Dagger in the Sea

by Cat Porter

  Alessio brought over three Pellegrinos and handed them to us.

  “You said Fokas has been bringing in blow to Greece from Latin America via Western Europe?” I asked.

  “Si,” said Luca.

  “Where in Western Europe?”

  He sucked on his Pellegrino, draining it, his eyes on me.

  Ah, here it comes.

  He set the bottle on the table. “Through my father in Napoli. You had asked me if I thought the shooting was meant for me.”

  “I did.”

  “I still think it might be.”

  “How?”

  “My father beat out a rival to do business here. Ventura is their name. They were very pissed off. Also, one of their capo’s girlfriends happens to love Alessio’s jewelry.” Luca laughed.

  Alessio rolled his eyes. “She’s a model. The week before we came here she did a naked modeling shoot in a magazine wearing only my necklaces and rings, and she sang my praises in an interview,” said Alessio. “He got pissed, and had a couple of his goons trash my store window in Milano in broad daylight.”

  “I found him,” Luca said, a hand down his chest. “He threatened me then. So yes, it passed my mind that they could be behind the shooting that night which is why I wanted to get on the boat right away.”

  “Does your father know?”

  “No. I didn’t want to bother him with this bullshit,” said Luca leaning over, his arms planted on his legs.

  “Maybe it’s time you did,” I said. “This isn’t bullshit anymore.”

  “So now we wait for that fuck to call Yianni back?” Alessio asked.

  “Yeah. We wait,” I replied.

  He cocked his head toward Adri who was still on her phone. “How is she really?” His voice was low. “First the shooting, now this.”

  “She’s doing well, actually, all things considered,” I said.

  “If she’s still with you, you’re doing something right,” he said.

  “I do a lot of things right, Alessio. A fuck of a lot. Especially for Adri.” That was the truth, and it settled in my chest, my gut.

  “You be good to her. She deserves the best,” he said.

  “I know.”

  Alessio put out his cigarette. “You two stay here at the resort tonight so we’re all together, eh? Get your own room though.”

  “I was planning on it.” I turned to Luca. “I need a gun.”

  “Not a problem.” He slanted his head toward his men. “Come.” We went over, and one of them offered me my choice of weapons. I took the Luger and headed back to Adri who watched me and clicked off her phone.

  “We need to stay here tonight,” I said, crouching in front of her again, a hand on her knee.

  “Yes, we should.”

  “I want to get out of here. I need a shower, a bed with you in it naked, your mouth on me—” She blinked, and I leaned into her, brushing her ear with my lips. “—all over me. And the only sounds I want to hear are the waves crashing on the beach and you moaning non-stop.”

  Adri stroked the side of my stubbly jaw, and I let out a breath, my eyes closing for just a moment, that moment under her spell.

  “My indecent gentleman,” she whispered, planting a kiss on my cheek.

  I took her mouth, the taste of that sweet tropical juice on her tongue giving me a rush.

  “Right. I’ll arrange for our own bungalow.” She put her empty juice glass on the table with a definitive clack. “My mother’s company developed this property, and I was her intern that summer, and I’ve never spent much time here. They’ll love that I’m actually staying here for once. All you need to do is enjoy. Massages, room service—”

  I let out a laugh. “You arranging everything is turning me on like crazy, Lovely. Careful.”

  “No, no, no. I don’t want to be careful, Turo. Not with you.”

  Absolutely fucking right. I grabbed her arm and her head snapped back at me, lips parted.

  I said, “I don’t want to be careful either.”

  41

  Turo

  She liked taking control.

  And I let her. And for the first time in my life, I got off on a woman making decisions for us. This woman. Mine.

  My dick hardened as she chatted up the reception desk agent in the main building. To say the staff “hopped to it” would be a poor description. We were ensconced in our own waterfront bungalow shortly thereafter. She ordered food and made it clear it was to arrive after the hour mark. The bell hop thanked me for the tip and left.

  “Why so specific about the time, Lovely?” My hands went to my hips as I took in the heart-stopping blue, blue vista.

