Spellbound in His Arms (10 page)

Maria was dead, and Aphrodite was in grave danger and
all for nothing. They weren’t even the heiresses. Michael was.

“Jackie!”

She heard him calling after her, but she didn’t stop.
She couldn’t face reality right now—she couldn’t face him. She needed to get
away and think. She kept on running, and entered the woods. Coming around a
large tree trunk, she was yanked from behind. She tried to yell, but a man’s
hand was firmly on her mouth and his other one holding her by the waist against
his chest. She stood there petrified, hearing Michael calling for her.

“Don’t you dare to make a sound
or else
…” a deep
masculine voice whispered in her ear in English with a distinct foreign accent.
Jackie froze in her place, having no doubt the threat implied was for real.

They stood still until Michael’s voice got further and
further away, and then, she felt the grip loosen. She was getting ready to turn
and face whoever it was, when she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head and
everything went blank.

***

Michael searched everywhere, but Jackie was nowhere to
be found. It was hours later, when he returned to the house and called Tony.
Things couldn’t get any worse, he thought, but he was dead wrong.

He listened to his partner reporting on his conversation
with Elizabeth Kristalis and felt his temper rising. Manos will pay for all
this, he swore underneath his breath, but for now, his priority was to find
Jackie. He gave Tony instructions and asked him to contact Stavros at the Corfu
Police Department. He wanted them to search for Jackie.

Stavros Doxiadis—Chief of the Corfu Police
Department—was a very close friend of Michael and his partner. They’d served
together in the Special Forces and later on had joined the Police Academy together. Along with Peter Costopoulos, the four of them were very close. Peter
was the only one who didn’t follow them to the Police Academy after the Special
Forces, but decided instead to become a reporter.

Michael had talked to Stavros earlier before coming to
the island. But after Jackie ran away from the hotel, Michael visited the
Police Department and informed his friend on some more details, and confided
his suspicions about Manos to him.

Stavros told Michael he had done some checking on his
own and found out some interesting things about Philip Manos and his dealings
on the island. He even told him that when some months back, their friend Peter
did an article on the Evergreens Resort and the controversial dealings taking
place over there, he received some threatening phone calls and notes. He told
Michael that Peter had information that a member of the Demiris family as well
as their attorney, Nancy Felini, were also involved in those dealings.

Stavros had also provided Michael with a police Jeep and
information that led him to believe Jackie had gone to the mansion.

Michael was very concerned about all this information
and wondered if there was really a member of the Demiris family involved.
And
if so, who was it? Was it Stephanos? And how much did Jackie know? Was she also
involved?

He had to move and he had to move fast. No matter
what—whether she was involved in the Evergreens Resort dealings or not—Jackie
had disappeared and he couldn’t jeopardize her life.

Jackie woke up with a
roaring headache. She felt cold and wet. Her body was aching from lying on
something hard.
Opening her eyes, she
realized she was lying on the ground inside a small cave with her hands tied
behind her back.

What happened? Where am I?
She uneasily scanned her surroundings. How did she end up here and
how long had she been here for?

She remembered someone grabbing her. Her heart started
pounding faster and her mouth went dry. Who was he and what did he want from
her? Would Michael be able to find her? Her mind was whirling from all that had
happened. Too late now, but she wished she’d stayed at the mansion with
Michael.

If only I could just stand up and try to make it to
the entrance of the cave.

She tried to move, but her entire body was numb. Before
she had any time to give it another try, she heard footsteps outside.
He’s
back
. She frantically looked around for any possible way to escape. There
seemed to be no other way out except the entrance of the cave. Thinking fast,
she decided the only thing she could do was to pretend she was still
unconscious. She could probably buy some time to figure a way out of this mess.

She laid still, trying to control her heavy breathing,
while cold sweat ran down her spine. She was terrified and it took every last
ounce of self control to resist the urge to open her eyes and face her
assailant.

She felt someone approaching and she lay as motionless
as she could, even though she was trembling uncontrollably inside. She felt him
leaning over her and unconsciously clenched her teeth, resisting the urge to
scream.

Jackie heard another noise coming from somewhere outside
the cave. The noise seemed to draw the assailant’s attention, and Jackie sensed
him move away from her.

She remained still for a moment longer and hearing
nothing, she let out a deep breath and opened her eyes. She couldn’t see much,
as it was getting dark outside so she just laid there praying.

It seemed like hours before she heard something moving
again outside. Or maybe it was just minutes. She wasn’t sure anymore. Agony and
fear had made her lose track of time. She held her breath, too scared to even
breathe.

