Ries felt his hopes fade away and he gave her a sad look, “More’s the pity.”
“Yes, a pity. Sit here and wait for a minute,” Stephanie guided him back to the stool he’d occupied seconds earlier. She delivered the drinks on her tray and then returned it to the kitchen. She called out to Tomas and he tossed out her jacket and purse moments later. “Come on, Ries. Where are you staying?”
Ries gave her directions to the room he’d rented in town and several minutes later they arrived outside his hotel room door. His yacht was docked down by the water but he always took a room in town so that he had options.
He produced the key upon her request and after opening the door, she simply pushed him inside.
“Drink plenty of water tonight and no more booze,” Stephanie told him.
“I can do that.”
“Good. I hope you feel better,” she told him softly.
Ries opened his mouth to invite her inside, hoping to change her mind about spending more time with him, but she merely pushed him further inside the room and shut the door. He stared at it for a long moment before turning and heading for the bed.
*****
Stephanie walked down the hallway, stopping in front of the elevator and forcing herself not to go back to the room and take him up on the invitation she’d seen in his eyes. The night before he’d shown her his true colors, and the last thing Stephanie needed was a playboy thinking she was an easy mark.
He’d not hit on her tonight but she reasoned that was mostly because he was so hung-over. She had no doubts that if she was to see him again, he’d be all smooth talking and charming as he tried to get her to offer more than her waitressing duties.
So many of the bar’s patrons seemed to think that waitressing with a smile meant they were also being offered other sorts of services and “happy endings” for a small fee. Stephanie had initially resented that aspect of her job but had since learned to politely redirect their unwanted attentions, and, if need be, she’d simply pass the table off to Terri or one of the other waitresses more adept at handling them. Stephanie could not bring herself to do that and she hadn’t intended to start now.
Not even for a gorgeous Greek with bedroom eyes and a killer smile like Ries.
Chapter 4
Ries sat down heavily on the mattress and then pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He glanced at the screen and saw that he had received several messages in the last few hours. All from his oldest brother, Damon.
Sighing, he brushed his thumb over the voicemail icon and then hit speaker, lying back on the mattress as his brother’s irate voice played.
“Ries, what in the name of Zeus are you doing? The tabloids are on fire with your latest antics! Did you forget why you were in Stavros to begin with? I can assure you it wasn’t to have orgies on that yacht of yours.”
There was the sound of Damon shuffling papers and Ries could almost see his older brother sitting at his desk, irritated that he’d had to take precious minutes from his day to make the call to chastise Ries. Again. It seemed Damon was always taking him to task over one thing or another.
“Must I remind you that you are a Kafatos? I could understand your screwing around when you were eighteen, even nineteen, but it’s time you grew up and started acting like the adult you are. I told Nicolai that I didn’t think you could handle this job but he assured me I was wrong.”
Damon made no effort to hide the disappointment in his voice and Ries pushed aside his own feelings. Ries had never been able to quite reach Damon’s expectations and, over the years, he’d quit trying.
“I’m sorry to report that I was right. You know how critical it is that we get a handle on what’s going on with the company right now. Instead of seeing how many women you can have sex with, why don’t you, for once, try to do something right? Find us a location that we can use on the mainland. Can you do that? It’s not a hard task.”
Ries cringed at the sound of Damon’s voice grating over his nerves. Of course, I can do that. I just haven’t seen the point.
“Ries! If you’re listening to this instead of speaking to me directly, you’re just hiding away. Either way, get to work. Find us a place to set up on the mainland and keep your extracurricular activities out of the media’s hands. We don’t need any more negative press right now.”
Damon’s voice trailed off as the message ended, leaving Ries sitting on the side of the bed, his hands clenched by his sides.
So, Damon expected me to fail from the get-go. Great. Whatever happened to family loyalty and believing the best about one another?
Ries fell back on the mattress once more, closing his eyes as Damon’s accusations continued to replay in his mind. The longer he lay there, the angrier he became. For once, he wanted to hear Damon praising him for his efforts instead of belittling how Ries chose to live his life.
With that anger, came a hefty dose of determination to prove his brother – both of his brothers – wrong.
“I am not worthless and damn Damon for even thinking so,” he told the empty room. He pushed himself up off the mattress and headed for the attached bathroom. He leaned heavily on the sink and gazed at himself in the mirror.
“You can do this. Damon will have to eat his words once I’ve taken care of things.”
The thought of his older brother being put in his place brought a smile to Ries’ face. “So, how am I going to prove my worth, not that I need to,” he spoke to his reflection. “You could follow Damon’s dictates and find a suitable location for the company to relocate temporarily, or…you could do something that means something and makes a difference.”
An idea began to form as he stood there, swaying slightly as another wave of sickness swept over him. He swayed a bit, and turned on the water, splashing his face and then brushing his teeth before heading for the bed.
