CHAPTER 3
Now
A text came right back from Claire Abbey. It said: When can we meet?
Now
Where?
I thought about it for a second. Agios Theologos Restaurant
My phone vibrated. I looked at the message: There in 20.
Abbey was already sitting down when I arrived. It was on the other side of the island, but I still did a walk-through first. Scanned the area and went to the toilet. Washed my hands and walked the long way to her table. Just a bunch of tourists.
“You trying to max out my expense account?”
“Not even. Prices aren’t what you’d think.”
“How in the world would you know that?”
“Ate here before.”
“When were you here?”
“Few years back. Windsurfing holiday with some buddies.”
“You windsurf?”
“When there’s wind. Yes.”
“How was last night?”
“Windy.”
“But no windsurfing?”
“Thought never crossed my mind.” I filled her in on the events. Got her all caught up.
“Sounds solid,” she said. “At least as solid as we could have hoped.”
“Yeah. We’ll see what’s up with this first assignment. See what they’re carrying and how everything goes.”
“But we don’t have too much time. Agent Johnson, remember?”
“Of course. But if we push we risk blowing everything.” I took a sip of my water. “Speaking of agents, how are Agents Dimitriadis and Papadakis?”
“Good. Said they couldn’t have held their breaths much longer though. You got out of there just in time.”
“I was counting in my head. Considered leaving the luggage, but there was the potential of too much evidence. Had to have it.”
“Agreed.”
“What the play with the agents?”
“The refugees are already spreading rumors they’re Greek Coast Guard. Dirty deeds. It’s not very plausible. They see the uniforms and the precision. They pin them as commandos or at least very well trained. That and how can they evade the Coast Guard? They assume it has to be government insiders.”
“But that’s not what we’re going with?”
“Not at all. We don’t need that backlash. They’re pirates. Plain and simple. A couple Greek guys who lost a lot of money in the financial crisis. Tired of the austerity measures that Germany is pushing on them. It will draw sympathy from the Greeks. No outrage from either side.”
“But it will also show potential copycats not to even try it.”
“Exactly.”
“And about the mysterious and sexy guy who got away?” I said deadpan.
“Your refugees haven’t spoken yet. We’re keeping a close eye on them. In their asylum interview they just said they came over on a boat like everyone else.”
“That’s good.”
“Very.”
I raised my shot of ouzo for a toast. She met me half way, right in the middle of the table.
“Yamas,” I said.
“Yamas.”
“So?”
“So authorities don’t know who the guy is yet. Suspected trafficker from rival syndicate. Gives The Turk some clout if he decides to flaunt it.”
“Doubtful. At least right now.”
“True. The American spin will be with possible ties to ISIS.”
“Do we want to go that route right away?”
“We need to at least get them thinking. Most are following the refugee crisis right now, but when summer holidays are over it will be back to school for the wives and kids and the guys will be plopped down on the couch watching football. By that time they will have forgotten. We’ll start planting the seeds now. It’ll make it easier in the long run.”
“So we’re just one small part in this whole cog. This whole global takedown operation.”
“Hardly. Without us there is no takedown. There is no operation.”
“Are you ready to order?” the waiter said.
For the next two hours we sat and drank ouzo and I shared some of my adventures from my SEAL days. We split goat from the oven, grilled fish, Greek salad, and French fries. When we thought we didn’t have anymore room left to stuff anything the waiter arrived with a complimentary dessert. Cake with Greek honey and Greek ice cream. We found space. We were sitting across the table as the sun began to set. We rotated our chairs a bit so we could watch it together. We ordered some water to offset the ouzo. The water went down quickly so we decided it was safe to cap off the afternoon with a bottle of rosé. I had nowhere to be and no rush to get there. Abbey either. We closed the tab and walked to the parking lot to catch a cab.
“Ever go for a night swim?” I said.
“At my friend’s house. We used to all the time.”
“Swimming pool, pond, or lake?”
“Swimming pool.”
“That doesn’t count!” I said.
“Why not?”
“OK. It counts, but it doesn’t compare to the ocean, or the sea.”
“This is true,” she said.
“Ready to live a little?”
“I am living. A lot.”
“How about some more?”
“I don’t have a swimsuit.”
“What do you need one of those things for?”
“Zamora! Come on.”
I grabbed her by the hand and walked her down to the beach. There was no one there. Just the two of us.
“Here’s the plan. You can go behind that rock over there.” I pointed to my right. “I’ll go behind this rock over here.” I pointed to my left. “When you’re ready you can enter the sea first. Once you’re all the way in, just make an owl noise.”
“An owl noise?”
“Yeah. Like this.” I cupped my hands to my mouth. “Whoooooooooo! Whoooooooooo!”
Abbey laughed so hard she nearly fell over backwards.
“Try it.”
“Haaaawwwwoooohhhh!”
I burst out in laughter. “Close enough.”
“You’re crazy.”
“That’s for sure. Now go to your rock. Hurry.” I gave her a playful pat in that direction and took off for my rock.
“Gonna beat ya!” she yelled as she ran to her rock.
I went to my rock and stripped down. It took all of three seconds. Now I just had to wait for the owl sound. Do they even have owls in Greece? Heck if I know. Does it even matter? Not right now. About three minutes later I could hear someone entering the water.
“It’s cold!”
“That’s not an owl sound.”
I heard her laughing. Ten seconds later I heard, “Whoooooooooo. Whoooooooooo.”
