Page 166 of Dagger in the Sea

“London?”

“Yes.” She pressed her lips together.

London meant responsibility, London meant her entrenched in the professional family structure. London was what she hadn’t wanted.

“London’s good,” I said. “Conquer, Lovely. Conquer. And don’t ever let Yianni—”

“I won’t. I’ve finally realized that keeping him at a distance is not wrong.”

You’re a smarter person than I am.

“His debt has been paid and he’s in the clear. Now it’s up to him to stay clean or not.” She pressed her lips together. “I could take you to the—”

“Alessio will get me to the airport.”

A nurse entered the room and said something in Greek which made Adri stand up. “The doctor’s coming to check on you. I need to leave.” She chewed on the inside of her cheek, but it didn’t stop her lips from trembling.

“Goodbye, Adri,” I said, my voice hoarse. “Goodbye.”

48

Adriana

I never knew breathlessness,a racing pulse, could be a constant state of being.

Since I’d left his room, I’d had a good cry in the ladies and managed to last through a discussion of Marko’s list of prescription medication with my mother and the doctor.

I was heading home to bring my mother a change of clothes, caught in afternoon traffic. My hands flexed around my steering wheel, and I laughed. No, I wasn’t having a nervous breakdown. I’d never felt more clearheaded in my life.

Yes, Turo had made me say goodbye, pushed me away for all the right reasons, and I respected that. Understood it, intellectually.

I was shaking with so much wild emotion for him, for us. I was feeling these emotions, my body was feeling them, and I wasn’t breaking or shattering or melting into a sorrowful heap. Yes, I would miss him. Yes, I was afraid for him. Yes, it felt completely unnatural and wrong to be separated from him, a chasm of forbidding proportions. In the handful of days that we’d known each other,we had lived. We had lived well, brilliantly, hotly. Honestly.

And that was everything.

I had chosen to be alone for so long, to hide, keeping everything at a distance, sabotaging myself along the way, but Turo had changed all that. I no longer felt stuck in that fear, that confusion.

And even if I didn’t see him again, if he died or lived a new life with another woman or women, for that matter, I wanted him to know that he had left his mark on me. Not a scar, but a living, burning pulse. And it felt good.

I needed to give him that. He needed it, just as much as I did. If I didn’t go to him now and give himthis, he would never know.

My parting gift. Not just goodbye, not just letting go. I wanted him to know, that in his coming battle, facing his demon, my heart would be beating with his. That he had made a difference. That what we’d experienced was real and true and meaningful and not just some crazy whirlwind of stolen moments.

But those moments were a whirlwind. They were all connected and blended into one thing. One truth.

I checked my rear view mirror, eyes darting to the side, and turned the wheel and slowly, carefully edged my car into the far left lane, cutting off three annoyed drivers, and finally made a sharp U turn.

Airport, here I come.

49

Turo

Ciro droveme and Alessio to the hangar at the Athens airport north of the city where the Lavrentios jet waited for me. My blood slugged through my veins as Ciro handed my suitcase over and I gave my passport to the attendant at the desk. She glanced up at me, and I slid my sunglasses back down over my aching eyes. I wasn’t going to think of this as an ending, but a turning point, a new beginning.

“My hoodie looks good on you,” said Alessio, a smirk on his face, his hand thumping my shoulder.

I cleared my dry throat, my insides churning with sick. “Watch out for Adri. Please. Don’t let her—”

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