Ilona had to admire how neatly he had turned the tables on Midas’s attempt at a power grab. Perhaps he was strong enough to take on the bane of her existence.
If he was, that was a caution in itself, one she should heed.
“I told Feodor that you should call me,” Midas said without preamble.
“I got that message, but I’m having lunch with my new partner in Callas.” She waved at Leander.
Midas didn’t look at him. His cheek ticked with barely suppressed rage.
“Why? Rideaux is rallying the board members, insisting we sell our Callas shares to him.” He jerked his head at Leander. “I told Rideaux to hang tight because you had promised to counter. That is what you’re doing, isn’t it?” The threat in his voice poured terror into her blood.
But she saw immediately—immediately—that Midas had lied when he had said he would accept her counteroffer for the Pagonis shares. His goal was to instigate a bidding war between her and Leander. He didn’t care who got the shares in the end so long as the price went up, filling his coffers before he cut her loose completely.
No wonder he was incensed to find her conspiring with Leander.
How could she still be so naive that she had missed the depth of his avarice?
“Tell me you are not cutting a deal with him, Ilona,” Midas said grimly. He would never let her forget this. Never. She wanted to cry at Leander. See what you’ve done? But Leander wouldn’t care that he had called this punishment down upon her. In his mind, she was a Pagonis and deserved nothing but pain.
She wanted to run. Literally run away, but she was cornered both physically and figuratively. Midas sat on the chair and Leander stood in the space to the left of the table, both blocking her into the end of the breezeway.
“Ilona and I have been discussing options,” Leander said. “She has made clear that she doesn’t wish to be used as a pawn or a weapon against you.”
A contemptuous curl arrived at the corner of Midas’s mouth, one that said, I knew it. Pathetic little Ilona, too afraid of him to betray him.
“I’ve assured her that I wouldn’t dream of putting my wife in such a position,” Leander continued.
“What?” Midas finally snapped his attention up to Leander.
What?Ilona’s heart nearly fell out of her mouth.
“Ilona and I are getting married,” Leander stated, holding Midas’s gaze while thrusting out a hand to her.
“That is not true.” Midas’s hand curled into a fist on the back of the chair. “Is it, Ilona?”
A choice had to be made. Stick with the devil she knew or align with a new one.
The waves were crashing and frothing angrily below, but it suddenly struck her that she was the doll. She was on fire, slowly being scorched and damaged and turned to ash.
There was only one way to douse those flames. Leap.
She rose and accepted Leander’s hand. Her heart exploded with trepidation as the ground fell away from beneath her.
Leander was right there, pulling her into the solid wall of his body as though he could shelter her from the impact.
“Between us, we have a majority in Callas,” Leander was saying to Midas. “My offer for the fifteen percent stands, but tell the board to sell it to whomever they wish. We don’t need it.”
Menace darkened Midas’s complexion. “You’re making a mistake, Ilona.”
She couldn’t speak. She was in that disorienting, breathless place where sound was muffled and everything had become a blur. She couldn’t tell which way was up.
Leander’s arm was crushing her. Maybe that’s why she couldn’t breathe, but his firm grip told her she wasn’t in this cold, airless place alone. She let her arm slide behind his back, clasping on to him while she searched for something to say.
“Excuse us,” Leander said dismissively. “We’re celebrating.”
“I bet you are.” Midas jerked to his feet, toppling his chair and leaving it where it fell against the stones.
As he walked away, he met the waiter with the platter of seafood they had ordered. Midas knocked it out of the man’s hand, raining shrimp and calamari onto the patrons below.