Merido's Daughter by LJ Maas 18 page

"Somebody must have cleaned them out, the magnets I mean. See we set up a little satellite so we can see what they see. They didn't catch that when they did their housecleaning."

The young woman opened a laptop computer and with a few keystrokes scrolled through all the camera views on the Meridio estate. All were in fine working condition. The young computer tech blushed when they landed on the camera view from Tessa's bedroom in the guesthouse. The dark-haired woman lay sleeping with the small blonde wrapped protectively in her embrace. The tech quickly scrolled past the two sleeping women.

"So, how did you find out at four in the morning that the cameras were working again?" Jack said, tired of waiting for the punch line to this scenario.

"That's the we're in trouble part," The young woman replied. "We get an indicator when someone is using the system. Someone is viewing the cameras and replaying some recorded tapes."

"What?!" Armstrong shouted. "When?"

"Right now." The tech indicated the flashing red light at the top of the screen."

"Where...which cameras?"

"Um...Meridio's office...the daughter's bedroom, and uh..." she pressed a few keys on the keyboard, "the guesthouse."

"Jesus Christ! Out, we need to get them out of there now!" Armstrong practically screamed at half a dozen agents milling around the room.

Instantly the room became a flurry of activity.

"The phone, get me the number to Tessa's phone." Jack shouted, frantically flipping through numbers in the computer index.

"Cell phone and house phone are unsecured, boss." The annoying young computer nerd said calmly.

"You stupid fuck," Armstrong shouted, "it doesn't matter now...they've already been made!"

"It's ringing on three." Another agent shouted over the din.

Armstrong grabbed the receiver and punched line three.

"Yea?" The dark-haired woman's sleepy voice answered on the third ring.

"Tessa, it's Jack. Get outta there, get out now...you're made."

Andreas Meridio was dead tired. He'd stopped drinking about two hours ago, but his guests wanted to stay and party all night it seemed. He was under obligation to be a good host and that's exactly what he did. He stayed until the last one retired. He only had another hour or two until the sun came and he desperately needed to take advantage of the last couple hours of night that were left. Meridio's breath caught as he walked in and saw the flashing red light on the console of cameras in the outer suite of his rooms.

This was the first time that happened. It was a small security measure and known only to him. He sat down and brought the screen in his office to life. He had the alarm system installed when he first thought of the idea. He kept his private invoices in the book and had some computer company come in and hook up the book to a sensor alarm. Funny thing was that while they were here, they found out that none of the cameras were capturing to tape. The two young men that found the problem showed him a bunch of tiny magnets, explaining that it was probably done on purpose. Meridio didn't fret too much over it, he was always having the place swept for new bugs and cameras. InterPol was nothing if not persistent, but Meridio smiled as he rewound the tape from his office to the time the alarm went off. It would take a whole lot more than what they had to cause him to worry. Once he hit the play button and watched the scene unfold, his smile quickly faded.

Of course, seeing his daughter caught on tape was about as stunning as it gets. At least that's what the man kept saying to himself. He began punching in a series of buttons on the console trying to bring up all the times Casey had been in the house. What he saw on more than one tape, shocked him into speechlessness. He just knew in his heart that his daughter wouldn't do this of her own free will, there must have been someone else behind Cassandra's actions. He reversed the tapes further, attempting to capture his daughter in a room at the same time with the person he immediately suspected. What he saw happen between his Karê and his young daughter told him all he needed to know.

"That fucking bitch!" He hissed venomously.

"Alex," Meridio said into the phone's receiver once he calmed himself enough to speak. "Get Stefano and come up to my room, we have a traitor in our midst. Stop by Peter's room and bring him too." He added as an afterthought. In case Tessa wanted to put up a fight, he would add a little muscle to stop her.

His thoughts went back to his daughter and cursed himself for putting the innocent girl in the path of Tessa Nikolaidis. He was certain that Cassandra had no idea what she had gotten herself into. He also suspected that his young daughter had been seduced by Tessa's beauty and charm as so many other girls on Mýkonos had been. Meridio wondered why his daughter never suspected that Tessa was just using her as a piece in her little game of revenge.

