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“Hey!” Raegan hobbled over on her crutches.
Mick was grateful when she handed him a thermos of coffee and a bag with something warm in it—probably some type of tiropita, which was basically a pastry made of filo dough and cheese. “You’re getting a raise,” he murmured, taking a sip of coffee.
She grinned. “I’ll hold you to that—I have seventy-five thousand dollars in student loans!”
He laughed. “Don’t we all?”
She nodded. “I had tuition scholarships for undergrad, but had to pay for room and board, books, stuff like that. When I graduated, I got full-time work waiting tables, but—” She cut off abruptly as Loren arrived on the motorcycle he’d rented for use while he was in Santorini, skidding to a stop and spraying everyone with dirt. Raegan’s eyes narrowed. “So help me, I’m gonna—”
Mick squeezed her arm. “Relax. We’ve got too many other things going on today to worry about Loren behaving like a hormonal teenager.”
She grunted but didn’t say anything as Loren got off the bike and sauntered over to them.
“Wow, this is a mess,” he said, looking around.
Mick narrowed his eyes slightly. “You think?”
“Have you updated Uncle Pat yet?”
Mick clenched his jaw slightly. “I’d like to have actual facts before I call him.”
“I should call him then.” Loren turned on his heel, pulling his phone out of his pocket and putting it to his ear.
“Please let me throat punch him,” Raegan whispered to Mick.
He grimaced. “Believe me, if we could get away with it, I would.”
4
The day dragged. Mick alternated between walking the grounds and updating Pat via text and email. The only thing they knew for sure was that it had been arson and that they’d lost everything. Every scrap of paper, every piece of technology, all the furniture, every last thing was either unrecognizable or burned to the point it was unusable. They had insurance, of course, but with an investigation going on, the site was closed for at least a few days, if not longer. Not only was the project behind schedule, unless he wanted to lose the workers they’d hired to other jobs, they had to keep paying them, which meant they would go over budget. Pat was pissed, Raegan was exhausted because there was nowhere to sit, Lena had been asking and answering questions for hours, and Mick was worried as hell. This had never happened to him before and his life was spinning out of control on almost every level.
“Mick.” Raegan touched his arm. “Standing here in the midday sun isn’t going to help anything. Let’s go back to the house and start working on getting replacements for everything. Who’s responsible for calling the insurance company?”
“The home office is working on it,” he sighed. “So yeah, you’re right, we should get going. I definitely need to get on the computer and start figuring out how to salvage both our schedule and the budget.”
“Is Loren coming?” she murmured.
He snickered. “Unfortunately, yes, but don’t worry—I have plenty of work for him to do that’ll keep him out of our hair.” He headed for the four-wheeler. “In fact, I intend to send him back out here in the hot sun to watch over things while you, me and Lena relax in the air conditioning.”
“Maybe I should be the one to stay here?” Lena suggested quietly. “I think it would be helpful if I stuck around so I can keep an eye on things. I don’t trust Angelos, but with me being Greek, they won’t assume I’m loyal to you.”
“You could also keep an eye on Loren,” Raegan said thoughtfully. “I don’t know why, but he rubs me the wrong way.”
“I don’t know why,” Lena said. “But I got that same feeling.”
“You sure you’ll be okay out here by yourself?” Mick asked, fixing his gaze on her even though she wouldn’t be able to see his eyes through his sunglasses.
She nodded. “I’m fine. Go do what you have to do. I’ll call you if anything comes up.”
“Thanks.” Mick nodded.
Lena didn’t get back to the villa until late in the afternoon. She was hot, sweaty and sunburned, with nothing to show for it. The arson investigators had left an hour ago with no updated news, and Loren had been on his best behavior, so she didn’t have anything to report to Mick. He was on the phone anyway, and Raegan was nowhere to be found, so Lena slipped into her room. Changing into a bathing suit, she grabbed a towel and put her hair up in a clip. She walked out through the balcony of her room and over to the stairs that led to the beach. As she got closer to the water, she dropped her towel, kicked off her sandals and ran in.
The beach was her happy place, where she was always the most relaxed. This was where she did her deepest, most intense thinking and she always came out feeling less stressed and ready to take on whatever was coming her way. This time, however, she immediately dove into a wave and kicked her legs hard. She was a good swimmer and used long, measured strokes to slice through the water. The beach was mostly deserted at this time of day, but she wasn’t afraid to swim out towards the buoy. She’d been swimming her whole life and was almost as comfortable in the water as she was on land.
She eventually stopped swimming and began treading water to keep herself afloat. She’d swam out pretty far and now she looked over at the horizon, squinting at the bright red and orange colors from the sun that were reflected on the water. It wouldn’t get dark for a while yet but the sun was already lower in the sky, giving everything a magical fiery glow. She loved this time of day, especially when she was in the sea, but today instead of joy it only served as a reminder of how much shit was about the hit the fan in her life. The best thing to do would be to come clean, but even thinking about admitting the truth made her a little nauseated. How many times had she thought about it in the last few years? More than she could count.
Sophia was officially filing for divorce, so things were going to get much worse before they would get better. Giorgios would probably threaten her somehow in the hopes of getting her to change her mind, but Sophia wasn’t the type of woman who would bend to his will. Now that she’d finally decided it was over she was done, but the consequences for everyone close to them could be monumental. Especially Lena.
