glanced more carefully at Ries.
“I’ve heard about your problems. I’ve spoken to Alexi and our father, and we are willing to help. What do you need from us?” Leo asked, leaning forward seriously.
“Our shipments keep getting waylaid or going missing completely. We’ve lost over thirty shipments of freight in the last eighteen months, and three ships. The ships just disappeared.
“There were no signs of bad weather or catastrophic failures, they simply never arrived at their destinations. No distress calls, no nothing.”
“We have contracts to move and deliver freight, and these are seriously impacting our ability to meet those requirements.” Damon took a breath and then asked: “Have you enough shipping vessels that we could move our freight on Moustakas ships while we find and bring whoever is targeting us to justice?”
“Of course,” Leo assured him. The Moustakas fleet has a few ships to spare. “Do you have any leads on who might be behind these attacks against your family?”
Damon shook his head, “Not really…”
“That’s not entirely true,” Ries spoke up. “We believe a man named Dmitrius Yttrios is the one who hired Angelo to kill first me, and then my brothers. He also has ties to international smuggling, and a record of using stolen ships and inside men to do the jobs.
“The police in Stavros were following him, but shortly after Stephanie was kidnapped, the man boarded his yacht and fled Greek waters. They have a bulletin out for all ports in Greece to report in when his yacht comes ashore the next time.”
“Yttrios?” Damon queried sharply. “Why wasn’t I informed of this?”
“You didn’t ask, and we’ve not had the time for a chat. Anyway, the man has been smuggling all manner of things all over Europe and Eurasia.
“We believe he’s been using Kafatos Freight to do so for years, and it’s only recently that we’ve become aware of the situation and tried to stop him. With us out of the way, the company would go to the highest stockholder, as none of us have wives or children.”
Alexi and Leo shared a look and then Leo asked, “Do you have a name for the largest individual shareholder?”
“You already know who it is. Dmitrius has been purchasing every piece of our stock put up for sale for years. If he owned the shipping company, he could smuggle whatever he liked without fear of getting caught.”
“With those kinds of rewards available, I doubt he will stop,” Alexi informed them.
“You must all remain vigilant and be cautious about any new ventures you undertake. Even if a new buyer begins to invest in your company – investigate them thoroughly. Dmitrius may move his activities to a false alias, or an ally, now that he knows he is under suspicion.”
“We know,” Ries nodded “My fear is that he might start targeting others as well. Your company could be next.”
“Then we need to find this man and take him out,” Alexi announced, drawing nonverbal agreement from everyone at the table.
“For now, we need to salvage our company and our client relations,” Ries surmised . “My security team is already working with Nicolai and the Greek authorities to track down Dmitrius. They’ll let us know when he resurfaces, and then we can hopefully catch him and put an end to this situation.”
“In the meantime, you will use Moustakas shipping vessels,” Leo asserted, “and we’ll all increase the security around our businesses, our families, and our homes. If this Yttrios fellow can target one set of billionaires, what’s to stop him from targeting the rest of us?”
“I’ll speak with Piotr this afternoon,” he continued, “and he and your security personnel can meet and get things sorted out. In the meantime, please stay as long as you like and enjoy everything Thessaloniki has to offer. Our home is your home.” He spread his hands wide, as though to encompass the rich estate.
“Thank you.” Nicolai stood up and shook both Leo and Alexi’s hands. “I’ll go and find Piotr now. Gentleman, we cannot thank you enough.”
“No thanks are necessary,” Leo informed him. “We may be distant cousins, but we are still family. And families look out for one another.”
Ries left the boardroom with Nicolai and they headed off to find Piotr, who at one time had been Leo’s head of security. They found him in the garden conversing with Chris and Stephanie.
Ries immediately pulled Stephanie into his arms and kissed her soundly, despite having an audience. He felt her blush with pleasure and embarrassment under him.
“What was that for?” she asked in a whisper, her face suffused with heat as she turned bright red.
“Because I felt like it,” he told her.
“Okay,” she told him, liking how things were going between them. “Chris was just making sure it was going to be safe for me to go to the beach with the other women.”
Ries frowned at Chris, who simply shrugged and explained, “You told me it was my job to keep her safe at all times. I’m just doing my due diligence.”
“I actually prefer it that way,” Piotr interjected.
“I have assured him that while the women may think they are alone, they will in fact be completely surrounded by my security team. It is a private beach with a high fence separating it from the rest of the world, but we take no chances. Stephanie will be perfectly fine.”
