A Tale of Two Cousins (A Papaioannou Novel Book 3) Page 19

  “Thank you,” I said, turning so that I could smile at him. “Are we ready to go? I should probably walk Valentino in case he needs to go potty.”

  Harry grunted a little as she let Iakovos get her to her feet. “Not that I have ever heard of a cat who will do that on a leash, but you don’t need to. Iakovos put him in that big planter on the side while you and Dmitri were not having sex, and Valentino evidently did a little excavating in the dirt before he did his business there.”

  “You’re going to be cleaning that up later,” Iakovos told Dmitri, who just laughed.

  ELEVEN

  The charity function was not being held at a hotel, as I imagined. Instead, it took up the entire upper-floor ballroom of a building in the heart of Athens, which was evidently used for important social events. The other floors were off-limits to the attendees, with the bank of four elevators running only from the ground floor up to the top. Security, I couldn’t help but notice as we passed through a metal detector, was pretty tight. I wondered if it was simply a reflection of the times, or if there was an expected threat. There certainly were enough security guards milling around the lobby, checking everyone’s invitations and waving wands up and down those folks whose keys or accessories set off the metal detector.

  We made it through the security, and upstairs, garnering only a few odd looks when people spotted Valentino in my arms.

  “Don’t give him anything salty to eat, since I didn’t bring a water bowl for him,” I told Dmitri when he showed the invitation a second time to two men who were guarding the double doors that led into the ballroom.

  “We can probably find a bowl for him.”

  “He’ll just have to pee if he drinks. He should be fine for a few hours, since he just went, but I don’t want him loading up his bladder until we get home.” To my relief, the room wasn’t packed, although the people who were there were in full evening dress, the men all in tuxes of various designs and colors, while the women were dressed to the nines, sequins and beads sparkling everywhere I looked. I won’t say I stood out like a sore thumb, but for a moment, I wished I’d given in to Harry’s urging and had borrowed one of her sister-in-law’s formal dresses.

  “I’ll have to leave you midway through the proceedings,” Dmitri said, when we went to what was apparently an assigned table with Harry, Iakovos, and two other couples.

  “I figured they probably wanted to round up you bachelors into a corral or something, just in case one of you barged out and got married on a whim,” I answered, sitting down at the table and setting Valentino on Harry’s seat, since she was making herself comfortable on a barstool that sat behind a podium next to a stage.

  “One of them is, but I’d hardly call marrying you a whim,” he answered, brushing his hand across the back of my neck in a caress that had me shivering. Someone called his name, and he lifted a hand in acknowledgment. “Will you be all right here if I leave you for a few minutes? I see a business contact that Jake wants to sweeten, and I might be able to help.”

  “I’m an introvert, not agoraphobic, Dmitri. I’ll be fine by myself, not that I’m alone when I have Valentino to protect me,” I said, smiling up at him. His almost dimples flashed, and he leaned down to give me a swift kiss.

  “Just remember that you’re my princess,” he answered, somewhat cryptically, I thought, and then he moved off through the sea of tuxedos and sequins.

  I watched him talk to an older man and woman, noting to myself how graceful he was, hugging the secret knowledge of what he looked like under that tuxedo. My mind touched for a moment on the episode in Theo’s bedroom, but I shied away from the declaration I’d made. I knew I was going to have to address it, both with myself and with Dmitri, but I didn’t want to do it here, surrounded by people.

  “Besides,” I told Valentino in a whisper as the cat sat and watched the people around him with interest. “I may be his princess, but he’s our hunky Greek heartthrob, and we’re not going to let him get away.”

  Valentino slid me a yellow-eyed gaze before turning his head to look at Iakovos, who sat in the seat next to his. Iakovos gave him almost exactly the same sort of measuring look, then straightened the bow tie portion of the collar, which had been knocked askew when I had carried him in. Once that was done, Iakovos slid his gaze up to me, one of his eyebrows cocked. And it was at that moment that I ceased to be intimidated by him, and accepted him as Dmitri’s much-loved cousin. “Dmitri tells me you don’t care for crowds. If this becomes too much for you, feel free to step out. There’s a balcony to the right of the doors where people go to have cigarettes, if you need a breath of air that isn’t polluted by too many women wearing too much perfume.”

