The Greek Tycoon Box Set: The Complete Serial: Books 1-10 (34 page)

No one said it, but in that moment, both of them wondered if starting a hotel group had been a bad idea. Angelique, Atreus’ former masseuse who had taken off to Hawaii to start a hotel, had had a string of bad experiences and had given up. Carla wondered if their endeavor would end in the same way.

It seemed like it took hours to get to the cottage, though she knew it was only a matter of seconds. When they finally dashed in, wide-eyed, they saw Andria watching TV quite peaceably.

“What’s going on?” she said, standing up and clutching her chest. “Is everyone all right?”

“Where’s Dios?” Atreus said.

“Upstairs, asleep.”

Atreus mounted the steps by twos, Carla right behind him. And sure enough, Dios was in his tiny bed, sound asleep. Carla could have cried all over him, but she threw her arms around Atreus’ neck and squeezed tight.

“What’s going on?” Andria repeated.

“There’s been a kidnapping from outside the hotel,” Carla said.

Andria gasped.

Atreus went to the window and locked it. “I want all the windows locked here. If anyone comes to the door, don’t answer it.”

“Of course,” Andria said, clearly shocked.

“I have to go and pursue them,” Atreus said, heading back down the cottage stairs.

Carla gripped his wrist. “No, don’t!”

“You must let the police handle it, Atreus,” Andria said.

Just then, the phone rang downstairs. Carla sprung down the stairs to go answer it.

“Hello?”

“Is that Andria? It’s Cressida, and I’m looking for Carla. Have you seen her anywhere?” Her voice was sparkling and cheerful.

“It’s Carla speaking.”

“Oh, thank goodness. We were wondering where you’d got to. There’s someone on the line for you.”
                                                           

A dread twisted in Carla’s stomach. She had a sense of what was coming.

“May I put them through?” Cressida asked.

“Sure.”

A beep and the call was put through. She turned round to face Atreus with wide eyes. He gestured toward the phone and she knew what he meant immediately.
 

Loudspeaker
.
 

She clicked the button and laid the receiver down on the cradle.

“Carla Simpson?” It was a man’s voice—one she did not recognize.

“Yes?”

“Felix and Jules Swanson-Jessup have been kidnapped from outside your hotel,” said the voice. “And a number of explosives have been planted around Westling House.”

Carla watched all the color in Andria’s face drain away.

“Do you hear me?” the voice said.

Carla gulped. “Yes.”

“No one at the grand opening is to know what is going on. We have our way of knowing what is going on inside. If the attendees are made aware of the kidnapping, the explosives will be detonated. We will make our intentions clear now. We want money. Every single attendee and Atreus Kostas will need to follow a series of instructions to transfer this money over to us. Once this is complete, the Swanson-Jessups will be released.”

Carla felt like collapsing on a heap on the floor and sobbing, but she stood upright, steadying herself against the table.
 
Atreus’ eyes were filled with righteous fury, like he was ready to pummel someone right into the ground.

“Do you hear me?” the voice said again.

“Yes,” Carla whispered.

“I said, do you hear me?”

Carla snapped.
 

“Yes, I can hear you, okay? I can hear you!”

“Ooh, moody. Now, go back to the hotel and inform all your staff of what is going on—far away from the guests. The guests are not to be made aware of what is going on until our command is given. We will contact you again by phone at the main house. If you care about the Swanson-Jessup’s lives, you will answer it.”

“
We
,” Atreus said furiously, storming across the lawn. “Who is
we
?!”

“Why does this keep happening to us?” Carla said. “Is it something to do with Brian? Nikolas? Serene?”

Carla shook her head, wondering why people could not just let them live and enjoy their new-found happiness. It felt like an enemy was lurking around every corner. She wanted to cry, to scream out how unfair it was. She wanted her, Atreus, and Dios to run away and to never come back. But it seemed wherever they ran, trouble followed them.
 

“How are we going to get through this, Atreus?”

“With God’s help, I suppose.” Atreus had been raised Greek Orthodox, and though he was not overly religious now, it still dwelled in a place deep inside him, a place that seemed to resurrect whenever danger showed itself.

Carla held onto his hand. She didn’t know whether she believed in a God or not, but she really wanted to. “I hope so.”

“Let me go in the police car, my darling,” Atreus said. “I will intercept them further up the road. If I can check the CCTV, maybe I can see where they went, and get a vehicle registration. They must have a vehicle.”

Carla’s instinct was to grip onto him and not let go, but she knew it was an emergency—the Swanson-Jessups’ lives were in their hands.
 

“Yes, go,” she said, clutching him to her. “But, please,
please
, don’t do anything too brave. I need you here with me. Dios needs you. Your mother needs you. We can’t have you hurt or … or anything else.”

“Nothing will happen to me,” Atreus said. “I can assure you of that. Let me run ahead and watch the surveillance. Do you want to tell the staff or shall I?”

“I will.”

“Thank you, my darling.”

They were nearly at the hotel entrance and Atreus sprinted to a side entrance, while Carla climbed the grand stairway at the front. The party was still in full swing, the harp music as beautiful as ever, everyone laughing and sipping champagne.

Carla tried her best to find a smile, though blood thundered through her ears. She looked for Cressida, Tom, Hugo, or Olivia, and spotted Cressida across the room. She nodded, smiled, and said, “Good evening,” to everyone who greeted her as she passed. It was the strangest sensation to know something terrible was going on when everyone else thought things were fine.

“Please gather the staff,” Carla whispered to Cressida, “and meet me in the library immediately.”
 

Cressida’s eyes widened.

“Everyone? The waiters included?”

