Chapter 16
It had been such a bright fall day with just the slightest bite to the wind. When she had gone to shut the door, she had heard voices arguing and had recognized Gary’s voice. Thinking he was dealing with a customer that was late picking up their vehicle, she slipped inside to help diffuse the situation. She had stumbled right into the middle of her uncle’s henchmen accusing Gary of stealing drugs from them. They had guns and were pointing them at Gary. By sheer dumb luck, they didn’t notice her as she rounded the corner of the reception area. She ducked behind a car when she processed the guns and angry voices.
Apparently, Gary changed the tires of the cars as they came in and removed the drugs before putting them out on the lot. The last shipment of drugs had been lighter than what it should have been. Gary had protested that he had no idea what they were talking about. Emma had been astounded. All these years, the cars she sold had just been used to transport drugs. She had to tell her Uncle Malachi, but she couldn’t just stand up, walk back out and count on them not to notice her a second time.
The argument seemed to be escalating, and Gary was losing. The gunshot had echoed loudly in the shop, and she covered her mouth to keep herself from screaming. The men started arguing with each other because no one was supposed to get shot. She didn’t hear Gary’s voice any more. Peeking underneath the car, she saw Gary laying on the ground and the feet of the other two men, facing away from her. Taking the opportunity of the distraction, she crouched and ran back toward the door and right into Uncle Malachi.
He said he had been coming to investigate a noise. Emma said that she was doing the same thing and tried to tell him about the men and guns. Malachi didn’t stop to listen. He had told her to wait while he went to see what was going on. She should have run, but she thought Uncle Malachi might need her. There was a conversation that she couldn’t make out and she kept waiting for Malachi to tell her to call the police. She should have called them anyway. She should have done so many things differently in those minutes that could have changed everything. But she had been a stupid girl and didn’t yet believe in monsters.
Malachi had smiled at her when he returned moments later. He said that there had been an accident and that he would handle it. He asked her if she had seen anything. Emma managed to stammer that she had just heard a noise and thought something had fallen in the garage. It had been so loud that she thought Gary might need help. She had finally figured out that something wasn’t right with Malachi’s reaction.
Apparently, Malachi hadn’t been convinced. As she turned to leave, she heard him tell his thugs to take her back to the office and find out what she knew. She tried to run and made it halfway to her car before one of them tackled her. He was huge and experienced at subduing people. She didn’t get a scream out before his hand clamped over her mouth. With help from his buddy, she was bound hand and foot and blindfolded before being tossed in the back seat of a car.
They drove in silence and Emma tried to pay attention to the route and pick up any clues on where they were heading. She couldn’t make out anything until they dragged her out of the car. The briny smell of the docks hit her as they carried her inside a huge warehouse. They were on the lake shore which meant they were at least an hour away from the dealership. They untied her and shoved her in a pitch-black janitor’s closet with nothing but a dripping sink.
Emma stopped talking and Nikos gently rubbed her back. He knew he hadn’t heard all the story but so many things were clearer now. He cautioned himself that she could be lying still, but his gut was telling him that she was telling the truth. It certainly corroborated what little he had been able to find about the incident surrounding the disappearance of Emma Wilcox of Logansport, Indiana. A man had disappeared at the same time. There had been an investigation of DeLaney’s Used Car Emporium on charges of being a front for a drug trafficking operation. Neither Emma nor the man had ever been found, and the drug trafficking investigation magically evaporated. The press had concluded that Emma and the man had been running the drugs through the car lot and Emma had killed the man before fleeing with their ill-gotten gains. Nikos looked down at the woman he held in his arms. She wasn’t a criminal mastermind, and he would bet his own life that she hadn’t killed anyone.
Emma’s voice cut the silence some time later. They had lapsed into a heavy silence each lost in their own thoughts. Her voice was still quiet, but there was a bit of steel laced in her words. “I didn’t steal anything, Nikos. I thought of that jewelry as mine. I needed cash so I could run if I needed to. I left everything back at the villa. I would never take anything that didn’t belong to me. And just for the record, I never had anything to do with Uncle Jack’s side business.” She pushed herself away from his chest and looked him in the eye. Nikos held her gaze and she saw acceptance in his chocolate brown eyes. Relief flooded her. He pulled her close to him and she clung to him fiercely.
“What are we going to do,” he asked quietly.
The ‘we’ in the question made her heart squeeze so hard that she struggled to breathe. He should have been telling her to pack her bags or calling the police. Instead, he was offering to help.
“I don’t know, but I know someone who might have some information.” Emma told him about the man at the train station.
“You think this man sent us the envelopes?”
“I do. I think he’s an investigator or something- maybe a cop. I’m pretty sure he’s been watching me since we got to Athens. I don’t know why he flushed me out. Why now?” Emma had been turning this question over and over in her mind ever since she had fled the station. The only thing she could think of was the one thing she dreaded more than anything. She took a deep breath and said, “I think Malachi knows where I am. He’s going to try to kill me.”
It sounded so dramatic when she said it like that. When did my life turn into a bad novel? She was from Indiana for God’s sake. A good, Midwestern girl who’s, up until a year ago, biggest risk had been using a fake ID when she was 18 to get into a bar with some friends. The fact remained that here she was in Greece, in love with a rich vineyard owner who for some unknown reason loved her back, and was on the run from a drug dealing murderer who just happened to be her uncle. Part of her kept waiting to wake up.
“Get packed. We’re going to the villa.” Nikos shifted her as he stood. He pulled her against him in a crushing embrace. “I love you, lígo kléftis mou. I told you before that you most certainly are guilty of theft. My heart hasn’t been my own since the day you stumbled onto my vineyard.”
Emma pulled him down to kiss him. “I love you, too.” Even as she said it, she prayed that he wouldn’t pay the ultimate price for that love.