When the plane touched down in Kefalonia, Greece, a team of cars were waiting to escort them to the village of Fiskardo.  Kari, waiting on Alex, was ready to go.  Alex was on the phone, but then he concluded his call and was ready to go too.  Or so Kari thought.  Because as soon as she thought they were ready to deplane, Alex stopped her.

“Wait here,” he said to her.

She waited.  She watched through the windows on the plane as Alex went down to the waiting cars, spoke with a man she assumed was in charge of the entourage, and then headed back toward the plane.  As he did, the cars behind him began leaving the airstrip.

Kari was shocked.  She glanced at the flight crew, to see if they were shocked, too, and she could tell that they were.  Everybody looked at Alex when he walked back onto the plane.

Kari had so many questions, and she knew the crew was leaving it up to her to ask them, but she held her peace.  Alex’s eyes had all but told her when they were at that Meet-and-Greet in Apple Valley that when he made a decision regarding security or, in that case, retribution, she was not to question that decision publicly.  She did not question it, and he did not offer any explanation.  This was his world she was in, and she had to trust that he knew how to live in it far better than she.

And just as she was thinking it, another group of cars drove up.  And somehow, Kari could tell that those cars, unlike the former ones that undoubtedly belonged to his father, were Alex’s team.  Kari could see his entire demeanor change, when those cars pulled up.

And as the cars assembled, Alex went into his bedroom, retrieved a leather bomber jacket from his wardrobe, and went over to Kari.  “Put this on,” he was saying even as he was already putting it on her.  “It’s chilly outside.”

Kari didn’t argue with him, although she already had on a cardigan sweater to go along with her slacks and tucked-in blouse.  She didn’t even complain when the jacket, because it belonged to big Alex, swamped her.

He held onto the collar as he snuggled her into his jacket.  For a moment, it seemed as if he was having second thoughts about bringing her to his home turf.  Did he want her to stay onboard and let the plane take her back to Florida?  If he did, Kari wasn’t all that certain if she would object.

But it wasn’t to be.  Alex was not the kind of man to make a decision, and then waffle.  “Ready?” he asked her.

Kari was still nervous about meeting his family, especially given his sudden hesitancy, but she nodded.  She didn’t want him worrying about her, too.  “Completely,” she said.

They got off of the plane and made their way across the tarmac.  Alex kept his arm on the small of Kari’s back, and continually looked around, until they got to the first car.  He placed her on the passenger seat, and then got in behind the wheel.

Kari was surprised.  She expected the head of the security detail, a man Alex called Cronos when they arrived at the car, to drive.  But Cronos, instead, got in the backseat.  Alex was driving.  Kari held her peace there, too.  This was Alex’s world, and she could tell before this journey even began that it was going to be a different world.

 

Fiskardo was a fishing village within the northernmost port of Kefalonia, surrounded by the sea and mountains.  And as they made the hour-and-a-half drive to town, Kari actually enjoyed the view.  There was a calm to this region of Greece.  There was a sense that she was entering, not a backward old world, but an almost strange new world.  This could not have been truer when Alex drove up a steep mountain that led to a compound that was completely walled off.

More than ten men, as Kari counted them, were standing at the gate of the compound with high-powered rifles.  They walked up to the first car in the entourage of cars, and Alex pressed down the window.  But when the men saw who was behind the wheel, they all grinned and shook his hand.

“O Assos einai piso!” one of them yelled.  “O Assos einai piso!”  The other men began hurrying to the car.  “O Alexio einai piso!”

“What are they saying?” Kari asked.

“Ace is back,” said Alex, as he smiled broadly and shook their hands.  “Alexio is back.”

They were smiling, too, as he greeted all of his former subordinates, and then the heavy gates opened, and they drove on through.  Kari might have been visiting in this world, she thought, but Alex seemed completely at home.

As the entourage made its way through the winding driveway that led to the main house, Kari was struck at how it appeared as a medieval castle perched on the edge of the sea.  Very gothic in its appearance.  Very foreboding and grim.

Kari also noticed how Alex’s smile dissipated the closer they got to the castle.  A group was waiting for him at the top of the stairs.  A group that consisted of an attractive older couple - male and female, and a younger female who could be Kari’s age.

 A huge staff of what appeared to be uniformed maids and butlers were also lined up, facing each other, ready to greet Alex.  They were smiling and appeared excited, and when Alex looked at them, he was smiling too.  But when Alex looked at the top of the stairs where the threesome stood, Kari noticed, his smile disappeared.

As soon as their car stopped, one of the servants immediately hurried over and opened Alex’s door.  Although Kari was so anxious to get out of that car and eyeball these people for herself, she knew to remain in the car and wait.  Alex always, but always opened the car door for her, and she wasn’t about to get him off stride here.  He liked treating her like a queen, she could tell.  And, if truth be told, she liked being treated that way.

