Christo slipped the pendant into his suit pocket and lounged back in his chair. ‘You lied. Thea wasn’t a willing partner in this marriage. I’m granting her a divorce.’
Demetri pushed himself up from the corner of his father’s desk. ‘That’s not what was agreed. You owe my father.’
‘Atlas Shipping owes your father’s bank. Personally, I owe him nothing. Except contempt.’
‘How dared you? That loan—’
Thea’s father lifted two fingers and Demetri was silenced.
‘That loan was a noose, designed to throttle me at the appropriate moment,’ Christo said. ‘But now Atlas’s loan repayments are up to date. I rectified that oversight of my father’s. And by the end of the week the loan will be repaid in full.’
Tito regarded Christo over steepled fingers. ‘Paying back early means penalty interest—which you can’t afford. It’ll ruin you or take you close.’
Christo smiled blandly. ‘You underestimate my abilities.’
‘Perhaps... But you can’t rectify all your father’s mistakes. The antiquity smuggling, for one. If that’s disclosed your ruination will be complete.’
Christo grinned. Tito Lambros had no idea how deep a mire he was wading into.
‘I was hoping you’d come to that. My father left several letters before he died. One was to his solicitor, documenting what he knew about the stolen treasures he had unwittingly allowed Atlas to transport. Most interesting were his comments about your suspected involvement. And then there’s your link to a particular ship’s captain...’
A man who’d become suspiciously lax about documentation and the cargo that went onto each vessel. That was the information they’d sought from Thea, trying to weave her into their web of deceit. Getting more to blackmail her with when the need arose.
‘I’ve terminated his services, if you’re curious. Interpol want to talk to him.’
Tito sat back in his chair, his eyes darting to Demetri. ‘Your father’s letters won’t be believed. They’re the words of a dying man, bitterly regretting the errors he made, and trying to blame someone else for his folly.’
And this was where Thea’s help had saved him—yet even now she didn’t realise how much she’d done.
Christo took a long, slow breath, savouring the moment. ‘Perhaps. But the authorities will be interested to see the security footage from that secret room you have in your house. If I sent it to the lost antiquities register what would they find?’
Demetri stared at his father, wide-eyed.
Tito paled.
Christo had them—and he wouldn’t rest till they were finished. He stood, leaning forward and splaying his hands on the frigid marble of Tito’s desk.
‘All those times you locked Thea away, her only contact came from breaking into the computer in your office to speak to her friends. You may have changed your passwords there, but you forgot the passwords on your security system. It was only a matter of my consultants working through the list Thea gave me to find the right one. Apparently the hack isn’t complicated if you know how.’
‘You’re lying.’ Tito’s voice came out hoarse and raw.
‘You want to test that theory?’
The two men said nothing.
Christo smiled. ‘Now, let’s talk about the penalty interest...’
Two hours later Christo sauntered to his car. He slid into the back seat, took a folder from his briefcase and pulled out a sheaf of documents. Flicking through them, he came to Thea’s signature on the back page. He traced a finger over the feminine writing, sitting there with pain embedded in him like a knife as he stared at the blank space where his own signature would go.
‘Where to next, Mr Callas?’ his driver asked.
He swallowed the agony down. Later he’d dwell. For now, he could never forget that everything he did was for her. All for her.
‘To my lawyer’s,’ he said.
Christo slipped a pen out of the top pocket of his suit jacket. Scrawling his name on the line below Thea’s, he did what he had promised all those months ago. He set her free.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THEA FINISHED HER morning coffee. Christo hadn’t come for breakfast, and last night he hadn’t graced their bed. She’d woken that morning to cold sheets where his warm body normally lay and she’d been struck by the realisation that even after one night apart she missed him. Missed his touch, the way it filled her with liquid heat, with something aching, trembling. Out of control.
She didn’t know how she’d lived without it. In such a short time he’d become her every waking thought. Her night-time passion. Her secret addiction.
Should she look for him?
Thea knew he and Raul had been working long hours on the meagre information she’d given them. Trying to connect her father to something illegal and free Christo from Tito’s clutches. Perhaps that was what he’d been doing last night.
Anyway, this morning there was no time to find him. She and Elena were going out together. Maybe to do some shopping now she could spend something of her own money rather than save for a grand escape. It would be fun for a change, and it was her time for a bit of fun. She hadn’t thought about escaping for a long while.
She’d missed Elena desperately, thinking she and her friend would be separated permanently. Now the freedom to do normal things other women of her age did filled Thea with an almost girlish glee. For the first time in her life she felt valued. Cared for as an individual, not as a possession to be traded. Another thing to thank Christo for.
That list was ever increasing.
Thea smiled as she stretched in the morning sun, contemplating the number of ways she would thank her husband. A seductive pulse beat low in her belly...
As pleasant as it was, luxuriating in those thoughts, none of them would get her to Elena any faster. She sighed. Christo would have to wait.
Checking her watch, she made her way through the house, running into Anna.
‘Thea—Mr Callas wants to see you. He’s in his study.’
Thea grinned and her heart missed a few beats. She almost skipped to his office, not waiting to knock
