Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
“You’re right. I do need to move on. It’s just, I want to make sure he’s okay first.” I get to my feet. “Thanks for listening to me.”
“Of course. I really do like you, Adrienne, even if your taste in men is—” He hesitates, making a face. “Questionable.”
“Thanks, I guess.” I turn and walk to the door, but pause before I leave. “And one more thing. My sister—”
“Reina.” He smiles softly at me. “What a strange little family you’re from. But she’s okay too. Harder to track though. She’s a clever one. If anyone’s going to survive all this, it’s that girl.”
“Thank you, Luca.” I start to make a joke about Reina’s Frenchness—but it won’t work without Peter. I let it drop and leave instead.
I stand in the darkness of the hallway. I lean my head against the wall and close my eyes, trying to will myself to calm down, but I’ve been on edge since the day I left Greece. Getting on that plane was a mistake, but I promised him I’d go and I couldn’t back out.
Now I’m a thousand miles away and there’s nothing I can do but keep trying to move forward even if I feel like I’ve lost a chunk of my soul in the process.
Chapter 23
Kacia
Yiannis Calimeris looks like a withered, ancient version of himself. He’s swallowed in a hospital bed, his hair wizened, his beard patchy and gray. His skin is sallow and thick dark bags hang under his eyes.
The nurses glare at me as they leave like I’m the one that shot their patient.
But Yiannis perks up as I sink into the chair beside his bed.
“Kacia Valverde, I have to admit I am very surprised to see you. And happy. I’m sick of speaking Greek.”
“How are you feeling, Yiannis? When we heard what happened, we were all very shocked.”
“I’m feeling as well as I can, considering my son shot me in the heart. Which is an apt metaphor as well.”
“So things aren’t great then.”
“No, not great. But you’re here and that helps a lot.”
I smile at him and pat his hand. “Luca wanted to come too, but he had meetings all day.”
“Ah, that’s all right, Luca’s difficult sometimes and you’re much easier to talk to. Now please, I’m starved for news from the outside world. Tell me everything you can, I’m begging you, and not the stuff I can read in the cheap newspapers. The good stuff.”
I fill him in on what we’ve been doing in Greece for the last week. When we landed in Crete, Luca took us out to the inner part of the island where we met with the crime lord Galatas and several of the smaller farming families that grow weed in the hidden nooks and valleys scattered in the wilderness. From there it was negotiations, counteroffers, all that good stuff, and now we’re Athens to finalize everything.
“Ideally, by the end of tomorrow, we’ll be finished and the deal will be settled,” I tell him with a yawn.
Yiannis sighs. “Look at that. A deal to bring weed into America, and another deal to bring it into France. Greece is getting big without the Florakis. No offense, dear.”
I look away and shiver. My family is dead and gone, but I still think about them. I think about Perico and my brothers, and my bastard father, and even after all this time I still miss them.
I wish they could see me now, happy and married to an Italian.
The same man that destroyed them.
That’s just how it goes in my world.
“I don’t know about that, Yiannis. The crime lords are all killing each other over this deal with Le Milieu. Here I was, stupidly thinking that trying to import marijuana to sell in America was going to be a big deal to everyone, but it’s like we’ve been upstaged. The Galatas barely made a show of negotiating, like they were bored to tears.”
“The heroin deal has been much more dramatic, I can’t deny it. If only my son weren’t playing such a central role.” Yiannis’s smile is tense. “But Peter can be like that sometimes.”
I watch him carefully. I can’t tell how much Yiannis knows and how much of this is put on, but it’s obvious he nearly died. I read the news stories: shot in the chest in broad daylight and left to bleed out on the street. He would’ve been dead if it weren’t for a doctor that happened to be drinking coffee at a nearby cafe.
“Peter is actually why I’m here.”
Yiannis lets out a breath. “I figured as much. You and Adrienne are close, and my son got involved with her. Are you here to negotiate for him, too?”
“I want you to call Filo off. I want you to back down and leave him alone.”
His eyebrows raise. “Why would I do that?”