At one point, he had seen violence as nothing but cruelty, turning away from it and turning up his nose at anyone who participated in it, even his own family. But these past few months had changed him, and he no longer turned away from cruelty and violence. Now, he understood that it was necessary to embrace it in this dark world. It was why he wouldn’t have lost a wink of sleep if he had killed that drunk frat douche, who grabbed Honey, nearly making her fall. He had lost something taking on his uncle’s position, something that he had been afraid of losing, which was why he had ignored his father’s requests for him to join the family business in the past. But now that it was gone, he would no longer look back.
“You’ve disappointed me, Georgios. Don’t do it again,” Antonis warned.
Georgios tried to speak, but no sound would come out, so he nodded shakily instead, a tear escaping from the corner of his left eye before he carefully waddled back to where they stood, cradling his shaking hand.
“Although money was made in my absence, the hit we took in the first three weeks was unacceptable, and employing my woman beyond her duties was too.”
Nikos knew those words were addressed to him, so he spoke.
“I gave Honey an opportunity to make the money back she had lost from the shaky schedule, in turn, she helped your business run in your absence. I thought you would be pleased, knowing that Honey helped you.”
“Or did she helpyou?”
The emphasis on you was clear, and Georgios, who had been busy managing his pain through a pinched face, managed to look at his uncle, surprised. Theo audibly gulped, his fidgets finally stopping. The tension was thick now, and no one moved.
Before, when his uncle showed these unreasonable acts of possessiveness over Honey, he just brushed it off, wanting to avoid problems. But now, he felt ready to beat his chest and show who Honey really belonged to. He had never felt like this before, not even with Raelyn when she had been with Leonidas.
They stared at each other for a beat, their eyes clashing. Theo looked back and forth between them warily before Nikos chuckled, slicing down the thick tension, and Georgios’s tense shoulders dropped.
“My bad, uncle. It was a mistake on my part.”
Antonis continued to stare at him. It looked like he wasn’t quite ready to let the conversation end. It was the way he had been looking at him ever since he returned like he was looking at a feral animal that he was afraid to turn his back on, afraid that if he did, he would be bitten. Funny enough, Nikos felt like a feral animal right now.
“Dismissed.”
“Man, it was too tense back there,” Theo said as they walked down the hall.
They had parted ways with Georgios, who had gone in the opposite direction, heading for his office downstairs. Theo loosened his tie, and the feelings he couldn’t show in front of their uncle formed on his face—irritation, annoyance, and disbelief. It all formed on his face at once, leaving wrinkles of confusion on his forehead, and frown lines on his nose and the corners of his mouth.
“I feel like we should be getting praised for everything we’ve done while he wasresting,” Theo grumbled. “Especially you. This place and all the other clubs would have been in the dumps if you hadn’t stepped up. You killed his enemy, for God’s sake, kept the clubs running, and even brought in more money. It feels… it feels like…”
“We’re being punished?”
“Yes!” Theo exclaimed as they went out the double doors and were greeted by the sight of naked women and horny men. “It’s strange, man. I thought when Antonis returned, he would be happy with what we accomplished. The wolves were preying on us when he went out of commission. Most of his top men were dead, but we stepped up. What’s his problem?”
Nikos shrugged, even though he already knew what the problem was. They did do everything right, more than people had expected, and that was the problem. Antonis came back from the dead to see that his right and left-hand men were gone and that his club had been given to someone, who wasn’t his right or left-hand man. Right now, Antonis didn’t see him as his nephew or someone who helped him out while he was out of commission. He only saw him as his enemy, and any good deeds Nikos had done to save his club and position in the tri-state area meant nothing to Antonis.
There would be no rewards, there would be no praise, and Nikos didn’t need those things either. Right now, he only needed one thing, and he doubted his uncle would willingly give that to him either. Not that it was his, to begin with.
“Why does it feel like Roberto is watching us?” Theo asked, and Nikos didn’t even have to bother to look because he felt an intense gaze following them as they walked across the floor, heading for the exit that led to the parking lot. The intense gaze never left his back, and it had been like that ever since his uncle returned.
“He doesn’t trust me.”
“Who?” Theo exclaimed. “Roberto?”
“Our uncle,” Nikos said as they stepped outside. He knew it wouldn’t be long before Roberto’s intense gaze was replaced with another. A couple of Antonis’s men had been tailing him for the past few days, watching his actions closely.
“Shit,” Theo muttered as he paused in his steps, looking back at the club with a look of worry before his face became resolved. “What are we going to do?”
“Nothing for now,” Nikos said, and Theo looked surprised, and he could not blame him. Antonis not trusting him wasn’t something to take lightly. He had seen what had happened to the men his uncle did not trust, and at this point, he knew being Giannis Drakos’s son wouldn’t be an impenetrable shield for long.
“I’ve got to go,” Nikos told Theo as he headed to his car. “Don’t worry about it for now.”
Theo nodded, and even though his worry was clear, they parted ways. Nikos got in his car, and instead of driving straight to his intended destination, he took a detour and went to Allison’s place, parking his Camaro in the front before gettinginto his truck in the back parking lot. Once he saw that his uncle’s men had taken the bait and remained parked across the street from Allison’s place, he drove off, and twenty minutes later, he arrived at Honey’s place.
He knocked on the door, and he heard Honey’s footsteps patter over to the door before they paused. A second later, the door ripped open, and Honey all but yanked him inside, tugging him by his arm.
“What’s going on?” Honey asked, anxiously, and Nikos could not blame her. She had all but seen the Grim Reaper three nights ago in her home. It was like a villain returning from the dead.
