Chapter 26
I could only imagine Ulysses Karydes’s rage when he discovered his ex–boy toy Philander was not accounted for after curfew. Philander was out for the night and would probably not open a bloodshot eye until well after dawn. The panic would quickly seep in, and he would stumble back to the property to take his licks from his blustery boss.
It was only a little after one in the morning and the clubs were still hopping with activity as I raced back to the Andromeda to shake Laurette awake and fill her in on my recent discoveries. A group of strapping young Swedes, blonde, blue eyed, and rip-roaring drunk, waved for me to join them at an outdoor table at Pierro’s, Mykonos’s most famous gay bar. I smiled but didn’t slow down. There was much to do if I was going to bargain for Charlie’s freedom.
I hurried up the cobblestone steps and was only a few hundred feet from the Andromeda when I barreled around a dark corner that was hidden from the bright street lamps. My stomach suddenly twisted into a knot. It was dark and ominous, and my gut was telling me I had just made a giant mistake. Two men jumped out of the bushes and grabbed me. One came at me from behind, wrapping a thick arm around my chest while the other lifted my legs off the ground. I twisted my head around to call out to the drunk Swedes just around the bend, but the man behind me anticipated it and clamped a giant paw over my face. I struggled violently, kicking my legs, nailing the one holding my feet across the jaw. He angrily pinned my feet under his arms, holding tight, and the two men carried me off the path, through the brush, and into a deserted alley across from a row of houses with chipped paint and weathered shutters, a far cry from the more opulent hotels.
As the guy in front of me grunted and cursed in Greek, his face fell into the light from the nearly full moon. It was Leandro. I could only guess Khristos was behind me, silencing my cries for help with his massive hand.
I was a lot more of a fighter than either anticipated, and after I clocked Leandro in the head with the heel of my shoe, he angrily dropped my legs, leaving his partner to hold me down all alone. Leandro whipped out a switchblade from his shorts and cackled as he flipped it open. He then swiftly marched up and pressed the tip of the sharp blade against the skin just underneath my left eye.
“Quiet,” he hissed. “Or I pop it out with one flick of my wrist.”
I wasn’t about to accessorize with an eye patch for the rest of my life, so I immediately stopped fighting. I went limp, and after a few moments, Khristos took his hand away and stepped back. Leandro held the knife tip to my face just long enough for me to know he meant business, then lowered the blade. He kept it gripped in his hand, leveled at me, in case I tried anything stupid.
“If you’re looking for Philander, he’s back that way taking a snooze,” I said, pointing toward Mykonos town.
“We want the Oscar,” Leandro said, his brown eyes narrowing.
“Oscar who?”
Leandro lifted the knife back up in front of my face, turning it so the reflection from the blade caused my eyes to squint. “Get cute again,” he growled, “and I will cut you.”
“We know you have it,” Khristos said.
So much for the exchange. I was no use to Charlie dead. If I didn’t hand over Claire’s Academy Award, I had no doubt they would stab me to death and stuff my corpse into a trash bin. If I handed over the statue, I would be left with no bargaining chip. Charlie’s fate would be left in the hands of a corrupt gay Greek shipping tycoon. Maybe he would let him go. That was a stretch. If released, Charlie could someday come back to haunt him. So could I, for that matter. We were both probably marked men once Ulysses got his hands on the Oscar. I had about five minutes to come up with a plan before we were back at the Andromeda and I was waking Delphina up to open the hotel safe that housed the little piece of movie history that had caused so many problems.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll get it for you. I have it safely stashed away back at the hotel.”
Leandro and Khristos exchanged looks, silently consulting with one another, before Leandro motioned with the knife for me to start walking. I raised my hands in the air as I passed them, but Khristos slapped them back down to my sides.
“Act natural,” he said. “And no tricks.”
We emerged from the bushes and shuffled up the steps toward the Andromeda Residence. When we reached the gate, I pulled out the key to unlock it and was surprised to find it already open.
