Somehow, he made his tone even. “Angelina, come inside.”
She instantly stiffened, her bony shoulders poking out of her T-shirt like spikes. “I don’t want to come inside. I just want to know if it’s true.”
“What is?”
“Ms. Drakos, is she leaving Drakon?” Damn it, he’d hoped she hadn’t heard it yet. “Did she tell you?”
“No,” he lied, feeling a hateful powerlessness within. It seemed nothing he offered could induce the Princess to stay. “But I heard one of the staff talking. They said she’s going away for a while.”
“Will she come back soon?”
His jaw tight, Gabriel shrugged. “It’s possible, yes. She...said she might be gone for a month or two. She has her own life, pequeña.” The Princess had made that very clear. And looking back over their argument, Gabriel cursed. For a businessman who thrived on negotiations and sweet-talking opponents into his camp, he had acted like a fool. Pushed all the wrong buttons.
Just as she did in him.
The sound of a soft whimper from his daughter jerked his head up. Christ, he would welcome the rebellion over this dejection in her eyes.
“Angelina, you will see her again. And even if Ms. Drakos leaves, you will make new friends. And I’ll always—”
Tears drew paths over her cheeks as his twelve-year-old leaned against the wall and sobbed silently. Something twisted in his chest and Gabriel fisted his hands.
He reached her and even in the midst of her tears, she shrank from him. He caught the curse that wanted to escape his mouth and waited.
Roughly, and with a self-sufficiency that smacked of someone much older, she wiped at her cheeks and looked up at him. Retreated into herself. “Everyone leaves me. First it was my granddad. Then Mom. Now Ms. Drakos.”
“I won’t, Angelina.”
“That’s what you say.”
“What can I do, Angelina? Tell me.”
“You could ask Ms. Drakos not to leave. If you truly care about me, Mr. Marquez,” she drawled in her American accent, as if such a thing was an impossibility, “you will somehow make Ms. Drakos stay.”
Even the request was made with such resignation, such lack of faith that Gabriel felt winded.
Before he could answer, his daughter turned and walked away, her shoulders dejected. Without once looking back.
* * *
“He wants you to be his daughter’s nanny?” said her sister-in-law Mia, who was heavily pregnant with twins, on their morning walk around the gardens Nik had had built for Mia.
Eleni nodded. “Wants? More like ordered me. You should’ve seen him, Mia. He got this look in his eyes, like he wasn’t seeing me anymore. Just a solution to his problem.”
That would make everything right in his world, like all arrogant men expected from those around them.
In the week since Gabriel had made that outrageous offer, she hadn’t heard from him. Hopefully, he’d come to his senses. Yet, Eleni continued to feel his considerable power like a shadow over her life.
The gardens were a riot of color, the sky a perfect blue. All in all, it had been one of those perfect Drakon autumn weeks. Everything was ripe and coming to fruition.
She’d made some inquiries into the orphanages in Drakon and submitted her paperwork. It could take months to get through the bureaucratic red tape, but a fierce sense of rightness filled her. And in the meantime, she was planning her trip.
It might not be as long as she’d suggested to Gabriel but it seemed like the perfect thing before she had a child of her own and the responsibility that would go with being a single mother.
“You refused, yes?” Mia probed.
“Of course, I did,” she replied, as her gaze shied away from Mia’s unbearable concern. Mia knew Eleni was attracted to Gabriel Marquez, that Angelina was coming to mean more and more to her every day. She felt naked, as if all her desperate longing was written on her face for everyone to see.
I could even be persuaded to kiss you again.
Humiliating heat filled her cheeks. She should’ve slapped the arrogant man.
“I’m worried about you, Ellie.” Mia clasped her fingers. “You’re getting far too attached to that little girl. I saw how upset she was a few days ago...”
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Eleni tried to sound casual. Angelina’s crumpled face wouldn’t leave her alone though. She’d been wrong in thinking she could walk out of Angelina’s life without hurting her. “I’ll be fine, Mia. If anything, these last few months with Angie have shown me how much I would like a baby of my own.”
Mia sent her a stunned glance just as they saw Nikandros walk toward them.
“What the hell is going on between you and Gabriel, Ellie?” Nik said, loudly enough for some of the garden staff to look up curiously.
Eleni frowned. “Just a disagreement about his daughter. Why?”
Nik looked away and back. “He’s threatening to pull Marquez Holdings out of Drakon if you don’t cooperate with his demand.”
“Cooperate? He can’t do that!” Eleni’s heart sank to her toes. She’d known he was ruthless, but this was beyond belief. “Can he, Nik? I know Andreas had his reservations about Gabriel but I thought we had an ironclad contract.”
Nik pushed his hand through his hair, visibly shaking. “We do. Legally, he can’t just pull his company out of Drakon. But the last thing we need in this economy is to get into a legal battle with him. He could raise a hundred issues and stall all our projects. He’s...everything Andreas said he is when things don’t go his way—an utter bastard. He’s already canceled two of the investor meetings for no good reason.”
Eleni rubbed a hand over her forehead, frustration coiling inside her. Just when she’d finally decided what she wanted in life... “I’ll do anything for you and Andreas and... Drakon, Nik.” Her daredevil brother had never seemed so anxious. “I’m sorry for—”
“Christos, Ellie! I don’t blame you for any of this.”
Eleni swallowed the lump in her throat. Her brothers did love her. Curse the blasted man for making her doubt it.
“All he keeps saying is that he wants full access to you. When I said you were not a resource to be loaned out, he had the gall to say that Andreas and I use you.” Nik looked away from her, shame filling his eyes.
“Nik, you can’t let him get to you like that.” And yet, Gabriel had pinpointed both her own fear and apparently Nik’s misgivings like a laser pointer. He rooted out weaknesses and he didn’t care what he did with them.
Fury coursed through her veins.
“He didn’t say anything I haven’t been thinking the last few months. What does he want with you?”
“He wants me to help him forge a connection between him and his daughter. Be...available to them. Make it a priority in my life. When I told him that I was planning to travel, he—” She shivered, remembering the look in his eyes. He hadn’t said anything and yet Eleni had known the matter was far from over. “He’s desperate and he’s pushing back.”
“Stop being so damned generous, Ellie.”
“I don’t like what he’s doing any more than you. Given the state Angelina was in when I told her, I...” Tears filled her eyes, frustration coiling inside her. “I feel guilty. I didn’t realize how attached she was getting to me.