“But of course.” He smirked and held my gaze, but the longer he watched me, the more serious the set to his lips became. “What can I do to help?”
“You’re already here and drinking my best wine.”
“You want this guy? Dimitri?”
“I can’t have him.”
“Has that ever stopped you before?”
I couldn’t argue with that. A challenge only made me put in more effort.
So why did this feel different? Was it the fear deep down that maybe after all this, Dimitri would reject me?
“I’ll tell you how you can help me,” I said, and nodded at the trunk. “Call your boyfriend and tell him you’re staying with me tonight to make sure I don’t burn four million dollars.”
“If you want it out of your sight, I’ll gladly take it off your hands. Or you could donate it. It might make you feel better about your…deal.”
Those were tempting ideas, but getting rid of the money, no matter how little I needed it, would be like getting rid of the last of Dimitri, and selfishly, I wanted to keep him close just a little longer.
It wasn’t the healthiest decision, but neither was refilling my glass for a fifth time. Or sixth. I’d already lost count.
Without any prompting, Archer topped off my wine, and I held my glass out toward his.
“Why don’t we toast to something happy? To your impending engagement and my return to bachelorhood.”
I forced a smile as Archer’s glass clinked against mine, but as I swallowed down the cabernet, all I could think about was where in the world Dimitri was laying his head tonight.
And if he was thinking about me.
38
DIMITRI
WITH OMAR BY my side, I waited inside the lounge of the yacht anchored off a marina in Hamburg, Germany, while my guards stood out front for the men I’d be meeting with.
It’d been two weeks since Benoit left, and I’d thrown myself into work with a vengeance, making deals up and down the Mediterranean Sea and back into Europe. The distraction had been a welcome one, keeping me even busier than I had been, but Benoit still found his way into my thoughts in the quiet moments in between.
Even now, being on the yacht had my mind drifting back to the night we’d spent on the catamaran. It felt like so long ago now, another world.
I let out a sigh and cracked my neck from side to side, trying not to wonder what Benoit was doing right now. Orwho. Fuck, that thought instantly filled me with rage, and when my hands balled into fists, Omar glanced over at me.
“Everything good, boss?”
“Fine.”
The clipped response had him nodding once, and I thought he’d drop it, but then he added, “They seem willing to compromise.”
I didn’t have to ask who he was talking about. My mind had been on a man I couldn’t have, and Omar was focused on this meeting with the Redwater Syndicate. They’d requested to touch base, and the general consensus from our sources was that they were willing to fall in line for a better deal.
Compromise hadn’t been in Giorgos’s nature, but I was willing to try a different approach and hear them out. Let them plead their case.
At least for now.
But this was the last thing I wanted to be doing. Which frustrated the hell out of me, because I’d signed up for this, basically demanded the right to it after overthrowing our leader. But that was before…
And that was how my life felt right now, split in two. Before Benoit, and after.
BeforeBenoit I knew exactly where my place in this world was and what I had to do to achieve it. I knew the risks and was willing to take them to get to the top. Hell, I had the scars to prove it.