"Casey!" Tessa whispered sharply. "Wake up...right now."

Tessa was already out of bed and throwing some clothes on. She grabbed her gun and shoved her keys into her pocket. Casey was literally scared awake by the tenor of her lover's voice. The young woman grabbed for a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, lacing her shoes before even asking for an explanation.

"What is it?"

"We've been made, that was Jack on the phone. He told us to get out of here fast."

Casey knew in an instant that the situation had in some way deteriorated as they slept. Somehow the missing invoices had been discovered and they were in serious and immediate trouble. That would be the only reason for Jack to call in the wee hours to tell them to get out.

"Don't turn on the light." Tessa whispered as she went out to the living room. Looking toward the main house through a carefully parted curtain, she saw Stefano and Alex walking this way. Peter Tsigaris, the large bodyguard, walked slightly behind them. They still had a ways to walk and the small grove of olive trees surrounding the guesthouse would hide what she had planned next.

She silently moved back into the bedroom and grasped her lover's hand, pulling her into the darkened kitchen. The dark-haired woman quickly retrieved the invoice slips from the flour canister and shoved them deep into Casey's pocket.

"Casey, do you know how to get around the olive grove and over the break wall?" Tessa asked.

"I'm not leaving you, Niko." Casey responded adamantly.

"Casey...sweetheart," Tessa whispered holding the woman's face in her hands, "remember when I told you that I can take care of myself, but only if I'm not worrying about you? I told you that I would need you to do everything I said exactly when I said it...remember?"

Casey's eyes filled with tears and she nodded her head. "I know how to get over the break wall." She said in defeat.

"Do you think you can climb up to your bedroom terrace from there?"

Casey nodded again.

"Okay, make sure you don't enter the house through any of the main doors. Grab a jacket of some kind, your gun, and your passport. I need to ask you to get Olympia out of there, Casey." Tessa opened another canister on the kitchen counter and pulled out a large roll of bank notes. She pulled the keys to her car from her own pocket, picked up her cell phone and thrust them all into the young woman's hands.

"My car isn't in the garage, it's parked down on the small hill by the pond. Just don't turn on the lights until you get on the road into Mýkonos Town. Take the road up to Ano Merá...you remember how to get to my house up there?" Tessa asked reminding Casey of the night that became a turning point for the two women.

"I think I remember."

"If you have Olympia with you, she'll know the way. No one knows I still own that property, it's the home we lived in when my father was alive. Use the cell phone and punch in star-seven-seven, that's Jack's secure line. Tell him where you are and I'll meet you there as soon as I can."

Tessa opened the door slowly and Casey threw her arms around the taller woman's neck. The dark-haired woman held the small blonde, then pulling away slightly, she kissed her passionately."

"I love you, Niko." Casey whispered.

"Right back at ya, baby." Tessa replied. Jesus, I'm as close to the end of my rope as I can get and still I can't tell you, Casey. "I'll see you later." Tessa added softly, touching her fingertips to Casey's cheek and stepped outside.

Tessa motioned for Casey to stay put until she saw that the men had not yet arrived at the guesthouse. Waving her hand, she kissed the girl quickly and pushed her in the direction of the break wall. Tessa couldn't keep from smiling as she watched her lover disappear into the darkness. Just like when we were kids, little one...you always were small and fast.

Tessa moved silently around the right side of the house and watched as Peter was trying to peer in through the front window. She couldn't catch sight of the other two men.

"Is this a social call?" Tessa drawled.

The bodyguard spun around and smiled stonily at the dark-haired woman. He smiled because she was unarmed and hand to hand was his specialty.

"Meridio said he wanted you and his girl brought to the house. Looks like your days of being top gun here are over, Karê. Of course, he didn't say what kind of shape you had to be in." Peter cracked his knuckles and moved toward the woman.

Tessa pulled her gun from her back and gave the man an evil smile. She had won the hand and was surprised at how easy it had been. Just when she started thinking she might get out of this alive she heard the click and felt the gun's barrel against the back of her skull.

