“I’m surprised it’s taken you this long to work that out. Do you want to leave, want to go back to your boyfriend?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend, as you well know. Daidan! Just listen to me. I can’t tell you the details, I just can’t, but I’m telling you the truth. There was nothing between me and the father of my child.”
He grunted with disbelief.
Her eyes narrowed. “You know what I mean. Please, Daidan, stop this. We can’t go on like it. Unless…”
“Unless?”
“Unless you wish to stop what we’re doing? You want me to leave? I told you I’d leave if you asked. Now’s your chance.”
“Do you want to?”
She shook her head.
“Then we continue as we are.”
“Only if you leave this behind you.”
“Only if you promise me that there’s no more surprises. There’s nothing more that happened. I need to be able to trust you.”
“There’s nothing more you need to know.”
His eyes narrowed suspiciously for a moment before he turned away. For a moment Taina wondered if her answer would satisfy him. Then he turned to her. “We’re here.” Whatever his thoughts he was obviously not going to express them.
The boat bounced on the small waves that peppered the gulf. And Taina’s grip of the rail tightened as she watched the island approach with the ruins of the castle where her family had defended their lands in medieval times looming over it. Seemed times hadn’t changed that much. The castle and island, which would be the location for the big launch, was still a place of retreat and, to her, a place of imprisonment. Now more than ever.
She glanced at Daidan who sat reading the paper on the deck. “I’ll need to return to the city in a few days.”
“No.”
“But surely we’ll be moving back and forth, right?”
“Wrong. I can’t risk it. Not with so much going on. I want to keep a tight control over every aspect of this launch and we can do that better on site. Our key staff will come to the island during the day and the jewelry will be brought by armored guard on the day of the launch itself. It’s only for another week. Once the launch is over everything will be back to normal.”
“You really think someone is out to sabotage the launch? Or do you suspect it’s more personal?”
He didn’t speak for a few moments. “It’s possible and I’m not willing to take the risk.”
“Do you think it’s something to do with the Russians? I realize they must be annoyed that our new safety measures show them in a bad light and they might lose business, but my father and the head of the Russian company always respected each other, even if they were competitors. Surely they wouldn’t turn their back on our joint history?”
Again Daidan remained silent and she racked her brains to figure out what he was getting so paranoid about. For a brief moment she wondered if he was keeping anything from her but then she dismissed the idea. No, he was just being the same controlling man as her father had been.
“People don’t always behave rationally. I’d thought you’d have realized that, Taina. We’re working from the island until the launch. There’s nothing you can do but accept it. It is as it is.”
The boat docked at the jetty and Daidan spoke to the captain while Taina disembarked and walked up to the house, almost hidden by the overhanging trees. With each echoing footstep she took along the wooden jetty, the feeling of dread grew. She recognized it because she’d experienced that same sense of apprehension growing up on the island. But this time it appeared the threat was real—whether to her or the company, she didn’t know—and this time she had no idea from which direction the attack was coming.
By midweek she felt as if she were going crazy. A few staff came and were gone by six in the evening. They, and the household staff, were the only people she saw. The boat was the only way out and Daidan’s had the key to that. She was effectively trapped in her own home—just as she had been growing up.
Yes, she loved working on the jewelry collection, combining her initials with her mother’s in a new centerpiece to the range. The heartache remained but she was managing it. And she enjoyed working with Daidan’s team on the launch arrangements and whatever marketing was required. What she couldn’t manage was the feeling of being trapped against her will.
She decided to finish early and went for a walk around the small island, through the woodland and around to the old castle to see how the work was coming on. A new theatre stage had been built to replace the old one which had been used by her parents and her grandparents before them. Up until the past few years their family had held occasional festivals at the castle, taking advantage of its amazing acoustics and stunning natural setting.