Page 1 of The Greek's Retribution

Chapter 1

Xander Andino

As the men sat aroundlaughing and teasing Zar on what type of father he would be, Xander’s cell phone begins to ring.

He stands, going over to the banister.

“Hey Sabre. How’s Thanksgiving going with your family,” he greets.

Xander frowns as he yells, “What’s wrong? What happened?”

He pulls the phone from his ear, staring at it.

“Xander what’s going on?,” Zar questions.

“That was Sabre. She was crying hysterically, saying she needed my help before the phone went dead,” Xander replies, redialing her number. “Fuck,” he roars when she doesn’t pick up. He tries again only to get the same result. “I gotta go!”

“Hold on, Xander. You don’t know what’s going on, at least let us go with you,” Zar tells him.

Xander’s face fills with worry. “Sabre has never calls me like that! Something is wrong I need to get to her! Yiannis, can I borrow your jet?”

Yiannis nods, then holds up his finger. “Yes you may, but we’re going with you. The ladies can stay here while we see to your woman.”

Alistair stands, saying, “Well, let’s tell them so we can hurry up and get to Chicago.”

My nerves are wound tight as I stare out the window of the jet. We left Dallas about an hour ago. The ladies wanted to join us, but Balthazar informed them they would have to stay. I understood their concern for Sabre, but we didn’t have any details on what’s going on. I just pray that she is okay, but from the hysteria in her voice, I knew some shit has wasn’t right.

I’m thankful to Yiannis for letting me use his jet to fly back to Chicago. He along with Balthazar, Alistair, Sebastian, and the other men are accompanying me. I’ve always had respect for Yiannis and Sebastian. My father, Jeroen Andino was best friends with Yiannis, which is how Balthazar and I became friends. Most would often say I was a spitting image of him with my green eyes and the pre-mature gray in our beards. Father kept hair cut low and tapered on the sides. My sides are the same but, the top is longer and I like to wear it pulled back in a bun.

Father and Yiannis grew up together and my father became Yiannis’ Enforcer. My mother, Ismena and Althaia were once pretty close too, but that ended when my father was killed, protecting Yiannis in an ambush. My mother and older sister, Karisa, blamed Yiannis for his death. She severed ties with the Kourakos family and was upset when I didn’t. I couldn’t put the blame on Yiannis, my father was doing his job and I know for a fact if the situation was reversed, Yiannis would have done the same for him, just like Zar and I would do for each other. I witnessed the bond the two of them had and to me, they were more like brothers than friends. Yiannis took Father’s death pretty hard because in his eyes, he did lose his brother.

After Father passed, a guilt stricken Yiannis paid for all of his funeral arrangements and made sure my family was taken care of. Althaia tried her best to be there for Mother but Mother rejected her calls and visits. I knew it was hard on her, hell it was hard on all of us. I found myself leaving our home and going over to the Kourakos house to get away from Mother and Karisa bad mouthing them. Mother failed to understand that as a son who was extremely close to his Father, I felt lost and needed her motherly love and attention at that time. Mother let the hate in her heart take over, and Althaia and GeeGee stepped in to fill that void. What was sad about it all, is that before Father died our families did almost everything together whether it was vacations, parties, or dinners. We were a tight knit blended family, and to watch Mother and Karisa show disregard to the Kourakos was disheartening.

The Kourakos are my second family and I wasn’t going to turn my back on them. Years later when I made the decision to move to Dallas, Mother and Karisa accused me of putting the Kourakos first. However, I had to explain to them I was a grown ass man who could make his own decisions. With me living in another state, they’ve calmed down a lot since then. I go to visit them as often as I can. They’ve even let some of their hostility towards the Kourakos go, which was a relief for me, but they still keep their distances.

Growing up, Father and Yiannis made sure Zar and I were close. I guess they knew one day we would be in the same positions as them. We did everything together from learning how to shoot guns at an early age to being trained in hand to hand combat by Father. Of course, Alistair with his little crazy ass was always around, getting in on our training. Even back then, I thought he was, as GeeGee would say, a little touched. He had a way of looking at you with this crazy smirk on his face, that had you wondering what was going on in his head. I used to sit back, laughing when he would try to fight Zar and Zar would just brush him off.

One day after our training session, they got into it with Alistair trying to fight Zar before storming off when Zar wouldn’t give him the reaction he wanted. I asked Zar, “Why don’t you beat his little ass, so he won’t come at you like that again?”

Zar chuckled, shaking his head. “He is my little brother and I will never put my hands on him. If I fuck him up, then he’ll be scared of me and if he’s scared of me, he might be scared of the next motherfucker and I can’t have that. Some day we will be running the Family and I’m going to need his crazy pit bull ass by my side.”

I nodded in understanding and over the years I came to see what Zar meant. Alistair was a force to be reckoned with but in a good kind of way. He couldn’t stand bullies and most of the fights he got into were over some asshole pushing others around. From the things I witnessed him do to some of his enemies, all I can say is, I’m glad his crazy ass is on our side.

Zar and I went to the same schools, with Alistair coming along two years later and had the same friends, which wasn’t that many because we weeded out the ones who wanted to be around us because they heard the rumors about our Fathers and thought it would be cool to hang around us. The two who would always had our backs were Hendrix and Frankie which is why Zar added them to our crew when we moved to Dallas.

Both came from lower class families than ours but were loyal and had street knowledge. Hendrix Marshall was the youngest of four and held a lot of anger from being neglected in his youth, but once we brought him into our fold, he turned that negative energy towards our enemies. Frankie Comis was the son of one of Yiannis’ guards. He went to school with us and just naturally fit in. The two became our close friends and never looked back. Loyalty.

My mind drifts to my love, Sabre Tompkins and I met two years before I moved to Dallas with Balthazar. I was twenty-five and she was twenty-four. She was a real estate agent and doing well for herself. I was looking to buy a condo in downtown Chicago and imagine my surprise when the real estate company sent over this beautiful African American woman with legs for days and a sharp business mind to match.

Sabre met me in the lobby of the condo building dressed in a black sleeveless dress that stopped just above her knees. It was sexy as hell on her, even if she bought it out of the business apparel section in Neiman Marcus. Her brown skin seemed to shimmer from the lights and her matching light brown eyes stared at me with a twinkle in them before going back into business mode. Her straight hair was parted down the middle and hung just above her shoulders. I instantly felt a pull towards her.

“Hi, you must be Mr. Andino. I’m Sabre Tompkins from Imperial Reality and I will be showing you the condo today,” she introduced, holding out her hand to me.

“Yes, I’m Mr. Andino. Nice to meet you, Sabre,” I returned taking her hand in mine. I’m not sure what happened but just from the touch of her skin, my pulse quickened. Sabre must have had the same feeling because she swiftly pulled her hand away. I watched as she slowly exhaled, then put on her professional persona back on.

“Let me show you the condo,” she stated as she walked over to the elevator, then pushed the up button. This was going to be interesting.

As she showed me around the condo, it took everything inside of me not to pull her into my arms and see for myself how soft her lips really were. Even though I really liked the condo, I lied to Sabre, telling her I didn’t just so she could show me other properties. That gave me more time with her, so I could get to know the lovely Sabre better.

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