“Jackie!”

She heard Michael’s voice and her heart skipped a beat.

“Jackie!” Yes, it was him all right and not her
imagination playing games with her.

“In here!” she yelled, with as much strength as she
could muster, feeling tears of relief run down her face.

A couple seconds later, Michael bent over her and cut
the ropes confining her with a knife.

As soon as her arms were free, Jackie threw herself in
his arms and started sobbing uncontrollably.

“Is he gone?” she asked in a broken voice.

Michael held her in his arms, caressing her hair and
whispering in her ear, trying to calm her. “Yes, he’s gone” he reassured her.
“Are you all right?” He pulled back to look at her face in the fading light.

“I’m fine now” she said and reached for him, not wanting
to let go.

“Can you walk?” He slid the knife into his boot and
helped her to her feet.

“I think so,” she replied and took a few steps, holding
onto his arm to prevent herself from sliding once again to the ground. Her
knees felt weak and her walk was unsteady, but she wanted to get out of there
as soon as possible. Deep down inside, she was worried that the man might come
back, and then they would both be in danger.

Michael squeezed her arm reassuringly. “Don’t worry!
Everything is fine.”

“I was so scared,” she admitted and looked at him with
eyes wide from fear.

“I’m here now and I’ll
never
leave you out of my
sight again,” he promised and looked at her tenderly. “I’ll always be here for
you, Jackie.”

She drew a deep breath, feeling her pulse accelerating
and a sizzling sensation spreading all over her body. Everything else seemed to
fade away, except Michael’s eyes staring into hers, holding her captive.

***

Michael seemed to be the first to recover from the
intensity of the moment. “We need to get back to the mansion” he said, drawing
his pistol from its holster. He wanted to get her inside as soon as possible. He
didn’t want to scare her, but on the other hand, he wasn’t sure who else might
be out there and what exactly he had to face. Being inside would give him an
advantage, at least for now.

“But who was he? Did you see him?” she insisted,
shivering.

“No,” Michael replied and this was partly the truth. The
man had seen Michael approaching and decided to flee. But Michael had gotten a
glimpse of him, as he approached the area. He wanted to go after him, but at
the moment he was more anxious to find Jackie and make sure she was all right
than anything else.

The figure he had seen tonight, though, looked nothing
like the previous two intruders.
What’s going on?
Who were all these
people and who was hiding behind them? Was it Manos, as Michael suspected, or
was it someone else?
What got him even more puzzled was that the
well-built, muscular figure he’d seen tonight seemed vaguely familiar. Who was
that man and why had he kidnapped Jackie?

“Michael…” he heard her calling and realized that he was
squeezing her arm hard.

“I’m sorry” he murmured and immediately loosened his
grip on her arm. Then he led her outside the cave and back to the mansion
through the woods.

***

Jackie felt safe and relieved walking next to him in the
dark. Even though they had no flashlight and there was no moon, Michael seemed
to know exactly where he was going.
He knows these woods like the back of
his hand
.

She realized he must have known about the other way out
too, but for some reason, he hid it from her.
Why?
The question burned
in her mind, but she decided to leave it for later. Right now, all she needed
was a hot bath and a good night’s sleep. She was in no position to think any
more. She was exhausted physically and above all emotionally. This whole
experience had been an emotional rollercoaster and she couldn’t wait for
everything to end.

Jackie was sure Michael kept secrets from her. No matter
what though, she needed his help. She was in way over her head. This was a very
dangerous situation, not to mention the fact she was in a foreign country, a
stranger among strangers. Michael was her only contact and she needed to stay
close to him, at least for now.

***

Manos paced up and down his office, fuming. He had been
waiting on Roussos for the last couple of hours.
Where the hell is he? What
if something went wrong?

A knock on the door made him stop and spin around to
face it. “Come in!”

Roussos stepped inside.

“Where the hell have you been?” Manos yelled.

“I came as soon as I could,” Roussos replied.

“So, what happened? Did you find them?”

“They weren’t in the attorney’s office. I turned the
whole damn place upside down, but found nothing.”

“What?” Manos slammed his fist on his desk. “What do you
mean they weren’t there? Where could they be?”

“I have no idea…maybe…”

“Maybe, what?”

 “They might be at a bank.”

“A safety deposit box!” Manos exclaimed. “Why didn’t I
think of that? All we need to do is find out which bank the attorney was
dealing with.”

