For a moment, Isidore stood there, seeming to stare at the door. Kairo took in his slumped shoulders and the way he shoved one hand through his thick, black hair, pushing it from his face. He didn’t know what the fuck was going on, who these people were, or what anyone wanted from him, but he knew one thing: Isidore Panopoulos was as much a victim in this mess as he was.
His companion appeared to pull himself together—his shoulders straightened and he gave a tiny nod as if he’d finished with his personal pep talk. He turned to Kairo, and the smile on his lips was painful to look at. The worry filled his eyes and added a stiffness to his jaw.
“You know, I forgot to ask. You are Kairo Jones, right?”
“Yeah, I’m him,” Kairo slowly drawled.
Isidore huffed a small laugh. “That’s good. My people had only a small bit of information to work from and a very limited amount of time. It’s bad enough they had to kidnap you. I’d hate it if they’d kidnapped the wrong person.”
Kairo stared at him in mute horror. Questions raced through his brain, but there was only one truly pressing one.
“Mr. Panopoulos, why the fuck am I here?”
Isidore winced. When he did, it seemed to have pulled the newly bruised muscles in his face. His right cheek was bright red from being backhanded while his chin was also starting to change color. He lowered his eyes as he gingerly touched his chin and then his cheek.
“Oh, yes. Sorry. About that,” he murmured. “I need you to hack my telecommunications company so billions of euros’ worth of private information can be stolen.” He lifted his eyes, his tone growing more earnest as he lowered his voice. “But what I really need you to do is rescue and protect Athena.”
Hack a telecom company.
Save a…goddess?
That almost sounded sane.
Charlie’s going to fucking kill me when he finds me.
2
ISIDORE PANOPOULOS
This was a disaster.
Well, it could have been a whole lot worse.
But really, this was a disaster.
He’d dragged an innocent man into this mess he found himself in. Sure, maybe Kairo Jones was more experienced at dealing with this sort of thing, but he was a mercenaryfor hire. That meant that he always had the choice of which jobs to take and which to walk away from.
Yet, Isidore had stolen his choices away, gotten him drugged, and had him hauled across the globe so that his life would be put in danger.
Isidore walked over to the windows and stared out, trying to shove down the sense of panic that was attempting to overwhelm him and come up with something that was at least a little bit reassuring. He wanted to tell Kairo that if he did what Vanko said, he’d get out of this alive, but he wasn’t that naïve. There was only a small chance of them escaping with their lives if they didn’t come up with some kind of secret plan on their own. It was the entire reason he’d turned to Kairo Jones in the first place.
“Mr. Panopoulos?”
He could do this.
Kairo would have ideas on how to survive this. When they got out of this alive, he’d find a way to properly thank him. And even if he didn’t make it out, so long as Athena survived, she would undoubtedly reward the man for his troubles. It would be fine.
He walked over to the beds and sat on the edge of his, facing Kairo, and smiled, aiming for confident and relaxed, even if he didn’t entirely feel it. He’d faked his way through plenty of things in the past. This was no different.
“Really, you can call me Izzie. I don’t mind.”
The mercenary’s expression didn’t warm. Those amber-brown eyes didn’t even blink. He had him fixed with a cold stare as he waited for Izzie to begin talking. Even if he didn’t appear particularly happy, Izzie couldn’t overlook the fact that he was a very attractive man.
Shoulder-length dark-brown hair framed an oval-shaped face with deep-set eyes that were nearly overshadowed by thick eyebrows and a long, slender nose. His full lips were framed by a black beard and mustache. He also had the most interesting piercing under the center of his bottom lip where a silver ball poked out from a nest of black hair. It was the most tempting thing and kept drawing his eye. The strange urge to reach out and touch it poked at his brain.
A matching small silver hoop dangled from his right ear, but he couldn’t tell if there was an earring in his left because of his hair.
Yes, he was a stunningly attractive man. Izzie would have been content to just sit back and gaze at him for another hour or two, simply study all his features until he had them memorized.