Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 84544 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84544 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Isidore placed a hand on Charlie’s shoulder as he moved around him. “It’s okay. This is Jason Pappas, an old friend. We’ve known each other for years.”
The mercenary didn’t look particularly convinced, but he did move aside to allow Jason to reach Isidore.
Jason pulled him into a tight bear hug. “What’s going on? I’ve been trying to reach you for weeks. Next thing I know, I hear some rumor that you’re partying on Santorini and you’ve got a boyfriend. As I cut through the house, I thought I even heard someone say fiancé.”
Heat burned his cheeks, but he pushed on. “Yeah. I kind of turned everything off for a while so I could spend time with Athena before she heads back to school in the States. That’s when I met Soren. I’ll have to introduce you later.”
“But you’re sure you’re okay?” Jason asked, his hand on his shoulder.
“Of course! Don’t be so paranoid. Everything is fine.” Except now that Jason kept pressing the issue, Isidore was becoming paranoid. Would Jason hurt him? Or Athena? He never thought so, but he’d just spent the entire night surrounded by family who he knew would. Why not his oldest friend?
“Sorry,” Jason said with a sheepish grin. “I know you mentioned that you were going to travel with Athena for a bit, but I wasn’t expecting full radio silence.”
And that was the difference between Jason and all the other people who were attending this party. He and Jason might not talk often, but when they did, they always replied within a few hours at most. Usually within minutes. The other people didn’t even notice if he went missing. They just moved on with their lives.
“No, it’s my mistake. I should have warned you. Especially when we were in the middle of talking about the real estate investment. I have that paperwork if you’re still interested.”
“Yeah, sure. That’d be great. You can get that and then catch me up on this new boyfriend.”
Isidore leaned around Jason to look at Charlie, who was still waiting a meter away, staring at Jason. He felt guilty because they had been speaking in Greek the entire time, excluding him. “I’m going to run to my office with Jason to print out a file for him. It’ll only take a few minutes. Could you find Soren for me? We can all meet up in the living room.”
Charlie arched an eyebrow at him, looking very skeptical. “You sure?”
“Yep. It’ll just be a minute.” He paused and widened his smile while dropping his voice closer to a whisper as he continued, “Kairo will see everything.” He knew Charlie didn’t want him out of sight with this unknown person, but he wouldn’t be. Kairo had the house blanketed in cameras. His real boyfriend would be watching him the entire time.
Real boyfriend.
That was who he truly wanted to introduce to Jason.
Maybe later after all of this insanity was settled.
Charlie nodded. “Two minutes. Living room.”
Isidore gave him a wink. “Two minutes.” He then turned to Jason and started to lead him across the patio toward the office doors.
“Who’s that?”
“Another new friend. I’ll introduce you to everyone a bit later. Charlie is a great guy.” He pushed open one of the doors and motioned for Jason to precede him into the room. “Have you run into Athena yet? Does she know you’re here?”
He never heard Jason’s response. As he stepped into the room, pain exploded across the back of his head. He could feel himself falling, but there was no stopping himself. Blackness swallowed up his vision and there was nothing…
20
KAIRO JONES
Kairo leaned back in his chair and rubbed his tired, burning eyes. In front of him six massive screens flickered, each with multiple camera views. There was no way he could properly watch everything so a computer program was running, monitoring for movement in rooms that had previously been empty or listening for key words he’d identified ahead of time. It helped to sort through all the endless noise.
Meanwhile, his ears were filled with the low-key chatter and updates from the team mingling at the party. The guys were all experienced in watching for signs of sneaky behavior since they were all sneaky bastards. The only problem was that the only one among them who spoke even a few words of Greek was Alexei, and even he wasn’t fluent like Athena and Isidore. Sure, the majority of the guests spoke either English, French, or German, which covered all the members of the team, but they were at a disadvantage if their target decided to switch over to Greek for a moment.
God, he was going to be so glad when this was over. He just wanted Isidore to be safe. Athena, too, of course. But something in his gut told him that the mastermind’s real target was Isidore.