Last Kiss (18 page)

But I did have one more thing that had to be said. The thing that I hadn’t truly decided until just then. Because it was the hardest thing. “I’m not playing the game anymore, Amber. Not with Reeve.”

There it was – my official relinquishing of the man we both loved. It seemed like it should have been a bigger moment than it was. Like, the dark cloud above me should burst open and light should shine down with the heavens recognizing my good deed.

But it wasn’t that. It was almost not even a moment at all. Especially when Amber’s acknowledgment of it was simply to nod and say, “I know you don’t want to.” She stood and then turned back to me. “But I’m not sure you have a choice.” Then she left the room.

With a soft groan, I threw my head back against the couch.

“That was one hell of a strange conversation,” Joe said. He’d been so quiet, I’d almost forgotten he was there.

“It’s complicated.” Why I kept defending our relationship, I had no idea. “The best thing for all of us would be for me to leave, and you know it. So why do you want me to go with them? I know you don’t like Reeve.”

Joe leaned forward and leveled his stare at me. “I don’t have to like him to recognize his strengths. He is more powerful than I am, Emily. He has resources and connections at his fingertips that I don’t. You’re vulnerable right now. It pisses the shit out of me that he’s the one who put you in this vulnerable position, but that doesn’t negate the fact that he’s the best option for your safety.”

He considered for a moment then added, reluctantly, “Also I actually believe that protecting you is a priority for him.”

“So you think I should go to the island.” I already knew I was going to go. I was only fighting it because I was unhappy about it. “How long am I supposed to stay there?”

“Until Reeve works out a truce with Vilanakis. Meanwhile, I’ll take care of making your home back in LA secure so that it will be ready for you to come back to.”

I pinched the corners of my eyes, fighting again against the tears.

Joe apparently assumed it was because I was scared. “Hey. You’re going to be fine. Chris blabbed, and that’s what got him in trouble. We’re not even entirely sure it was Vilanakis behind his death. It could have been an accidental overdose.”

Considering Chris’s previous drug problems, that was certainly a possibility. But the timing of it had been too coincidental. I was 99 percent sure that Michelis had ordered a hit on Chris and that the phone call Petros had taken for his father when I’d been with them was someone telling him that the job had been completed. He’d wanted me to witness that. Wanted me to be an alibi and, at the same time, wanted to give me a message –
This is what I’m capable of. Watch how easily I can get rid of a problem.

It was a scare tactic, and it worked.

An idea occurred to me. A very much unwanted idea that had to be voiced. “You know, Reeve took that article about Chris and me better than I’d expected. He’s been much more jealous than that in the past. All he said was that he’d handle it instead of getting mad like I thought he would.”

“He did handle it. He leaked that article about you and him in response. It was a smart move.” The Google alert must have finally reached Joe’s in-box. “You knew about it, didn’t you?”

“Yes. But…” I decided not to bring up that I hadn’t known about it until after the fact. I was still angry about it – it just wasn’t foremost on my mind.

What
was
foremost was much worse, and I didn’t know quite how to say it. I swallowed, then rushed through. “What if that article wasn’t the only way he handled it? What if getting rid of Chris was the favor that Michelis referred to doing for Reeve?

“Or what if Michelis had nothing to do with it and Reeve wanted Chris to stop blabbing because of the risk it put me in? What if killing him was how he thought he could keep me safe?”

Joe pressed his lips together in a way that suggested he’d already been through these scenarios in his mind. “Do
you
believe that Reeve is behind it?”

I didn’t want to believe that Reeve had killed my friend. But there was a sliver of a part of me that
could
believe that he was capable of a myriad of horrible things, including this. He’d even told me once that he could take someone’s life, if it were the
right
life. He didn’t go so far as to explain what would make a life “right.” Could jealousy be enough of a reason for him to commit murder?

“I don’t know what I believe,” I admitted. “I guess I’m surprised that you’re so sure I’d be safer with Reeve when you know he could be behind Chris’s death.”

“Honestly? If he’s the type of guy who would kill because of you, then that’s exactly who you’ll be safest with.”

Less than thirty minutes later, Joe drove away from the ranch without me. I stood on the porch and waved and watched after him until he was only a speck on the road.

