“Oh, yes. You know us, Mr. Nikolaides,” she eventually bit out. “We Tomarases love helping clear up other people’s messes.”
Mr. Nikolaides blinked. Then smiled. “Yes, we do miss your mother’s deft touch up at the house. I trust she’s well?”
“Couldn’t be happier,” Cailey snapped.
“Mama’s very well, thank you Mr. Nikolaides.” Kyros’s hand tightened round Cailey’s arm. “We’re just off now, sir. Glad to see you weren’t hurt in the quake.”
He turned his sister around and frog-marched her away from the dark-windowed four-by-four, now weaving its way through the rubble strewn along the harborside road as if it had been thrown down by a petulant god.
“What was that all about?” Kyros growled.
“Nothing.”
He wasn’t to know Dimitri had all but packed her bags himself all those years ago. Demanded she never enter the Nikolaides house again. Not as a friend to his daughter Erianthe. Not as a “helping hand” to her mother. And especially not as anything whatsoever to do with Theo, his precious son who was prone to develop “a bleeding heart for the less fortunate.”
She launched herself at her brother for a bear hug. It was the easiest way to hide the lie she was about to tell. “I’m just tired after the overnight flight. Once I get to work I’ll be fine. It’s just weird seeing the island like this.”
“I know, huh?”
She could feel his voice rumble in his chest and cinched her arms just a little bit tighter around him. Once she let go of him she’d have to go and face the other Demon of Mythelios.
Full points to Dimitri for pipping her to the post. But she wouldn’t have been surprised if he was stalking the harbor for interlopers. Huh.
He looked old. The worn-out kind of old that came from emotional strain rather than physical. Proof he was human? Somewhere in there?
Besides, he’d only put a voice to what Theo and his mates had already been thinking, and no doubt Erianthe too, who hadn’t even had the guts to say goodbye to her before winging her way off to her fancy boarding school...
Bah! Enough of putting blame at other people’s doors. She’d believed everything Dimitri Nikolaides had said about her because there had been some truth in it. She wasn’t as smart as the others. She did have to work twice as hard to understand things. Finally figuring out she was dyslexic had helped. A bit. But it hadn’t made all the medical terminology easier to read. She’d just had to face facts. She wasn’t up to Nikolaides standards and no amount of teenage flirtation would change that.
A siren sounded and shouts erupted from a fire truck as it pulled to a stop beside them.
She gave her brother a final squeeze. “Go out there and save some lives.” She went up on tiptoe and gave each of Kyros’s ruddy cheeks a kiss.
“Same to you, Cailey.” He scrubbed a hand through her already wayward hairdo, if you could call stuffing her curls into submission with an elastic band a hairdo. “Welcome back.”
She smiled up at him, praying he wouldn’t see how their run-in with Dimitri Nikolaides had shaken her to her core. “It’s good to be here.”
* * *
“Is that enough?” Theo was impatient to get back to work. Yes, the media could help. No, he didn’t have a moment to spare.
The look on the reporter’s face acknowledged the question was rhetorical.
He undid the microphone and began to walk away, ignoring the pleas of the other reporters. They’d be better off showing footage of the rescue crews hard at work while he figured out how to help patients and simultaneously order the urgently needed helicopters to get the worst cases over to Athens.
He could call his dad.
He could also saw off his own hand. Lifting up that phone would come at a cost. It always did.
“Dr. Nikolaides?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t have time for any more interviews—”
“No! I’m not with the press. I’m a doctor. My name is Lea Risi.”
He stopped and turned. The woman was wearing holiday clothes. Chinos. A flowery top. Her accent was not local, but she spoke flawless Greek. Useful, considering there was a heavy mix of tourists and locals pouring into the clinic.
For just a nanosecond he rued the appeal of this gorgeous port town that drew holidaymakers from all around the world. If only they were on a rocky outcrop with a diminished population...
“Dr. Nikolaides!” A paramedic was calling him from the hastily put-together triage area off Reception.
He beckoned to Lea. “Come along, then.”
“Don’t you want to know my credentials?” She ran a few steps to catch up with his long-legged strides.
“Not particularly.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair, then pulled the shoulder-length mane back under control with an elastic band he’d picked up somewhere during the course of the day. He didn’t know when, exactly. Sixteen hours’ straight trauma work did that to a man. The details blurred.
“I’m a psychiatrist.”
He nodded. Fine. That meant she had medical credentials. “What do you want? Old or young?”
“Sorry?”
“We’ve got patients coming in from a care home and a school. Both were hit hard. We’re triaging on site and transporting to hospital with limited resources.”
He stopped and wheeled round, holding out his hands to steady her when she lost her balance trying not to collide with him.
“Apologies.” He shook his head. “I’m a bit short on manners today.”
“I totally understand. I just want to help.”
Theo put out a hand. “Good. Help is what we need. Theo Nikolaides.” They shared a quick handshake as he rattled off the necessary facts. “I run the clinic. With the help of some friends. Doctors.”
He silently reeled through the cities in the world where they might be. Was Deakin in Paris or Buenos Aires this month? And Christos...? New York. Definitely New York. Ares? Only heaven knew.
Burn specialist.
Neurosurgeon.
Miracle-worker.
If only they were all pilots. He needed them here. But they’d come...they would come.
“Put me wherever you think I’ll be best placed—”
Lea was about to say something else when his eyes latched on to a set of unruly curls weaving its way through the crowd jamming up the entryway into the clinic.
Christos!
A jolt of lightning would have affected him less.
What was Cailey Tomaras doing here? The last time he’d seen her—
“Doctor?”
“Sorry. I’m a bit frazzled.” He tapped the side of his head. “What did you say your name was again?”
“Leanora Risi. Lea. Just call me Lea.”
Her empathetic smile spoke volumes. She could see he was busy, but she wanted to help—and at this juncture he needed all the help he