One final pull and the bodice fell free. But Thea wasn’t quite free yet. Her friend started on the laces of the corset.
‘No time!’ She wriggled away to search for the rest of her clothes. ‘And it will work. We’ve told everyone about the hat and dress I’m wearing to leave here. People will be looking out for that, not for me.’
No one saw her. Sure, they saw her clothes, her jewels. Evidence of her father’s money when he decided to show her off like some prize pony. That’s why she and Elena were interchangeable. People were told about a sensational dress and hat and that was all they’d see—not the person wearing it.
Because to her father’s friends she was nobody. A shadow who could slip away. And when somebody finally did notice, it would be too late.
‘But Christo...’
Thea’s heart dropped a beat at the sound of his name. She licked the perspiration beading on her top lip.
Christo Callas.
My husband.
No need for pretence now. Yet she’d slipped in those last moments. When Christo had lifted her veil. She’d looked into his unfathomable olive-tinged eyes and hadn’t been able to quell the serpent inside. The knowledge that she’d been forced into this marriage to save her half-brother Alexis. Potent emotion had coiled and then reared, begging her to strike out at the man who’d effectively bought her. And in that moment he’d hesitated. As if he knew.
So she’d painted a sweet, soft smile on her face. Waited for the kiss which would transform her from Thea Lambros to Thea Callas. And, for all the horror of it, Christo’s lips had been warm and soft with something that had felt like understanding...
No! She scrubbed at her mouth, smearing the shell-pink lipstick. Wiping away the strange tingling the memory had wrought.
‘Thea?’
‘Christo won’t notice either.’
He didn’t understand her—hadn’t even tried.
Thea thrust Elena the bridal bouquet which had lain wilting on a side table.
‘He’s not interested in me—only in what this marriage can do for him. One woman’s the same as another to men like that.’
To Christo she was simply a commodity. Like she was to her father, who’d made it clear she must agree to the marriage as part of a business deal. If she didn’t, Alexis would go to jail.
But now, with Alexis’s freedom bought, she could run. Extract herself from whatever questionable scheme her father had concocted. Her plan all along.
‘I hope you’re right,’ Elena said.
There was no time for doubts now. Thea stepped out of her dress and flung it into a dark corner, where it flopped like a discarded marshmallow. The suffocating corset could wait till she was safely hidden. She’d cut the damn thing off if she had to.
‘I fit the job description,’ she said, pulling on a practical black knit top. ‘A compliant bed-warmer.’
Her blood ran hot with a furious roar. She knew her own worth—and it was not playing that role. Not for any man.
Thea shrugged into a heavy leather jacket, then zipped and buckled the front. Earlier she’d hidden her jeans and boots under the ridiculous confection of a dress now deflating in the corner.
It was almost time to go.
Thea walked to Elena and took her hands. The chill of them shivered through her. ‘Are you sure you’ll be okay?’ She squeezed Elena’s fingers in reassurance. ‘I’m not asking too much?’
Elena squeezed back. ‘You’re like my sister. What wouldn’t I do for you? And I can look after myself. Time to live your life. You’ve been caged long enough.’
In the Lambros family cage.
For most of her twenty-three years she’d only known one sibling. Demetri. A cruel thug disguised in civilised clothes. He’d always been her father’s enforcer, and Thea his first victim. Her father hadn’t cared. Not about the little girl who looked too much like her mother. The wife who’d had the temerity to leave him.
No. Thea never wished to set eyes on Demetri or her father again. But Alexis...
She pulled her phone from the pocket of her jeans. From the moment he’d inveigled himself into their home as her bodyguard two years earlier things had become almost bearable. His presence had kept her going. But since this morning he hadn’t responded to her texts.
Elena frowned as Thea checked her phone. ‘Still no word?’
‘Nothing... But it’ll be okay.’
Thea chewed her bottom lip till she tasted the tang of blood. Surely he’d left Athens? She rubbed at the ache in her chest. The pain of having to leave him so soon ran soul-deep. Only the knowledge that her marriage had freed him kept her going.
She took a shuddering breath. ‘And when you’re discovered?’
Because Elena would be—it was only a matter of time. But everyone had to believe what they were told so they’d search in the wrong place.
‘Where have I gone?’
‘You’ve taken a hire car.’ Elena’s bottom lip quivered. Her eyes brimmed with the glitter of tears as she played her role with breathless innocence and trembling perfection. ‘You’re driving towards Karpathos. To visit your mother’s grave.’
Thea had wanted to go before the wedding. Her father had refused to allow it. Try as he might, he’d never excised her mother’s memory from her life, so her visiting there would make sense to him. It was a subtle mix of truth and fiction blended into a believable enough concoction.
Still. It didn’t feel right.
‘I hate using Mama’s memory this way.’
Elena shook her head. ‘Maria would have approved. Anything to get you away from men like those. But forget that. Was I good enough?’
‘You should become an actress,’ Thea said. ‘After that flawless performance Christo’s minions will definitely head south looking for me.’
‘And you’ll be starting your new life.’ Elena smiled—her first display of happiness on this bleak day. ‘Can’t you tell me where you’re going?’
‘No. It’s safer this way.’ It would protect Elena as much as herself in the little time they had.
Thea grabbed her motorcycle helmet from the chair behind her, hesitating.
‘How in Hades am I going to