“No, just the management. I’ll see you there.”

Carla took the hallway to the library, feeling like she was detached from her body. When she spoke it sounded like someone else’s voice. It felt like the fear was deep into her bones, into her veins, into her nerves—her whole body consumed by it. She wanted with her whole soul to wake up and find it was all a dream.
A nightmare.

As she approached the library, its darkness terrified her. She switched on the light and tried to feel comfortable as the room lit up, but she felt as though she’d never be able to gain comfort in anything again.

She tried to sit down, but stood right back up again and paced the room. She wondered if Atreus had found what he needed on the CCTV.
 

She missed him terribly, though they had only been apart for moments.

By the time Cressida, Tom, Hugo, and Olivia filed in, she was on the verge of tears.

“Is something the matter?” Cressida asked.

“Please close the door behind us,” Carla said.

Hugo did so.

“I’m afraid…” Carla began, not even able to believe that these words were passing her lips. “I’m afraid there’s been a kidnapping.”

“Oh my God,” Olivia said. She looked like she was about to burst into tears and Carla had to look away to stay in control.

Hugo gasped and Tom was white as a sheet. Cressida’s face was grave and she nodded slowly.

“Atreus is looking at the CCTV now, and is going to go outside to help the police.”

“I’ll go and help him,” Tom offered immediately. “I’ll go now and help him find the right footage.”

Carla nodded.
 

“Go ahead.”

The End
(of Book 8)

Continue on to read Book 9…

THE GREEK TYCOON

Book 9:
 
Picking Up The Pieces

By Kay Brody

Chapter 1

Atreus’ hands shook as he fumbled with the keys at the door of the CCTV room. The lives of one of the most prominent businesswomen in Scotland and her husband were in jeopardy. His actions might make the difference between this whole thing being a lucky escape or a fatal tragedy. If he could find the kidnappers escape vehicle, he could forward the registration number to the police.

He finally got the door open and went inside. He heard running footsteps in the hallway but the sound did not register. Every scrap of his concentration was directed toward working the damn control panel. It was enormous. Four screens, two on top of two others, showed a live feed of the main hallway where the grand opening guests milled, the steps and fountain just out the front, the point where the long drive met the main road, and the back of the hotel.

He tried to press the right buttons to get it to reverse the cameras outside. That was where Carla had seen the men, from head to toe in black, who had snatched their most distinguished guests. But he couldn’t figure it out. He cursed himself for not having hired some security. He’d felt so safe, there in the remote corner of Scotland. So far from danger.

Tom came in, panting.
 

“I’m here to help,” he said.

“Do you know how to reverse the outdoor cameras to about seven thirty?”

“No,” Tom said in his plummy voice, “but I’ll try.”

Atreus had already tried all his guesses, so he sprang out of the seat to let Tom take the controls.
 

He silently prayed that God would save them all. He thought about the explosives the kidnappers had said they’d planted and wondered whether he should discount their warnings and evacuate all the guests. But that could be fatal for Jules and Felix Swanson-Jessup.
 

It could be fatal for them all.

He looked down to see that Tom had managed to isolate one of the garden cameras—the one where the road met with the drive. Tom made it zoom in and out.
 

“I can’t get it to go backwards,” he finally said.
 

Atreus looked down at the control panel and saw a button with backward facing arrows.
 

“Try this.”
 

He hit it, and sure enough, the footage began to reverse, but very slowly. One of the guests’ Bentley crept backward down the long driveway.

“Yes!” Tom said.
 

“Now to find how to make it go faster,” said Atreus. He looked at the time on the corner of the screen. “This is 7:49. We need earlier.”

Tom nodded. “Let’s see what we can find.” He hit another button. “How about this?” All the screens went black. “Oh goodness, how do we turn it back on?”

Atreus inwardly swore at him but said nothing as they tried to turn it back on. He pressed the same button Tom had pressed, but with no result. The lights on the control panel still flickered but the screens were totally unresponsive.

“Maybe some wiring is gone,” Atreus said.
 

He bent down under the desk and saw that indeed a wire was loose.
 

“You must have knocked it with your leg.”
 

He picked it up and was about to connect it again when a powerful blow to his side knocked him onto his back.

“What the…? Tom?”
 

Atreus couldn’t believe it as he saw Tom towering above him. Tom lifted his polished brogue to Atreus’ face, but Atreus was too quick for him, snatching his foot and pushing it aside so violently that Tom stumbled and fell against the wall. But soon he was up again, and Atreus was up, too. Ready.

“Tom, what’s going on?”

But Tom didn’t reply. Instead, he launched himself at Atreus.

*****

Brian’s hands were sweaty as he gripped the steering wheel. He tried to avoid looking in the rearview mirror. He couldn’t believe what he’d gotten himself into.

Jules and Felix Swanson-Jessup sat in the backseats, now completely mute. At first, they’d struggled so much that the sound had been horrifying. Richie, Sam, and Macauley, Tom’s friends, had tied scarves around their necks and done everything they could to shut them up. Brian had cranked up the radio until Macauley reached into the front to slap him around the head.

Now they all sat in silence, speeding down the motorway. He hadn’t thought this through at all. Every moment he caught a flash of white or blue in his mirrors, he stared, his chest racing, terrified it was the police. All he wanted to do was get out; to stop the godforsaken car somewhere and run and run and run until he forgot all about it. He liked the glamorous life of girls and drinking and partying—with maybe a couple of frauds thrown in, or some petty crime—but this was serious. It was horrible. The victims sat in the backseat and Tom told him in no uncertain terms that Sam, Richie, and especially Macauley had no qualms with turning someone’s lights out. Forever.