Last Kiss

by Laurelin Paige

  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.

  If he wasn’t torn himself, he at least understood that I was. So he admitted nothing, and hinted everything. “I fit right into the life, Emily,” he said. “It fit me like my skin. As though it were written in my genetic code, which, I suppose, it was.”

  It did fit him like his skin. He wore it well. He looked good in it, too.

  But I had to stop thinking about how he looked. It wasn’t helping me any.

  I rubbed my hand over my face, getting myself back on track. “What happened next?”

  “A few things, actually.” He uncrossed his leg and leaned forward, propping his elbows on his lap. “Michelis took an interest in me. He was my mother’s oldest brother and he’d been close to her growing up. He made it his mission to groom me as thoroughly as he’d one day groom his own son, Petros. He gave me scare jobs to handle on my own. Then, when I turned eighteen, he told me he had a present for me.”

  The plane bumped as it hit a patch of turbulence, but I was pretty sure it was only part of the cause for my sudden queasiness. I’d spent all of twenty minutes with Reeve’s uncle, and it was enough to realize he was a terrible man. I didn’t want to know what kind of present he would give to a favored apprentice. But considering how vivid my imagination was, it was just as bad not knowing.

  Reeve noticed my discomfort. “Are you okay? The bed’s in the back cabin if you’d like to lie down.” There was only the slightest hint of mischief in his tone.

  Now my stomach was twisting in new ways, deeper ways, that shot memory sensations down my upper thighs. The last time we’d been on this plane, he’d taken me in that cabin and used me to distract him from Michelis. Oh, how I would love that distraction now.

  But no. “I’ll be fine, thank you. Go on. This present.”

  “Let me know if you change your mind,” he said suggestively. Then he returned to the seriousness of earlier. “We’d had suspected the Laskos as the cause of my parents’ accident, but no one could confirm it. Michelis kept digging, though, until he not only confirmed their involvement, but he also found out exactly which Laskos had set up the hit. On my birthday, he gave me a name – Broos Laskos.”

  My breath caught. “He wanted you to kill him?”

  Reeve pointed a finger at me, a silent “bingo” gesture. “He said I could do what I wanted with the information, but it was time to prove my place in the family.”

  Time to prove his place.

  So it was the first time that such an act had been required of him. Whatever awful things he’d done before that, it hadn’t involved taking a life.

  I tried to imagine it – a young Reeve, only two years after his beloved parents had been killed, asked to undertake such an awful, important task. With the support of his family, it had to feel less like a burden and more like an opportunity.

  Yet, it was still murder. It would taint him. It would be a line that, once crossed, was crossed forever.

  I met his eyes now and, despite the weight of them, I forced myself to hold his gaze. If I looked hard enough, could I see the scars on his soul? Because killing someone – that had to leave a mark that was visible somewhere, somewhere deep and hidden maybe.

  Or, maybe not hidden at all. Maybe all his scars were in plain sight and sitting right in front of me.

  “See anything interesting?” he smirked.

  I’d studied him so long that he’d become amused by it. “I’m not sure. Do I?”

  “I wish I knew the answer to that.” His tone was wistful and solemn, and it struck a chord that reverberated so hauntingly through me, I was near throwing myself at his feet and confessing in detail every interesting way he affected me all the time.

  But I hesitated, and the moment passed.

  “I did what was expected of me,” he went on, his voice absent of whatever melancholy I’d heard there before. “I made the arrangements. I knew where Broos would be alone and when. I had it all planned.

  “Meanwhile, my parents’ will had specified a few things to become available to me on my eighteenth birthday. Some stocks and a few personal items, including a letter from my mother that had been written to me when I was only eight. She’d saved it for those ten years, intending to give it to me when I turned eighteen, not knowing she’d be dead by then. It arrived at my grandmother’s house a week or so after my birthday, a few days before I’d planned to take care of Broos. I read it and everything changed.”

  He didn’t have to say more for me to understand what he meant, but he did anyway. “I didn’t go through with my plans.”

  The relief that swept through me so was great and so unexpected that I had to bite back a laugh. Here I’d been searching for signs of the murder that I was so sure he’d committed, and he hadn’t. I was smart enough to realize that didn’t mean he’d never killed anyone after that, but I was grateful that this one story, at least, ended differently.

  “Does that surprise you?”

  I shrugged. I was more surprised at my reaction but wasn’t about to admit that.

  “Let me rephrase then – does it disappoint you?” He seemed more than just curious about my answer. He seemed desperate.

  No. I’m not disappointed. I’m still very much interested.

  But I couldn’t tell him that either.

  I redirected, instead. “What did the letter say? It had to reveal something significant.”

  “Yes. And no. She told me everything. Her life story, how she’d fallen for my father, why she’d left Athens. Everything. I already knew all of it now, but not from her point of view. Before that, I hadn’t gotten a clear picture of why she’d left. It was biased information, pieced together from her family, and I didn’t have any understanding of all the trouble my father had gone to in order to change her life. Or why. Until I read that letter.”

