Chapter 42
C H A P T E R
RHEAGAN GNAWED ON HER BOTTOM LIP, STUDIOUSLY TAPPING HER RIGHT FOOT AS SHE WAITED OUTSIDE OF THE DOOR.
She had come here determined, but now that she stood inside Antonis Tsagkarakis’s condo, her nerves had gotten the better of her.
She took one shaky step back, and another, wondering if just a few more steps would lead her out the door and into the safety of her car until the door opened interrupting her traitorous thoughts.
Roberto, as he had introduced himself to her thirty minutes ago when she arrived after finding Antonis’s address from one of the girls she had worked with back at the club, opened the door, stepping aside, so she could come in.
Hesitantly, she did, walking with the pace of a snail as she followed him into the huge penthouse that was even bigger than Nikos’s place.
The living room was wide and luxurious with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and even the room smelled rich.
She gawked at the spacious kitchen with all of its stainless steel items, gawked at the huge piano that was near the wall to wall windows that showed a beautiful view of the city, and she gawked some more until she stood in front of a man, who sat in the living room with a glass in his hand.
Gray strands stood at attention throughout his dark brown hair, alerting her of his age.
But even she could tell that, for an older man, he was handsome, and that he was the infamous Antonis Tsagkarakis, the owner of the Gentlemen’s Club she used to work at, and the man she had heard a lot about over the past months.
She had never met him before because she only started working there when Nikos was in charge, and when she quit, he still hadn’t returned yet until now. Now he sat in this beautiful penthouse like a king on his throne, and he looked at her with a bored gaze.
“Is this the girl who worked at my club in my absence?”
“Yes,” Roberto said. “Georgios hired her”
Antonis’s lip curled with disgust. “I should have broken all of Georgios’s fingers for trying to destroy my club.”
Rheagan gaped, offended, and though she knew this was a man she couldn’t speak casually to, she could not help but defend herself. “I made the club lots of money, and I’m just as beautiful and as good of a dancer as the other girls there, even as good as Honey.”
Antonis’s gaze darkened, and immediately, all of her bravado slipped from her.
Vaguely, she could hear her sister’s warnings in her ears.
Read the room, Raelyn would say. Don’t let your emotions get the better of you, Raelyn would say.
And as Rheagan read the room now, she knew it was probably best to keep her mouth closed.
He was a dangerous man judging from all the rumors she had heard about him from the dancers back at the club.
Now, she was starting to wonder if this was a mistake, requesting this meeting with him, no matter how much she wanted to make Nikos pay for making a fool out of her as he had done since the very moment they met.
“No one is as good as my Honey,” Antonis scuffed as if he were speaking to a fool. “The money you made on the books was subpar in every way to Honey.”
Rheagan looked down, knowing that he was probably telling the truth.
She remembered how she couldn’t even see an inch of the stage after Honey finished performing because there was always money piled up.
None of the girls came close to what she made with stage performances, and if they did make more money than her, it was because they worked in the backrooms.
Antonis sighed. “Who are you to Nikos? I doubt you’re my nephew’s girlfriend as you told Roberto.”
Rheagan tamped down her humiliation and said, “I’m not Nikos’s girlfriend, but we were in a relationship together before.”
“How easily people throw around the word relationship,” Antonis commented as if he were speaking on the weather and not stomping on her pride.
Rheagan tamped down her anger once again and said, “I’ve had sex with your nephew before, and I even knew him before he came to New York. You see, my sister is Raelyn Armstead.”
Antonis’s eyebrow arched in recognition of that name, and it killed her inside to know that her sister was this known now, that she had made such a name for herself that even important people like Antonis knew her.
It made her feel even more bitter toward Nikos and Leonidas Petrakis for giving Raelyn this much attention.
“And what information do you have to give me? I hope it’s something important because I don’t like my time to be wasted on children.”
“Nikos and Honey are in a relationship.”
Antonis paused from taking a sip of his drink, and even Roberto’s eyes flickered in surprise. Antonis clenched his glass. “How do you know this?”
