up some sandwiches—’
‘That won’t be necessary. Just coffee. Strong and black.’
Alice nodded again. She remembered the handover notes that had been left for her, which described in detail how Thanos Stathakis liked to take his coffee.
‘Fine.’
‘You’ll print the file?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, sir.’
She was almost at the door when his voice stilled her. ‘Alice?’
She spun around to face him once more, catching a slight frown on those sculpted lips. ‘I don’t like being called “sir”.’
‘I’m sorry, si—’
‘Thanos,’ he insisted.
‘Thanos.’ His name was bewitching on her lips. She said it and immediately wanted to say it again and again. She said it mentally as she printed the files he’d requested, and as she made a pot of Greek coffee, carrying it carefully into his office. He was on the phone when she entered. She busied herself arranging the documents in place, trying to ignore the sensation of heat that travelled the length of her spine as he hurled words in his native Greek, the words like a sunset after a storm, impossibly bright and intriguing.
She retreated from his office without noticing the way his eyes followed her, scooping up her laptop and a bottle of water, before making her way to the boardroom table.
When she entered this time, he was no longer on the phone. ‘My brother sometimes thinks I cannot tie my shoes without him,’ he said, but the words were tinged with amusement. He stood, stretching his arms over his head, yawning and smothering it with his hand.
This was a man who was supremely confident. How Alice envied him that! She had worked hard to appear strong and put-together, to look as though she’d outgrown the wounds of her past, but she knew she came across as cold and aloof most of the time, even when that strength came out of a need to protect a too vulnerable heart.
It seemed unlikely Thanos had ever felt a hint of self-doubt in his life.
Except it wasn’t just confidence that oozed out of him. It was determination. She felt it emanating from him in waves and it held her in her spot for a moment, even as she knew she should go back to her own desk, to be waiting for Kosta Carinedes when he arrived.
‘Is there anything I should know before this meeting?’ she heard herself asking instead, reluctant to take herself from his office.
‘No. It is a simple matter. He has something I want; I intend to buy it back today.’
The words were clipped, his expression business-like.
‘I anticipate the meeting will conclude quickly enough.’
‘Fine.’ Alice checked everything was in order and without looking in Thanos’s direction—perhaps out of fear that she might not easily be able to look away again—she returned to her own desk.
Not five minutes later, the lift doors pinged open and a man emerged. Older than Alice had expected, with a lined face and a kind smile, his hair was greying, his body a little stooped, dressed in a suit that looked bespoke with expensive leather shoes.
‘Stathakis?’ he said as he approached Alice’s desk.
‘This way, sir.’ She stood, gesturing towards Thanos’s office. At the door, she knocked twice and then pushed it inwards, stepping back to allow the older Greek man to precede her.
From her vantage point, she saw the way Thanos’s body momentarily tensed and the determination she’d observed moments earlier was back, a palpable force in the room.
Kosta spoke first, in Greek, and Thanos returned the greeting in their native tongue before switching to English.
‘Alice, my assistant, doesn’t speak Greek.’
Kosta threw a look over his shoulder and then shrugged. ‘Perhaps you can tell me why I have been summoned here?’
Even that was a telling statement. Thanos Stathakis had the power to summon just about anyone to his office, and it was a power he had flexed this morning.
‘You don’t know?’
Kosta shrugged his shoulders. ‘I presume it has something to do with P & A?’
Thanos’s stare was direct. ‘Yes.’ He gestured towards the table. ‘Please, take a seat.’
The old man hesitated for a moment and then did as he’d been bid, moving to a chair on one side of the table and settling himself into it. Alice watched as he lifted the coffee to his lips, sipping it, then returning the cup to the saucer at the same time Thanos took a seat at the head of the table.
‘You’ve received my offer?’ That confidence was back, brimming and blinding. Alice stared covertly at Thanos as she settled herself at the end of the boardroom table, flipping her laptop open and pulling up a blank Word document to take notes.
‘My lawyer advised me of it,’ the older man remarked with another shrug of his shoulders, in what Alice was recognising as a trademark gesture.
‘And?’
Kosta expelled a soft breath. ‘Did my silence not answer your question?’
Alice jerked her gaze to Thanos on autopilot. He didn’t visibly react to Kosta’s question. ‘Silence can mean many things.’
Kosta’s lips compressed. ‘Not in this instance.’
‘You want to sell.’ It was a question and yet Thanos delivered it more as a statement, one that was laced with iron.
‘To the right buyer, yes.’ Kosta took another sip of his coffee.
Alice hovered her hands over the keyboard.
‘You are aware that your business contains part of my business?’
Kosta’s eyes narrowed. ‘I bought Petó from you and your brother many years ago. Whatever claim you had to it transferred to me on that day.’
From where Alice was sitting, she had a full view of the table. She saw the way Thanos moved his hand to beneath the table, and the way he squeezed his fist so tight his knuckles glowed white.
‘But you must dispose of your business,’ Thanos said slowly, carefully, with no hint of emotion in the words.
‘Why must I?’
‘Because you are not married, you have no children, no grandchildren, and because P & A is a family company. You will not list it publicly, nor would you wish it to be broken up and sold off after your death.’
Alice bit down on her lip, sympathy for the older man rushing through her. How strange it must be to have someone refer to your mortality in such a cavalier fashion!
‘The fate of my company is not your concern.’
Thanos’s
