Meridio's Daughter Part 21

Tessa came back into the room followed by a man in his late forties, maybe fifties. He was fit and trim with a little gray at the temples. Casey thought the man reminded her a great deal of her father.

"Never." Tessa took Casey's hand in her own. "Ca.s.sandra Meridio, I'd like you to meet Jack Armstrong."

"Armstrong?" Casey asked with an amused smile.

"Don't even think about it." Jack shook the small hand offered to him.

"Oh, please," Casey couldn't resist.

"Okay," he said, rolling his eyes because he'd heard this line a million times.

"Jack Armstrong...the All-American Boy?"

Even Tessa chuckled at the amus.e.m.e.nt Casey displayed and the discomfort Jack exhibited.

*"My father had a wicked sense of humor," Jack said.

Once Casey and Tessa settled into their seats, Jack put on his game face and began.

"Ms. Meridio, I'm a special agent working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the Unites States. I'm here in Greece to head up an operation to catch a criminal that has managed to stay one step ahead of the law for a very long time now. We're here working with members of Interpol because this criminal represents a threat to the national security of more than one country. That criminal's name is Andreas Meridio."

"This must be some kind of mistake. My father isn't a criminal," Casey said haltingly, looking from Tessa to Jack.

"Nikki?"

Tessa placed a hand over Casey's. "I told you these things would be very hard to hear. I didn't want you to find out this way, but I care too much about you to see you stuck in the middle like this.""Ms. Meridio, do you know what an arms dealer is?" Jack asked.

"Guns? You're telling me my father sells guns?" Casey asked in a stunned voice.

"Not just guns. Military weapons, everything from hand grenades to light missiles, tanks, M-50s, air to ground missiles, high-caliber weapons of destruction. Now he's beginning to do a lot of business with Third World countries. We're afraid he may have gotten his hands on some nuclear weapons."

"The Libyans?" Casey asked almost in a whisper.

"Smart lady. Yes, the people you lunched with the other day are among the people we're worried about. We're at somewhat of a stalemate. We know where Meridio sells the arms once he gets them, but what we need to know is who he gets them from.

Without actual proof, extradition will be all but impossible."

Casey looked like she was trying hard to digest the information.

When she looked up, Tessa had her head lowered, staring at the hands in her lap.

"What do you have to do with all of this, Nikki?"

*"Ms. Nikolaidis works for our organization. We set her up as the Meridio Kare, " Jack intervened.

"And Tusky...was his car bomb really an accident?" Casey asked, suddenly suspicious.

"Let's just say that Mr. Tuscadaris's demise was fortuitous,"

he said ominously.

"It sounds to me like you people aren't a whole lot better than the people you're out to catch," Casey said sardonically.

"Believe me, Ms. Meridio, we are." Jack perched himself on the table in front of her. "These men kill people. Men, women, children, it doesn't matter who you are if you get in their way."

Armstrong backed off as he caught the blue fire emanating from Tessa's eyes. Tessa used to be a heartless killer, and he wasn't in a hurry to push her to her limits.

"Ms. Meridio, do you know that small arms, like the kinds your father deals in, claim over 200,000 lives every year? Do you know why so many civilians are dying in supposed military conflicts? In World War I, for instance, over ten million people died, and eighty percent of them were soldiers. In World War II, sixty million died and half were soldiers. Since 1945, thirty million have died in wars and eighty percent of those were civilians. Men who deal in small arms are personally responsible for keeping some parts of this region of the world in an almost permanent state of war or civil war."

"All right, that's enough," Tessa said between clenched teeth.

"Let's stay on track, shall we?"

"So all this talk about your past?" Casey looked over at Tessa.

"You're really a government agent?"

"No, honey. What I told you is true. I-I..." Tessa stammered.

"Ms. Nikolaidis is working for us in exchange for immunity for any crimes she may have committed while living in the Greek Islands," Armstrong jumped in. "She didn't exactly come willingly. She got her hand caught in the proverbial cookie jar, smoking gun and all."

Casey looked at Tessa, who lowered her gaze. Casey returned her questioning gaze to the agent in front of her, a silent request to continue.

0.

*"She just happened to have killed a boy...the wrong boy."

"Nikki...you killed a boy?" Casey asked as Tessa's head shot up to glare at Armstrong.

"He was twenty-three."

"He also happened to be a diplomat's son," Armstrong added.

"He was killing working girls down by the docks." Tessa turned to Casey to explain. "He'd hire a wh.o.r.e, then he'd slit her throat for the fun of it, to watch her bleed. It's how he got off. The police wouldn't do anything about it, so I did."