“Go have fun. Don’t forget your sunscreen,” Ries told her, giving her a little push toward the house. It was such a relief to be able to let her go – knowing she would be secure and well-guarded.
Once she was gone, Piotr and Nicolai began to talk security with Chris interjecting wherever he could. Ries didn’t have much to offer, but he listened intently and asked questions where appropriate.
They talked for almost two hours before finalizing a plan to keep everyone and the ships safe.
More men would be needed, and Nicolai authorized Piotr to find them as Chris didn’t know many people on the mainland.
Since Carlos had been one of Chris’s hires, he was reluctant to bring any more people he didn’t personally know into the fold.
Ries was in agreement with that, although he made sure Chris knew there was no blame to be had over Carlos’s defection. Carlos was simply a greedy man, and it had ended up costing him his life.
Over the next several days, more plans were put in place. Ries noticed that Stephanie and Nicolai seemed to be going out of their way to bring Damon’s attention to Ries’ contributions.
At first, it was comical to see his oldest brother squirm when Stephanie pressed for some sort of verbal recognition of Ries’ accomplishments.
But as one day turned into three, Ries was now coming to realize that he should have been the one demanding that Damon treat him with respect and as an equal.
He understood that Damon might be finding it hard to reconcile the new Ries with the old, immature one who did nothing but party and create international headlines in the social sections.
But Ries was looking at the future now, and that meant he was ready to take up his responsibilities and stand up for himself.
The fact that Nicolai and Stephanie felt they needed to come to his rescue was mildly annoying – but understandable, in the face of his own failure to speak up. Finally, on the third day, he’d had enough.
“Damon, don’t you agree that it was very forward thinking of Ries to have the security system back in Cyprus upgraded before you and Nicolai return home?” Stephanie asked as they were seated at the luncheon table.
“I wasn’t aware the security system needed upgrading,” Damon replied dismissively.
“Oh, it did. Piotr and Chris spent many hours going over the system and making adjustments to it. Ries made sure it was scheduled to be completed before any of you set foot on the property again.”
Damon looked at Ries and then begrudgingly nodded. “Fine, it was a good idea. Thank you for thinking of it.”
That was an alien feeling. Damon, praising him. Thanking him for something. Ever since their parents passed away, leaving Ries the youngest child, he’d felt like he was merely underfoot.
Stephanie looked pleased with herself and while Ries liked her championing him in such a fashion, he knew he needed to stop her before she went too far.
“Stephanie, I’m sure Damon realizes all that I do for the family business. I appreciate that you want to hear him say so, but as we all know, Damon isn’t a very communicative sort.”
“Well, he should be,” she told him.
Damon grinned grudgingly at her and then nodded, “I will try to do better.”
Ries smiled, “That is all anyone can ask for.”
Later that evening, Ries made sure to thank Stephanie for her support, but encouraged her to leave Damon to him from now on. He and his oldest brother needed to come to an understanding that the past was simply that: the past.
“I just hate seeing him treat you like you aren’t capable of handling things,” she told him as they lay in bed.
“Damon has been handling things for a very long time.
In the beginning, he was doing it by himself and as Nicolai matured, he relinquished some of the reins to him.
By the time I got old enough to start handling parts of the business, he and Nicolai seemed to have it all under control.
The few times I tried to help, Damon could only criticize my efforts, so I just quit trying.
“In his defense, he’s been watching me not try for a while now. After being criticized a few times, I simply stopped trying. It might take him some time to realize I’m trying to change.” Ries smiled at Stephanie, “And that I have some very effective help doing that.”
“You have changed,” Stephanie told him softly. She rolled over and propped her chin up on his chest.
“You aren’t the drunken playboy I first met. You’ve stepped up and taken charge of some pretty serious situations. Damon needs to give you the benefit of the doubt and stop looking for things to criticize.”
“I agree with you, but it’s in his nature. You cannot expect a leopard to change its spots. At least not quickly.”
“Well, I certainly hope he enjoys being alone. I can’t imagine any woman ever wanting to be around someone so serious all the time. Does he ever laugh?”
Ries pressed her head to his chest, “Sometimes, although I can’t remember when the last time was. I doubt he can either. Enough about my brother. You wore me out earlier and we both need our sleep.”
“Okay. I love you, Ries.”
“And I love you, Stephanie. S’ agapó.”