The Greek's Stolen Bride (10 page)

He was outside, she supposed, maybe on the beach. She slid open the glass door that led to the terrace, and took the steps down to the rocky cove. No one was there either, and no boat was moored at the little dock. Of course, Theo had already returned her father's boat, but when she'd stood on the terrace yesterday she'd seen a powerboat that she knew was his. It was gone.

Had Theo actually
left
her?

A chill crept into her soul, wound its icy tendrils around her heart. She shook her head, tried to think sensibly. Of course he might have just gone out for a little bit, for food or something. He'd probably left a note.

Yet when she went back up to the villa, she found nothing. No note, no sign at all that he wanted her to know where he was.

Fear iced in her veins. What had happened? Had there been an emergency? Had he been
hurt
? Maybe her father had found them, someone had come in during the night--

But how? And why not take her? Or even wake her? It was too farfetched to be believed.

So what had happened? And why was Theo gone?

Slowly Ariana wandered through the house, utterly at a loss. Her fear that something had happened to Theo was being steadily replaced by a far worse fear that he had abandoned her. He'd married her, used her body, got what he wanted, and now he was gone. Would he just leave her here to wait out her six months? Had she exchanged one villa--one prison--for another? How could she have been so stupid?

She didn't want to doubt Theo. She didn't want to think the worst of him. She'd told him she trusted him, and she had. She did. So where was her trust now?

"Just wait," Ariana told herself, her voice sounding lonely and small in the empty villa. "Just wait and see what happens."

Three hours passed and nothing did. She'd made herself breakfast, tidied the dishes, and then tried reading a book. Eventually she turned the television on, and as she was surfing through the channels she stilled at the breaking news banner running across the bottom of the screen.

Miles Leotokos at center of corruption scandal.

She froze, her finger still on the remote, and then turned the volume up and leaned forward, her numb brain taking in every word.
Corruption... Embezzlement... Illegal trading activities... Officials have brought Leotokos in for questioning, taking him from his private island...

Dazed, Ariana watched blurry footage of her father being taken in handcuffs from the villa she'd left only two days ago. She listened as the news anchor droned on about how Leotokos's crimes would be taken very seriously in this 'grave economic climate' and the camera cut away to the steps of an office building in Athens's business district, where an all-too familiar figure in a three-piece suit talked about how he'd suspected Miles Leotkos was corrupt for years.

Theo.

Ariana barely heard a word he said. He looked so different, so cold and forbidding and remote, and yet he'd held her in her arms mere hours ago. Made love to her--

No, not love. Never love.

Ariana sat back, her mind spinning. It was starting to make awful sense. Theo had married her out of revenge. Revenge against her father, whom he'd suspected for years of corruption. That was why he hadn't cared about the virus, why he'd taken her knowing her father intended to marry her to Dion--

Why he'd left her now.

Revenge. Vengeance. And he'd paid her five million euros for the pleasure.

She tasted bile and swallowed hard. It shouldn't hurt so much, she told herself. She'd only known the man for a handful of days, and she'd suspected he had some deeper purpose to their marriage. She hadn't been that woefully naive.

Yet she had been naive enough to give him her body. Her heart. She'd been innocent and deluded enough to fall in love with him.

Ariana closed her eyes, tried to think.
Breathe
.

What now? Theo had left for Athens, for vengeance. She doubted he was coming back, and he hadn't left so much as a note to explain his whereabouts or his intentions.

She was alone, but she was also free. And as Theo had said last night, she was intelligent and resourceful. She wasn't going to hide away and wait for her rescuer once more. She was going to rescue herself, starting now.

Her stomach lurched with nerves as she rose from the sofa but she forced herself to think calmly, breathe deeply. She went upstairs and packed the clothes Theo had bought for her. She found a couple hundred euros in the top drawer of Theo's dresser and she took that too. She needed money, and Theo could just consider it an advance on the five million he owed her.

Then she walked out of the villa, into the sunshine and the rest of her life.

Just like Theo, she didn't leave a note.

She stood in front of the villa, blinking in the glare of sunlight, wondering what on earth to do now. A dusty track led through rock and scrub towards the horizon. She had no idea how far she was from the harbor, or any civilization at all. Taking a deep breath, Ariana hitched her bag higher on her shoulder and started to walk.

Theo dropped a sheaf of papers onto his desk and raked a hand through his hair. He was utterly exhausted, bone-weary, and yet also restless. A hell of a lot more restless than he'd expected to be, now that he'd finally ruined his enemy, done the one thing that had been driving him for decades.

So why did he feel so
empty
?

"Five years ago he might have got away with it," Lukas said as he came into the office after Theo. He grinned, clearly enjoying their victory. "But nobody's going to turn a blind eye in this economy, Theo. He'll get a harsh sentence."

Theo just nodded. He didn't even care anymore if Leotokos went to jail. He wondered about the man's wife, so care-worn and faded, and what she was doing now. Would she be able to cope on her own? He could send for her, have her join Ariana as he knew his wife had wanted.

Ariana. He'd left her this morning, asleep and sated, and he knew by now she would have woken up, seen that he'd gone. Wondered. He should have left a note, but he hadn't known what to say. How to explain.

Yet the news had broken all over the world and he knew it was only a matter of time before Ariana learned what had happened. What he had done.

And then what?

Theo didn't know how she would respond. He did know he needed to explain... as soon as possible.

"Theo?"