"The emba.s.sy was handling it," Armstrong cut in.

"So they were going to send him back to his own country where he could do it to girls there? Where is the justice for the women who were murdered here?" Tessa hissed.

Casey understood that these two must have had this conversation before as each backed off to a respective corner.

Neither looked about to acquiesce on the point, but Casey felt somewhat relieved as to why Tessa would kill a man in cold blood.

"Well, it became a moot point." Armstrong turned back to Casey. "Turned out Tessa had an underling who was just dying to become boss. He set her up. The gun was literally smoking when the police showed up. So that's when I entered her life.

Her position within Meridio's organization affords us the perfect opportunity to bring this empire down. It's taken almost five years, Ms. Meridio, to get to this point, so you'll forgive me if I ask this most indelicate question. You see, I'm rather interested, what will you do with this information I've given you?"

"I-I don't know," Casey said honestly.

"Fair enough. It's a lot to digest at once. We have three ways we can play this. Let me tell you what your options are from here on in. First, you can go back to America, and you'll be notified when it's all over. Your father will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison. Second, you can continue to live in Greece, but should you breathe one word of our operation to your father or anyone that might tell your father about it, you leave me no alternative but to prosecute you also. That means it's likely that you'll end up in an adjoining cell with your father."

*"All right, I don't think she needs any threats thrown at her,"

Tessa stepped in.

"I'm merely explaining what her options are," Armstrong said."You said there was a third option?" Casey asked in her tough as nails, California att.i.tude voice.

"Yes. You can join us."

"No!" Tessa shouted, standing up.

"I think that's her decision. She could deliver what we need.

She might be able to get that extra step closer."

"You're f.u.c.king pus.h.i.+ng it, Jack." Tessa growled.

"That's enough," Casey said loudly.

Casey stood and walked over to one of the windows and thought it odd that such a distasteful place would have such a beautiful view of Athens. She shook her head to clear the pensiveness and finally looked up at the man.

"Mr. Armstrong, apparently, you've gotten a bad impression of what being Greek is all about. I have no intention of going against my family at this stage. You've told me a great many things, but you haven't offered me one shred of evidence to back up these accusations."

"Touche, Ms. Meridio. You're right, but I think we can provide you with that." Armstrong turned toward Tessa. "Why don't you show her a few things in the file room?"

Tessa took that to mean their time was at an end. She held out her arm, more for Casey to walk in front of her than to be able to touch. In her heart, she could feel what Casey must be thinking about her. Without warning, Casey slipped her hand into Tessa's grasp and squeezed it gently. Tessa rewarded Casey with a small smile that was flooded with equal parts relief and amazement.

When the two women walked out the door with a slight backward glance in his direction, Jack caught the look on each of their faces. Once they closed the door behind them, Jack dropped into the chair with a groan.

"Those two are gonna ruin my career, I just know it," he said with an exasperated sigh.

*Casey watched as reel after reel of grainy eight-millimeter film played on a white projection screen in front of her. Hundreds of videotapes were stacked around the room all marked Meridio.

Tears fell as she viewed her father, the man she grew up wors.h.i.+pping, as he held center stage in each scene. They were all shot undercover so the quality left something to be desired, but there could be no mistake. She looked at hundreds of still photographs and listened to taped conversations until Tessa could see that Casey had reached her limit.

The two women walked at a leisurely pace through the lower gardens of the Acropolis. Not a word was said about the day's earlier incident as they steered in the direction of the Propylaia, which housed the Temple of Athena. After walking up the long flight of stone steps, Casey turned right to stand before what was left of the great temple. She pulled out a twenty-drachma coin and placed it gently on the wall as she always did. She had no idea who picked up the coins, but since she was a child, every time her mother brought her to the Acropolis, she taught Casey to pay homage to the ancient Greek G.o.ddess.

"My mother told me that if I believed with all my heart, Athena would make me strong," Casey explained. She sat heavily on a stone block and wept. "I don't feel very strong."

Tessa held Casey against her as she wept. There were no words that she could offer, but little by little, the love and strength within Tessa transferred itself into Casey.

By the time they arrived back at Tessa's estate, their silence became comfortable and no longer fearful and strained. They spent most of the evening in companionable silence, wrapped around each other on a large rug in the living area. Tessa opened the patio doors to let in the cool night air so they could light a fire in the fireplace and watch the flames dance hypnotically across the walls.

