With This Secret

I walked towards the island counter. “Any news?” I asked. “About my father?”

“Nothing yet,” he said as he retrieved two boxes of tea bags from the cabinet above. “We’re still trying to look for him and by all indications, he hasn’t left the state. Do you have any ideas as to where he might have gone?”

I thought hard, but there was nothing in my head. My father’s movements when he was not in my line of sight, had always been a mystery to me.

Levan set the two mugs of steaming hot tea before me.

I looked up into his eyes, and to my confusion, they seemed veiled and hard.

The man who had kissed me so passionately, who’d radiated such warmth and emotion in the boutique was nowhere to be found.

“Bogdan hasn’t contacted you? You said that he’d figured out that you took me and then we rushed from the boutique. Surely, he must have contacted you by now.”

“He hasn’t,” he said, and immediately turned away, taking his mug with him.

Something twisted in my stomach. I ran after him and stood in his way. “You’re lying,” I accused. His eyebrows dipped in annoyance, but I was never one to run away from my troubles. “Please don’t lie to me, Levan. Tell me what’s going on. Bogdan has contacted you, hasn’t he?”

He watched me and it was like being transported in time. We were back in college. His gaze always so guarded but enchanting enough to have me hanging onto every word that came out of his mouth, each one sweet like honey. But our abrupt separation and the mountain of lies by omission he’d fed me about his identity, rang like a bell in my brain.

“We’re still searching for your father. The most likely scenario is he has gone into hiding to protect himself.” His eyes softened a fraction. “Don’t worry about him. Self-preservation is always strong in men like your father. They are the ones who will survive a nuclear holocaust.”

I felt some measure of relief, but I still felt completely in the dark. “What did Bogdan say?”

“The rules of my world are: the less you know the safer you will be. Will you trust me and let me solve this situation in my own way?”

I nodded slowly.

“Goodnight, Bianca,” he said with a gentle smile. He stepped to the side and walked out of the kitchen.

I was too wound up to speak. I felt lost and bereft. I thought of what he said about my father and I knew instinctively that he was right. My father was a survivor. Pulling out my phone, I decided to check up on Aldie for the fiftieth time that day.

She however, did not pick up.

It was close to midnight so it was perfectly reasonable that she could be asleep, but Aldie had the supersonic ears of a bat … her phone was never far away from her and it didn’t seem possible that she would have not been awakened by my call. I dialed her number again, my steps quickening in haste as I reached the top of the stairs.

Still no response.

In a panic, I pounded on the heavy mahogany door of Levan’s room. “Levan!” I shouted.

A few seconds later, he pulled it open. He wore nothing but the pants of the suit he’d worn earlier.

“Aldie,” I blurted out, shoving the phone in his face. “She’s not answering her phone.”

“She’s probably asle—”

“Aldie is an extremely light sleeper,” I cried desperately. “If she isn’t answering her phone then …” I couldn’t even say the words.

He whirled on his heel and strode into his room.

My heart was thundering in my chest as I watched him.

He retrieved his phone from his bedside table and dialed, pressed it to his ear, then blasted off a low concise inquiry in Russian.

Then he went silent.

A full freaking minute must have passed while he’d said neither a word, nor turned to me.

Shaking with fear, I walked in and stood in front of him. My eyes found his. “Is she okay?” I asked, afraid to even breathe.

“She’s not coming to the door,” he muttered.

My heart dropped into my stomach. I stared at him in horror as he said his next words.

“Break in,” he ordered into his phone.

I held his gaze, my chest heavy, and my breathing hard.

“She will be fine,” he said to me.

I heard the words as though he had whispered them into my ear, but they brought me no comfort. Not Aldie. Not sweet Aldie. She had done nothing to deserve this. “Not her,” I whispered brokenly.

Levan put his hand around me.

I went willingly into his arms. In his arms, I felt peace and warmth emanating from his skin, soothing me in a way that made it easier for me to breathe.

“She’ll be okay. I promise you. Bogdan doesn’t want her,” he murmured in my ear.