by Elle James
Thankful to see the familiar building, Kinsey hurried forward and then stopped, remembering the man who’d been key in her ability to return to her hotel. “Thank you for saving my life and making sure I made it back to my hotel safely. I don’t know how I can repay you.”
“Forget about it. Just don’t run around the streets at night alone.”
She stood at attention and saluted him. “I won’t.” Now that she was back on familiar territory, she didn’t need him anymore. But she was hesitant to walk away. “I’m sure you need to head back to your room. Thank you again.”
He stood straight, unbending. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to see you to your door. I’ve come this far, I might as well make certain you make it the rest of the way.”
“You don’t have to,” she said. “I’ve been at this hotel for a week with no problems.”
“Other than nearly being kidnapped.”
“I wasn’t at the hotel when that happened,” she argued.
He shrugged. “Still, I feel like it’s my duty.”
Kinsey bristled. “You’re not responsible for me, or anything. I really can manage on my own.” She sighed and nodded. “I know. I know. Barring thugs in the streets at night.”
“I’m already here. Humor me.” When she still hesitated, he touched her arm. “If I wanted to harm you, I would have done it before you were conscious so that you wouldn’t talk my ear off. I won’t hurt you. I just want to see you to your door. If you want the concierge to come along as a chaperone, I’m all for it.”
Not wanting to appear churlish, and feeling a little foolish, Kinsey pressed her lips together in a tight smile. “Fine. You can walk me to my room.” She was halfway across the lobby before he stopped her with a touch on her elbow.
“Do you have a key tucked into your bra or something?”
“What kind of question is that?” Then she realized he had a point. “Damn. You’re right, and I forgot. When they attacked me, I must have dropped my purse.” Mrs. Martin gave her one of her old purses when she’d hired on with the family. Now it was as gone as the purse she’d had stolen in Athens. Her chest tightened. She couldn’t catch a break, lately. But, she refused to dwell on what she couldn’t change. Instead, she marched to the desk and asked for a replacement key for her room number.
The clerk, a dark-haired woman she hadn’t met, glanced down at the computer screen and tapped keys. “Kinsey Phillips, you say?” she asked.
“Yes. I’ve been here for the past week with the Martins as their au pair.”
The woman’s fingers flew over the keys, a frown denting her smooth brow. “Are you sure you’re at the right hotel, miss?”
“This is the Porto Takisi?” Kinsey looked left and then right. She recognized the lobby as the same décor she’d been walking past all week.
“Yes, this is the Porto Takisi,” the clerk said. “But I have no record of a Kinsey Phillips staying here now or for the past seven days.”
Kinsey’s stomach clenched. “What do you mean?” Kinsey leaned over the counter and tried to see what was on the screen in front of the woman.
“I’m sorry, miss, but I don’t have you as a guest here.”
“What about the Martins? I’m in the connecting room to theirs on the third floor.”
“The Martins checked out this morning at ten o’clock. They only reserved the one room.”
“And I had the connecting room.” Kinsey’s voice rose. “Go see for yourself. My clothes, everything I own, is in that room.”
“I’m sorry miss, but registered guests are in the room the Martins occupied and in the rooms on either side.”
She planted her hands on the counter, anger and panic building in her chest. “Then what the hell did you do with my clothes and suitcase?”
The clerk looked around nervously. “Miss, if you would like to step into our conference room, I’ll have a manager come speak with you.”
“Damn right, you’ll get the manager.” Kinsey pinched the bridge of her nose and turned toward the conference room. “This situation cannot be happening, again.”
Sam slipped an arm around her waist and walked with her. “What do you mean, again?”
She leaned into the strength of his body, thankful he had insisted on staying with her. “I was mugged in Athens. The bastard stole my purse with every cent I own. I didn’t have a passport, money, credit cards, or anything. All I had was my suitcase with the few clothes I brought with me.” She flung her arm out to the side. “And now they’re telling me I don’t even have those?”
