Page 23 of The Greek's Retribution

“There he is,” Yiorgos’ deep Greek accented voice shouts as he finishes hugging Alistair. Alistair moves on to Basil, who is now standing too.

I look back at Zar who has his eyes trained on his cousin.

“Yiorgos” Zar dryly greets.

Yiorgos Kourakos, Balthazar’s cousin from Greece is standing next to the table with Sebastian beside him and Yiannis on the other side. His middle brother Basil stands next to Yiannis. Like most of us, Yiorgos wears a tapered beard and mustache and is very muscular. What distinguishes him from Zar and the rest of their family is Yiorgos’ crazy looking bluish-gray eyes. I remember Yiannis mentioning when we were younger that Yiorgos inherited his great grandmothers eyes on his mother’s side, but to look at him you could tell he’s definitely a Kourakos. To me, he looks like a mixture of Zar and Sebastian but with a deranged look in his eyes like Alistair.

“Κ?λλιο αργ? παρ? ποτ?, π?ντα λ?ω (Better late than never I always say),” Yiorgos kids in Greek, eyeballing Zar as he walks over to us.

“Ποτ? δεν αργε?ς ?ταν ε?σαι στον δικ? σου χρ?νο. (You’re never late when you’re on your own time),” Zar rebuttals, standing his ground.

Yiorgos chuckles as he stops a few feet away from Zar, then holds out his hand.

“Good to see you cousin.”

Zar smirks at him. Yiannis clears his throat before taking a sip from his glass, prompting Zar to shake his cousin’s hand.

“You too,” Zar returns as he gets a firm grip on Yiorgos’ hand.

The others can’t see it but they are squeezing the hell out of each other’s hands in a test of strength, trying to see who would give in first. This continues for a few more seconds before, Sebastian calls Zar.

“Zar, you and Xander come over and have a drink with us. We were just catching your cousins up to speed on what has been going on.”

Zar gives Yiorgos one last hard squeeze before he reluctantly releases his grip, then walks away from him. Yiorgos laughs, but his hand is red as hell from the vise like grip Zar had on him. He watches Zar as he goes over to Basil.

“Balthazar,” Basil happily greets, giving his cousin a hug.

“How are you doing, Basil?” Zar asks, taking a step back to get a good look at him.

Basil smiles. “I’m good, happy that we’re finally over here.”

“Well, it’s good to haveyou,” Zar voices, but only meaning it was good to have Basil and not Yiorgos.

“Ευχαριστ? (Thank you),” Basil accepts for him and his brother before they sit at the table.

Yiorgos turns to me, holding out the same inflamed hand.

“Xander”

“Yiorgos,” I say, firmly shaking his hand as he tries to do the same thing to me.

He laughs again as he drops my hand, then goes back to the table and retakes his seat. I look over my shoulder at Hendrix and Frankie, then tell them, “We need to make sure Zar doesn’t lose his shit around him.”

They nod, then go to the bar to grab a couple of beers from the fridge, then sit across from each other on the end of the table.

Sitting down next to Zar, I pick up the bottle of brown liquor, then pour a good amount in one of the empty glasses.

“So, Balthazar, Uncle Sebastian and Yiannis have filled me in on your current situation and I was just about to ask them a serious question before you all came in,” Yiorgos says, swirling the liquid around in his glass as he sits directly across from Zar.

“And what would that be?” Zar asks.

Yiorgos tilts his head to the side, pinning Zar with a serious expression. “I’m trying to understand why we are on the verge of a potential war for someone who is not blood related to us. I could see if it involved Alistair because he is your brother, but Xander is not your blood. He is your Right Hand Man, your worker. Wars are not to be started for the help.”

I slam my glass on the table about to come out of my chair when Zar places his hand on my shoulder, forcefully pushing me back into my seat as he stands. He leans over the table, getting closer to Yiorgos’ face

“Let me tell you something asshole, Xander is not the fucking help or just some worker. Heisa brother to me. He has been a part of this family just like his father was, so don’t come up in here with that bullshit. If someone is fucking with him and his family, then they are fucking with us. We are family and if you don’t like it, then you can take your ass back to Greece because me and my family can handle this shit without you, believe that!”

“Sit down, Balthazar,” Yiannis commands.

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