  I nodded, trying not to think about how charming he must have been. This young mobster with a natural knack for danger and lawlessness and, also, a sentimental streak. No wonder I loved him.

  “The letter didn’t change any of my beliefs,” Reeve assured me, as though he were afraid he’d get a soft reputation.

  “Of course not,” I said, smugly.

  He chuckled. “God, I was eighteen, I didn’t know what I believed. But I knew that I’d loved my mother. At least as much as my father had. And she said in that letter that the true proof of his love had been how fully he’d stood against the Vilanakis way of life, for her. She ended it by saying she hoped I’d do the same.”

  “So you walked away. For her.” And I’d begged him to talk to Michelis, something that might possibly undo all that he’d left behind. I’d wanted him to put Amber – to put me – before his mother. Boy, did I feel like an ass.

  Except I’d seen him in pictures with Michelis when he was older than eighteen. “How did you get out? You said people couldn’t leave.”

  “Michelis, actually. He became the head of the family when my grandfather died, and he allowed me to remain completely detached. He said it was a shame that they’d lost so many years with my mother, and that we should learn from those mistakes. When I moved back to the States, I stayed close to him and a few of my cousins. He advised me when I took over Sallis Resorts. He connected me with men capable of fighting against the Laskos or any other Ma
fia-related attacks I might encounter. He provided trustworthy people to work close to me. ”

  More puzzle pieces fell into place. “The V monogram on your driver in Los Angeles. He was one of your uncle’s men. Do you pay him or does he serve you out of some debt to your family?”

  Again, he seemed impressed at what I knew. “I pay him. I told you, I left the business.”

  Next to me, Amber shifted to her side. But she settled again quickly, her breathing adopting the even rhythm of sleep.

  I looked up from her to find Reeve staring at me intently, as though he were done with his story and was waiting for my verdict.

  But he hadn’t explained everything yet. “He told me you betrayed him,” I said.

  “Did he? I suppose from his point of view, I did.”

  “By leaving the business? You said he was supportive, though.” How did Michelis the father figure turn into Michelis the man who beat Reeve’s ex-girlfriend? The dots weren’t connecting.

  “He was supportive. But his support had a price, and I didn’t realize that until later. When I was dating Missy.”

  I gestured for him to go on.

  Reeve heaved a sigh, as he seemed to begrudgingly enter territory he’d hoped would remain off-limits. “At first, it was small favors. He wanted connections. He supplied Missy and her friends with drugs, which was fine. But then he asked me to launder the money for him through the resorts.”

  Reeve reconsidered. “Asked is the wrong word, actually. Demanded is more appropriate. Said I owed it to him and the family. Said it was my role to play.” He lowered his eyes and frowned. “We were still arguing about that when he started talking about taking one of Missy’s friends.”

  “Taking? Like, kidnapping?” I shouldn’t have been as shocked as I was. I knew he was involved with human trafficking – where did I think those women came from?

  Reeve’s mouth tightened, and he didn’t have to affirm my question. His expression said it all. “I kicked him out of my life then. He’s tried to talk to me a few times since. Petros said he’s still set on getting me to launder for him. I suppose it wouldn’t be the worst thing I could do for him. But my father held out, and Sallis Resorts was his baby.”

  “No. You can’t bend to him.” Though, really, I didn’t know what he could and couldn’t do. Reeve was a Vilanakis whether he wanted to be or not. His choices could have consequences that I couldn’t begin to fathom.

  Now I definitely felt like an ass about pushing him to talk to his uncle. And I was frustrated for him. I wished there was an answer that he hadn’t thought of yet. “What about Petros? Who’s side is he on?”

  “His own. He works for his father but he’s also sympathetic to my desire to stay out of the business. So he throws me a bone now and then.”

  A bone. Like telling Reeve when his girlfriend had stupidly left herself alone with his father. Petros had told him about other women, too, I realized. “He’s how you knew Amber wasn’t dead.”

  “Yes.” He leaned toward me, his eyes narrow. “But how did you know I’d ever have reason to believe otherwise?”

  The last time he’d asked me, I’d dodged the question. It seemed pointless to lie about it any longer. “I looked at your e-mails one night. You can’t be surprised.”

  “I’m not.” He sat back with a satisfied grin. “I just wanted you to admit it.” He was especially cute when he got cocky, and he knew it. “What else did you see?”

  “Pictures of you and Amber together. You looked happy.”

  His smile faded. “Maybe we were.” He moved his focus to her and studied her intently, as if he could find something he’d lost if he just looked hard enough.

  I regretted bringing her up, and I didn’t all at once. Because, just like he was a Vilanakis whether he wanted to be or not, Amber was a part of our lives, whether I wanted her to be or not. And whatever Reeve felt for me, he’d felt it first for her.

  The warmth that had bloomed during the last hour of conversation began to fade away, and my body stepped back into familiar heartache.

  “Who have you told about all of this?” I asked, a bitter edge to my question.

  “Almost no one.” He wanted me to realize his candidness was a gift.

