I felt a presence behind me and turned. I jerked my head to the side to indicate he should follow me to the corridor.
“Bogdan just went on a rampage,” Sergei reported once we were just outside the room. “He just gunned down two of his own men.”
I paused in thought. That meant he still hadn’t been able to figure out who’d taken Bianca.
“He’ll keep going until he finds her,” Sergei said.
I didn’t need the reminder. I turned to look at Bianca. Her back was turned to me and I couldn’t hear her voice, but it was the closest she’d ever felt to me. She had always seemed too good for me. Unattainable. But as the seconds ticked by and with the sound of Sergei’s breathing in my ear, I could feel it happening all over again. The distance was once again widening, my grip on her loosening …
There was a reason I had walked away two years earlier, and it was still valid. So just what was I doing?
I turned my gaze back to him, a frown on my face. The conclusion from his statement was clear to the both of us. Either I kept her hidden and allowed the bodies to pile up, or I give her up and stopped the bloodshed.
“How far are you willing to go?” Sergei asked, staring at me intently. It was as though he were trying to read my mind.
“Did Anne return?”
“Yeah, the guys just dropped her off,” he responded.
“Have her prepare a room for Bianca, and something to eat.”
“Which room?”
“I want to keep an eye on her. The one next to mine. Tell Gloria to make her a Spanish omelet and to make it spicy. Bianca likes it hot.”
Obviously, he didn’t see the wisdom in my actions. His lips snapped closed as he nodded.
I could see Gloria, our housekeeper coming from the other end of the corridor. She would take care of Bianca’s needs now. I had some serious thinking to do. I tapped Sergei’s shoulder consolingly as I walked past.
6
Bianca
Levan had done another disappearing act and I was shown to my room by the housekeeper, Gloria, a tiny, soft-spoken woman dressed in a high-necked black dress. She had white hair and rosy cheeks. She behaved as if nothing was out of the ordinary. As if I was simply a guest of her employer.
It would be unnecessary to say that the room was beautiful. Classy soft gray walls with accents of white. The bed was huge and smelt of lavender, but I didn’t even sit on it to try it out. I felt so soiled. As soon she closed the door quietly behind her, I rushed to the bathroom and began to strip. I got to the massive cubicle that would have fit ten people, turned the shower on, and waited until it was the right temperature before I stepped into the glorious cascade.
I turned my face up and let the water wash away the whole day.
My head was jumbled with all kinds of thoughts. Would Bogdan think it was my father who had busted me out? No. My father didn’t have those kind of resources or the guts to do something like that. Would Bogdan hurt my father now, since I’d been taken? No, he would probably try to use him as some kind of bartering advantage. What would happen to the bakery? Nothing. And the staff? I would have to call them in the morning. No, I couldn’t do that without letting Bogdan know that I was alive and well … able to make calls. God, what a mess.
The heat from the water felt good on my sore body. I massaged the strained muscles in my shoulder blades and my back. By tomorrow, they would probably be even stiffer.
As my body began to unwind, I closed my eyes and thought of Levan. I never thought I would ever see him again. For at least a year, I looked at tall men with black hair and imagined it was him, but it was never him. So eventually, I stopped looking, stopped expecting those men to be him. It felt as if I was in a dream, but circumstances had made his appearance in my life, a surreal nightmare.
My mind returned to the past. I remembered how he had charmed himself into my life. Aldie and I had been invited to a poolside party off campus hosted by one of the rich kids from her English department. It had seemed a strange invite, because the girl had snubbed me in the past and she had asked Aldie to bring ‘that girl you always hang out with.’
As soon as we arrived, we saw Levan waiting for us at the stone steps. Like some kind of hero-god, he rose and began to walk towards us. My stomach knotted and my mouth became dry. I got so nervous at the prospect of not making a fool of myself again, I walked right into the water fountain.
Then, in an even more humiliating effort to save myself, I grabbed and dragged him in with me. We made a spectacular splash. There must have been a hundred or so students milling around the grounds that saw us fall in. While I contemplated drowning with shame, he came up, roaring with laughter. I watched him as though in a trance. I think I was already half in love with him then.
But even if I hadn’t been utterly infatuated, this was the beauty about Levan. Unlike me, he seemed devoid of concerns or problems. Carefree as a bird, he threw caution to the winds and lived every moment as if it was his last. He dragged me out of my reserved, insecure shell and made me do things I would never have dared. He made my life magical … and then hell, when he vanished without a trace.
I opened my eyes and turned off the shower. Levan still had the same smile, but his eyes were different. From what I could gather so far, he was now deeply involved in the brutal world of the Mafia. Right now, and either-way, I would ensure that Levan would be the least of my problems. I walked out of the stall and wrapped myself in the fluffy towel that had been neatly folded and left on a round pillar style marble table. As I luxuriated in its softness, I wondered just how rich Levan really was.
He had always ‘smelled’ of money and had that easy confidence of rich people. I guess knowing you can buy your way out of any kind of trouble must be a great feeling. Still, there was never any real indication I could point to. He never wore designer gear, drove up in a gold lambo, or flashed his money around.
Maybe if I’d had enough time, but he’d just come and gone like the wind … unpredictable and untraceable. My gaze took in the obviously expensive big slabs of dark marble surrounding me. This much money was quite overwhelming for me. Before Mom started the bakery, I was one of those children who went to bed hungry as the month got closer to the end because Dad had gambled away his wages.
I walked back into the bedroom … and stopped at the sight of food. Walking over to it, I quickly realized what I was looking at: Spanish omelet. Once I’d told Levan, it was my favorite meal. The only problem was it was a lie. From a girl who had been so desperate to connect with him on any level she was willing to do almost anything. When Levan had mentioned he loved the dish, the lie had fallen from my lips without me even thinking about it.
I could see that my dirty clothes were gone, probably already spinning in a washing machine, so I stayed in the towel I was wrapped in. Lying on a cream daybed, I inputted his password and dialed Aldie again.
She answered on the first ring. “Everything okay?” she asked urgently.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Are you alright?”
“I’m not the one who has been in a car crash and being held, location unknown.”
“Do you have any news?” I asked quickly.
“Um … yeah. You’re hundred percent sure his surname is Ivankov?”