Merrick's Eleventh Hour

Merrick snorted. “You of all people know he’s incapable of that.”

“I know, but he’s different with her and Erik.”

“Erik. Their son.”

“Yes. My half brother.”

Merrick also knew that Cyrus had another child. A boy. He could not wrap his mind around the idea that Johanna had given Cyrus a son. Not willingly, anyway. Not his Johanna.

“How does she treat him? Is she afraid of him.”

“No. She seems…happy.”

“Happy?” The words tasted like poison in his mouth.

“She told me once that my father gave her a reason to live again. That he was the center of her and Erik’s world.”

“And you never told her that your life as his daughter was a living hell?”

“No, and she never knew anything about my situation at Despotiko, either. Or any of the other horrible things. I knew the rules, and I played the game. We both know what happens when my father is crossed.”

Melita had seen far more tragedy than anyone should at age twenty-four. Her brother Simon was dead because of Cyrus, and she had witnessed the man she once loved beaten to death on her father’s orders. The guilt over Nemo’s death had caused Melita to slit her wrists. Luckily, she hadn’t died.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

He wanted to say, Get my wife back, but that was ego and wounded pride talking. It sounded as if Johanna was exactly where she wanted to be. Which meant she’d been in on Cyrus’s scheme to stage her death. There was no other explanation that made any sense.

“What else can you tell me about my wi—her? When did you see her last?”

“In Naxos about three months ago. She wasn’t feeling well the day I arrived. She’d had another asthma attack and—”

“Asthma? She’s ill?”

“She has acute asthma.”

“Can you take me to the house in Naxos?”

“Yes. But they’re not there anymore. The week I visited, Zeta was packing up the house.”

“Who’s Zeta?”

“The housekeeper. That’s her title, but she’s a nurse by trade. She looks after Callia when my father is away. Zeta and her daughter, Sonya, have lived with them for as long as I can remember. Although I didn’t see Sonya when I visited last.”

“What’s Zeta’s last name?”

“Poulos.”

There was a noise overhead, then Sully came down the companionway. He glanced at Melita, then Merrick. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong,” Merrick said, “is that I’ve been a blind fool. Johanna’s alive.” He pointed to the picture on the table, then stood. “Melita tells me that’s Callia. That my wife is Mrs. Cyrus Krizova. I’ll let her explain. I need some air.”

Merrick didn’t know how long he stood staring out to sea on the Aldora’s deck. Time…He’d spent years living in a time warp. That place where Johanna had kept him sane. He didn’t feel sane right now.

He pulled his phone from his pocket to call Sly McEwen.

“Are you in Amorgos with Sully?” Sly asked.

“I’m here. Listen, I just…” Merrick still couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “I just…”

“Merrick?”

“I’ve learned something.”

“Have you located Cyrus?”

“No. But…Johanna is alive, Sly.”

There was dead air on the line, then Sly said, “Are you sure? Do you have proof? You know how Krizova likes to torment you. Maybe—”

“It didn’t come from Cyrus. It came from Melita. I’m checking in, like I told you I would once I got here. I’ll tell Sully to give you a call later.”

“If Johanna’s alive, I should rally the men and—”

“If I need you, I know where to find you.”

“You all right?”

“I can’t talk right now, Sly. Sully will call.”

Merrick slipped the phone in his pocket. Johanna was alive. Alive all this time, living in Greece as Cyrus’s wife. Happily, Melita had said, with her husband and son. Cyrus’s son.

Merrick closed his eyes as that fateful day surfaced in his mind. They had made love that morning in the shower, and then he’d gone to work. She’d told him she was going shopping, and hours later in his office at headquarters, he’d gotten the e-mail. I have a picture you’ll want to see.

It was an odd e-mail, but he’d been curious. When he retrieved the picture, he saw Johanna on a bed of steel with a charge of C4 strapped around her body. He’d had no idea that the minute the picture materialized on the screen by his own hand he had automatically started the timed explosives.

For three minutes he had stared at Johanna’s terrified face before the screen went black. Then came the report that an explosion had leveled one of their warehouses in Crystal City, ten miles south of Onyxx headquarters.

“Merrick?”

He felt Sully’s hand on his shoulder. “I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now. I don’t know what to say.”

“Cyrus faked her death.”

“It looks that way.”

“Twenty years of believing she was dead, and now…” Merrick cleared his throat. “I called Sly. I told him you’d call him later and fill him in.”

“Whatever you want. Ask it and it’s yours. The men can be here in—”