  She whispered in my ear, “We need to fuck first.”

  I didn’t think she used the word “fuck” as a verb very often, and her smirky grin told me so. She was pleased with herself.

  “And then we eat and drink,” she said, dipping a foot in the pool. “We’ll be very hungry after.” She brushed a hand down my back and my pulse wound up tight.

  “Very hungry,” I replied.

  Adri took my hand and led me inside. With the drapes wide open, the azure sea and infinite sky filled the suite. She tugged my zipper slowly and got down on her knees between my legs, taking me in hand, exploring me with her mouth.

  Cupping her chin, I raised her head, her eyes finding mine, her tongue still flicking over the head of my cock. “I want you naked for this,” I breathed, my balls tightening. “I want us both naked.”

  A swirl of pink rose over her skin as she ripped off her jeans and blouse, got my clothes off me, then got back on her knees and took my cock fully in her mouth in the middle of the living room. I held her hair in my fist as she worked me, her fingers digging into my hips. So diligent. So committed to my pleasure.

  To our pleasure.

  “Dedicated aren’t you?”

  “Hmm.” Her eyes lit up, her mouth moved quicker.

  My orgasm built quickly, sharply. Pressing my thumb onto the side of her face, I slid out of her mouth which she held open for my cum. No, baby. I grabbed her up in my arms and with her legs cinched around my waist, I thrust my wet shaft deep inside her. My forehead slid against hers on our deep gasps.

  That first moment of entry.

  I’d never paid much attention to it before; it had always simply been the pass-through-and-go that signaled the beginning of the best ride. My ride. But with Adri, now, it was sheer ecstasy, pure, real excitement. Her taking me in, her unusual little moans, our flesh pressed together, our bodies seeking from each other’s, all set off a euphoria in my blood that I’d never known before. Giving and receiving.

  Her fingernails dug into my shoulders, and I buried my face in her throat. She murmured Greek words I didn’t understand, yet we spoke the same language. We were one creature of need and lust and desire. And trust. So much trust.

  I didn’t know what tonight or tomorrow would bring. I didn’t know if I’d ever see her again, if I should. After this daddy fuckup was over, and after I got what I needed, I’d be leaving, and we’d be done.

  But now she was mine.

  I brought us against the wall and pumped inside her fiercely. Her head arched back and she let out a long, savage cry. I loved her there, completely open to me and choosing to be so, relishing it.

  A river of Greek.

  A damp hand wrapped around my neck, holding on for dear life. Fierce blue eyes melding with mine. Each of us daring the other to go higher, harder, faster. My legs shuddered as I held her wrapped around me, our bodies sweaty, our skin hot.

  After, we showered in the huge mosaic-tiled shower with a waterfall of water pouring over us. I washed her body, her hair, and brought her to lay back on the marble bench in the stall, and with the hair conditioner as my ambassador, nudged my finger past her tight hole as I ate her pussy. She moaned loudly, clutching at her breasts, her gorgeous wet body splayed out for me. My private feast. A storm in our steam-filled tiled jungle.

  We dried each other off, donned
the thick hotel robes, and the bell rang. I checked the peep hole at the door, gun in hand. The food had arrived. Adri directed the waiter to bring the cart onto the terrace. I tipped him and he left us to it.

  We were starving, and thoroughly enjoyed the roast chicken and a steak along with grilled vegetables, a green salad and a selection of cheeses and breads. My phone beeped. A text from Alessio letting us know that Adri’s cash had arrived and he had it with him in his heavily guarded bungalow. Adri called Yianni once again, but there was no answer. There was nothing left to do but wait.

  The sun sank in a burning sky. Before us the sea transformed into a mellow blue and orange pink liquid cocktail. My hand slid under her robe and wrapped around her bare thigh. She covered my hand with hers, a low giggle escaping her lips. I stroked her warm, smooth skin and jerked open her bathrobe and kissed a breast, the other. I wanted to see her in the sunset, ravaged and satisfied, and mine. She stretched out, her flesh alive in the last glow of the afternoon light.