  “Thanks,” I told him. “I’ll remember that.”

  He got up when Harry frantically waved at him, returning almost immediately. “Harry wants to know if you’d mind the cat sitting up with her. She feels like he would be a good mascot, and that people will bid more if he’s helping her.”

  “It’s fine with me. Let’s see how Valentino feels about it.” I walked him over to where Harry sat, now accompanied by Patricia.

  The tiny little blonde shot me one very hard look, but for the most part, she pretended not to see me. “Once the women are done, we’ll have a half-hour break so the desserts can be brought in, and then we’ll start with the men. Are you sure you’re going to be able to do this?”

  “Perfectly,” Harry said with dignity, squaring her shoulders. She stacked the cards in front of her, tidying them into an ordered pile. “Oh, there he is. Thyra, you don’t mind if I borrow him, do you? He looks so dashing with his bow tie on, and who doesn’t love a cat?”

  “I don’t. I’m allergic to them,” Patricia said. “I’ll be backstage, but we should be ready to start in five minutes.”

  “Oh good, time for one last potty break,” Harry said. Then she hurried off, giving Iakovos a little kiss on his jaw on her way to the restrooms.

  “You have some lipstick there,” I told him, nodding toward the mark while I pulled a tissue out of my cleavage.

  “I’m sure I do. Harry likes to mark me whenever Patricia is around. No, I can’t remove it yet. She’ll just do it again until Patricia sees it.” The look on his face was martyred resignation, but it had me making a mental note to get myself a tube of bright red lipstick just in case I needed it with Dmitri.

  Since Valentino seemed quite happy to sit on a light blue woolen shawl that Harry had carried with her, looking like some exotic orange feline potentate examining his minions, I returned to my table with Iakovos. He lasted a minute before he, too, saw someone he wanted to talk to.

  I didn’t mind sitting by myself. I smiled when the two other couples assigned to the table periodically returned, only to see another acquaintance who needed to be greeted. I just sat and watched everyone, trying to pick Dmitri out of the crowd, but there were more people here than at the previous party, the ballroom about half-full. A catwalk extended from the stage, with big placards on easels on either side announcing the charity auction, one of which had a picture of Harry and a mention that she was a famous author.

  Dmitri returned just as the lights flashed a few times, warning people that the shindig was about to begin, giving me a quick glance. “Everything OK?” he asked when he took the seat next to me.

  “Sure. Was your schmoozing successful?” I asked.

  “I hope so. Jake used to send Theo out to deal with people he wanted to influence, and I’m afraid I don’t have his charm.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” I said, pulling my tissue out again, and leaning across him to wipe the far edge of his mouth, where a smear of maroon remained. “Looks to me like you made at least one woman happy.”

  He eyed me with a hesitant air.

  I smiled and leaned in to whisper in his ear, “Don’t look so wary. I know you’re not going to run around kissing other women. I assume that was a friendly little greeting from Audrey.”

  “You are a paragon amongst women,” he
said, lifting my hand, and kissing my fingers. “And yes, it was. She nailed me before I could move an appropriate distance away.”

  “She’s going to bid for you, you know,” I said with a sigh that I couldn’t help. Music blared at the same time Patricia walked out to the center of the stage, welcoming everyone to the event, and listing details about the charity itself (a children’s hospital). I leaned closer to Dmitri so I could be heard over Patricia. “And I just bet she’s going to ask you to do all sorts of immoral things once she buys you.”

  A muscle in his jaw twitched. I’d chosen my words carefully, knowing he wouldn’t like the reference to being bought. “She can ask me to do whatever she wants. What I will do is another matter,” was all he said.

