“Let’s take you upstairs, Honey,” Ava said before guiding her there. She was in such distress that she couldn’t even bother to question why Ava would be taking her up there. Ava led her down the hall to the last door on the left, and Honey wondered if there was somebody there that she would need to speak to, a higher person of authority within their family.
Ava opened the door, gesturing for her to go inside, and Honey tried to wipe her tears. She didn’t want to be a complete bumbling mess when she did this. She steeled herself, glancing back at Aris, who wore an unreadable expression before she tooka deep breath and stepped inside, and when she looked to her left, her heart nearly exploded in her chest.
Nikos lay on the bed, wrapped in bandages, but alive.
He was alive.
His head lolled over, and when he looked at her, he seemed just as startled to see her as she was to see him.
“Honey,” he said, and she found herself dropping down near the bed and cupping his cheek, looking into his warm blue eyes that were crystal clear. Tears poured down her face for the first time in the past week, without sorrow, but with happiness.
“Has anyone ever told you that you look beautiful even when you cry?”
Honey chuckled in disbelief because, of course, that would be the first thing he would say to her after all this time. It was like he was programmed to throw a one-liner at a woman, no matter the situation, and this was the worst situation for flirtatious words.
But though she was relieved to see him and hear his voice, she found herself pinching his arm that wasn’t bandaged. She had been living in misery for this past week, thinking he was dead, and here he was in Ava’s home all along. He didn’t even know what he had put her through this week. He would feel her wrath one way or another.
She pinched him again and again.
“Ouch, ouch. OUCH. Okay, I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Nikos said as he slowly sat up, wincing. “I was going to come and see you after I healed up, but it’s taking longer than expected.”
“Longer than expected?” Honey scuffed, looking at the bandage wrapped on his leg and torso.
“What did he do to you?” Honey asked, feeling angry just seeing Nikos this way. What a psycho. It was no wonder he thought he had killed Nikos.
“He shot me. Three times.”
Honey stared at him in disbelief.
“He’s crazy,” she mumbled.
“Yes, he is,” Nikos agreed before winking. “Luckily, it doesn’t run in the family, though.”
Nikos could joke about this, but she couldn’t.
“I was devastated,” she told him. Usually, she was afraid of showing too much emotion, afraid of putting herself out there, and afraid of admitting how deeply she felt for someone. But right now, that didn’t matter.
She had spent the past week crying buckets of tears, enough to fill a river. She was surprised there was still any water left in her body to cry. But now the guilt and devastation that had been stuck in her chest was slowly ebbing away.
“I’m sorry, Honey,” Nikos said, seriously this time, and she could tell he meant it. Honey knew it had to be a reason he kept it a secret. He probably did it because if Antonis knew he hadn’t killed him, he would definitely try to do everything in his power to kill him again. Or maybe he had some plan that Honey didn’t know of.
“But I’m glad it turned out this way,” Honey finally said, not wanting Nikos to feel guilty, knowing he had his reasons too. “I had been too scared to tell Kai that you wouldn’t be coming around anymore.”
“Come here,” Nikos said, and Honey sat on the bed and was immediately pulled into Nikos’s arms, and it felt so great to bethere again. It felt like home. She took in his scent, holding him tight, just glad to know he was alive.
“Everything is going to be okay, Honey,” Nikos said, and though he told her that, she couldn’t believe him like she had the last time because now she knew how insane Antonis could truly be over this past week. Nikos hadn’t been there with her to see the crazed look in his eyes, to see how much he had changed.
Antonis had always been bad before but whatever restraints that held him back before were gone now. If Antonis found out Nikos was still alive, he would find a way to kill him.
“But—”
“It will,” Nikos said. “Believe in me, Honey.”
He held her tighter, and Honey let herself be held and decided to do what Nikos had requested, not only for his sake but for hers because she wanted to believe that everything would be alright. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to focus on the miracle in front of her— Nikos still being alive.
C H A P T E R
48
