for an international exporting company in New York. Did that company have an outlet in Greece? Did Dev work for it? Exporting could translate to mean shipping, couldn’t it? In her mind it wasn’t a far stretch to see where he might have come up with his lie.
What if Egnoussa was his home? Was he from that Vassalos family, with the kind of wealth that had opened every door for him? Maybe this was a stab in the dark, but the more she thought about him, the more the shoe seemed to fit. The cliché about looking like a Greek god fit him like a second skin.
She could phone the shipping company and ask questions. But since he obviously didn’t want to be found, if he was there or got wind that she was trying to reach him, she might never get answers. Scrolling down farther, she found more information.
After a short flight from Athens to the island of Chios, an hour’s boat ride takes you to Egnoussa Island. There’s one hotel with only twelve rooms, one taxi. You can walk Egnoussa in a day.
Her mind reeled with ideas. She could take some pictures of him with her and show them to someone at the shipping office. Stephanie would know immediately if that person recognized him. Maybe she was a fool, but for her baby’s sake she had to try to find him, and would use some of her savings to get there.
Stephanie called the doctor to make certain it was okay to fly. He told her she’d be all right for twenty-eight weeks. After that, she’d need to check with him about it. Since Greece didn’t require immunizations for visitors from the United States, she’d be all right.
Luckily, she already had a passport. When she and her friends had decided to vacation together, they’d applied for passports in case they decided on a vacation along the French or Italian Riviera. But in the end, the Caribbean had won out.
If she traveled to Greece and it turned out to be a fruitless mission, then so be it. Whatever happened, the sooner she went, the better for her state of mind. Unlike her mother, who didn’t attempt to tell her lover he was a father, at least Stephanie could explain to her child that she’d done everything humanly possible to locate the man who’d called himself Dev Harris.
Life was going to be difficult enough from here on out. She would have to discuss her condition with her boss. If he could give her a front desk job until after the baby was born, she’d be thankful and grateful. But if not, she’d need to start looking for another kind of job after she got back from Greece. Besides finishing paying off the mortgage, she needed to earn enough money to provide for herself and the baby.
CHAPTER TWO
July 28
NIKOS HAD BEEN out on the Diomedes for two weeks, but this afternoon he’d docked at the marina in Egnoussa. As soon as he replenished his food supply, he’d be leaving again. To his chagrin, he still needed support to move around, but had traded in his crutches for a cane. He used it only when he was exceptionally tired.
His right-hand man, Yannis, a seaman who’d worked for the family for over forty years, had just finished tying the ropes when Nikos’s silver-haired father approached them.
“Where have you been, Nikos?”
“Where I’ve been every day and night since I was released from the hospital, exercising and swimming off shore.” Battling his PTSD.
Despite taking medication, he’d had two violent episodes flashing back to the explosion. According to his doctor, with the passage of time they’d start to slow down, but it might take months or even years. For the time being Nikos had made the small custom-built yacht his home, where no one except Yannis could be witness.
What his family didn’t know was that some of his time had been spent with Kon’s grieving parents. He’d also had long talks with Kon’s married brother, Tassos, about many things. He was only a year older than Nikos and lived on Oinoussa, an island close to Egnoussa. Before Kon’s death the three of them had been close.
Tassos had gone into oil engineering and had recently returned after working on an oil rig in the southern Aegean. He had a brilliant head on his shoulders. He and Nikos had been talking a lot about Greece’s financial crisis and the direction of the country. For the time being Nikos mostly listened to Tassos, but he could scarcely concentrate while he felt half-alive.
“I’ve been phoning you for the last hour! Why didn’t you answer?” His father had to be upset to have come down to the dock.
“I was doing some shopping with Yannis, who’s bringing things on board from the car. What’s wrong?” His father looked flustered.
“You have a visitor.”
“If you mean Natasa, you’re wasting your time.”
“No. Someone else.”
“I can’t imagine who could be so important it would send you here.” Since returning home from the hospital, Nikos had stayed in touch with his family by phone, but he’d seen no one except Kon’s family and Yannis.
His father’s eyes, dark like his own, studied him speculatively. “Does this woman look familiar to you?”
He reached in his pocket and pulled out two snapshots. One showed Nikos and Stephanie in the dive boat. They’d just removed their gear and were smiling at each other. His breath caught at how beautiful she was. Angelo had taken the picture.
The other photo showed them on the beach with their arms around each other, right after the sun had set. In that sundress she’d looked like a piece of golden fruit. In fact that’s what he’d told her, among other things. The girl Delia, in housekeeping, had taken their picture.
“I take it she’s the woman who has erased thoughts of Natasa from your mind.”
Nikos could hear his father talking, but at the sight of Stephanie in those photos, he reeled so violently he almost fell off the pier into the water. She was here on the island? But that was impossible! There was no way on earth she could have found him.
“You were careless to allow yourself to be photographed in the Caribbean while you were still in active service. What is she to you, Nikos? Answer me.”
He couldn’t. He was still trying to grasp the fact that she’d flown to Greece and known exactly where to come.
“After looking at these pictures,” his father continued, “I’ve decided you’re in much deeper than I thought. Her beauty goes without saying, and she has a breathless innocence that could fool any man. Even you, my son.”
Nikos closed his eyes tightly.
“You’ve never looked at Natasa or any woman the way you’re looking at this female viper. I admit she’s devilishly ravishing in that American way, but she’s a mercenary viper nonetheless, one who knows your monetary worth and has come to trap you.
“Surely after what happened to Kon years ago, you realize that getting involved with a foreign woman on vacation in those surroundings can only mean one thing. Don’t let her get you any more ensnared. I know you well enough that if she’s pregnant, it’s someone else’s.”
His