Alex got out, smiled at the doorman and the other servants, and walked around and opened the car door for Kari.  It was only then did Cronos, in the backseat, get out too.

“Hold my hand,” Alex whispered to Kari as soon as she stepped out of the car, “and don’t let it go.”

Kari was surprised to hear him say that.  She didn’t know if such an odd request was for her protection, or his!  But either way, it was fine with her.  She’d rather hold onto Alex’s hand than any other man’s alive.  “Okay,” she whispered back.

As they made their way between the line of servants, Alex felt like the prodigal son.  It had been years since he stepped foot in this place.  Years!  But it felt like it did the day he packed up and left.  There was a suffocation.  An isolation.  And a desolation that he could never explain.  He hated it here.  But he knew he had to bear it.  He was just glad he had Kari by his side.

He and Kari’s hands were tightly clutched as the servants smiled and nodded at them as they made their way toward the stairs.  Kari and Alex smiled and nodded back, at each and every one of them, and Kari could tell they were genuinely happy to see Alex again.  A couple of the older ladies even broke protocol and hugged Alex.  Alex gave them a big hug back.  Kari glanced upstairs.  The older woman, especially, did not seem pleased.

But then there was another break from protocol.  The young woman that appeared to be around Kari’s age, broke away from the older couple and began running down the stairs toward Alex.  And she was smiling grandly.

Although Alex smiled, too, when he saw her, Kari could tell it didn’t contain the same warmth he displayed with the help.  It seemed genuine, but painful too.

“Alexio!” she was yelling as she came.  “Alexio!”  And she fell into Alex’s arms.

“Hello, Zylena,” Alex said with a much more muted smile.  “How are you?”

“Much better,” she said in perfect English, “now that you have arrived.  You know how they are!  How are you?”

Alex, no liar, didn’t answer that question.  He, instead, turned to Kari.  “I want you to meet my lady.  This is Karena Grant.  Karena, this is my baby sister.”

“Hi,” Kari said with a smile, extending her hand.

Although Zylena shook the hand, her eyes were still on her brother.  “I thought I heard you were going to marry Natalie Corman.  The actress, no?  She does not look like Natalie Corman.”

“Natalie told a lie,” Alex said.

“I heard that too,” said his sister.

“Then why did you repeat it?”

“Just having a bit of fun with you,” the sister said with a smile, and although Kari smiled, too, Alex didn’t.

“Come on,” Zylena said, grabbing her brother by his arm.  But when Alex would not let go of Kari’s hand, she moved over to his free arm, grabbed it, and began pulling him toward the stairs.  “Let’s go see the parents,” she said.

And she, Alex, and Kari made their way up the stairs.

Kari had suspected that the older, attractive couple were Alex’s parents, so that was no surprise.  But the chill even she could feel as they approached them was.

And when they made it to the top, and Alex was standing right in front of the two people who brought him into this world, their chill was nothing compared to his.  “Hello, Mother.  Hello, Father.”

His father, at least, cracked a small smile.  His mother never did.  “Hello, son,” he said.  He, too, spoke perfect English.  “It is good to have you back home where you belong.”

Alex didn’t respond to that.  Instead, he looked at his mother.  She was staring at Kari.  “Poio einai auto to atomo?”

Kari looked at Alex.  “‘Who is this person’, she said.”

“It’s not Natalie Corman, I will tell you that!” Zylena said, with a grin.

“This is Karena Grant,” Alex said to his mother, who, like his entire family, spoke fluent English.  “My girlfriend.”

It was the first time Alex had been that explicit in his description of his relationship with Kari.  Usually, she was his lady.  Now she was his girlfriend.  It sounded like an elevation to Kari, although she could not be sure if it was an elevation for show, or for sure.

“Kari, these are my parents, Elasaid and Leda Drakos.”

“Hello,” Kari said.  The mother might be rude, but Kari was not going to be as well.

“Hello,” the mother responded, to Kari’s surprise.  It was more than she had responded to her own son.  Then the mother looked at Alex with a look Kari could only describe as hurt laced with bitterness.  “Let’s go inside,” she said, and turned and headed inside.

The father opened the door for the rest of them, and Kari, and then Zylena, and then Alex walked on in.

Kari tried her best not to be blown away by the massiveness of the house.  Everything about it was HUGE.  But also cold and sterile too.  Just as chilly, Kari thought, as she had felt outside.

Kari, in fact, snuggled even more into Alex’s big bomber jacket as they all settled into a room that could only be described as a combination living room and bar.  A massive, restaurant-styled bar in the back of the room, with a complete staff behind its massive counter.

“What would you care to drink, madam?  Sir?”  It was apparently the bartender, who had come over and spoke to Kari and Alex.

“What would you like, babe?” Alex asked Kari.