When I went back into the house, my luggage was missing from the hall. Presumably, it had been returned to my room for me. It pissed me off. Wasn’t it enough that I’d stayed? Reeve had to rub it in that he’d known all along that I would?

As if to further gloat, Reeve was standing at the top of the stairs when I climbed up.

“Congratulations,” I said before he could speak. “Looks like you succeeded in ‘keeping’ me too.”

I stomped off to my room before he could respond, and shut the door behind me, leaving
him
to stand in the hall alone for once.

It took three days to prepare to leave for the island. There were all sorts of arrangements to be made. The compound house had to be opened and the kitchen needed to be stocked. Clothes were an issue. Amber had been sharing my clothing since she’d returned to the ranch, and neither of us had anything that would be suitable for wearing on a beach in the South Pacific. Reeve didn’t allow us to leave the ranch to shop, and even if he had, Jackson, Wyoming, in the spring wasn’t likely to have the items we needed. We resorted to choosing items over the Internet and giving our lists to one of Reeve’s men in LA, who picked them up and met us at the airport there when we stopped to refuel.

I spent more time with Amber in those three days than I had since she’d returned, and almost no time at all with Reeve. When I wasn’t with him, my emotions were manageable. If I didn’t have to engage with him, I could stay numb and resigned. Without his eyes on me, I could hold on to my resolve to let him go.

Fortunately, he made it easy to avoid him. He locked himself away in his office from the time he woke until the time he went to bed, taking meals on his own. Whether he was too busy with his planning and organizing or staying clear of me, I didn’t know. I supposed it was a bit of both, but I tried not to let myself spend much time thinking about it. Or him.

The morning we were set to take off, we loaded up the Escalade and made our good-byes before the sun came up. Two of Reeve’s security men were appointed to accompany us and another two drove in a separate car. Anatolios, Reeve’s main henchman, stayed behind.

When I mentioned it to Amber, she said, “He’s going to handle negotiations with Michelis.”

She had to have learned that from Reeve. Then it was only me he was avoiding. I wondered if my face gave away how much that bothered me.

“What exactly is he going to negotiate? Shouldn’t Reeve just negotiate?”

“Reeve will never talk to Micha,” she said with certainty. “He’d have him killed before that happened.” She climbed into the back of the car, sliding to the middle, where she would be seated between Reeve and me.

I hung behind until I could convince myself that her last statement sounded more like supposition than wishful thinking. Michelis scared me, and I’d shed no tears if he ended up dead. And, truth be told, if it were Reeve who made the order, I could likely handle that too – Michelis was a bad man and deserved the worst.

But there was something manipulative about Amber’s presentation of the idea. And that bothered me more than I wanted to admit.

Since we were flying to the island on a private jet, checking in at the airport was quick. After making it through security, Reeve stopped at a gift shop to get a paper.

“Do we have gum?” Amber asked as we stood waiting with the security men.

“No. I’ll grab some.”

I met Reeve at the counter and handed him a pack of Trident. “We need Dramamine too. Amber gets airsick.”

He held up a tube of pills. “Already got them.”

“Of course you know her needs. I don’t know what I was thinking.” My voice was thick despite my smile. I turned away and headed back to Amber, ignoring him when he called after me. Ignoring him again when he joined us a minute later, his searing gaze on me as he handed the bag of purchases to Amber.

When he finally moved his attention to his men, I let out a sigh of relief. Was this what the next few weeks held in store for me? Constantly avoiding and ignoring? All the while, pretending I wasn’t miserable?

I wasn’t sure I was that good an actress.

On the plane, Reeve sat with his men in the cabin nearest the pilots. Amber and I took seats in the next cabin, she at the window, and I at her side. Ginger, the stewardess who’d also been on the plane when I’d flown into Jackson, served us mimosas and then disappeared to take care of the men.

Amber and I chatted a bit, then, about half an hour after we’d been in flight, she yawned and said, “Dramamine always knocks me out.” She leaned her chair back and, with earbuds and the iPod that she’d borrowed from me, she turned to her side and fell asleep.

As if on cue, Reeve emerged from the first cabin, and every nerve in my body came to life. I buried my head in my Kindle and resumed the ignoring game from earlier. Or resumed pretending to ignore him. He was impossible to truly ignore.

