With This Secret

“Bianca,” Levan called again.

“Yeah?” I managed to croak out.

“You’ve been in there a while, are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah—I just uh—I’m fine. I’ll be out soon.” I looked down at the shirt and jeans I’d been wearing since the previous day. They were clean, but they were both torn, and I knew I could get away with torn jeans, they were all the rage now. But I needed at least one outfit to change into so, I began to quickly sort through the rack. I found a light sweater top. The price. A whopping $2,500! Unbelievable.

I looked at the ordinary woolen fabric with contempt. It’s real worth I was sure was nothing more than $90. I kept going and eventually, came across a black and white striped top. $900. Totally not worth it, but it would have to do. I’d have to grit my teeth and reimburse him when this whole mess was over.

I immediately slipped my hands through the sleeves, but when I tried to pull up the zipper behind me, I had to gasp at the pain that shot up my back. My heart once again sank at the thought I would need some help. Perhaps I could get the saccharine sweet girl to do it up.

I moved, breathless to the door to see if she was anywhere close. “Hello?” I called out my voice a whisper.

No response came, as Miss Saccharine had locked the door of the shop when we came so no one else could come in.

With a sigh, I headed back out into the sitting area to see Levan going through his phone.

“I’ll take this one,” I said. “But can you help me with the zipper, please?”

“What about the rest?” he asked with a slight frown.

“Unnecessary. Just this one will do.”

His gaze ran over me. “You’ll need more than that. To start with, it’s getting colder.”

His intense gaze made the hairs on my body stand on end. “This is just for today. I can ask Aldie to post some clothes for me.”

“She will not be able to get in touch with you.”

My brows furrowed. “Why?”

“Bogdan’s men will have their eyes on her. Any contact with her will immediately expose the fact that we have you.”

I stared at him. My thinking still seemed muddled as if all my faculties were not right yet, after the crash.

“The situation is more severe than you think,” he said. “Get some more clothes. And shoes. Socks, underwear, the whole bit.”

“Well, I can’t get anything from this store. It’s all so damn expensive.”

“Don’t concern yourself. I’ll cover it,” he said.

“You know me better than that, Levan. I can’t let you spend all this money on me. You’ve already done enough by rescuing me. Can we go to a cheaper store nearby? There are some Ross stores not too far away and we can—”

“We came here for a reason, Bianca. It’s private.”

My face tightened with the thought of how much in debt I was to him.

With a sigh, he stood. “I’ll get Evelyn to send everything over to the house. Let’s go.”

“The last time I told you I liked you, you disappeared for two years,” I blurted out.

He stopped in his tracks. “I didn’t disappear. I was shot. Four times, in the chest. I was unconscious for nearly a month.”

“What?”

He began to slip the buttons out of his shirt.

I had long frozen over in shock.

He held my gaze, and unblinking, he held his shirt open.

I saw them then.

Four pigmented, textured dips marked the skin on his lower abdomen and chest, one of the dips looked to be a mere inch away from his heart.

I lifted my eyes to him in horror. “How the hell are you still alive?” I breathed

Time stopped—the world outside the plush cream and gold waiting room fell away. There was no one else, nothing else but us left in the universe. All the worries and troubles were gone. Hypnotized, I stared into his eyes. I watched in fascination as his pupils grew until they were so big there was almost no more color in them. It was wonderful to see.

I didn’t know how long we stood there just staring into each other’s eyes, or for long we would have stayed frozen in this beautiful, intense bubble where it was just the two of us, but I could have stayed there forever.

I jumped with shock when one of his men suddenly burst into the room. Disoriented, I could only stare as he muttered rapid Russian to Levan.

As Levan listened, he quickly buttoned his shirt.

When the man stopped speaking, he replied curtly in Russian, and the man ran back out.

“What’s wrong?” I asked my stomach tight with anxiety.

“Bogdan knows I have you,” he said.

I snapped out of my dazed state. “How did he find out you had me?”

“The very thing I intend to find out,” he snarled with a scowl. “Come on, we need to leave, now.”