“I have a meeting with Aristos Nicolades tomorrow.”
“Aristos?” Stella frowned. “Why are you meeting with him?”
“To discuss an economic alliance to replace the Agieros.”
Nik’s sister looked horrified. “But he’s the devil.”
“He is necessary now that Nikandros has eliminated the Agieros from the equation.” King Gregorios scowled. “Now we will see the scourge of humanity his casinos will bring to Akathinia.”
Nik threw his father a hard-edged look. “I don’t think this is the right time or place to be discussing this. I will meet with Aristos tomorrow and we will move forward from there. Akathinia must be protected. That is the priority.”
His father shook his head. “We will live to regret this. If Athamos were in charge, we would have had a deal with the Agieros. This would not be happening.”
“Yes, well, unfortunately, Athamos was off fighting over his lover when his car plunged into the ocean and he is dead.” All eyes flew to Nik as he trained his gaze on his father. “I am the one making the decisions. I say we meet with Aristos.”
His father muttered something under his breath, picked up his fork and started eating. The table was so silent, the clink of the king’s fork against the china was the only sound in the room.
His mother, ever the peacekeeper, asked Sofía about her dress for the engagement party. Nik mentally checked out as the conversation flowed around him, his anger too great to corral.
When coffee and dessert were offered, Sofía thankfully declined, likely no more enamored with the idea of staying at the table than he was. They said their good-nights, his fiancée promising to meet with Stella over breakfast the next morning to discuss the party.
And then, mercifully, it was over.
* * *
If the dining room had been quiet, their suite was deadly so. Nik poured a whiskey, took it out on the terrace and stood in the moonlight looking out at the gardens. The rigid set of his shoulders, his ramrod-straight spine, the explosive intensity that had wrapped itself around him all day warned her to stay away.
They didn’t need any more tension between them. She should go have a bath. But her concern for him outweighed her common sense.
She slipped off her shoes and joined him on the terrace, her elbows resting on the top of the railing beside him as she considered the moon, a luminous crescent-shaped sliver that sat high in the sky.
“I’m sorry my father was so rude to you,” he said. “It was unacceptable. My brother’s death has hit him hard.”
“You and he lock horns.”
He lifted the glass in a mock salute. “A brilliant deduction.”
She let that slide. “I’m sorry about the Agieros,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry this is such a mess.”
He flicked her a sideways glance. “What’s done is done.”
A wave of antagonism shot through her at the jaded glint in his eyes but she tamped it down because now was not the time. “What happened today, Nik?”
* * *
He turned to face her, a closed look on his face. “Why don’t we choose another topic? This one is getting a little old.”
She looked at him silently, waiting him out.
He lifted a shoulder. “He was inflammatory, as I said. Half of what he was saying wasn’t true, and yet I couldn’t counter it properly because my advisers didn’t have the information. Weren’t prepared.”
“And you blew up?”
“You watched the media coverage?”
“Yes.”
He looked back out at the gardens. “It was unfortunate. He pushed the right buttons.”
Silence fell between them. She studied the play of the moonlight across the hard lines of his face.
“I don’t think your father is the only one who hasn’t processed your brother’s death,” she said quietly. “It’s been a huge shock. You need to give yourself time, Nik. Time to grieve.”
He shot her a hard look. “I don’t need a counselor, Sofía.”
“Well you need something. You are like a powder keg today, ready to blow at the slightest provocation.”
His jaw hardened. “I’m fairly sure I’ve had more than my fair share of it today. It was a mistake. We all make them.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “We do.” She laced her hands together on the railing. “Where does the antagonism between you and your father come from?”
“We’ve never seen eye to eye.”
“And your brother and he did?”
He turned to her, his gaze firing. “I said I was done with this topic.”
She gave him an even look. “You can dish it out but you can’t take it?”