  I settled back, and we sat through almost an hour of various women—young twenty-somethings all the way up to a very bent old lady of eight-two (who got an astonishing bid from an equally bent and white-haired old man)—parading up and down the catwalk, while Harry gave the volunteers’ names, a few interesting biographical details, and then some witty banter that had the crowd loosening up, and bidding freely.

  Dmitri had been given a cardboard paddle with a number on it when we entered, and when they were about two-thirds of the way through the bachelorettes, he leaned over and asked me, “You know, if you wanted to borrow some money against your salary, I would have no problem writing a check for whatever amount you needed.”

  I looked from the young woman on the stage to him, frowning. “You want me to bid on one of these girls? I admit this one is pretty, but I don’t really swing that way.”

  “I meant in case you wanted to bid on someone male.”

  I stared at him, wondering if he meant himself, or another man. “Er ... I don’t need another man, either.”

  “Me!” he said loudly, causing Iakovos to shoot him a warning look. Dmitri leaned in closer. “I thought you might want to try to outbid Audrey. I just wanted you to know that since the money goes to charity, I would be happy to loan you whatever amount you needed to do so.”

  I thought about it, I really did. The idea of seeing Audrey’s face when I bid some obscene amount of money and got Dmitri out from under her nose was enticing, but in the end, sanity prevailed. “Thank you, but although I’d be happy to donate to the charity, I think I’d rather work for it in some other way.”

  “I just wanted to make sure you know that option is available,” he told me.

  The intermission allowed everyone to get up and stretch their legs, as well as hit a glorious display of dessert items.

  “Do you mind if I keep Valentino for the second half?” Harry asked around a mouthful of the most deliciously sinful chocolate gâteau. “Several people have told me how cute he is.”

  “Sure, so long as he doesn’t mind.” I looked down to where Valentino was on the floor, doing a spot of intimate grooming. “That’s right, get that out of your system. You have to be handsome and charm all the ladies into bidding like crazy.”

  I saw Audrey twice during the break, but neither time did she do more than shoot me potent glares. I was happy to see that she didn’t have a black eye, although I did narrow my eyes a bit when, as Dmitri returned from a visit to the men’s room, she snagged him by the arm and dragged him over to a group of women, all of whom cooed over him.

  “You’ll get used to that,” Harry said, standing up.

  I glanced up at her, handing her Valentino’s leash. “Really?”

  She made a face. “No. But you’ll learn how to deal with it better. Dammit, Yacky got that lipstick off. He knows better. Time to reapply it ...”

  She went to retake her seat, Iakovos coming to help her. I caught him hiding her evening bag when she was looking for it, which made me smile until I saw that Dmitri was still in the clutches of Audrey.

  “Right,” I said to no one in particular, “I may not have lipstick that will show up, but I think I can do a little something to let Audrey and her gang know he’s very taken.”

  I started to stroll over to him, but just then Harry announced that the bachelor part of the evening’s auction was about to start, and would all participants please go to the backstage area.

  Dmitri gave me a little wave as he headed off with about thirty other men, none of whom were as handsome as he was. I caught a look of triumph in Audrey’s eyes when she glanced toward me, but I didn’t let it bother me. She could pretend to herself all she wanted; I knew the truth.

  When I was about to return to my seat, one of the men who guarded the door came up to me, a slip of paper in his hand. “You are Thyra Beck?” he asked, mentioning the surname that Chris and I used when we needed to provide one.

  “Yes.”

  “I have a message for you. It came in to the desk downstairs,” he said, glancing at the note. “It asks that you call a Christian Beck immediately.”

  A cold chill hit my gut. Chris! Something must be horribly wrong if he had called me. “Oh, lord. Uh ... I don’t have a phone.” I spun around to look for Harry and Iakovos, but she was in full swing describing the first bachelor, and Iakovos was nowhere to be seen.

  “There is a phone in the ladies’ room,” the man told me, opening the door. “Down the hall, turn right, first door on the left.”

  “Thank you,” I told him, dashing from the room. The door clicked closed behind me, cutting off the noise of the music and Harry, leaving me with only the sound of my heart beating wildly in my ears.