  I wouldn’t accept it. “Did you tell Amber? Did she know all of this before she went to him?”

  A beat passed. “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me too?” My pain was apparent and raw. If he’d just told me the truth from the beginning…

  “Do you think it’s some sort of validation of my affection? To have heard this story?” He kept his voice low, but it was thick and full of emotion. “Every time I’ve brought someone into that part of my life, things have ended badly. Look at Amber. Missy. Chris!”

  “We can’t be sure about Chris.” It was a lie – we were sure. But I was looking to poke holes in his excuses, because there was no excuse he could give for why he hadn’t told me things he’d told Amber that would satisfy me. “And you think your uncle was involved with Missy after all?”

  “I don’t know what happened to her. But I do blame him for who she was in the end. He seduced her with his drugs and power the same way he seduced me. Eventually he would have expected payment. Is that what you wanted me to open you up to?”

  “I wanted you to open up, period!”

  “I have. More than with anyone else. I’ve told you this.” His body language, his gravelly voice, the way his eyes pierced into my very being – he was desperate for my acknowledgment.

  “What did his e-mail say?” I challenged, likely proving his theory that nothing was ever good enough for me, but really I was looking for reasons to stay mad. It was so much easier to hate him when I was.

  “Nothing,” he said, as I’d expected. As I’d half hoped.

  “That’s what I thought.”

  Then he surprised me. “Your name,” he said softly. “Your real name. Nothing else.”

  He’d played the higher card. I had nothing that would compete. He should have been the winner.

  I laid my head back against the seat and gripped the armrests tightly, as though I might fall out of my chair if I didn’t. The world was spinning and my stomach felt like it was dropping and I knew that, no matter what I said from here on out, it was too late to save myself from being loved by Reeve Sallis. Really loved. Everything I’d thought he’d done to protect Amber he’d done for me.

  How could I push that away?

  But Amber had done those things for me, too.

  I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing in and out so that I wouldn’t do something stupid like cry.

  “I miss you,” he said, his voice a near whisper.

  I shook my head. “Don’t say that.”

  “I miss your body.”

  I opened my eyes and the expression on his face was primal. Hungry. “You miss what it will let you do to it.”

  “Yes,” he admitted. “But I miss you too.”

  His words sliced through me, cutting me into shreds of the person I’d once been – a person who knew who she belonged to and who she loved.

  Needing to be reminded of who I was, I turned my head toward Amber and back to him. “You can’t have both of us.” And according to his uncle, he couldn’t save both of us either.

  “I don’t want both of you.”

  No. I couldn’t hear that. I wouldn’t. “She’s the only one you can have.”

  He sat stoic for five seconds. Then he bolted out of his seat and leaned his hands on either side of me in my chair. “You don’t get to decide that, Emily.” His chest rose and fell heavily. “That’s not how this works between us.”

  He held his stance for a moment, his jaw ticking, his body tense. Then he pushed off the armrests and disappeared into the bedroom cabin behind me.

  I curled up in my chair and pretended I didn’t miss him too.

  CHAPTER 18

  Even though we stopped in LA to refuel, we still had most of the day ahead of us when we arr
ived on the island because of the five-hour time difference. I’d moved over to a window and watched as we approached, the tiny speck of land growing larger and larger, but still small enough that I glimpsed the opposite shore before we touched ground.

  The airport consisted of a runway and a hangar with restrooms and a vending machine. Two cars pulled up alongside the plane as we landed, and the driver of one got out and met us at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Filip!” I exclaimed, recognizing him as Reeve’s driver from LA.

  He smiled cordially as he helped me down the stairs. “Welcome to Oinopa.” His accent, though Mediterranean, somehow seemed fitting in the Pacific setting. “Alex and I will get all the bags. Please take a seat in my car.”

  Amber and I climbed in the backseat while the plane was unloaded. A few minutes later, one of the security guards got in the front seat along with Filip. Reeve joined us in the back. This time, I was in the middle, and even though I kept my body as small as possible, the length of his leg pressed against mine as we rode, sending bolts of electricity through me.

  To distract myself from his nearness, I kept my eyes out the window in front of me and asked questions about the island. “What does Oinopa mean?”

  “Wine-dark.” I swear Reeve pressed even tighter against me. “It’s how Homer described the ocean in The Odyssey. My father thought it made a good sound bite for the marketing brochures. ‘Experience your own odyssey on the island of Oinopa.’” He proclaimed the last sentence like a television announcer. “It loses its effect when I try it.”

  Amber let out a laugh, and I recognized it as the one she used when she was flirting. “I think you sounded sexy.”

  “Nah. I’ll leave the voice-over work to Emily.” The glint in his eyes said he wanted to add something about me being sexy.

  I pursed my lips, praying he’d read my mind and keep his comment to himself.

  He got the hint, but other than a soft sigh, he didn’t show any other signs of disappointment. He spent the rest of the thirty-minute drive giving an overview of Oinopa, pointing out the resort as we passed by, specifically where the spa was and the shopping mall, and explained where each of the side roads led when we came upon them.