“Well, at the club, they were always together, and they would spend lots of time in his office after she finished performing—”
Antonis slammed his free hand against the glass table, and Honey was surprised that it hadn’t broken from the might of his fist. Despite his being older, he was strong.
“What proof do you have of this?” he asked, and nervously, Rheagan fumbled through her purse until she pulled out her phone, scrolling through her photos before she passed the phone to Roberto, who then handed it over to Antonis.
Rheagan watched as Antonis’s finger swiped right through the camera roll, knowing that he was viewing the various photos that she had taken of Nikos and Honey.
When Honey claimed she had sprained her ankle, Rheagan hadn’t believed her one bit.
Even if she had actually sprained her ankle, she doubted Honey needed to miss so many weeks, so she started to follow them, and to her dismay, she had seen Nikos at Honey’s place every night.
She had taken photos of them getting out of the car together, them walking to and from the bodega, Nikos even hugging her out on the street before he left in his car.
She even had photos of him dropping her off at the cooking school Honey had attended while her ankle was sprained.
She had planned on confronting Nikos about it when she approached him in his office.
But he had been so cold with her, so cold that she had to admit what she had been denying this entire time— that Nikos didn’t love her and never had, that he had only fucked her to hurt her sister, that she had never meant anything to him.
It had been a bitter pill to swallow, and she had planned to move on. But after she had gotten low on cash again, and she heard from one of the girls at the club that Antonis had returned, she knew it was her chance to get revenge.
If Nikos could use her, why couldn’t she do the same?
She wanted to hurt him. She wanted him to regret not picking her over some irresponsible teenage mom, who although may have been beautiful, still didn’t compare to her. She just couldn’t understand why Nikos had chosen Raelyn and Honey over her.
Why didn’t he see her compared to them?
It infuriated her.
It infuriated her enough that she wanted to make him pay for it.
Coolly, with her arms crossed, she watched Antonis’s face as his expression grew darker with each swipe until a shadow hung over his face as if there were a dark cloud forming over him.
Her heart began to race as the expression turned darker and his grip on her phone became tighter, and to her surprise, suddenly, he slammed her phone down so hard that instantly, the screen shattered.
“Hey, my phone—” Rheagan started, but when Antonis turned his sharp gaze on her, it effectively shut her up.
She stood there in disbelief, watching as Antonis raged, knocking everything on the glass table over until he flipped it over himself, and it shattered.
Rheagan quickly jumped back to escape the shards of glass flying everywhere.
She knew he would be upset, but she hadn’t expected this.
“He even spent time with her son!” Antonis yelled. “He touched Honey. He touched her!”
Rheagan wanted to say that Nikos had probably done more than touch her, but she knew better than to add fuel to the fire at this moment. Everything was already ablaze, if she added any more, she would only get burnt herself.
“I’m going to kill him. I’m going to murder him. I don’t give a damn if he’s Giannis’s son!”
As he continued to yell, Roberto came over and led her out of the penthouse.
“But what about my phone and shouldn’t you give me money for giving this information?” she asked exasperatedly, feeling like she had been cheated.
“Did I ever tell you I would give you money?” Roberto asked, and Rheagan stood there dumbfounded because he hadn’t, but she assumed giving information to an important man like this would reward her.
Roberto scuffed. “You shouldn’t play the scorned lover when you’re still a child. You were better off threatening Nikos with this for money.”
Roberto pulled out a wad of cash from his pocket, and Rheagan nearly thought he would give it to her, but instead, he plucked a few bills out and passed them to her.
“This will be enough to get you a new phone,” he said before he closed the door on her, and again, Rheagan heard her sister’s voice, telling her that she was stupid, and for once, Rheagan couldn’t help but agree because she knew Raelyn would have never come here, and she would have done exactly what Roberto had said.
She walked away, feeling alone and dumb, wondering if she had made the wrong decision. But at least she knew she had reaped one benefit— making Nikos regret not choosing her.