  “The masseurs should be here in ten minutes.” Her hand teased my hardening shaft. “Do you need anything until then, Turo?”

  A hush had settled over the world, over me. I rubbed her thigh. “I’ve got it all, baby.”

  And that was the fucking truth.

  It didn’t take long to blow that satisfaction to hell.

  42

  Turo

  A beeping sounded. A phone. I shot up in the bed.

  Adri reached out and grabbed her cell, answering in the dark, the light glowing in the bedroom. “Parakaló?” her voice unusually clipped.

  “Marko? Élla, agóri mou—”

  Her little brother.

  Her breath cut off sharply, her body stiffened next to mine. She swiped the hair from her face and sat up on her haunches. A rush of Greek. “Óxi! Óxi!” she yelled.

  She clutched at her phone and spit out another round of bitter, pointed Greek. Her eyes shut and she spoke, her tone lower. Was she agreeing to something? She cursed, throwing her phone on the bed like it was on fire.

  “What happened?” I asked the question. But I knew the answer.

  “They took Marko. They took my brother. Oh my God, Marko.”

  I gripped her arms. “Adri. Take a breath. Look at me.”

  Her wild eyes met mine.

  “Tell me everything he said to you right now.”

  “They…” She gulped in air, swallowing hard. “They want to make sure I come with all the money. Real money, not counterfeit. No police, no detectives, no security. They want ten million euros for Marko. Ten million. Ten million…”

  “Fuck. Yianni’s been dicking them around long enough. They know you’re in the game, they went for it.”

  “Now an innocent boy is going to pay for this bloody mess my father created?”

  “Sweetheart, look at me.”

  She raised her tear-streaked face.

  “When do they want the money?”

  “In two days.” She laughed. “Two days. Ten million in two days.”

  She touched my arm, her fingers running over the evil eye bracelet she’d given me. “All the charms in the world won’t keep evil at bay. Nothing will. Nothing.”

  “Baby—”

  She pulled out of my embrace. “I have to call my parents.” She plucked at her phone, bringing it to her forehead.

  “Hey.” I lifted her face to mine. “This is not your fault.”

  “Isn’t it? An innocent boy is in danger for his life. My brother is trapped in my—”

  “In your what? Your father’s bullshit? It’s not your fault. He’s the one who—”

  “Yes, yes—he, him. My father, my blood, not Marko’s. Mine. Maybe if I’d never given him money over the years, making him think that he could use me whenever he needed me, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. A part of me always wanted to believe that we had a real relationship. If only I’d accepted the ugly truth that he can never see beyond his own needs and wants, then all this wouldn’t have touched Marko. I brought this on our house, and my mother and Petros don’t deserve it. They don’t deserve it!”

  “Neither do you. All you’ve done is try to be supportive of the man who spawned you. Yeah, you could’ve turned your back on him from the very beginning, but you didn’t because you have a heart and a conscience. Because he’s your father and you love him, baby. And that’s a good thing. What could be more natural than a child wanting a parent’s love? Wanting to preserve that? Wanting more of it?”

  Her glimmering eyes filled with more water, and my chest constricted. I saw myself in those eyes. I’d heard my own voice, my words.

  What could be more natural?

  I had lived the same yearning all my life, hadn’t I? The same striving, reaching, and the same goddamn disappointment. My strangling all that wretched want. Me striving to prove myself “worthy” of a relationship with Mauro, the Boss God. Adri hanging onto a relationship of threads at all costs. Both of us. At all costs.

  So much cost. Always a ransom to pay.

  “None of this is natural,” her voice rasped. “There is nothing natural about any of it.”

  Adri called her mother and she held it together the whole time. Marko had been on an overnight field trip with his school in the countryside and gotten nabbed at a restaurant. I got on the phone with Petros and explained further about Yianni’s gigantic clusterfuck. I assured him Luca with his contacts and I were on it. That they should contact the police but keep them on hold. He agreed.

  I put a whisky in Adri’s hand and called Luca.

