Make Me Whole Read Free Page B

Galen a moment to unscramble his brain long enough to realize that he’d accidentally called Nick’s work instead of his cell.
    “I’m sorry, Mr. Charisteas is in a meeting. May I ask who’s calling?”
    “Just tell him Galen Kanellis called.” He paused and his stomach sank further. He was an idiot. This was stupid. And Nick was going to laugh his ass off if he knew how much he had tied himself into knots over a simple phone call that Galen would’ve shrugged off six months ago.
    “Hey, Mr. K.” Knox’s excited voice came up through the hole in his office floor that still contained a fireman’s pole and cut through Galen’s circling thoughts. “You have got to come see these dudes.”
     
     
    N ICK C HARISTEAS ducked into his office and dumped the stack of files on his desk. He was in hell. Absolute, literal hell that involved endless wait times on the phone and reams of papers that kept getting higher every day. Financial security was not worth this bullshit.
    He flung himself in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose to ward off the incipient headache. If he could just clear his mind of insurance forms for ten minutes, he’d be golden for the rest of the day. He took out his darts and swiveled his chair around to the small dartboard he’d stuck onto the bookcase.
    The first dart landed next to the outer rim and Nick winced. He did not want to explain to management how another book got punctured. He took careful aim and the second hit dead center. By the time he ran out of darts, the tension in his shoulders had started to ease and the knots in his stomach had unraveled. Nick rose to grab the darts for another quick round when his eyes fell on the poster of Santorini he had tacked to the wall.
    Six more months. Then he would have three blessed weeks on a charter boat in the Greek Islands, diving, getting back in touch with his roots, and hopefully this time, bringing back the prominence to his family’s name. That’s why he worked this job. It gave him the pay, the insurance, and the vacation time for these twice-yearly jaunts around the world. He came in sick, saved up every scrap of leave just for these little escapes. If he was the one to find the Dexios Collection, it would be his ticket back home. Finding the Collection would fix everything.
    Nick’s phone rang and he peered at the display with a grimace for the name there, Jessica Blandford, no doubt calling to bitch again about staffing. Nothing made her happy. Nick ignored the ringing and turned back toward the dartboard. He threw the dart harder than he intended and it sank all the way up to its shaft into the workplace safety sign he had hanging next to the bookcase. “Crap.”
    A brisk knock at the door made him jump and cast a quick glance at the offending dart. Before he could answer, the door opened and his assistant Sean walked in with several message slips in his hand and two paper cups of coffee.
    “You have a meeting in ten minutes, and you might want to call Jessica back before it starts.”
    “I do?” Nick sat up at his desk and pulled up his calendar. “I thought I was free to catch up on paperwork for the rest of the afternoon.”
    “You were, but this came up regarding you-know-who, and they want it addressed immediately.”
    Nick scowled and shuffled through the files on his desk. “Got it, thanks. Any other messages I should know about beforehand?”
    “No, I think they can wait. The barista you’ve been ogling wrote his number down for you.” Sean handed him one of the coffees with a number emblazoned on the side without batting an eyelash.
    Nick took it with a slight flush and a cough. “Thanks, sorry about that.”
    “Not a problem.” Sean handed him the slips of paper. “Jessica called twice, Hodson’s Funeral Home sent a fax about the insurance papers for McCleary, that teller in the Market Street branch, oh, and somebody named Galen called. I didn’t quite catch his last name, sorry.”
    “Galen