I definitely couldn’t ignore him when he took the seat across from me, but I tried, keeping my eyes down as he silently studied me, his gaze lighting up every inch of my skin.

Finally, he spoke. “So. Are you officially not speaking to me?”

Officially, no, I was not speaking to him, except for when absolutely necessary. But that was childish. Even I recognized that.

“I’m speaking to you,” I said. “I spoke to you in the gift store earlier.”

“I think, counting that, you’ve said all of twenty-five words to me since Joe left.”

It had been forty-seven, to be precise. I’d counted.

With my chin still down, I shrugged. “There’s nothing to say.” It wasn’t exactly true. There was plenty to say, but I was tired of being the only one talking.

“Hmm,” he said. Then he went quiet, and I continued to stare at the screen in front of me, reading the same sentence over and over without comprehension. All I could focus on was his nearness. How his presence affected me so greatly that it felt like he was touching me. How he was only sitting a few feet away from me and yet was farther than he’d ever been.

I closed my eyes and wondered if it would ever end – this yearning for him. For all of him. For any of him at all. I’d grown so used to how that desire completed me, I wasn’t sure who I’d be if one day it actually did.

“The Vilanakis family –
my
family —”

I opened my eyes at the sound of his voice.

“Has been involved in organized crime of some sort or another since God knows when,” he continued, and I stopped breathing. “It’s a complete culture, like being raised in a religious family. A baby born into our family is automatically raised in the lifestyle. There’s no leaving. Vilanakis blood is a tie that can’t be undone.”

I lifted my head, slowly, afraid that if I moved too quickly, I’d interrupt the spell. It was the first time he’d admitted his connection to Michelis. The first time he’d volunteered information without me prodding.

His eyes grazed mine, but he quickly shifted his focus out the window. “My mother, as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, was born
Elena Vilanakis
. Her grandfather was… a don, of sorts. Powerful. His children and their children were practically royalty. Crime was their birthright. It’s a patriarchal system, but women do have their places and their duties. My mother was the oldest of her siblings so her role was significant. Whoever she married would be adopted into the family business. It was expected that she would wed someone with economic or political strength. Someone like Daniel Sallis, who had built a fortune and name in luxury resorts. Their union was blessed and encouraged by her parents.”

“But your mother wanted to leave.” It came out before I could stop it, and his stare flew back to mine, his eyes wide as though he’d forgotten I was there.

Immediately I tensed, sure I’d spoiled his confession.

Instead, his lip curled up in an impressed smile. “Yes. She did want to leave.” He settled back into his chair and crossed his ankle over his knee. “Ironically, the level of power that her parents required in an intended husband was the same level capable of making a Mafia princess disappear.”

He seemed to have relaxed a bit, which made me less wary to ask, “Did your father know what he was getting into?”

“Yes. My father loved my mother. I believe that he would have committed to the Vilanakis Empire if she’d asked him to. But she wanted nothing to do with her family, and so he committed to that instead.”

His features brightened when he talked about his parents. So much that I felt warmth in my chest for the first time in days, like sun hitting a patch of snow.

“But your father was high profile. He obviously didn’t vanish.”

“Right. He couldn’t. But he managed to hide my mother. He arranged for her to take on a fake identity before they were ever wed so he was never officially tied to the Vilanakis name. He never traveled with her. Made sure he was never photographed with her. And he purchased the ranch in Wyoming secretly. It was a place no one would ever look for a businessman like Daniel Sallis. Certainly it wasn’t where anyone would look for the granddaughter of a Greek mob boss. Essentially, the only people who knew that my father’s young bride had any other name than Elena Kaya were her parents.”

“Her parents
knew
?” That surprised me, especially after he’d said there was no turning away from the mob. “Were they mad? Did they put out a hit on her or something?”

Reeve tilted his head, clearly amused. “Did you get that from television?”

“Excuse me for not having a lot of personal experience with the mob.”

He chuckled. “Well. You’re not entirely off base. Her grandfather would have ‘put out a hit’ on my father.” He used his fingers to indicate quote marks when he said, “put out a hit.” “Then he would have dragged my mother back home where she belonged.”

“Okay, that’s only half as horrible as I thought.” I caught myself before I smiled back at him. But just barely.

“Or he might have killed her as well. My great-grandfather did have a reputation for being ruthless.”