  Bitter silence was his reply to my news about Marko having been kidnapped. “Fuckers took their opportunity,” he finally said.

  “I want Yianni to cough up some information about his Fokas buddy. We need to have our own chat with him. Specifically, you’ll be doing the talking, Luca. You’re going to make threats that your daddy would be proud of. Show him what the Alibertis are made of. We want the ransom lowered, and the kid released without a scratch on him, and no pieces missing. You be ready in the morning by eight.”

  Shutting off my phone, I finished Adri’s untouched whisky. Her gaze met mine from where she was curled up on the sofa. “Can I get you something else?” I asked her.

  “Hold me.” Her voice was small but sure. I set the glass down and took her in my lap, in my arms, and my insides melted. I held her tighter, breathing in the warm scent of her skin, the fragrance of the shampoo we’d both used.

  She rubbed her hands up the sides of my face, kissing me, wanting from me.

  “Adri—” I grabbed her hands and held them fast.

  “Make love to me, Turo. Part of me is spinning, part of me is numb. Make it stop.”

  I lifted her in my arms and brought her to the bed. She clung to me, aroused, ready. I kissed her, I entered her slowly, holding her gaze in the diffused light of the small lamp we’d left on in the living room. We breathed in the same breaths, we moved inside each other, building it together. One begging, the other giving. One demanding, the other devoting. Desperate. Untamed. Beautiful.

  Shattering.

  Afterward, I lay there spent on the bed, Adri’s still, damp body pressed against mine, my fingers in her hair. A heavy, orange sun rose in the yellow sky over the pale blue water, and my heart, that once brittle organ that I’d fortified with fences and gates and checkpoints and clauses beat wildly in my chest.

  And then it occurred to me.

  Until now, I’d never realized that my heart could, all at once, feel both battered and full. Until now, I’d never realized that I had a heart that could burst.

  I took in a deep breath.

  A heart that could break.

  43

  Turo

  First thing in the morning, I sent Adri home to her mother and Petros at their fortified fortress of a villa—round the clock security, trained guard dogs, an electric generator in case the power got cut off, new security cameras, and outdoor lighting. Petros and Liana didn’t fuck around.

 
Luca, Alessio, and I headed to Yianni’s apartment.

  Ciro, an unsmiling six foot five don’t-even-think-about-fucking-with-me-Italian-muscle of a right-hand man with a shaved head pounded on Yianni’s door. Muttering and loud voices rose on the other side.

  The door swung open, and Yanni, his full head of thick hair standing on end, a platinum blonde young woman at his back.

  “What do you want? It is so early! What the hell do you think you are doing?”

  Ciro grabbed him by the neck and shoved him deep into his apartment. The girlfriend screeched, her tiny black nightie fluttering over her thonged ass as she scrambled down the hallway.

  “Hey! Hey!” said Yanni. “Does my daughter know you are here?” His heavily accented English was not the crisp Queen’s English of Adri, Liana, and Petros.

  “Sta’zitto!” Luca shut him up as Ciro pushed him into a chair.

  I planted my feet on the floor in front of Yianni. “Yes, shut up. You’ve been spewing more than enough bullshit for days now. Weeks. Years.”

  Yianni slanted his head at me and Luca and Alessio. “Which one of you is fucking my daughter, eh? All of you?”

  Crack. I backhanded him. “Shut the fuck up.”

  Yianni’s head hung, his chest heaving for air.

  “Listen to me,” I said, my voice firm. “Adri got a phone call from your friend Mr. Fokas.”

  “That’s good, isn’t it? He told her where to drop off the money? I asked them, but they never returned my call.”

  “Oh, did you hear that, Luca?” I said. “Yianni’s been waiting, and Fokas never returned his call.”

  “Ke katz.” Luca yanked on Yianni’s hair, pulling his head back.

  “They have Marko now, Adri’s brother,” I told him.

  Yianni stilled, his face set in stone.

  “They figured they had Adri, thanks to you,” I said. “Why not squeeze her for more? Play another hand for higher stakes.”