Theo chuckled and gave Alexandros’s shoulder a solid slap. “I’ll keep Nikos on her until you do.”
Alexandros grunted a response, watching his brother turn and walk out.
Alone in the office, Alexandros stood still, the folder dangling from his fingers.
Three weeks.
Three weeks of torment. Of waking up with his arms empty. Of reaching across the sheets to cold linens. Of smelling her on his skin and clothes like she was an apparition who was there but he couldn’t see.
Three weeks of cursing himself for not waking when she’d slipped away.
Three weeks of fury and fear, braided so tightly they hollowed out his ribs like ghosts he couldn’t outrun.
He stared out at the skyline, his reflection faint in the glass.
She had run from him.
But she hadn’t vanished.
And now… now he had found her.
No more distance. No more shadows.
No more excuses.
He lifted his phone, pressed in a number, and waited as he strode out of his office to the elevator. The call was answered on the first ring. He breathed down the anger coursing through him. He needed to remain calm.
“Why didn’t you tell me she was safe? Why didn’t you tell me where she was?” he demanded, skipping the greeting entirely.
Stuart’s loud sigh echoed in his ear. “If I told you she was safe, you’d know I knew where she was. She wasn’t ready to be found. And if I recall, you weren’t exactly calm either after she disappeared.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. Why, Stuart? Why did she run? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I can’t answer why she ran. Only Dani can answer that. What I think and what I know are two different things. You need to get Dani to open up to you—if she will. The only thing I do know is that she is scared.”
Alexandros stiffened and paused as the lift slowed and opened into the underground car park.
“She is scared—of me?” he asked.
His gut twisted at the thought of Dani being afraid of him. He would never hurt her. She… she was his world. It was his job—his right—to protect her from harm.
“Not of you—but I think for you. Ask her. I knew you would find her when the time was right,” Stuart said, before he ended the call.
Alexandros lowered his phone, his mind tormented by what Stuart had left unsaid.
“Scared for me?” he echoed, the words slicing through him. “Why would she be scared for me?”
He slid into the back seat of the black BMW SUV. Demetrius was behind the wheel. The tinted windows shielded him from the sun. But nothing could block the fire building inside him now.
No more running, Dani. Not this time. Never again.
Fifteen
The scent of oil and sun-warmed wood clung to the air, mingling with the metallic tang of grease and sea salt. Overhead, a gull screeched, its cry slicing through the low hum of chatter from men swapping stories in the shade. Someone had a radio on, playing a popular Greek pop song, the beat bounced off the corrugated metal walls of the workshop. But Dani didn’t hear it.
Her world was muffled. Muted. Her mind was a million miles away—or at least it felt like it. In truth, it was more like just a few miles as the crow flies. Depending on where Alexandros was at the moment—his office, his apartment, or the villa.
She leaned forward, trying to focus on what she was supposed to be working on. She was currently elbow-deep in the guts of a temperamental diesel engine hoisted on chains, the familiar grind of metal against metal echoing her mood. Her arms ached, her hands were raw beneath her gloves, and sweat clung to her spine.
