Nine
The elevator doors slid open with a chime, but no one in the executive suite looked up. Alexandros’s office had become a full-blown command center, humming with urgency and focused chaos.
LED monitors lined one wall, maps flickering in real-time, live feeds streaming, data updating second by second. The once pristine glass-and-steel space was a nest of cables, blinking laptops, and determined voices speaking in hushed, rapid tones.
Theo stepped inside, flanked by two men with close-cropped hair and military bearing. Nikos and Markos peeled off to the perimeter, eyes already scanning the layout and assessing the scene.
Four more were on the way.
This wasn’t a rescue mission—it was a declaration of war.
And it was personal.
He locked eyes with Demetrius first and gave a curt nod. The security chief’s expression was tight, his jaw clenched like a man barely holding it together.
Alexandros stood at the head of the room, his shoulders rigid, his back to the massive windows. There was something different in his posture. In his eyes.
Theo had seen a lot of men under pressure. But the look on his brother’s face chilled him more than any battlefield.
Controlled. Coiled.
Deadly.
The bastard who took Dani has no idea what he’s unleashed.
“Alexandros,” Theo said, crossing the room.
“Theo.” Alexandros gripped his hand, then stepped back. “Thanks for coming.”
Theo didn’t need thanks. Not for this. “Tell me everything.”
Demetrius jumped in, already handing over a map layered with notes and photos. “Dani’s trawler. Taken sometime between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. Forced entry through a hatch. Signs of a struggle inside. The security guard assigned to her was attacked—bludgeoned and tied up. Discovered this morning by a friend of hers, Carlos.”
Theo’s jaw flexed as he scanned the photos. Rope burns. Blood. A bloody wrench.
He pointed. “Water or land?”
“That’s the problem,” Demetrius said. “We don’t know. Her trawler’s moored here—” he pointed “—but the area backs up to a service road. If they went by water, they could’ve disappeared before anyone noticed. If they went by land, they had a hundred escape routes.”
Theo’s voice was clipped. “Any cameras?”
“Disabled. Power cut to the dock lights too.”
“And communication from the kidnappers?”
Alexandros’s voice was low. “Only one, only once. They used Dani’s phone to call me. Threatened to send her back in pieces if I didn’t deliver fifty million euros. Location drop is offshore. International waters.”
Theo’s eyes narrowed. “Someone who is familiar with being on the water. And since then?”
“Nothing.”
A weighted silence fell over the room.
Theo felt it. That sickening quiet between storms.
The type of silence that turned men into monsters or heroes.
Then—Alexandros’s phone rang.