Tessa lay stretched out in an old T-s.h.i.+rt and boxers, Casey leaning back in her arms wearing a short, silk chemise. Casey ran her hands along Tessa's strong arms, delighting in the feel of *muscle under her fingertips. Her touch turned into a caress and soon her hand traveled down the hollow between Tessa's b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Tessa, in the meantime, was trying hard to remember how to breathe. She knew in her heart that Casey wouldn't want her that way again, that she had destroyed the trust that existed between them. Tessa was content to hold Casey and try to be a friend to her.

The only problem with that plan, as Tessa saw it, was that Casey didn't seem to be cooperating. She seemed to have an agenda of her own.

"Casey?" Tessa asked, raising Casey's face. The look she saw there made her heart beat faster, and she was suddenly confused.

"I thought...I thought you wouldn't want me anymore..." She trailed off, unsure how to verbalize all she felt.

Casey looked deep into the sapphire eyes that questioned her and worked up the best smile she could under the circ.u.mstances.

"I told you, Nikki, I love you. I thought maybe you didn't want to be with me."

"What? Honey, what would make you think that?"

"I don't know what I'm going to do about all of this. I'm not sure what I should do. I'm still Meridio's daughter."

"Casey." Tessa lifted Casey's chin again to look into her eyes.

"I'll understand no matter what you decide to do, love." Then she wrapped Casey in her arms, and she leaned into the powerful touch.

She still wants me, Tessa thought in utter amazement. Tessa was stunned at Casey's infinite capacity to feel...to feel for her.

This new awareness thrilled and terrified her at the same time.

Casey's hands eventually resumed their journey along Tessa's dark skin. She lifted the s.h.i.+rt to let her fingers run in circular patterns on the taut skin of Tessa's abdomen, letting them wander and make lazy circles. She smiled to herself when the muscles clenched under her touch. Suddenly, an overwhelming desire washed over her. She wanted this woman. She wanted to take her, not with a gentle, loving hand, but in a way that she'd never expressed her pa.s.sion before. She had the strangest feeling that Tessa would be more than happy to comply. She lifted the s.h.i.+rt higher and ran her tongue across a nipple that was already erect *with desire. She nibbled on the tight flesh, producing a groan from Tessa.

"Oh, yes, baby." Tessa moaned as Casey sucked harder, biting down on the tender flesh.

Slender fingers entwined in Casey's hair. Tessa arched her back and pressed Casey's head firmly to her chest, delighting in the rough touch. Somewhere in the back of Tessa's brain, she thought that she should be taking control of their lovemaking, but Casey seemed to have a sense of determination, and the physical sensations being produced within her body were so overwhelming that she could do no more than comply.

Casey slipped her hand into the loose-fitting waistband of Tessa's shorts and realized that Tessa wore no underwear. Her fingers played with the silky dark curls, not straying any lower yet. Casey moved quickly to her feet.

"I'll be right back. Make sure you have these off by the time I get back," she commanded to a stunned Tessa .

"Oh, baby. Now you have to get up?" Tessa panted.

By the time the words were out, Casey was halfway up the stairs. Tessa let herself fall back onto the floor, but when she heard Casey's footsteps coming back down the staircase, she realized she was still dressed. Tessa wriggled out of her shorts and tossed off her s.h.i.+rt, remembering Casey's parting order.

Wait a minute, Casey's ordering me to get naked? Hmm, Casey ordering me around, this could be interesting.

When Casey reached the living room, she caught her naked lover staring into the fire, the most erotic grin on her face.

"So are you going to share this fantasy?" Casey asked.

Tessa finally noticed Casey standing in front of her. Casey tossed a folded blanket to the floor.

"That was the big emergency?" Tessa asked, sitting up.

"In case I get cold," Casey lied, grasping the hem of her chemise and pulling it over her head in one swift motion.

She straddled Tessa's muscled thighs and sat down, just as Tessa reached for her. Tessa pressed Casey closer to her, and Casey wrapped her fingers in the raven tresses and pulled the waiting mouth to her own. It was a small fight for dominance. Tessa gave *in quickly, understanding Casey's need to be in control on this night. It wasn't the easiest thing she'd ever done, but the fire Casey was igniting and the throbbing ache at her center convinced her to let her have her way.

Casey realized the power the submissive partner had when it came to pleasure. Their fantasies and appet.i.tes were what kept the scenario playing along. Fortunately, Casey knew Tessa's body well enough to continually tease her to the brink, only to slow the rhythm to a frustratingly unhurried pace. Holding Tessa's wrists and not allowing Tessa to touch her, she sucked, bit, and nipped at her skin until Tessa whimpered for release.