Page 44

He kept his kiss short, which disappointed her, but there was a smug grin trying to take hold of his lips. “I wanted to be here for this.”

“For what?”

He drew her out the front door and onto the stoop. As he did, the gate to the courtyard opened and an SUV came in.

“Who is it?” she asked. “Not—?”

“Who do you think?”

The vehicle stopped and a man in linen trousers and a knitted short-sleeved shirt stepped out of the back. He had a dark, neatly trimmed beard, wire-rimmed glasses and a wink of gold on his left hand.

“Julian!” she cried.

* * *

When Khristos had texted that he and Julian had decided to skip the holiday in Miami they had initially planned for after his meetings in New York, and were on their way back to Athens early, Spiro had decided to surprise Alia. The men had their own home farther up the coast, but Khristos was anxious to see him and it hadn’t been out of the way for them to come straight from the airport.

Spiro watched his wife launch herself off the bottom step into his brother-in-law’s arms while Khristos came around the back of the SUV.

“Spiro!” Khristos pulled him into a bear hug. “You scared the hell out of me.”

They weren’t usually affectionate, but Spiro returned his brother’s lung-squeezing embrace and accepted a kiss on his cheek, patting the back of Khristos’s head. He was on the verge of saying something self-deprecating, but he happened to glance at Julian, who had set Alia back onto her feet. She had her face buried in her hands.

“Doll. What happened?” Julian scooped her into a fresh hug.

Spiro’s heart lurched. “Alia.”

“It’s okay,” she choked, turning to face him and swiping at the tears running down her cheeks. “I just got emotional. Hello, Khristos.” She reached a hand out to pat his chest.

“Little one.” Khristos wore a salmon-colored T-shirt over cream-colored trousers and pulled her into another all-encompassing hug, wiping each of her wet cheeks before he kissed them. “What has my brother been saying to make you cry like this?”

“Nothing.” Spiro wanted his own turn to comfort his wife, but Julian was already drawing her back under his arm. He’d found a box of tissues from the back of the car and held it for her.

“Thank you.” Alia took a few and mopped up, blowing her nose. “Spiro didn’t tell me you were coming. I’ve been so worried about Yaya. When I saw Julian…” She leaned into him. “I’ve missed you.”

There was nothing sexual in the way she looked at Julian, but it was the purest, most unconditional trust Spiro had ever seen. He hadn’t known she could look like that, as though she knew she was in the safest place on earth.

I want to give you that, he thought, even though her love for Julian wasn’t something to be jealous of, especially when Spiro valued loyalty and respect and self-sufficiency over that transient, often meaningless sentiment.

He had an overdeveloped sense of possessiveness, he reminded himself. It was the result of having things taken from him when he hadn’t been able to stop it. Julian wouldn’t take her from him. No one could.

Could they?

“Why don’t you take me to say hello to her?” Julian suggested, then glanced at Khristos.

“I want to speak to Spiro anyway,” Khristos agreed.

They parted inside the foyer, but Khristos watched the pair walk away, saying, “I bought her several outfits. Why is she wearing that old dress? It’s falling apart.”

“She saves her good ones for going out.” It was a personality quirk that Spiro didn’t fight. He had lived on a shoestring himself once. He knew how hard that conditioning was to break. And, “I would never ask her to throw away something she values.”

Khristos made a noise of understanding. Lambros had robbed both of them.

They entered Spiro’s office and Khristos turned to face him.

“All right, then. Lay into me.”

“For?”