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“You aren’t watching those freaky witch movies you like anymore, Lina,” DeLuca growls.
I leave them arguing. I’m unable to catch my breath. I need to track Helena down. I’m not sure I can breathe normally until I do.
Chapter 38
Helena
I stare out the passenger window as the scenery passes buy. In a blur. There’s a road sign ahead and as we pass it, I read it and frown. Sixty-three miles from Vegas. I’m quickly running out of time.
“Zervas—”
“We get there, you remain quiet. You agree with everything I say. I’m going to protect you, Helena, but you have to help me do that.”
“You need to tell me what’s going on. I can’t help if I’m blindsided with everything. You got to prepare me so we’re a team here.”
“You’re not fooling me. You’ve shot me down every single time I’ve tried to move our relationship from business. We’re not a team,” he denies.
“Zervas, honey,” I plead, the words bitter on my tongue. I’m trying to keep my head here, but I’m wishing I had a gun, a knife or hell even a container of pepper spray would be good.
“We will be a team, though. Our fathers are already arranging it.”
“Our fathers?” I squeak, suddenly getting a very bad feeling about all of this. Which is extremely bad because I already knew the situation was dire. Now, I know it’s worse.
“I know your relationship with that fucking pig, Marco Stratakis, is over. Your father wants to make sure he has enough firepower to bring him down. Dad and I are willing to help. In the deal I get you.”
“You get… Are you saying my father is trying to arrange a marriage between us?” I screech.
“It’s already done. Once you and I are married. He’ll be depositing money into my account.
My heart begins beating harder and shame feels me. “You’re saying my father sold me.”
“Doesn’t matter I was into you before, Hel. It’s just that with the bank he’s sending my way, I can pay off what I owe Ivan. We’ll be free. The gallery here will be your wedding present. You’re good at this shit. Hell, we made a good profit this past month with just what you’re doing now. I get Ivan paid off we can go legit there—”
Go legit? This just keeps getting worse and worse. “How much do you owe Ivan Lekin?’ I whisper.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s all taken care of now. I can make you happy, Helena. We’ll be good. We just need to work together to get through this. We’ll be solid.”
My stomach is churning with every syllable he utters.
“How much does my father think I’m worth?” I ask. Inside I just keep thinking that my father basically sold me to a creatin to get even with Marco.
Back when Melina was going through her shit, I remember thinking as bad and as inattentive as my father was, he still would never sell me into a marriage. I just never thought he would do that. I mean he arranged my marriage with Marco at my request, but it was an arrangement to join the families. No money exchanged hands. I knew especially in our social circles, arranged marriages were commonplace in Greece. I even knew some had to do with money, but that wasn’t needed on my father’s part and the fact he moved to make this agreement without to me, and with the only intention of punishing Marco broke something inside of me. I wasn’t sure what, because the pain was too intense to try and decipher in right in this moment. I just knew… it hurt a lot.
“Enough to get the Russians off my back and out of our lives. It’s going to be okay, Hel. You’ll see. We’ll be happy. This marriage with you is the first thing that I’ve done that my father approves of. He’s behind it completely and that will soothe over the anger he has with me. It’s going to be okay. You’ll see. You’re my good luck charm.”
“Good luck charm?” I respond with a bitter chuckle that is strangled by the emotion that is choking me and come out sounding painful.
“That’s exactly what you are. You’re my own lucky rabbit’s foot.”
I cringed. I couldn’t help it. “I don’t think that’s really that lucky, Zervas.”
“Of course, it is. Everyone knows that,” he mutters, while switching lanes.
I shake my head and stare out my window again. “Tell that to the rabbit who only has three feet,” I mutter.
Zervas starts laughing like some sort of hyena that is in the throes of enjoying year fifty of a five pack a day habit. God, how could I ever think he was a good guy? I’m such an idiot. I pushed all thoughts of what I just learned from my head.
“Where are we going to live?” I force myself to ask. If I’m going to get out of here, I need him to think that I’m on board. Then, I need to find a way to kill him. Okay, maybe I didn’t have that in me, but I still needed to find a way to incapacitate him.