“Just wait and hear what the manager has to say.” He led her into the room and pulled out a chair, urging her to sit. “This has to be a misunderstanding.”
“It better be. I’m still waiting for my replacement passport from the U.S. Embassy in Athens.” She tipped back her head, remembering Giorgio’s words of earlier that evening. He’d asked if she’d be leaving soon, as well. Bile rose up her throat. She swallowed hard. “Holy hell, what did the clerk mean by the Martins checked out this morning? I work for them. They owe me a week’s pay. How the hell am I supposed to live without money?” She was halfway out of the chair when a man wearing a dark suit with Milonas printed on the name tag pinned to his lapel entered the room.
“Miss Phillips?” the manager said.
Again, this man was not one Kinsey recognized. “Where is Mr. Petras, the regular manager?”
“Miss, I’m Alexia Milonas, the manager. I’ve been here all week. And we do not have a Mr. Petras working here.”
“What?” Kinsey’s head spun. “I spoke to him several times. Maybe he wasn’t the manager, but he worked here. I’ve never seen you before now.”
Milonas stood with his hands clasped together. “And I don’t recall seeing you. I take pride in introducing myself to all of the hotel’s guests.”
“Then you will have met my employers, Lois and Timothy Martin and their children.”
He nodded. “I had the pleasure of meeting them and wished them a safe journey today as they checked out of their room.”
She leaned forward, her pulse quickening. “Then you would know they had another room reserved beside theirs. The one adjoining their room. The one on the left when you’re facing their door.”
“Miss, that room has been reserved by a man from Istanbul for the past week.”
Her heart sank into the pit of her belly, and her head spun. She assumed her reaction had a little to do with whatever the thugs had used to knock her out, but she couldn’t still be so strung out that she misunderstood what had occurred over the past seven days. “I stayed in that room for the past week. My things are in that room. Take me up there, and I’ll show you.”
Milonas shook his head, his lips thinning. “Miss, I can’t do that. There are guests in that room.”
She pounded her fist on the counter. “You take me up there now, or I’ll go to the third floor by myself. My belongings are in that room.”
The manager’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll take you, but I ask that you don’t cause a disturbance with the guests now occupying the room.”
Kinsey drew in a breath and let it out slowly, trying to keep calm when her world was crashing all around her. Again. “Just take me.”
4
Sam wasn’t sure what was going on, but the woman he’d saved was proving to be even more drama than he’d originally anticipated. But she didn’t appear to be lying, nor did she seem to have anyone in her corner. As much as he knew he should for his own welfare, he couldn’t walk away and leave her stranded and alone in a foreign country with no money or identification documents.
Milonas glanced across Kinsey’s shoulder to Sam. “I’ll take Miss Phillips up to the room.”
Sam gave the manager a level stare. “If she’s going, I’m accompanying her.”
The manager raised his brow and turned to Kinsey. “And he is…?”
She bit down on her bottom lip and then blurted out, “My fiancé.”
How Sam
maintained a poker face through her announcement, he wasn’t sure, but he did. What in hell made Kinsey say he was her fiancé?
Since Milonas seemed to accept the explanation, Sam didn’t bother to enlighten him with the truth. He followed Kinsey and the hotel manager out of the conference room to the elevator. On the third floor, they stepped out and walked to a room halfway down a long hallway.
“Please, let me handle the guest,” the manager said.
Kinsey’s eyes narrowed, but she nodded.
The manager raised his hand and knocked lightly on the door.
For a long moment, no one responded.
“You see? No one is in that room because it was assigned to me,” Kinsey said, with a wave toward the door. “Use your master key. My suitcase is in there.”
Instead, Milonas raised his hand and knocked again.
Kinsey waited, tapping her bare toes on the carpet. “Just use your master key,” she muttered. “I don’t understand why you’re wasting your time knocking.”
