But he’s been completely silent. And that’s what worries me. If he took her with the intent to keep her, he could be anywhere by now, and we may never see her again. At least if he took her with the purpose of using her to negotiate, we could give him what he wants and get our daughter back. The problem is Aris believes Zoe is his. A lie I told at the time to save us, but now regret.
As I walk through the doors of the office, I see Kostas and a thought hits me. “Kostas.” He glances my way and walks toward me. “You told the world that Zoe is your daughter.”
“Yeah…” Kostas gives me a confused look.
“Aris thought she was his. If he heard your speech, he knows she’s not his.” My hands cover my mouth as I remember what Aris said to me when I told him Zoe was his.
“Talia, talk to me,” Kostas demands.
“Aris warned me that if he ever found out the baby wasn’t really his, I would pay.” I lied to him for over a year, swore up and down the baby was his… “What if he took her to use her as a bargaining chip, but once he found out she wasn’t really his, he changed his mind?” My heart begins to race, and my head feels cloudy. Another anxiety attack is surfacing. “He could be keeping her just to make me pay.” This could be all my fault. I never should’ve lied to Aris.
“Talia, calm down,” Kostas says, taking me in his arms. “It doesn’t matter what Aris knows or doesn’t know. It changes nothing. You told him what he needed to hear to keep you and our little girl safe. We’re going to find her.”
“Boss,” Adrian calls Kostas over. “Check out this image.” He blows up a picture on the computer screen. It’s of a man who meets Aris’s description carrying a baby, but we can’t see any faces.
“Where was this taken?” Kostas asks.
“The airport about thirty minutes ago,” Adrian says.
“He wouldn’t just walk through the airport,” I say out loud. Aris is too smart for that, even if the man holding the baby looks almost identical to him.
“Probably not,” Kostas agrees. “But we’re following every possible lead.”
He looks over his shoulder. “Phoenix,” he barks. “Airport.” Without asking any questions, Phoenix comes over and gets the information from Adrian then takes off.
We spend the next couple hours going through emails and calls of leads. When it’s nearly four in the morning and I can tell Kostas is dragging, I tell him we need to go home. He looks like he wants to argue, but doesn’t.
When we get home, he takes a quick shower and meets me in bed. With his arms around me, I snuggle into the crook of his neck. “Six days,” I whisper. Tomorrow it will be a week.
“We’re going to find her,” Kostas says for a millionth time, his voice filled with as much conviction as the first time he said it.
As my eyes are closing, his phone rings loudly throughout the room. He leans over and answers it. “Yeah.” He sits up straight, knocking my head off his body. “You sure?” I can’t hear who he’s speaking to, but whoever it is, is talking fast. “I’ll check right now.”
Kostas places the phone on speaker and pulls up his email app. Peering over, I look to see what was emailed, and right there in color is a picture of Selene holding our daughter.
“That’s her!” I gasp.
Kostas
“On my way,” I growl, slinging my body out of the bed on a frantic hunt for clothes. “Pick me up in front of my villa in two minutes.”
Talia flies out of the bed and starts dressing. “I can’t believe they found her. Is it close? How long until we get there—”
“Not we,” I bark out as I button my jeans and yank on a white T-shirt. “Me.”
“Hell no,” she screeches as she throws on her own clothes. “I’m going.”
I don’t have time to fight with her on this. All I do have time for is to grab my Glock from the bedside drawer and stalk out of the bedroom. Talia comes trotting after me. When I open the door, Basil is standing beside Adrian’s SUV, talking to him.
“Hold down the fort,” I bark out to Basil.
He nods before stepping away. I open the rear door and assist Talia in getting in before climbing into the front passenger seat.
Talia starts to sob in the back seat. When I glance back, I see that Adrian already loaded up the car seat. He feels it too. We’re bringing her home. Thank fuck we have the cover of the dark, early morning. The last thing I need is for someone to tip Aris off.
Adrian hauls ass out of the hotel property and gets onto the main road. When he’d emailed me the pictures, he also emailed the location. Two hours from here on the other side of Crete Island near a small airport. Aris may have thought about trying to leave via plane but decided against it at the last minute because he has to know I have eyes everywhere, especially ports and airports. The motel we’re headed to is a piece of shit one that hookers and johns use. I cringe thinking what sort of cesspool my baby’s living in right now.