It was only when they sat down that Kari realized the inside of the house wasn’t nearly as dilapidated as the outside appeared to be.  It wasn’t pristine inside the way it had been previously, but it wasn’t rundown either.  But compared to what Alex remembered about his childhood mansion, Kari knew it was still, in Alex’s eyes anyway, probably a dump.

And Alex didn’t beat around the bush.  “Why did you do it?” he asked his kid brother.

Alex sat in the chair that flanked the sofa.  Kari and Oz sat on the sofa.  “I told you,” Oz said, “I thought you were intruders.  How was I to know who you were?”

“Knock it off, Oz,” said Alex impatiently.  “You know what I mean.”

Kari stared at Oz.  And it was that look at that moment; that vulnerable look that had endeared him to her when they first met.  Beyond his surface behavior, which was usually very disagreeable, there was something about Oz that she liked.  And, she would also admit, his surface appearance wasn’t bad either.  To most women he would probably be considered most attractive.  If there was ever a Greek Adonis in this world, she thought, Oz would be it.

“You say I know what you mean,” Oz said to his brother, “but if you do not mean the fact that I shot at you and your lady, what am I to know?”

“Why did you enlist Linda to try and kill Karena?” Alex asked bluntly.

Alex and Kari stared at Oz when Alex asked that question.  It was his demeanor, more so than his response, that would say it all to them.  Oz was a lot of things.  Loud.  Gregarious.  Verbose.  Hiding his emotions was not in his tool house.

To them, he was genuinely shocked.

“What are you talking about?” he asked Alex.  “I would never enlist anyone to kill Karena!  I rather like her!  And, believe it or not, I’m somewhat fond of you.  Why would I do such a thing?  Why would you think I was capable of doing such a thing?”

“You had a hit out on me not all that long ago. Remember that, Oz?” Alex asked him.

Oz smiled a bright, white smile.  “But that was only because I knew you could survive any attack.  That was only because I needed to get you back to Greece.”

“Maybe you needed to get him back to Greece again,” Kari said.  “By going after me.”

But Oz was shaking his head.  He looked at Kari directly.  “I would never do that,” he said with all sincerity.  “You must believe that.  I am not that man.”  Then he looked at Alex.  “What has Linda told you?” he asked him.

“That you and she are in love,” Alex said.  “That the family fell apart after Dad died, and you wanted revenge for my part in turning him over to the enemy.  She said she loved you so much that she was willing to do whatever she had to do to be with you.  You ordered her to get Karena.”

Oz smiled, and then leaned forward, looking serious.  “She lies,” he said.

“What specifically was she lying about?” Kari asked.

“She was never my woman.  Let us begin there.  My brother with a woman, and then I have that same woman?  No. Bad form all around.  No.”

But Kari and Alex looked at each other.  They knew better.  “That’s not true,” Kari said.  “When we were last here, you all but said you and Alex’s ex had a relationship. You all but said it, Oz.”

“I know.  You are correct.  But I was not speaking the truth.”

Alex studied his brother.  “What is the truth?” he asked.  “Tell me the truth!”

Oz exhaled.  “The truth is, I was what you call in the states a beard.”

Alex continued to study him. “For whom?” he asked.

“For father,” Oz said.

Kari looked at Alex.  Alex was staring at Oz.  “Father?”

“Linda was Pop’s woman.  I went along with it because, as you know, we went along with whatever Pop said.  That was what we did around here.”

Alex frowned.  “But you’re making no sense.  Pop’s dead!  Why would Linda claim to be with you, when she was with Pop?  And how could she be with Pop, if he’s dead?”

Oz exhaled.  “They needed him,” he said.

“Who needed him?” asked Kari.

“The other families.   The other crime families in Greece.  They were depleted.  They had all been decimated.  The bosses.  The number twos.  They were scattered and they were scared.  Pop’s name was the only name that still carried power behind it in all of Europe, and especially in Greece.”

Alex was shocked.  “What are you telling me, Odysseus?  What are you saying?  They didn’t kill, Pop?  When I handed him over, after what he did to all of those families, they didn’t kill him?”

Oz nodded.  “That’s what I’m saying.”

Kari was shocked too.  She looked at Alex.

“They needed him,” Oz continued.  “They needed a man like him to prop them up.  And what happened, after all that hell you went through when you were last here, was exactly what Pop wanted to happen before you got here.”

“Which is?” Alex asked.

“A total and complete consolidation of mob power around him.  And him alone.  With the international games coming up in Greece, he now has a stranglehold on the entire event.  Just like he always wanted.”

A bitterness overtook Oz’s face.  “Pop is so good,” he said, “he even made his enemies his footstool.”

“And what did he make you?” Alex asked. “What did he make the man who was supposed to take over when I gave him to those enemies?”

“Alone,” Oz said.  “Banished.  A pariah in my own native land.  That is why I am holed up here.  I cannot go and come as I please.   I have to sneak around.  Pop said he will not seek me out, but if he or any of his men ever saw me around, they would kill me.”

Alex leaned back.  He was floored.

But Kari had more questions.  “And your mother and sister?” she asked.

Alex looked too.  “Yes,” he said.  “What about Mother and Zylena?” he asked.

“They both left me and went with Father.”

Kari was stunned.  “Even after he left Zylena in the hands of the enemy before Alex’s bargained for her?”

Oz nodded.  “Even after that, yes.  You do not understand, Karena.  Our father’s rule was absolute.  He did not love his family.  He controlled his family.  Just as he now controls the entirety of Greece’s underworld.  When Alex and I defeated him, we unwittingly handed him his greatest victory.  His dream came true.”

Kari was amazed.  By losing, their father won!  She looked at Alex.

But Alex was upset with Oz.  “Why didn’t you tell me what was happening?” he asked.  “I could have helped you, Odysseus.  Why didn’t you call me?”

Oz smiled a weary smile.  “Since when have you answered my calls, brother?  I used to call you constantly when you left us, but you never answered my calls.  You were done with us.  You made that clear that day in New York when you walked away.  You made it even clearer the last time you were here when you turned over our father to his enemies.  History is a strange creature for me.  I cannot forget it.  That is why I did not call.”

Alex exhaled.  He could not dispute anything Odysseus had said.

When Alex did not dispute Oz’s claims, Kari decided to move on too.  “What are we going to do now, Alex?” she asked him.

“If Oz is right,” Alex said, “and my actions created this monster, then my actions will have to kill the monster.”

Kari’s heart sank.

“He went after me,” Alex continued, “I’m going to have to go after him.”

“But how?” Oz asked.  “He doesn’t live on the mountain anymore.  He lives in a fortified jungle.”

“You may be banished to this mountain,” Alex said, “but I’m sure you still have spies in town.  Have they learned Father’s new routine?”

Oz grinned.  “You mean the routine he thinks he doesn’t have?”

Kari didn’t catch that. “How can you have a routine when you think you don’t have one?”

“He does habitual things,” Alex explained, “but he switches up which day or weekend he will do them.  But he always, and I mean always, end up having a regular routine of switch ups.  In other words, he may go to the soccer match on the third Saturday in one month, then the first the next month, then the second the third month.  Then he’d repeat the pattern.  All we used to have to do was learn his pattern, and we knew his routine.  He didn’t think he had one by mixing it up.  But he did.  Because he always repeated the pattern.  That was the only way he didn’t mix himself up.”

Kari smiled.  Other than Alex, the Drakos family was something else!