As the last word left her mouth, the door opened, and a man wearing a fluffy white bathrobe peered out and spoke in Greek.
Milonas responded, pointed to Kinsey and made another statement.
“What are you saying?” Kinsey asked.
“I’m apologizing for disturbing this man’s stay and explaining that you think this is your room and that you left personal items here. He has graciously invited you to look around inside for your things.” Milonas smiled and nodded. “Make your search quick.”
The man in the robe stepped back and opened the door wider, allowing Kinsey, Milonas and Sam to enter.
Kinsey ran to the closet, flung open the door and gasped. “Where are my clothes? My shoes? Everything?”
“I told you, Mr. Vidales has been here all week. You will not find your belongings in this room.” Milonas motioned toward the door. “Now, I insist you leave and allow my guest to retire for the night. The hour is quite late.”
“No way.” Kinsey crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know what you’re pulling or why the Martins left without telling me, but you’re not getting away with stealing my stuff.”
“Please, step out into the hallway, Miss Phillips.” Milonas attempted to take Kinsey’s arm and physically force her out of the room.
Sam’s hackles rose, and he stepped between Kinsey and the manager, his jaw hardening. He’d stood back while Kinsey searched the room, but he wouldn’t stand for the manager pushing her around. “Let go of Miss Phillips.” Sam used a low dangerous tone.
The manager maintained his grip for another full second.
“Now,” Sam insisted.
Milonas released Kinsey’s arm. “Please take your fiancée out of the hotel before I have security escort her off the premises. And if I find her anywhere near the Porto Takisi again, I will alert the local authorities and have her arrested for trespass.”
“You can’t do this to me,” Kinsey whispered. “That suitcase held all I own. Do you have a lost and found department?”
“I’m sorry, miss, we do not.”
“Look, I don’t give a damn about your room. But without my suitcase, I have nothing. Do you hear me? Nothing.” Tears welled in her eyes and slipped down her cheeks.
Sam touched her cheek and then wrapped an arm around her waist and led her out into the hallway.
Milonas spoke to the man in the room and closed the door between them. He marched to the elevator, punched the button and waited for the doors to slide open.
Sam had the urge to plant his fist in the prick’s face. What man could treat a woman so callously? Then again, what if she’d suffered a brain trauma in her altercation with the thugs in the street?
Any way he looked at it, Sam couldn’t abandon Kinsey. She had no one to turn to and nothing to live on until she found her suitcase. Even with her suitcase, she had no money and no identification. She could be a con artist, for all he knew. He glanced at her, startled at the thought. Could his character judgment be that far off?
He shook his head.
No. She might be confused, but she wasn’t conning him.
The fact was, he couldn’t leave her to fend for herself. Not in the middle of the night. Not on a beautiful Greek island that had proven so inhospitable.
The elevator lowered them to the lobby where Sam ushered Kinsey across the smooth marble floor.
She perked up when she spotted the concierge’s desk. “What about Giorgio, the concierge? He knows me. We talked every day.”
Milonas frowned. “Our concierge’s name is Nicolas Roussos. We don’t have a Giorgio working at the Porto Takisi.”
“Oh, come on.” She waved a hand. “You can’t tell me everyone I came into contact with at the hotel no longer works here.” Kinsey turned to Sam. “Just how long was I unconscious? A year?”
“An hour, tops,” he replied. “Look, we’re not getting anywhere with these people. Let’s come back in the morning when the day shift is on duty.”
Kinsey glared at Milonas. “I’ll be back. I want my suitcase, and I’m not giving up until I find it.”
Milonas stared past her to Sam. “I suggest you seek medical attention for your fiancée, sir. And keep her away from this hotel and our guests.”
“Why, you—” Kinsey took a step toward Milonas, her hands bunching into fists.
Sam caught her arm and pulled her tightly against his side. “We’re leaving. But we will return to get to the bottom of this.” With Kinsey pinned to his side, he left the hotel.
