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My jaw clenched, the weight of guilt settling heavy in my stomach. The realization that my meticulous efforts to keep Maci hidden had faltered left me boiling with anger and frustration.
“Followed? How the hell did that happen?” I snarled.
Andreas shifted uncomfortably before continuing, “We think one of your fake names might’ve led them to your real one.”
What the actual fuck?
“Let’s fucking deal with this later,” I grumbled, striding towards her. As gently as I could, I untied the gag and tossed it aside. The knots holding her legs together were loose, and I grimaced at the red marks on her ankles where the rough rope had rubbed at her skin. I traced my thumb across one of them, and she flinched.
“It’s alright, Maci-girl. I’ve got you,” I said softly, and her eyes watered a little, but she blinked her tears away.
Such a strong little thing. She needed to be taken care of and right now. I was going to put my anger aside and comfort her in exactly the way she needed.
She twisted her body, showing me the metal cuffs behind her back. I dug into my pocket and pulled out the tiny key I kept on me in case of emergencies.
I would say now counted as one of those.
Carefully, I slipped the key into the slot and turned it, unlocking one side of the cuffs and then the other. As soon as the pressure gave way on her arms, she cried out in real pain, and I quickly started massaging her shoulders, hoping that I could rub a little bit of it away.
How long had she been like this?
“Call in a doctor. Make sure she’s paid enough to keep her lips sealed shut,” I barked, and Andreas nodded quickly. I turned to Maci, knowing she needed me the most right now. I’d handle the breach of information later.
“I’m going to take you to my home now, Maci. I’m going to pick you up and carry you out of here,” I offered quietly, and she nodded in silence. She bit her lower lip, as I wrapped my arms under her knees and around her waist. With hardly any effort at all, I lifted her up off the metal floor and shrugged her up against my chest. She wrapped her arms around my neck and held on.
I didn’t miss the fact that her body molded perfectly against mine, like she had been made for me and only me.
Swallowing gruffly, I pushed my wayward thoughts aside and carried her through the tanker up to my car waiting outside. I kept her firmly against me, and she didn’t fight, even as I held her in my lap for the drive back to my home in Vouliagmeni, a beautiful suburban area just outside of Athens.
I gritted my teeth, my anger returning in spades. If I hadn’t taken that trip to bail her out of jail, my enemies would have never found out about her.
After all this time, all that I’d done to protect her and to keep her out of my world, she was a part of it now.
And she’d never be able to leave.
CHAPTER 7
Maci
Every part of my body hurt. My shoulders ached, my joints burned, and the skin around my wrists and ankles stung, but sitting in Nikolaos’ lap was slowly simmering away all my pain. His warmth was comforting, and I took the opportunity to snuggle in closer against him as though he could take away everything that had happened to me over the past several days.
I didn’t know how much time had passed since I had been taken. It had all started to run together. I had been kept hooded and bound most of the time, but even when the men had taken them off, there were enough guards surrounding me that escaping or fighting back wasn’t even a remotely viable option.
I couldn’t take on a dozen mafia soldiers. I wasn’t a battle-hardened Viking. I was just a simple girl from New Hope, Pennsylvania whose biggest worry had been whether or not I was going to college next year and when my sunflowers were going to bloom in the spring.
The men had been cruel, but as long as I went along willingly with whatever they wanted, they didn’t hurt me all that much. It had only taken one very painful backhand to the face to convince me to be obedient.
From what I could tell, at least to the best of my ability, they’d loaded me on a plane, then into a car and then onto a cargo ship. I’d woken up in the darkness, and it wasn’t until the older man that had initially found me had opened the door that I’d even realized I was in a massive metal shipping crate in the first place.
I wasn’t even really certain of where I was now. I guessed I was in Greece, solely because of my godfather, but I wasn’t sure. He lived in Athens somewhere, or that’s what I’d thought.
My godfather.
What was he doing here? Was he a part of the Pappas family too? Was I in danger? Had all this been his idea?
I stiffened and his arms tightened around me.
“You’re alright, Maci-girl. You’re safe now,” he whispered, and for some reason his words comforted me. I didn’t really know why, but they did. I curled against him even closer and peeked out of the window to look around. Having never been overseas, I didn’t recognize anything.