I passed through first and out of the corner of my eye saw a man pressed up against the white stone wall to the right of the gate. He was tucked back in the shadows, but I saw his hand and it clutched a big rock. He didn’t move, so I kept walking. When Khristos swept in behind me, the man leapt from his hiding place and cracked the rock across Khristos’s skull. The Greek stud never knew what hit him. He dropped to the ground in an instant.
I spun around to see Liam Killoran, his eyes wild with fury and his body crouched for an attack. By the time Leandro realized something was seriously wrong, Liam was on him like a jungle cat, yanking him to the ground, straddling his chest, and punching his face over and over again with his big-knuckled fist.
I saw the glint of Leandro’s blade shimmer as he slowly brought his arm to drive it into Liam’s chest.
“Watch out!” I yelled, sprinting forward and stepping on Leandro’s forearm, driving it back to the cement that surrounded the hotel’s glistening aquamarine swimming pool. I pushed all of my weight down on Leandro’s arm, and his fingers splayed from the pain, the knife clattering free. With my other foot, I kicked the knife across the ground, where it teetered at the edge of the pool but didn’t fall in.
Liam stopped his relentless pounding for a split second, a bit taken aback by just how close he had come to having a knife plunged through his heart. Leandro seized the opportunity to drive the palm of his hand into Liam’s nose. Blood spurted everywhere as Liam instinctively covered his face. Leandro knocked him aside and ran back out through the gate, disappearing into the night.
I stripped off my shirt and handed it to Liam, who was trying to stop the bleeding. “Here, pinch your nose with this.”
Liam complied, a little dazed but otherwise unhurt.
“Is it broken?” I asked.
Liam shrugged. “Might be. Doesn’t matter. Been broken lots of times before.”
You have to love the brawling Irish.
“What are you doing here, Liam?”
“I’ve been following you.”
“That much I know. Our little reunion aboard the ferry is still very fresh in my mind.”
“I was hoping that if I stuck close to you, you’d eventually slip up and give me some kind of evidence I could use to tie you to Claire’s murder.”
“I didn’t kill her,” I said with a sigh, tired of constantly having to proclaim my innocence.
Liam nodded as the gushing blood from his nose hopelessly stained my shirt. “I know. I saw you in the bar with that guy. You really are gay. You were telling the truth. You were never even romantically involved with Claire.”
Finally. The big lug found a light bulb that wasn’t burnt out from too many all-night benders at his local Dublin pub.
I explained to Liam why I was in Greece, who was holding my boyfriend captive, and how I intended to use Claire’s Academy Award to get him back. Liam, who felt bad for giving me such a hard time and who was probably the first straight man ever to be thrilled to learn I was gay, was now my staunch ally. He also figured that it was in his best interest to help me. Because in the end, the trail we were down just might lead to the true identity of his beloved Claire’s killer.
Liam retrieved the discarded knife before hauling Khristos’s unconscious body up off the ground. He roughly grabbed the man’s arm and threw it around his neck. I got on the other side, and we dragged him toward the suite I was sharing with Laurette.
Suddenly a light flipped on and a door opened. Delphina stuck her head out. “Is everything all right?”
We both froze. And then I smiled. “A little too much to drink. I have no idea where he lives, so I’m going to let him sleep it off in my room.”
“You naughty boys,” she said, giving us a wink. She stopped long enough to gaze longingly at Liam. “Sure is a shame you’re gay. Just my luck.”
Liam so wanted to correct her impression. She was a lively, sumptuous young woman, but now was not the time to indulge his libido. I threw him a look of warning, and he kept his mouth shut. Delphina disappeared back inside her room, and after a moment, her light went out.
Liam and I carried Khristos’s dead weight toward the door of the hotel suite as I fished for the key in my pocket. We hadn’t a moment to waste, because I had a sickening feeling that time was rapidly running out.