“And don’t ever touch his computer or tech gear,” Charlie added. “He’ll break your fingers.”
“Or complain about the fact that he orders the same damn thing every time we get Chinese,” West muttered as he grabbed the last open chair at the table, putting himself between Charlie and Ed.
“God! Does he still do that? Shrimplo meinwith extra snow peas and extra shrimp, two spring rolls, and a gallon of soy sauce,” Soren recited and finished with a cackle.
“You know what?” Kairo started as he returned with a huge plate full of food. Isidore’s mouth dropped open. It smelled heavenly, but there was no way he was going to be able to eat all of that. Kairo set the plate down and flipped the middle finger of each hand to the men lining the table. “Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. And fuck you,” he said to each person who’d spoken about him. “Why don’t you let Isidore discover all my annoying traits on his own? Don’t ruin the surprise for him.”
The room exploded with laughter while Isidore wrapped an arm around Kairo’s waist, locking him to his side. He stared up at the man who was laughing with his friends. He liked seeing this lighter side of him. While they were held prisoner, he’d joked and told funny stories, but there was always a tension about him, as if he were poised on the edge of attacking. Always ready. Surrounded by his friends, he was relaxed and happy.
Kairo turned his attention to Isidore, his smile softening. “Don’t listen to their stories. They’re all exaggerations. Also, don’t worry about eating all of that. If you can’t, the vultures will be happy to pick at the remains.”
With a final pat on his shoulder, Kairo returned to the kitchen to finish his cleanup while Isidore worked on the massive breakfast before him. Naturally, Kairo’s interesting extended family proceeded to tell one insane story after another about their adventures and Kairo.
And his new lover was correct. The second he proclaimed he couldn’t eat another bite, Ed snagged the plate and dragged it closer, where Soren, Alexei, Ed, and West worked on polishing off the rest.
“As much as I love torturing Kairo, we should probably get down to business,” Charlie began, drawing a pall over the jovial tone of the room. He rested both of his forearms on the table and threaded his fingers together as he stared at Isidore at the opposite end. “The sooner we uncover who is behind this threat on your lives, the sooner we can get you to something that resembles normalcy.”
Except Isidore didn’t want his normal, old life back. He wanted to stay with Kairo and the rest of the team. He wanted to have fun with them and make a positive difference in people’s lives. Sure, he did plenty of charity work, but that was largely making donations and throwing parties to convince other people to make donations. Kairo, Charlie, and the others were doing important things to save people.
But it wasn’t just his life thrown into turmoil. Athena’s life had also been put on hold, and she was on the cusp of starting a brand-new journey. This wasn’t fair to her.
Isidore nodded, fighting to hold Charlie’s direct gaze. “I’ve been giving this a lot of thought since Kairo first brought up the idea that someone we knew had likely ordered the kidnapping. On the business side of things, I’ve come up with a list of about fifteen people who could possibly have regular access to my schedule or would have access to people who would know my schedule. These include the CEOs of all my major business ventures and a few of the CFOs as well. All my companies regardless of size run regular audits of the finances, and I oversee all of them.” He paused and flashed a crooked smile. “Numbers happen to be one of the few things I’m good at. There is nothing that has appeared in any of the companies in the last six months that look irregular. If this is about money, it has to do with their personal finances, and I don’t know anything about that. I don’t like to intrude on the personal lives of my employees.”
He paused and stared at the shiny dark wood surface of the table. Kairo surprised him by crossing from where he’d been leaning against the doorway from the kitchen to sitting down on the arm of his chair. It was slender and hard, so it couldn’t have been comfortable, but Isidore so very much appreciated his concern.
Kairo placed an arm across his shoulders and gave him a little squeeze. “Just get me the names and any information that you might have. I’ll handle the digging. I promise not to tell you anything you don’t need to know for this case.”
That was the easy part.
“Is there anyone else you can think of outside of work who might target you? Maybe even a business rival.”
Isidore hesitated. Athena reached across from where she was seated on his right and grabbed his hand with both of hers. She flashed him a reassuring smile while her wide eyes filled with worry.
“We promise, Izzie, anything you tell us here will never leave this room,” Soren firmly said. It was enough to get the words flowing again.
“There are also several members of my family who would prefer to see both of us dead,” Isidore admitted.
“How many?”
“All of them,” Athena answered sharply. Isidore instantly squeezed her hands, hating the pain that cut through her words.
“What?” Kairo gasped, though Isidore was sure he’d heard it, and variations echoed through the room.
Hesitantly, Isidore looked up at Kairo, worried that he would see horror or even disgust in the man’s eyes. But Kairo stared down at him with only aching sympathy and heartbreak. He knew what it was like to have family troubles. Just not on this scale.
“Take your time,” Kairo murmured. His right hand wrapped around the back of Isidore’s neck and gently rubbed at tense muscles, working to loosen them one by one.
He turned his attention to the rest of the room and took a deep breath. “My father took over the family business that my great-grandfather started and my grandfather built up. His two younger brothers and sister worked for the company for a bit, but later lost interest and left. They were content to live off the trust funds that had been set up for them.”
“They also thought they’d inherit big later,” Athena added.
“When our grandfather passed about eight years ago, he left controlling interest in the conglomerate to my father.”
“Everything?” Will gasped.
“Mostly,” Isidore corrected before Athena could jump in. “They received some smaller payouts and some property, but they didn’t acquire any new shares. That all went to my father, Christos.”
“And this created the bad blood,” Charlie filled in.