“Find the bank and then
what
? Breaking into the
attorney’s office is one thing, but robbing a bank?”

“We’ll do what we
have to do
,” Manos replied
giving Roussos a lethal look.

“You’ll have to find someone else for
that!
Banks
aren’t my kind of thing.”

Manos looked at Roussos and smiled approvingly. He
wasn’t only good at getting things done, but he had turned out to be a fine
actor, as well. That idiot son of his was in for a real treat.

“Get out of here!” he roared. “I’ll take care of
everything myself.”

Roussos turned to leave, when he heard Manos’ voice.
“And don’t forget Elizabeth. I want this taken care of right away.”

“Yes, sir” Roussos replied and closed the door behind
him, uttering a silent curse.

***

Roussos stood for a second outside Manos’ office, just
long enough to exchange a look with Eric, who was standing at the door of the
dark closet behind Elizabeth’s empty office. Then, he left quietly.

Eric stood at the dark closet, smiling satisfied.
It
was so smart of me
, he thought,
to get Roussos on my side
.

Roussos hated Philip Manos as much as Eric did. And now
Eric had an even greater reason to hate Philip. Roussos had given Eric
Michael’s birth certificate which he had stolen from the mansion, after he had
left the attorney’s office empty handed.

This document infuriated Eric, and he realized one more
time his father was nothing but a ruthless bastard, who didn’t hesitate to
destroy other people’s lives for his own gain. And not only that, but he took
pleasure out of doing it, as well.

***

Michael sat at the kitchen table with his notes and a
hot cup of coffee in front of him. Now that Jackie was safely sleeping
upstairs, he could concentrate on the evidence he had so far.

Tony and he had been watching Manos for quite some time
now and were sure he was involved in all kind of illegal stuff. But they needed
proof—solid evidence—to put him behind bars once and for all. Philip Manos was
a very rich and powerful man with high profile social connections and no one
had been able to touch him so far.

The night of the shipwreck that had killed Constantinos
and his father came back to his mind and Michael clenched his fists, trying to
control the rising flames of anger threatening to engulf him. Somehow, deep
down inside, he knew that Manos had something to do with that too.

He had to put a stop to this man. There had been too
many deaths and for what? Nothing more than a piece of property! He was sure
everything had to do with the mansion and the eight-hundred acres surrounding
it. Andreas Demiris was probably driven off the cliff, and the sailboat was
most likely blown up.

Michael hadn’t been able to rest ever since. A horrible
nightmare would torture him night after night. He was on the deck of a sailboat
in the middle of the storm and was reaching for his father, as huge waves
snatched him away.

And then Alexandra Demiris, so young and so beautiful,
was killed, before she even had a chance to live. And Maria, Jackie’s cousin,
who had been just as young as Alexandra.

Enough
! Michael hit his
fist on the table.
I’ll get you Manos
, he promised to himself.
I’ll
make sure you pay for all the people you’ve hurt! I’ll make sure you pay for
what you did to my mother.

***

Jackie woke up in the middle of the night with a
terrible headache. The few hours she managed to sleep were filled with
nightmares and she could feel her heart thudding in her chest. In her dream,
she kept hearing the man’s voice—“Don’t you dare to make a sound or
else…”—deadly threatening, but at the same time,
somewhat familiar
.

A few minutes later, she was walking into the kitchen to
find Michael asleep with his head on the kitchen table. An empty cup of coffee
and some notes were spread out in front of him.

She tiptoed closer and took a look at the papers. A
shiver raced up her spine, as she saw a list of names, including Maria’s and
Alexandra’s. Jackie was sure the rest of the people on the list were also
dead—killed by whomever or whatever was after the heirs of the Demiris’
fortune.

Thinking of Alexandra, Jackie was now even more
convinced there was something fishy about the girl’s accident.

The day she had spent in Athens before coming to Corfu, she had visited the offices of a newspaper and had gathered all the information she
could find on the Demiris family. Oddly enough, there was no information about
Michael, but after all, he wasn’t a relative.

But he was the sole heir
,
she thought bitterly and looked at the back of his head, lying on the table.

She felt the urge to reach over and caress his hair but
pulled herself together immediately.
He’s not to be trusted
, she told
herself one more time.
He lied about being stranded out here, when he knew
that there was another way out.
But she’d lied about that too, she reminded
herself.

She remembered the attorney’s murder and realized that
Michael had lied about his cell phone as well. His phone had to be working in
order to get this information.

She was standing there going over everything in her
mind, when she realized Michael had opened his eyes and was watching her.