He lied down, his idea continuing to take shape. Damon wouldn’t necessarily think he was helping, once he found out where Ries had been devoting his time, but Ries would be doing something that made an impact. The more he thought about things, the more he was convinced that Damon didn’t even need to know what Ries was up to. He was going to help Stephanie.
Damon certainly wouldn’t approve of his brother trying to track down criminals and bring them to justice. Thinking about the criminals also got him thinking about Stephanie. She’d been really nice to him tonight, helping him back to his room, and she’d seemed to be truly concerned, but Ries knew better.
Women only saw one thing when they looked at Ries – money. The Kafatos brothers were extremely wealthy, and unlike his brothers, Ries made absolutely no effort to hide that fact. He actually went out of his way to flaunt his wealth, having learned the hard way that people only wanted to be with him for what they could get.
Instead of taking a chance and risking having his heart trampled on, he’d found it much easier to just put his obvious wealth right out there for everyone to see. When people fawned over him and placated to his every whim, he knew it was because of his wealth and not because of the person he was inside. Knowing the score from the onset prevented him from ever having to risk his emotions getting involved. Stephanie was no different.
He recalled she’d said she didn’t have a clue about his reputation, but she was female and that meant she’d probably asked someone about him. He’s rich as Midas.
Even knowing that Stephanie had helped him for ulterior motives, Ries decided he didn’t care. The thought of doing something nice for her – of doing the right thing for once, with nothing to personally gain, appealed to him.
With his wealth came a measure of power and the ability to make things happen. Ries could help Stephanie see that justice was done and the criminals were brought to justice, and if she was grateful and wanted to offer up herself as a way of saying thank you, he wouldn’t turn her down.
It wasn’t like he was going to fall in love with some strange American woman who was admittedly gorgeous and struck a chord inside him he couldn’t expla
in.
“No falling in love or getting emotions involved. I’ll help her find and nail the criminals, and if I get to nail her in the process, that is an added bonus.”
He laid there for a while longer, trying to come up with a game plan. Firstly, he needed to make sure that Stephanie understood his reasons for helping her get to the bottom of what she’d witnessed. He needed to make sure she knew that his decision was his own and had nothing to do with her personally. Ries didn’t want to risk her getting the wrong idea.
There was also a bonus to Stephanie knowing his help had no romantic ties, whatsoever. Ries wouldn’t have to worry about forgetting where the lines were drawn, even though he was the one drawing them.
Ries was aware he had a savior complex. He liked the idea of swooping in and helping a damsel in distress but whenever he’d given into that notion, he’d ended up getting hurt. The last time…
Ries rolled over and punched the pillow next to him, scrunching it up beneath his pounding head as he tried to push the past away, but that door had already opened and wouldn’t be closed. He hadn’t always been so reckless with his life. There was a time when he’d thought a gorgeous woman wanting to spend time with him had meant they truly liked him. He’d learned the hard way that wasn’t the case. He’d been a fast learner, too. It had only taken one such episode to teach him that when put up against his brother Damon, he would always be seen as coming in second place. After all, Damon was the force behind the family business and he alone held the Kafatos family purse strings.
Once women found out where the real power lie, they had no qualms about dumping Ries in search of more fruitful prey. The saddest part was that Damon didn’t seek their attention nor did he appear to actually want it. Ries had taken a page out of his brother’s playbook and while he enjoyed the attention, he refused to allow his heart to ever again get involved. He and Damon were as different from one another as day and night, except in their dedication to keeping their hearts locked up tight.
Ries sighed as sleep began to pull him under. He welcomed it as a respite from the thoughts rolling around in his brain and the persistent sick feeling that still consumed his body. He allowed his body to relax into the mattress and moments later he was asleep.
Chapter 5
Stephanie dropped off her serving tray and arched her back, stretching her arms overhead to relieve the tension that had gathered in her neck and shoulders after working a six-hour shift.
“Tired?” Terri asked, dropping her tray on the bar and leaning her elbows on the polished surface.
“Yes. We were pretty busy tonight,” Stephanie told her, dropping her arms and reaching around behind herself to untie her apron. Her shift was over, the bar was now closed, and the only task left was to take out the trash and then head home where she planned to sleep for the next twelve hours.
“It’s tourist season,” Terri told her. “Want me to take the trash out tonight?”
Stephanie shook her head, “No, I’ll get it. You worked longer than I did.”
“Okay. Have a good night.”
“You too,” Stephanie watched Terri toss her apron into the dirty laundry basket beneath the bar and then she headed for the door. “Bye, Tomas.”
“Hey, wait up. I’m ready to go and I’ll walk you out, that is, if Stephanie’s okay locking the back door?” Tomas asked, hope in his eyes that maybe Terri would finally give him the time of day.
Stephanie hid her smile and nodded, “Sure. I’ll drop the trash and lock the door behind me. Get out of here, you two.”
She waited until they were left and then walked over and made sure the front door was locked up tight. She headed for the kitchen area, turning lights off as she went. She retrieved her purse and then picked up the two bags of trash sitting by the back door. She made sure the lock was engaged and then turned the lights off as she pushed through the door, stepping out into the night air.