Lukas had been talking but he hadn't heard a word. A sudden urgency had gripped him, made it hard to breathe. He had to get out of here
now
. He had to find Ariana and explain, make sure she understood--

And if she doesn't?

She had to. Last night they'd shared something far too special to throw it away with both hands.

Even if that's exactly what he'd done this morning.

Theo turned to Lukas. "I need you to handle things here for a few hours."

By helicopter it took two hours to get to Naxos. He had a helipad on his property, and he scanned the beach and terrace for Ariana as he landed. Nothing.

He ran through the villa, calling her name, but he felt the emptiness of the place sweep through him, leaving desolation in its wake.

She was gone.

There was no note.

Theo stood in the entrance hall for a moment, wondering what to do. Where she'd gone. He didn't think she'd been taken by one of her father's minions; there was no sign of struggle and in any case Leotokos's staff were trying to save their own skins.

No, she'd left him. She must have found out about what he'd done--orchestrated--and so she'd gone.

On foot
. She couldn't have gotten far. In one decisive movement Theo strode out of the villa and started down the dusty track that led to Hora, the capital of Naxos and nearest town, nearly ten miles away. He thought of Ariana walking alone down that empty road and he started running.

Sweat trickled between her shoulder blades and prickled on her scalp. Her feet ached, her head throbbed, and her whole body felt prickly with heat. She'd gone, Ariana suspected, about a mile and a half--and she had no idea how many more she would have to walk until she reached a town.

Resolutely she transferred her bag to her other shoulder and kept walking. Her head was buzzing with pain so it took a few seconds for her to hear the crunch of approaching footsteps behind her. She whirled around, her heart lurching in her chest and then seeming to stop beating altogether when she saw the man behind her.

Theo.

"What are you doing here?" she asked shakily, and he stopped in front of her, his hands on his knees, clearly winded.

He straightened, gazed at her soberly. "I'd say that's obvious. Looking for you."

She lifted her chin. "Why? You clearly weren't looking for me this morning, when you snuck away to Athens."

"I'm sorry, Ariana."

"Sorry for what? For leaving me the day after wedding? For not even letting me know where you were going? Or sorry for betraying me and using me for your pathetic revenge?"

His mouth quirked in the smallest of sad smiles. "Sorry for all three."

Tears stung her eyes and she blinked them back furiously. "Too late, Theo. Too little."

"I know what it looks like--"

"Do you? Why don't you tell me, then? Tell me what you think it looks like to me."

Theo took a deep breath. "It looks like I didn't care about you at all. Like I asked you to marry me just as another way to avenge myself against your father."

"And did you?" She didn't want to ask the question, was afraid of the answer, but she knew she couldn't live not knowing.

He met her gaze unflinchingly. "Originally, yes, that was my intention." It shouldn't have hurt or even surprised her, yet it did. Stupidly. She'd known he had some ulterior motive from the beginning. "Originally, Ariana. It changed. I changed."

"When did you change, Theo? In the last five minutes? Because the man who crept out of my  marriage bed seems like the same man who planned to marry me just to get at my father."

"I've worked for this for almost my whole life--"

"So what did my father do to you, anyway?" she asked wearily. The sun beat down hotly and she felt utterly exhausted, emotionally and physically spent.

Theo was silent for a long moment. "He ruined my father."

Surprise had her focusing on him again, blinking in the white glare of the sun. "He did? And my father didn't realize who you were?"

"He never knew of my existence. I'm illegitimate, the son of my father's mistress. He loved us, visited us often, but it was a half-life at best. My father's wife was the one in the spotlight when his business collapsed." Theo paused, his face a granite mask. "He killed himself."

Sorrow twisted inside her, but pity would only extend so far. "I'm sorry."

"He did it just because my father was a competitor, for no more reason than spite and jealousy. He started rumors, had my father investigated. It was enough to topple everything. I know my father was a weak man in many ways, but he didn't deserve that."

"No," Ariana said quietly. "He didn't. So you've been planning your revenge since that moment? How old were you?"

"Eleven."

She thought of what he'd already told her. "And when your father's business collapsed, you and your mother were thrown out onto the street. That's why you joined a gang." It all made such terrible sense.

Theo nodded, his jaw tight. "My father told me it was Leotokos who ruined him before he died. He killed himself in our apartment to spare his wife the shame. Slit his wrists in the bathtub." His expression didn't change as he added flatly, "I found him."

"Oh, Theo." Tears spilled down her cheeks and she brushed them away impatiently. "I am sorry for what you endured. But it doesn't change the way things are now."

"I just want you to understand--"

"I do understand. I, of all people, understand vengeance. My revenge was to escape, to leave my father behind, but I sometimes dreamed of coming back and flaunting my freedom in his face. Getting rich and buying his business out from under his nose." She laughed sadly. "Schoolgirl fantasies, but I do understand. I wanted revenge for the way my father treated me, tried to limit me." She sighed, shook her head. "So why did you come to the island? Because it wasn't to solve the Minotaur, obviously."

"I didn't care about the virus. I just wanted access to Leotokos's house, his computers."

"The computer that houses the virus is separate from the main system--"

"I know that. I suspected it even before I came, but I was able to enter your father's study and hack into his computer during the night."

Her gaze narrowed. "Before or after I came to you?"

"Before."

She nodded, her heart like a stone inside her. "So sneaking me away from my father must have been the icing on the cake."

"It felt like that at first, Ariana, I admit it. Before I knew you."

"When," she asked in a whisper, "did you feel like you knew me?"