I almost thought he was joking. Goose bumps shot down my arms when I realized he wasn’t. “Your parents protected her and didn’t tell great-granddaddy Vilanakis what happened to her.”

“Exactly. Her parents – my grandparents – were like most parents. They loved their daughter, and, even though it was against everything they believed in, they wanted her to be happy. And alive. So when my father proposed a believable scenario for an accidental death, they clung to that.”

“They cut off all ties?”

He nodded. “The night she slipped away with my father, her parents hugged her good-bye and that was the last they ever saw of her.” He sobered. “They kept tabs, distantly, though. They knew she’d had a son. And so they also knew to reach out to me after my parents were killed.”

“Which is how you ended up in Greece with your grandmother.” The puzzle pieces were sliding together easily now. It was so satisfying that I nearly missed what he’d said. “Did you say ‘killed’ on purpose?”

“I did.”

My heart tripped. I’d known his parents had died in a car accident when he was sixteen, but never once had he or any of the Internet sources I’d referred to suggest that it had been murder.

Much like Amber when she’d tried to comfort me about Chris, I didn’t know what to say so it took me several seconds to manage, “How?” and another few seconds to add, “Why?”

I assumed he was going to say his grandfather had found them, but instead he said, “Your television shows probably taught you about rival branches in organized crime rings.”

“Yes. They probably did.”

“We have a rival branch. Distant cousins. The Lasko family. One of them discovered my mother was still alive. I don’t know how they found out. Maybe my mother blabbed to a friend. Maybe one of the Laskos got wise and did some research. I’ll probably never know. What I do know was my mother was an easy target.” His voice was even, but his eyes spoke volumes of pain and grief.

“Oh, Reeve.” I wasn’t naturally very sympathetic, but the hurt I felt for him was genuine. All the time I wanted to be in his arms, it was the first time I longed to wrap him in mine.

He shook his head once, and I knew he was dismissing the memories rather than my compassion. “Anyway, I was vaguely aware of relatives on my mother’s side back in Greece so it wasn’t a complete surprise when my grandparents found me. I was sixteen. My parents were dead. My father had no family. I didn’t have a choice when they offered to take me in.”

“And you didn’t know about their business?” Whatever his answer was, where this was going was inevitable.

“I didn’t have any idea at all,” he confirmed. “But I learned quickly.” He leaned forward, emphasizing his next words. “Because that’s how the family works. There’s no tiptoeing along the edges of the life. It’s full immersion. For me, it was baptism by fire.”

The hair on the back of my neck stood up as the truth sunk in, the truth I’d both suspected and denied since I’d first discovered his picture with Michelis. “You’re mob, too.”

“I
was
mob,” he clarified.

“You said there’s no leaving.”

“I guess I’m the exception.”

He was quiet while I sunk back in my chair and processed. One of the reasons I’d always been attracted to Reeve was because he’d seemed dangerous. He’d always suggested that I wouldn’t want to find out that he actually was. I wasn’t sure that he’d been correct. I wasn’t sure that he hadn’t been.

“You aren’t part of the family business? Not at all?”

He leveled my stare. “What do you want the answer to be, Emily?”

No.
Of course the answer was
no
.

I swallowed the ball in my throat. “You said you weren’t. You said you left.”

He nodded ever so slightly.

Propping his elbow on the armrest, he leaned his chin in his hand. “But I
was
in it. Really in it. I didn’t even realize it in the beginning. First, it was just running errands for my uncle Nikki with my cousins. Then it was accompanying him on what he called ‘negotiation visits.’ After a few of those, I retitled them ‘scare jobs.’ I’m sure you can guess the nature of what those entailed.”

If those TV shows I watched were at all based in reality, then, yes, I could. My dark side was curious, though. It wanted to hear the details. But more importantly, I wanted to know, “Were you a participant on these scare jobs or just an observer?”

His eyes narrowed. “What do you think?”

I think you don’t want me to know.
“I think you like it when I think the worst.”

He laughed. “Touché.”

He considered for a minute, and it occurred to me that he was as torn about what he wanted me to believe about him as I was. Part of me wanted the truth, wanted him to tell me the truth no matter what it was. Another part of me wanted to never know that he was as dangerous as I thought him capable. Never wanted to know that he wasn’t.