  It took a few tries before I managed to get an operator who would accept my emergency-use-only credit card to make a call to Chris, but at last, I heard his sleepy voice.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, clutching the pay phone. “Are you hurt? Did you get shot? You got shot, didn’t you! I knew that one day you’d get shot.”

  “Thyra? What in the blazes are you babbling about? What time is it?” I heard a click. “For God’s sake, it’s half after nine. I just went to bed half an hour ago.”

  “It’s not that late—”

  “Not if you haven’t been involved in preserving a fragile crime scene for the last twenty-seven hours without a break. I have to be up in six hours, Thyra. What is so important that you are depriving me of sleep that I desperately need?”

  I stared at the fancy tile wall, not understanding. “What ... you called me.”

  “I did not. I was asleep.” He yawned loudly. “For all of a half hour.”

  “But—I got a message saying to call you.”

  “Someone’s yanking your chain. Probably Maggie or Kardom.”

  “Oh, God. I can’t imagine Maggie doing it, but Kardom ...” I spun around, expecting to see him loom up in the doorway, but it was empty of anyone. “You’re sure you’re OK.”

  “Yes. And I have to be up early so I can clear a few cases in order to—”

  “Thank God,” I interrupted, feeling more than a little twitchy at being away from everyone. “Sorry for waking you, Chris. Go back to sleep. Night.”

  He murmured something, but I didn’t wait to hear him complain about being woken again. I hurried out of the bathroom, and tried to open the door to the ballroom, still looking behind me every few seconds, but there was no one lurking menacingly in the hallway.

  The door refused to budge. I knocked on it, and a man pushed it open, peering out at me. “Hi,” I said, and tried to sidle inside it. He blocked me with an arm across the door.

  “Do you have a ticket?” he asked.

  “No, my ... er ... fiancé has it.” I pointed into the room. “He’s in there. If I could just go in—”

  “No one is allowed in without tickets,” he said, starting to close the door.

  “Hey, wait a minute,” I said, unable to believe what was happening. “I just left here to go to the bathroom. You must have seen me.”

  The man shook his head. “We just came on duty.”

  “Great. What timing. Where’s the guy who brought me a message a few minutes ago? He’ll vouch for me.”

  “What man?”
/>
  “Tall, dark hair, little goatee.”

  The man shook his head. “There is only Stavros and me on duty, and neither of us has a goatee. Please remove yourself from the door, or I will be forced to call security.”

  “Oh, for the love of all that’s good on this earth—fine. Iakovos Papaioannou. You know him, right? He’s at the table I was at. If you go ask him, he’ll tell you I’m with his wife and him.”

  “I thought you said you were with a fiancé?” the annoying doorman said, giving me a bit of a sneering look.

  “I am! Iakovos is his cousin. Just go ask him!”

  Once again, the man shook his head. “I am not allowed to disturb the patrons.”

  “It won’t be disturbing him—”

  “Is there a problem?”

  A familiar voice burbled out the door to me. The man who stood blocking the entrance with his body shifted slightly until I could see Patricia.

  “No problem, Mrs. Perry. This woman claims to have been inside, but she has no ticket, and neither Stavros or I saw her leave.”

  I swallowed my anger, and kept a pleasant expression on my face. “Patricia, would you mind telling these two that I am with Dmitri, and that he has our tickets?”

  “I’m sorry,” Patricia said, her eyes alight with enjoyment. “But I’m afraid these gentlemen are correct. You must have a ticket in order to be allowed entrance. We have to keep a tight control over who gets in, you know. If you don’t have a ticket, then you’ll have to leave.”

  I stared at her in utter disbelief for a minute before my ire rose. “You may think kicking me out will help your treacherous friend, but all it’s going to do is piss off Dmitri even more than he already is pissed off.”

  “Call security if she doesn’t leave in the next ten seconds,” Patricia said, turning away with a smile on her lips, which I badly wanted to slap right off her face.

  I started forward, but the two men shoved me back, slamming shut the doors. I banged on them a couple of times, but they didn’t open them again.