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5
Damian saton the bed in the plane’s cabin while Aria washed up in the bathroom. They’d moved her out of the building in Athens just under the twenty minute deadline and had passed at least three unmarked cars headed toward the apartment on their way out ofthecity.
Clearly Anastos’s men had been alerted to theirpresence.
Nico and Christophe had kept an eye on the road behind them while Damian held Aria on his lap in the backseat of the Range Rover, her arms wrapped around his neck like a child. She’d been quiet since her rescue and he knew she was processing everything that had happened. Best case, she’d been locked up for almost two months, kept prisoner by Anastos’s men.Worstcase…
Well, he didn’t want to think about theworstcase.
A knock sounded at the door and Damian looked up. “Comein.”
Christophe opened the door. “Can I get her anything?” he asked. “Tea? Water? Somethingtoeat?”
Damian shook his head. “Notrightnow.”
Christophe hesitated. “Can I get youanything?”
“I have everything I need,”Damiansaid.
Christophe nodded and started to closethedoor.
“Christophe?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you,”Damiansaid.
He nodded. “We’ll be in Florence in a few hours. See if you can get her to restuntilthen.”
The door closed behind him and Damian rose to his feet, pacing the tiny cabin. He’d waited until they reached cruising altitude to move Aria to the sleeping cabin, holding her hand as the plane nosed into the sky. She’d looked out the window without a word, watching Athens passbeneaththem.
He couldn’t think about the apartment in Omonoia. It was unbearable to imagine Aria, his beautiful Aria, kept in such conditions. He thought he’d taken out his rage on the men he’d mowed down on his way into the apartment occupied by Anastos’s men, but it had welled up like an underground spring the moment he’dseenher.
He almost didn’t recognize her at first. She was so thin, her skin sallow and pale rather than flush with the healthy vitality he’d come to associate with her. In the end it was her eyes that had done it. As soon as she’d looked at him, he’d seen the same fierceness in their dark depths that he’d spotted that first day inPrimo’sclub.
It was a fierceness that said she was still in there somewhere. That whatever she’d suffered, she would make it through to theotherside.
Which didn’t mean he wasn’t going to make everyone involved pay with theirlives.
The door to the bathroom opened and she stepped into the cabin wearing the soft velvet pants and a long-sleeve gray T-shirt from the red shopping bag he’d stuffed into his duffel a lifetime ago inNewYork.
She hesitated, then slipped past him to sit on the bed. When he turned to look at her, she patted the space nexttoher.
“Sit nexttome.”
Her voice was soft and a little rough. He wondered how often she’d spoken in the past twomonths.
He lowered himself carefully next to her and was surprised when she took his hand, leaned her head on his shoulder. She reached up with her free hand and touchedhisface.
“Are you all right?” sheasked.
“Am I… Am I all right?” He turned toward her, held her face in his hands. “Are you allright?”
“Iamnow.”
He had to swallow around the question lodged in his throat. “Did theyhurtyou?”
“Not much,”shesaid.