"Don't do anything stupid, okay, Nikki?" It was Alex's voice.

"It doesn't have to be this way, Alex." Tessa practically whispered to her young protégé.

"Yea, it does." He answered.

Tessa turned her head slightly to look into the man's eyes. "Just don't let them hurt, Casey. Please Alex, don't let them hurt her." Tessa said so softly that only Alex could hear.

The dark-haired woman lowered the Glock that was pointed at the bodyguard and handed it by the barrel behind her to Alex. Peter took a step forward and Tessa braced herself for the blows to follow. She never expected it to be from behind. Suddenly she was struggling to stand and her knees gave out as she fell heavily to the ground.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Peter yelled at Alex as the young man was fitting a set of handcuffs around Tessa's wrists at the small of her back.

"Because Meridio said he wanted them brought to the house, he didn't say anything about beating the crap out of them beforehand." Alex yelled back.

The bodyguard was about to make the young man sorry for butting in, but he noticed the new glare to the young man's expression. If Tessa had indeed fallen from favor then this kid was next in line to be the Meridio Karê. Even Peter realized that it would be easier for his employer to find another bodyguard than a trusted right-hand man. The beefy man raised his hands in a gesture of defeat and gave in to the younger man.

"Come, on," Alex said, "let's get her to the house. Get Meridio's daughter, then find Stef and give me a hand."

"Jesus!" Stefano panted a few minutes later as they were dragging the dead weight of the unconscious woman's body toward the main house. "This girl is huge. Who would have thought she'd weigh so much."

"I wouldn't worry about that as much as what Meridio's gonna say when we tell him his girl got away." Peter was huffing slightly too.

The men were just entering the olive grove with their restrained burden when Casey pushed open the French doors to her bedroom.

Casey pulled the Beretta from her laptop case and tucked it into the waistband of her jeans. She pressed her ear against the door to the outside hall, but was greeted with only silence. She opened the door hoping she could come back and get the rest of what she needed, but Olympia was her first priority.

The small blonde made her way carefully down the stairs. She surprised herself at how quickly but silently she could move when she had to. She reached the back of the first floor where the cook's rooms were, but found the bedroom empty. The bed was made and Casey suspected the older woman was in the kitchen already beginning her day. That's exactly where she found her, preparing to make coffee as the darkness outside began to turn gray.

"Sshh." Casey held her finger to her lips and whispered to Olympia. "We have to leave, Olympia...we have to go right now."

The cook was a smart woman and she could see by the pistol tucked in the girl's jeans that this was no game. She nodded. "Tessa?" The older woman asked, fearful of the answer.

"She's okay." Was the only answer Casey gave, wondering if that was still true. "Go out through the kitchen patio and go around the side toward the stables. Tessa put her car out by the pond. I have to go back upstairs, but if anything happens or if I don't show up in the next twenty minutes, take these," Casey dug in her pocket for Tessa's car keys, "and get to the house in Ano Merá...that's where Tessa will meet us."

Olympia had no idea how the two young women had been found out, but she knew in her heart that Andreas Meridio would let none of them live if he felt betrayed. She nodded her understanding to Casey and followed the blonde's instructions down toward the old pond.

Casey flattened herself against the wall in the hallway as the door into the large dining room was opened noisily. She heard the sound of men's voices and scraping sounds. She peered around the corner, staying in the shadows of the dark hall, but couldn't tell what they were doing inside the room that was as dark as where she stood. She silently made her way back up the stairs and hit the second floor landing when she heard the click of her father's office door opening below her. She moved further into the shadows and watched as her father went into the dining room, then she turned and quickly entered her bedroom.

Meridio came closer to the unconscious woman and fairly shook with rage. He wanted to put a bullet in her head just like he'd done to her father, but he tried to control his passion. That kind of death would be too good for her. He wanted to see her suffer, watch her die very slowly, with as much pain as possible.

"Where is Cassandra?" He asked looking around the room.

"She wasn't there." Alex answered. "Stefano said her car is in the garage so she's probably on the grounds somewhere."

