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As we fill our plates, I’m in paradise. The food and setting are simple by my usual standards, but worth so much more. The simplicity of life here is addictive. We eat fresh salads with no dressings. The taste is more than adequate and various cold meats and crusty bread that appears to be freshly baked. The wine is crisp and cool and slides down my throat like ambrosia, and as the sun heats my skin, I long for a cooling dip in the ocean.
Dimitri speaks of the island, and we could be any gathering passing the time of day on vacation, and it surprises me how comfortable I am in their company.
As we finish off a platter of fruit, washed down with a sweeter wine, Dimitri says with a smile, “Apollo, show Melissa to the guest room and point her in the direction of the pool. She may as well make herself at home while we talk business.”
Adonis flicks a hard glare at his brother as he offers me his hand.
“It will be my pleasure. Come, Melissa, we have a lot to catch up on.”
He smirks as we leave the two men and I whisper, “What was that all about?”
“What?”
“The looks between you all. Is Adonis angry with you?”
“Probably.” Apollo chuckles softly. “You know family, Melissa, always sparring with one another.”
“I suppose.”
We walk through the cool house up a grand staircase that leads to a galleried landing. Apollo directs me to a beautiful room that overlooks an Olympic size swimming pool and I love how the windows are guarded by white wooden shutters that are open, revealing a pretty iron balcony with a seat and a table overlooking it.
“Home from home.” He says and sits on the pretty white bed and regards me with interest.
“You must have questions.”
He pats the space beside him, and I drop down onto the crisp white bedding, and he takes my hand in his.
“I’m sorry, Melissa.”
“For deceiving me, I suppose.” I lay my head on his shoulder. “It’s fine. You were doing a job, and you did it well.”
He kisses the top of my head and whispers, “I tried to do the right thing for you. The trouble is–”
“You love someone else.”
He says nothing and I whisper, “Serena told me about Phoebe. What happened when she disappeared?”
“We were away on business, and she was here.”
“Did she live here?”
I’m intrigued, and he nods.
“We were engaged. Her family lived in one of the houses not far away and she spent most of her days here helping to run the house. It was the most natural thing in the world having her around and the house was full of her infectious laughter.”
He sighs. “She brought life to a house that didn’t have a lot of it, not since mom died.”
I decide to keep my questions about his mom to myself because I don’t want to pry any more than I have already.
He carries on. “We returned and, as always, she was the first person I looked for, but she wasn’t here. I asked the rest of the staff who told me she had gone to town, but it was hours ago.”
He grips my fingers tightly and the tension in his voice makes me sad as he growls, “She never came home. We searched the island for her; tore it apart, but nobody knew anything. It’s as if she disappeared into thin air.”
“Nobody even saw her. That’s odd.”
He nods and says angrily. “The cops believed she was taken on the way to the town. She liked to cycle there, it’s not too far and her bike was discovered on the edge of the road. There were no other clues and no sightings at the airport, either.”
He shakes his head and stares out of the window at the sparkling ocean and says softly, “The cops believe she was taken by boat. There are many of them here and nobody would notice a thing if they chose their location carefully. There are many inlets and secluded beaches. It would have been easy to abduct someone in broad daylight, especially when the people protecting her were otherwise occupied.”
