Page 65 of Marcellus: House of Drakos
“Thank you, Oz,” Marcellus said like a man in a great deal of pain. His face looked like a mask of anguish.
Oz studied him as they looked into each other’s eyes. And Oz felt an emotional pull to this man who shared his blood. He seemed like a decent guy. “I can be an asshole at times,” Oz said to him.
“Yes I know,” Marcellus responded.
“And you can too.”
“Yes I can.”
“But . . . I pray your daughter is returned unharmed. I’ll do everything in my power to see to it.”
Marcellus knew, although he would never admit it, that he was a man with considerable power and a man of his word. “Thank you, Oz,” he said as he extended his hand. Oz shook it.
Oz then glanced at Alex, who gave him a quick smile of approval that Oz found cringe-worthy, and then he took off running across the tarmac.
The rest of the group got into the limousine. Marcellus’s long-time driver Andre was behind the wheel and his long-time bodyguard Johnny was riding shotgun on the front passenger seat. With security cars in the front and back, they began pulling off. But Oz, behind the wheel of that sportscar, sped off past them as if they were standing still.
“Yes it’s true,” Kari said to Marcellus’s curious look. “He’s the wild child.”
They all smiled, but it was hardly a joyous smile. The stakes were too high.
They settled, instead, for silence.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
After evading the press horde with the shades pulled down over all of the windows, and the darkest tint placed on the front windshield, the limousine drove through the guard-manned gate of Marcellus’s estate and up to the main house. As soon as the limo stopped and they were getting out, the doors of the mansion opened wide and Natalia, with Peggy hurrying behind her, ran out of the house.
“They got our baby, Marci,” the usually sophisticated Natalia said as she ran to Marcellus. “They took our baby!”
“They called?” Marcellus anxiously asked her.
“No. We haven’t heard a word. It’s just awful, Marci,” she said and fell into his big arms. Marcellus caught her and held her. He knew what she was going through.
Kari leaned against Savannah. “Who’s that?”
“Kalayna’s mother.”
“Um. I see.” Then Kari looked at Savannah as they all began walking toward the home’s entrance. “Better watch that one, girl.”
Savannah nodded. “I already know.”
Although Marcellus knew Natalia could be overly dramatic when she wanted to be, he didn’t feel this was one of those times. He knew how much she loved their children. He knew the pain she had to be feeling because he was feeling it too. And just seeing her reminded him so deeply of Kalayna, who was the spitting image of her mother, that it nearly broke him. He kept his arm around Natalia’s waist as he walked with her intothe house. Alex stood aside and allowed Savannah first and then his wife to walk in front of him.
But Olivier, Freddy, and Scottie, who were inside the house coming into the foyer, were shocked when they saw Alex Drakos walk into their father’s home. They looked at each other as if they were seeing a mirage when they knew they weren’t. But it felt just that surreal.
“Peg, get Nattie,” Marcellus said to Peggy. “I’ve got to figure out what’s happening with Kalayna.”
“I want to know too,” a still-crying Natalia said as she dapped her eyes with his handkerchief. “She’s my baby too.”
“You’ll know later. Right now, rest,” he ordered her.
“Come on, Nattie,” Peggy said to her fellow baby mama. “He’ll let us know as soon as he hears something.” She held Natalia as she walked with her into the bedroom just off from the foyer. Juliet and Sharon, the other baby mamas who had come to see what was going on too, went, instead, back to the family room. Unlike Natalia and Peggy who stayed in Marcellus’s face, they made it their business to stay out of his way. Which, they felt, would make them more attractive to him in the long run.
But Marcellus didn’t care about any of that palace intrigue. He wanted his daughter back. “Let’s talk in my office,” he said to Alex Drakos. Kari followed her husband. Then he looked at his sons. “Scott, Olivier, Fredrick- in my office now!”
They all nervously followed behind Alex Drakos and the woman they knew to be his wife, knowing they were going to get the brunt of their father’s anger. But it wasn’t as if they had a choice.
But then Marcellus, in his anguish, realized he had forgotten about Savannah. When he glanced back and saw her standing there as if she didn’t know what to do with herself, his heart dropped. He stopped all movement, causing everybody behind him to stop too, and reached out his hand to her. He wasgoing to make it his mission to never let this woman feel out of place in his home or in his world. “Come here,” he said to her.