It was late at night and as she walked toward the large dumpster at the corner of the back lot, she couldn’t help but notice how quiet it was. The bar closed at two o’clock in the morning, and after cleaning up, Stephanie guessed it was probably closer to three in the morning.
She tossed the trash bags into the dumpster and then turned toward home. She reached the street and then froze as movement on her right had her stepping back to conceal herself. It was an instinctive reaction but proved to be the correct one.
Across the street and just around the corner, two men were talking, almost standing in the middle of the street. Given how quiet it was, their words carried to her ears as if she were standing right next to them.
She peeked around the corner of the building, covering her mouth with her hand when she recognized the younger criminal from the other night. The man who’d sold the stolen vase was standing not thirty feet from her.
One part of Stephanie wanted to call the police and make sure that justice was served, but she kept her phone in her pocket. The police had been completely unwilling to help and she had no confidence that it would be any different tonight.
The two men nodded at one another and then took off, going in different directions. Stephanie watched the criminal head down the street and before she knew it, she was following him, from a discreet distance. She wanted to find out where he was going and maybe the she’d have something to tell the police that would make them take action. Someone needed to pay for their crimes and Stephanie didn’t mind helping that happen.
He wandered down several streets, walking almost five blocks away from the bar before he turned into a small fenced warehouse space. He walked up to the door and knocked twice. The door opened and after a brief conversation which she couldn’t hear, another man joined the first and they walked away from the building, approaching her hiding place and giving her an opportunity to listen in on their conversation.
Normally, she would have been concerned that she wouldn’t understand anything, but to her surprise, they began speaking English. She looked at the second man a bit closer and was shocked to realize that he didn’t look Greek in the least. She had a very bad feeling in her stomach.
“Did you get it?” the Greek criminal asked.
“Yes, did you bring my proof?” the English man asked.
“You’ll get your proof.”
“I need Ries Kafatos dead, the sooner the better.”
“Care to tell me why?” The Greek man asked.
“Does it truly matter?”
“Not really. You pay me well enough that I don’t need to,” the Greek man told him with a smirk.
“Just get it done.”
“Don’t worry. The target is going to make my job easy. He has no sense of self-preservation and frankly, I’m surprised he hasn’t killed himself with how reckless he acts. It will be easy to make it look like an accident. Something he did to himself.”
“I don’t care about any of that; I just need him out of the way. Time frame?”
“Within the week. The other two are going to be much more difficult,” the Greek man warns the other.
“I’m sure you’ll handle them as well.”
“Of course. Difficult just makes it more fun for me. Getting to them might require a bit more finesse…”
“Meaning what? You want more money?” the English man asked.
“That would be very perceptive on your part.”
“As long as you eliminate the Kafatos brothers, I’ll pay you whatever you want. Just get it done, beginning with Ries. Getting rid of him will be a wake-up call to his brothers and I can’t wait to see their faces when they get the news. Be sure to alert the press, will you?” the English man asked.
“I’ll let you know when the task is complete and you can do whatever you like,” the Greek man told him.
Stephanie watched as the two men shook hands. Then a thrill of terror ran through her as she realized that in her desire to hear what they were talking about; she had put herself in harm’s way. If the man discovered her, and suspected she had
overheard...
Stephanie didn’t stick around to see what else happened, she turned on her heel and hurried down the street, ducking into the first alley and continuing to run back toward the bar. She was out of breath and had a stitch in her side by the time she finally reached the bar and got her bearings.
She leaned over, trying to catch her breath, adrenaline rushing through her veins as she stood up and headed for the hotel where she’d taken Ries the night before. Someone was trying to kill him. And it sounded like they were after his brothers as well. She rushed into the hotel, slowing her pace when she drew the concerned look of the night watchman. After the way the police had acted yesterday, she didn’t know who could be trusted.
She walked toward the elevator, relieved when the doors immediately opened and began to carry her up to the top floor. Ries was using one of the four penthouse suites and she approached his door, knocking lightly and hoping he was still there. When he didn’t answer she knocked again, a bit louder this time.
Moments later, a very sleepy looking Ries opened the door and she almost broke into tears. “Ries…”
“Stephanie?” Ries took a step forward and looked both ways down the small hallway. “What are you doing here?”
“I need to tell you something.” Stephanie was almost shaking with anxiety as the criminal’s words came back to her. “Now. Please…”
“Sure, come in here. Do you know what time it is?” Ries asked, stepping back and letting her inside his room.
“I don’t care.” She quickly told him about seeing one of the criminal and following him.
“You did what? Don’t you realize how dangerous that was?” Ries asked her, pacing in front of her now where she sat on a small couch.
“I just wanted to see where he was going so that I would have something else to tell the police. I was hoping…,” she paused and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter now. You need to leave town.”
Protected By Him (The Greek Brothers Book 4) Page 3