“Sherry would be nice.”

Alex looked at the bartender, a man he did not know.  “A Sherry for the lady,” he said, “a gin and tonic for me.”

“Right away, sir,” the bartender ordered, clapped his hands, and then one of the men behind the bar began making the drinks.  The bartender left to retrieve them.

But even after the drinks were served, and everybody seemed to settle down, there was no urgent discussion whatsoever.  Everything seemed like small talk to Kari.

“How is the weather in New York?” the father asked Alex.

“It’s okay,” responded Alex.

“I want to go to New York,” said the sister.  “But Alexio won’t invite me.”

“Have you asked him?” the father asked.

“Countless times.”

“His excuse?”

“He’s busy.  He does not have time.  It’s insulting.”

“Yes, it is,” said the mother.  “But that’s your brother.”

“Why so much security?” Alex asked.

It was the first real question, Kari thought.

“Well,” said the father.  “You know how that goes.”

“No, Father, I do not.  Enlighten me.”

“You are not here by accident.  That is what I feel about it,” said his father.  “You are here by providence!”

“Spare me the dramatics, Father,” Alex said boldly.  He knew his father too well.  “Why so much security?”

“It is needed,” Elasaid replied. “You know what I am talking about.  You have not been that far removed from your own family, although you have made it your life’s calling to do so.  What do you think I do for a living, Alexio?  What do you think?  You think I sell pita bread?  Or preowned vehicles?  Or boats?”

“You have done all of that,” Alex said, “and more.”

His father actually smiled, which made him, Kari thought, appear quite charming.  “Yes, I have!”  Then the smile was gone.  “But no more.  I have a family to support.  I have an organization to support.  That is why the increased security.  That is why we are living like prisoners in our own home!”

A war, Alex thought.  His father was all but telling him that he was in the midst of a war with one of the families.  There were only five major ones that ruled the entirety of Greece.  His father’s syndicate was the biggest, but perhaps no longer the baddest, after Alex left.

“What did you do?” Alex asked Elasaid.

“Why do you assume it is always me?  I fly, how do they say it in America?  Under the radar.  I make it my business to fly under the radar.  But they still force my hand.  They still put me in these positions from which I am unable to free!  I have never started anything.  You know that, Alexio.  You know how I ran my business.  That has not changed because you left us.  That has not changed because you turned your back on us.  I still run my business well, and under the radar.  They keep coming for me!”

Although his father sounded sincere, Alex knew him too well.  He had a temper that, when uncontrolled, was deadly to a degree Alex had never seen before.  But did he want details?  No.  He was not getting involved.

“Are you marrying her then?” asked his kid sister, and everybody looked at her.  Where did that come from?

“What?” Alex asked her.  He frowned and appeared, it seemed to Kari, to have very little patience with her.

“This one here, this Karena Grant,” Zylena said, “are you going to marry her the way I thought you were going to marry Natalie Corman?”

But it was Kari who answered her.  “We’re still getting to know each other,” she said.  Alex tightened his grip on her hand.  He wished she would not have said that.

And, as he knew she would, his mother came out with the knives.  “Still getting to know each other?” she asked.  “You bring a woman to our home whom you do not know?”

“That’s not what she meant,” Alex responded.

“That is what she said.”

“I don’t give a fuck what she said,” Alex said to his mother so harshly that Kari herself was shocked, even though he was defending her.  “That is not what she meant.”

And his mother showed her displeasure with him, too.  “You are now and always will be a bastard.  Have your own daughter arrested.  Murder your own son.”

“I did not murder my son!” Alex yelled.

“So say you!  But Linda told us what happened.  That suicide claim was a fake, she said.  You murdered poor Jonathan because he stole a little money from you!  She told it all!”

Alex was so tired of people lying on him that he didn’t know how to contain his anger.  He was about to unload, but he glanced at Kari and saw the terror in her eyes.  He held back.  “She told you lies,” he said to his mother.  “But believe my bitter ex-wife over me if you care to.  It would be exactly as expected.  I had no idea you and she were such friends.  You never wanted to meet her once while we were married.”

“But that was before she and Odysseus,” Zylena started to say, but caught herself.

Kari looked at Zylena.  Why didn’t she continue?

Alex was equally curious.  “What about Linda and Odysseus?” Alex asked his sister.

But his mother intervened.  “Is that his business?” she asked Zylena.  “Tell me where, under this Hellenistic sun, is that his business?”

“What were you about to say, Zylena?” Alex asked her.

But then the front door flew open as if a strong wind had blown it open, and everybody looked in that direction.  Alex even released Kari’s hand and stood to his feet.  And if things weren’t already tense and unsettling, it all rose to new heights instantaneously.

Odysseus Drakos, the man believed to be behind those attempts on Alex’s life, along with Kari’s in Vegas, suddenly and dramatically walked in.