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convinced of this fact, but I knew it to be true.
    Was I seeing it through her eyes?
    Fuck me if I was. It seemed so goddamned real.
    Samantha turned to me and gazed into my eyes. Her face was serenely calm. I could see her complete and total beauty for the first time. It even transcended that moment she’d been in front of my grandfather’s painting in the museum. That had been awesome, but this was even better. This time, she was 100% relaxed, completely and totally at peace with herself, her life, the entire world. In this moment, she was fully the woman she wanted to become. My heart melted. Holy shit, I’d never felt anything like it. I desperately wanted her to become this woman she was capable of, like her finding herself would somehow complete me .
    The idea made me shiver with joy and…fear.
    Thing was, I lived for taking risks. No matter how fucking frightening they were.  
    Samantha…
    I wanted more. Fuck, I needed more.
    I needed us .
    The astral image of Samantha gazed into my soul. Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, as if she was struggling with something monumental, then her face relaxed, and all doubt fell away.
    “I love you, Christos,” she whispered to me, inches away on her beach lounger. We were still on that island paradise together.
    What the fuck?! She didn’t know my real name, I’d told her my name was Adonis. How did she know to call me Christos?! I started to shake in my swimsuit on my lounger, like something was ripping away the armor around my heart.
    I panicked.
    “Don’t be afraid, agápi mou ,” she whispered, leaning against the armrest of her lounger, caressing my arm with her fingertips as the waves whispered against the shore. “I love you.” She reached over to kiss me. Her lips were so close, I could feel their warmth on mine as her sweet breath caressed my soul.
    My heart raced.  
    Suddenly, black storm clouds blanketed the sun. Thunder hammered across the sky.
    Samantha was slipping away. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t get air. I was scared shitless. I rocketed out of that tropical paradise, all the way across the universe, and shot up in my cramped bunk.
    Gasping, I blinked my eyes and shook my head, making sure I was awake. I looked around.
    The jail dormitory was totally silent. Nobody was awake. The place was a tomb. They kept the lights on 24/7, but turned off half the fluorescent banks after lights out. It must have been well past midnight.
    I rolled over and did my best to go back to sleep.
    Sometime later, darkness overtook me.
    Horrible darkness.
    Something was chasing Samantha. Some one. A terrible presence was trying to overcome her, trying to tear away her innocence. She was afraid. I wanted to help her, but I couldn’t reach her. She was all alone. There was nothing I could do. She was wounded, unable to escape her tormentor.
    I couldn’t protect her and it was killing me.
    Samantha…
    Agápi mou…

Chapter 3

    SAMANTHA  

    PRESENT DAY
    Standing on the dock in the Marina, shaking with low-level fear, I did my best to hide my tension as I waited for Christos to clue me in on whatever it was he was hiding from me.
    Before he could, Tiffany Kingston- Whore house, I mean White house, emerged from the center of the small remaining group of people chatting with her on the dock.  
    The last light of the sunset tinted Tiffany’s skin that perfect golden brown you only see on supermodels or swimsuit magazine covers. I’m pretty sure Tiffany had hired a rock video crew to choose just that moment to blow a gust of wind into her shimmering, silken hair. She looked spectacular, and I hated her for it.
    Was she what Christos had been hiding?
    “Hey, Christos!” she squealed, “You came!” She flung her arms around him in total disregard for my existence, nearly slicing my eyeball open with her nails. She kissed Christos’ cheek affectionately.
    Hello , did she not see me? I glared bullets at Queen Bee-otch.
    Christos broke away from Tiffany’s embrace