Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 84544 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84544 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
“Is that Uncle Yiorgos’s son Dimos or Aunt Maria’s Dimos?” Because of course they had to have two different cousins named Dimos. They had eighteen cousins and a gaggle of second cousins. Not to mention the extended family who were often called uncle, aunt, or cousin but were just friends of the family.
“Yiorgos.”
Isidore closed his eyes and swallowed a groan. He had his doubts as to whether that Dimos was smart enough to get into college in the first place. The other Dimos he didn’t know well at all, but he thought that cousin did fine on his own.
“I sent him a copy of the form your lawyer worked out and told him that any scholarship requests or college assistance needed to go through those channels. My accountants and lawyers wouldn’t allow me to just randomly send money.”
Some of the tension relaxed from his shoulders. After the family had failed to steal their inheritance through the courts, they started making random requests for financial help. Knowing his weakness to help anyone who asked, he got his accountants and lawyers to cook up a series of lengthy request forms. If someone wanted even a single euro from either of the orphaned Panopoulos children, they needed to fill out the forms, which required more lawyers to even complete. This helped to weed out the con artists and leeches very quickly. It also helped to alleviate his feelings of guilt while protecting his sister.
“Good job,” he murmured. “Don’t worry about talking to Kairo and his team about our family. I’ll handle it.”
Athena pulled away from him enough to meet his gaze. “What about you? Do you have any ideas?”
He shook his head slowly. “No one immediately springs to mind. I haven’t had any recent encounters with the family that stand out as different for me. It’s been at least a month since I’ve heard from any of them. They’ve largely stopped trying because they know that all their messages go through my assistants first.”
Sadly, he also had business partners, associates, and even employees to consider. So many people he interacted with on a daily basis. Did that many really want his money badly enough to kill him?
Athena squeezed his arm, pulling him from his dark thoughts with her sunny smile. “Don’t worry. We’re not alone anymore. All those men downstairs will help us. Kairo is not going to let anyone hurt us.”
“You’re right. We’ll be okay.”
But it did create a new little doubt in his brain that he did not need. After Kairo spent countless hours digging through his nightmare of a family, would he want anything to do with him? That seemed…unlikely.
No sane person wanted to get embroiled in the Panopoulos family.
11
KAIRO JONES
Kairo rubbed one eye with the heel of his palm and stumbled to his bedroom door. He couldn’t decide if he’d heard a mouse knock or if it was simply the house settling. He’d been tossing and turning for the past two hours. Sleep should have been easy to find after the ridiculously long, eventful day, but instead his brain was full of Isidore.
When he heard the ultra-soft knock the first time, he thought he’d finally drifted off and dreamed it. The second time was not a dream.
The only problem was that he couldn’t imagine any of his friends making such a tiny noise. They were loud and intrusive. That left only Isidore and Athena.
Pulling open his door, he was greeted with the adorable sight of a slightly rumpled Isidore standing in the hall lit by only a nightlight plugged in near the baseboard. He was in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt borrowed from West since they were of similar height and build.
He was definitely getting Isidore some of his own clothes tomorrow, even if he needed to leave the house to get them himself.
“What’s up?” Kairo whispered. Charlie and Will also had a bedroom on this floor, while Ed, West, Alexei, and Soren were crammed into two smaller rooms on the first floor.
Isidore shot him a weak, nervous smile, looking as if he were preparing to bolt back to the room he was sharing with Athena. “Sorry. Did I wake you? I wanted to ask a favor.”
“No. I was awake. What’s up?”
“Can I sleep with you?”
Kairo’s brain became static. There wasn’t a single thought as he stared at the man other than the fact that he’d been wrong earlier. He was asleep and this was the best dream ever. If someone woke him up right now, he was going to murder them.
Isidore’s face turned bright red and he waved both hands at Kairo. “No! I didn’t mean it like that. I—”
Grabbing one of Isidore’s wrists, he jerked the man into the room, shut the door behind him, and flipped on the overhead light. His voice was growing louder in his panic, and Kairo did not want them to suddenly have an audience. When he turned back to Isidore, it was to find him standing in the middle of the room with his hands covering his face.