When I arrived in his room, I looked around, close to suffocating and absolutely clueless what to do next. I pulled on my jeans and ran out of the room. I returned to my own room and picked up my phone, but when I tried to connect to the internet, I found out that there was absolutely no available network anywhere. Not even on the balcony.
With a frown at the device, I went over to Aldie’s room. She wasn’t in so I made my way down to the ground floor straight to the kitchen.
She was sat at the island, making her way through a bowl of mixed nuts. “Hey baby,” she called.
“Buenos Días, Senõrita,” the two cooks in the kitchen called out as well.
“Buenos Días,” I replied with a smile to them, then turned to Aldie. “Hey, do you have internet on your phone?”
She shook her head. “I don’t. I asked one of the staff about it last night and he said that it was temporarily down. He said he’d have it fixed and running soon.”
I took a seat beside her and wrung my hands together.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I think there’s trouble in New York and Levan has to go back right now.”
She went still. “What trouble?”
“Well, Levan’s ensured we won’t know what it is by deactivating the internet.”
“Whoa,” she said. “Take it easy. Where did this paranoia come from? Have you asked him about it?”
“Is there any need to? He’s just going to say he’s done it to protect me.”
“Well he is trying to protect you.”
“How does fucking keeping me in the dark protect me, Aldie? I want to know. I want him to see me as an equal. Someone who can bear the burden with him. I’m not a little snowflake that will melt at the first sign of heat.”
“Protecting you, for Levan, includes not making you worry unnecessarily. He wants it all to be blue skies and rainbows for you, almost as though he blames himself for any hardship you might go through. I say, let him. I’d love it if a man cared that much for me.”
“No!” I declared and rose to my feet. “I don’t want to add to his troubles. I don’t want him to worry whether I am going to be worried. I want to be his rock to know that he can tell me anything and I won’t judge, so he will see that I will stand by him. I’m going to go and ask him!”
“Bianca,” she called after me.
I was already sprinting from the room. I went back up the stairs to his room and walked in.
Already dressed in a pair of dark trousers and a crisp white shirt, his thick silky hair was still damp from his shower, which always made my toes curl a little. He was removing some documents from the safe in his closet. “Hey,” he called and continued with transferring a folder into the briefcase that lay open on the bed. He snapped it and turned to face me. “You alright?”
“There’s no internet in the house,” I said to him.
“Yes, I know. Island services. I’ll get it fixed.”
“When?”
His phone began to ring then. “Just a second,” he said, taking the call. He listened to what the person on the other line was saying, then spoke, “I’ll call you back in a few minutes.” Ending the call, he came over to place a kiss on my cheek.
I placed my hand to his chest and held him away. “I’m not trying to start a fight with you, especially since you’re leaving right now, but it’s not okay that you’re deliberately restricting access to the internet so that Aldie and I won’t be able to figure out what’s going on in New York.”
I thought he’d deny it, but he didn’t.
“I’m not a child, Levan. This concerns me! This is my life too. You are my life. Whatever happens to you, happens to me.”
“I know that,” he said. “But right now only a handful of us know that you’re involved and I’d like to keep it that way. The more contact you have with the outside, the more likely it will be that you or Aldie will accidentally slip-up and bring attention here. I’ll handle the things that I can and then when its time, I’ll tell you about the things that I cannot.”
“I want to help, Levan.”
“And I’ll let you, when it’s needed. Not yet. Please trust in me. I’ll be back soon and then I’ll tell you everything that’s going on. I promise.”
With my heart feeling like it was splitting in two, I let him kiss me again, and walk out of the room.
43
Levan
I walked off the tarmac and tossed my briefcase into the town car. As I slid in, I found my brother awaiting me in the backseat.