“I don’t know what they’re pulling, but I stayed an entire week in that hotel. I worked for the Martins and 327 was my room.” She wrapped her arms around her middle. “I’m not hallucinating. I’m thinking clearly.”
The ferocity of her tone and the way she held her body so tense couldn’t be an act. The woman was telling the truth and was adamant about it.
“No matter what, it’s late, I’m tired, and you need to sleep off whatever those goons drugged you with.”
She stopped walking and stood as still as a statue. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
Sam scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I don’t know what to believe. I saved you from kidnapping, you were unconscious for a while and then you insisted you stayed at a hotel, in a room someone else is occupying. If you were me, what would you think?”
Kinsey opened her mouth, closed it and sighed, her shoulders slumping. “I wouldn’t believe me, either.” She sank onto the steps at the front of the hotel. “I came to Greece for a new start, and my experience has been nothing but hell since I got here.”
“Tell me about it.” Sam dropped down beside her. “So, let me help you.”
“I can’t keep taking advantage of you. You’ve done so much for me already.”
“What choice do you have?”
She didn’t want to accept his generosity, indicating her self-determining spirit.
That spark of independence made him admire her more. “I could go to the American Embassy and see if they can get me back to the States.”
“The embassy is in Athens. Plus, you don’t have a place to stay the night.”
“I can sleep on the beach,” she said then sighed.
“What if the two dudes who tried to make off with you once find you on the beach? Who’s to stop them this time?” Sam reasoned.
Kinsey wrapped her arms around her legs. “I don’t have anything but this stupid dress. They took my suitcase, my clothes and the only photographs I had of my family.” She sniffed. “They were all I had left.”
“You can take more photos when you get back Stateside.”
She rested her chin on her knees. “No, I can’t. They’re dead. My parents died in a car crash last winter.”
Sam’s chest tightened. He couldn’t imagine the anguish of losing any member of his close-knit family. “What about siblings? Don’t you have any brothers and sisters?”
A big tear rolled down her cheek. “No.”
“Friends?�
�
She shook her head again. “No.”
“Not even one?”
Her lips twisted. “My ex-boyfriend cut me off from what few friends I kept in touch with after leaving school. And I worked for an elderly man and didn’t have any other co-workers to talk socialize with.” Another giant tear rolled down her face. With a quick swipe, she rubbed away the tears. “Look, you’ve done enough. I’ll be all right.” She straightened and wiped the tears from her face. “I always land on my feet.”
He pointed to her toes. “You aren’t wearing shoes.”
She laughed. “Doesn’t matter. Barefoot, wearing heels or tennis shoes, I’ll be okay.” Kinsey stood, squared her shoulders, stepped out onto a pebble and stumbled.
Sam shot to his feet. Muttering a curse beneath his breath, he scooped her into his arms and carried her back the way they’d come.
“What are you doing?” She looped her arm around his shoulder. “You can’t keep saving me. I have to survive on my own.”
“Yeah, well you can start doing that tomorrow. I know I won’t sleep worth a damn if you’re out wandering the streets, barefooted.”
“Where do you propose I should stay the night? And don’t say in your room.” Her body stiffened. “I don’t know you that well.”
“Let me introduce myself properly,” he said without slowing his pace. “I’m Samuel Magnus. I’m a US Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot. I have a top-secret clearance, and America has enough faith in me to allow me to ferry the best of the best into the worst situations. What’s not to trust?” He continued. “And if that’s not good enough, I promise that if I did anything stupid, my three brothers would kick my ass from here to tomorrow.”
Kinsey laughed, the sound ending on a choking sob. “Well, at least you have brothers.”
“For tonight, I’ll induct you as an honorary member of my crazy, dysfunctional family. Tomorrow, you can sort out things for yourself.”
Kinsey relaxed against him. “Have you always been a knight in shining armor?”
“Far from it, according to my commander.”
“What?” She laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re the black sheep?”