I cupped my groin area and took off skipping and whistling for the sea.
“You look so masculine,” she yelled from the water. She was about ten yards from shore.
“Shark attack!” I yelled as a joke as boys do when they pretend to be a shark and “attack” the girl they’re interested in.
I dove in and swam towards her as fast as possible. I got to her in just a couple seconds. I guessed she’d lunge to her right to escape. I guessed right. I grabbed her by the legs from underwater. Her legs were firm. Athletic like she might have played sports in high school or maybe even university. They had a nice feeling to them. I wanted to know if she was athletic all over.
We were in water that came up to her chest. I came up for air as my hands slid from her legs, up the sides of her thighs, and onto her hips. We breached together. We were gasping for air from the enjoyment and exertion from the fake shark attack game. We were laughing uncontrollably, but we quickly caught each other’s eyes. Her upper chest was rising and falling out of the water with each breath. Her beautiful collarbone thrust toward me with each breath. Her mouth was open. Her lips were full and soft. Her eyes were big and beautiful. There was a faint moonlight reflecting off the surface of the water. Her eyes looked amazing. I couldn’t stop staring into them.
I couldn’t hold back. My lips came crashing down on hers. She pressed her hands against my chest. Not as if to press me away, just to keep a respectable distance after only knowing me a short time. The resistance in her hands quickly faded into grabbing my pectorals. She moved a bit closer. Still no skin-to-skin contact. I wrapped my right hand around her head. My fingers interwoven in her hair. My hand pressing the back of her head. Making her lips meet mine with even more force. More electricity. More passion. My left hand was on her hip. I could feel my grasp strengthening. Her curves felt amazing. I ran my left hand around the side and up her back. It found its way to the side of her neck. I held her head in my hands. Kissing her. Exploring her mouth with my tongue. Feeling the connection and chemistry that had been building since the first moment we met at my bungalow on the hill overlooking the sea. Then, it all suddenly ended.
She pushed against my chest to get some space between us.
“It’s too early,” she said in a disappointed voice. “We’re working together.”
I didn’t say anything. I was still feeling the aftershocks of what had just happened. This little firecracker had just rocked my world so hard. There was no going back. I wanted to scoop her up right then and there in the sea and become one together as I held her in my arms.
“I’m sorry, Zamora.”
“It’s OK,” I said.
“No it’s not. I didn’t mean to lead you on.”
“You didn’t lead me on. We have chemistry. We were having a great time today. We were celebrating the first part of this mission. Everything was perfect. It was only natural.”
She was looking down. She lifted her cute little chin up and looked at me. She started to giggle. “You’re right. It was amazing.”
“Very,” I said.
“Every part of it.”
“Every single little part,” I added. “You and I make for a pretty good team.”
“A great team actually,” she said. She reached up and tapped me on the nose with her index finger. Then she started giggling again. Her giggle was so powerful. Normally she’s in control. A sexy, powerful DEA agent. Solving problems with her sharp mind and cool demeanor.
Now that control was out the window. Now she had the exuberance of a first time traveller abroad. The exuberance of a child. It was a complete one eighty from what I’d seen so far. I was addicted to both sides of her. I wanted to see if there were even more nuances. I had to see. I wanted to breathe them all in.
“We can’t tell Frost,” she said.
“Frost? I already forgot about that guy.”
“Come on! He’s my partner on this. And he’s a good guy.”
“I agree. I’m not questioning that at all. My point is how can I think of Frost at a moment like this.” I looked down to my submerged groin area. She slapped my left shoulder with her right hand and smiled.
“You’re bad,” she said.
“Very.”
“Should we get dressed?”
“No, but do I have a choice?” I teased.
“No, you don’t,” she teased back.
“OK. Ladies first.”
She started to walk out of the water. “Hey! You just want to check out my butt!”
“That’s not true!”
She playfully frowned. “You don’t want to check out my butt?”
“No, I don’t want to check out your butt. I am checking out your butt!”
She covered her butt with her hands and ran off to her rock giggling. I came out of the water and went over to change. It dawned on me that I didn’t have a towel. I sacrificed my shirt for the cause. I was a mess, but a very happy mess. I walked around the corner of the rock and found her already dressed and ready to go.
“Your shorts are on backwards,” I said.
She looked down and grabbed for her zipper. She paused.
“Made you look!”
“Not funny” she giggled.
“You’re right. Hilarious!” I pointed to the taxi stand. “Last one there’s a rotten egg!”
I took off and she quickly caught up to me. She jumped on my back and I carried her the last twenty yards. We were laughing and playing like kids. I felt like I was on another planet. Just the two of us. Our own private paradise.
We took separate cabs back to our accommodations, but agreed to meet in the morning for breakfast.
The banter continued right along as if morning breakfast was just an extension of the fun from yesterday and last night. We had a whole day to enjoy ourselves together. Technically we were working on the case, but the only work we were really doing was on each other. It was a flirty game of cat and mouse. Push and pull without either of us trying to step over the imaginary line of professionalism and into a passionate summer romance on the Greek isles. I could feel it was more than that though. I knew it was more than just lust and fun. Abbey was the kind of girl that I wanted to spend more time with. I could never get enough. All I knew was I wanted more. And The Turk wanted me on the other side of the island.
I awoke the following day to my phone vibrating. The message said: Other side. At the dock. Ferry leaves in forty-five minutes.
Show time.