"Find her!" Meridio growled. "Then get back here. I don't want to mess up the carpet, we'll take her to the warehouse."

Alex and Stefano left to search the house, leaving the other two men in the room with Tessa. The sun was peeking out from behind the eastern hills when Alex opened the door to the small blonde's bedroom. Stefano searched the room next door and walked into Cassandra's bedroom just as Alex opened the door to the walk-in closet.

Casey pressed herself as far back into the shadows as she could, but Alex flipped the light switch on the closet's wall and Casey might as well have been in the middle of the large space. Alex met the frightened green gaze and they both simply froze there for what seemed an eternity.

"Anything there?" Stefano asked.

Alex narrowed his gaze and sighed loudly. He looked at the gun in the blonde's hand, and knew she could have shot him if she wanted to.

"No," he called out to Stefano, never releasing Casey's eyes. "Nothing here...I'll meet you on the first floor."

Alex opened his jacket and pulled Tessa's Glock from his waistband and handed the gun to Casey. "He wants us to take her down to the docks...it'll be warehouse number 47. I'll do what I can, but I can't hold them all off."

That was all the young man said and he turned and walked out of the bedroom, pulling the door closed behind him.

Casey grabbed her jacket and stuffed her passport, wallet and Tessa's cell phone in the deep pockets. She focused on the task at hand and tried not to fall apart. She and Alex would be the only hope Tessa had and Casey wouldn't allow herself to think about the alternative. Hearing a car pull up to the front of the house, Casey ran to the window over her bed and bit her lip at the sight below. Her father and Alex got into the front of the car, Stefano and the bodyguard carrying Tessa's unconscious body and placing it in the back seat. They drove off and Casey sprinted into action. She made a quick stop in her father's office and, no longer worried about being seen, she burst out the kitchen door. She made a mad dash across the field and past the stables, running full out down the hill toward the old pond. She barely stopped for breath as she ordered Olympia into the vehicle and jumped behind the red convertible's steering wheel.

Casey drove like a woman possessed. She punched the numbers into the cell phone Tessa gave her and Jack answered on the first ring.

"Tessa?" His voice sounded worried, on edge.

"Jack, it's Casey." The small blonde answered. "They've got Tessa."

"Casey, where are you? Have you got the invoices?"

"Jesus Christ, Jack, did you hear what I said, they have Tessa!" Casey shouted into the small phone as she cut the wheel hard, spitting dirt and rocks in the car's wake as she sped up the road to Ano Merá.

"Yes, I heard you, Casey. Now, where are you and where are the invoices?"

"I'm on my way to Ano Merá, I'm dropping off Tessa's mother and then I'm going to go get Tessa." Casey looked over at Olympia. The older woman had a death grip on the dash in front of her, but if she was as scared as Casey was, she sure didn't show it.

"Calm down, Casey," Jack tried to sound nonchalant. "We have a chopper ready to leave now, but I can't be in two places at once, here's the way it's got to happen--"

"Goddamn it, Jack, you listen to me...here's the way it's going to happen--shit!"

Casey hit the brakes as she slid past the long gravel road up to the house. She backed up and turned right onto the drive. Braking hard, she stopped in front of the small cottage.

"You are going to get that chopper here and pick up Olympia first, I need to know that she's safe. Then, I'll expect a little help down on the docks, they've taken Tessa to a warehouse there."

"Look, Casey--"

"I want your word, Jack. If you don't, I swear I will eat everyone of those fucking invoices and you can all go to hell!" Casey finished.

"Allright, allright!" Jack shouted back. "We'll be in the air in sixty seconds...you keep your head down, kid."

It was the nicest thing Jack could think to say to this small stranger who seemed to have more balls than he'd seen on a lot of special agents.

"I have to go." Casey said to the older woman who was already out of the car and standing next to the driver's side.

"I understand. Hurry, Casey." Olympia reached down and hugged the small blonde and stepped back from the car.

"Jack Armstrong is the name of the man who is bringing the helicopter here for you. Go with him and you'll be safe." Casey said and without any more of a farewell, the young woman took off down the gravel road.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 652