With This Secret

She was holding a tray of juice. She looked up when she noticed my presence.

I couldn’t move. “Aldie?” I whispered, almost in disbelief.

She put the tray down on a little side-table and ran lightly up the stairs to me. There were tears in her eyes. “Why are you up? You need to rest.”

I drew her into my arms and held her close. I inhaled her warm, lovely scent as I molded myself into her familiar contours and thanked God. Tears rolled uncontrollably from my eyes. “Aldie,” I sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”

She pulled away from me, her eyes gentle. “Hey, hey, hey, don’t apologize. You have nothing to apologize for. It was not your fault.”

“I saw what they did to you!” I cried, inconsolable that because of me she had suffered pain at the hands of those brutes. My eyes searched her face and body for signs that she had suffered damage. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

She nodded and opened her arms out. “Look at me. I’m fine. A few bruises. Other than that, I’m as good as new.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“Stop freaking apologizing,” she said sternly.

I shook my head in wonder. “How did you get here?”

“Levan came to get me. You didn’t need to give yourself up to Bogdan at all.”

“What?” I asked my head spinning at that information. If only I’d waited a little longer, I cursed inside. My body swayed with shock.

Aldie quickly caught my hand to lead me back to my room. “Why don’t you go back to sleep for a bit and I’ll explain everything when you wake up.”

“What about Levan?” I asked. “Is he okay?”

She took me into the room and sat me down on the couch.

And then she explained it all.

“What?” I gazed at Aldie, my heart in my throat. “He’s wanted?”

“Yeah,” she said solemnly. “The warrant was issued after the press conference four hours ago. Sarah revealed everything about her dealings with Levan over the last two years. The allegations and people involved are just unbelievable. It’s all gone national too.”

“Where is he now?”

“I don’t know. After dropping you off and making sure that you were okay, he left the house again. Perhaps he’s off to do damage control.”

“For which disaster?” I muttered, placing my hands on my head, and hiding my face between my knees. “I’m destroying him, Aldie. All of this is because of me, and seeing his whole world go down in flames is killing me.” Every word that came out of my mouth rang through my heart as I came to realize just what this man, who was giving up so much for me … meant to me.

However the debts he’d racked up along the way … the deaths … half of the country’s law enforcement was about to be after him … neither of us could pay. “I need to somehow put an end to this, Aldie.”

She pulled me into her arms. “Come on, Bianca. There is not a thing you can do. Just stop worrying, babe. It will all be fine.”

“I don’t believe that.” I shook my head. “I don’t believe that at all. Especially as Bogdan was able to get away. He’s going to come back, Aldie, and he’s going to come back for blood. I need your phone.”

“Bee.”

I went past her to head down the stairs.

“Bianca!” She called after me. “Bianca!

We arrived at the bottom of the stairs.

Just then, the front door was pushed open.

Maxim came in and … we both froze.

Levan was behind him.

The sight of Levan made my whole body hurt all over.

He looked battered; his eyes bloodshot, his nose bruised into a sickly shade of purple. A bandage was wrapped around his head, and his shirt which was once crisp, was now raggedly and stained with dirt and blood.

Maxim gave a hard look at me. “Get her back to bed,” he said sternly to Aldie, and went on his way down the hall.

To my surprise, Levan came up to me as he looked into my eyes. “Go with Aldie, Bianca. Rest. I have much to do now, but we’ll talk later, okay?”

I wanted to protest. I wanted to hold him, but I knew from his eyes, things were really serious and the best thing I could do to help was stay out of his way. I nodded.

He kissed me gently on the nose and walked in the same direction his brother had gone.

“His brother …” Aldie said. “Is fucking frightening.”

As we were turning away, there was a sudden commotion outside with sirens and shouts.

“What the fuck?” Aldie muttered as my gaze flew towards the door.

The deafening ruckus got closer.

Levan and Maxim rushed out, as the door burst open and four police officers came in with deadly expressions on their faces and guns in their grip. They pointed it at Levan, and surrounded him like a vicious pack of hyenas. “Put your hands above your head,” they ordered.