a deal-breaker for me, and it’s not, but when I tried to talk to her about it she got really sensitive. I know her father has made her feel self-conscious about her illness, so I get it, but at the same time, if we’re in this for the long-haul—and I don’t know if we are yet—we have to be able to talk about it. Right?”
“Absolutely.” He was staring straight ahead thoughtfully.
“Come on, spit it out,” I said quietly.
“No, I’m not thinking anything in particular. If she was someone I was involved with, I’d want to meet with her psychiatrist and get an in-depth understanding of how the disease impacts her personally, versus generic shit you read online.”
“Well, that’s part of the problem. She doesn’t have a shrink she can trust.” I told him about Douglas choosing them for her and how she didn’t like any of them.
“I’m sure she could find an English-speaking one here in Limaj, but my guess is you won’t be staying much longer.”
“She wants and needs to stay here longer, but my band needs me.” I turned to him. “How do I choose?”
“You shouldn’t have to,” he said, his eyes meeting mine. “If you love each other, neither of you should ever have to choose between each other and the people closest to you. I think it’s telling that even this early on, you’re in a position where you have to.”
“Even though it’s not really her fault? I mean, everything going on is because of her father.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“She’s what? Twenty-five?”
I nodded.
“How can he have so much control over her? I mean, that doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t she have fought him before now? No matter what she tells you about him controlling her money and all that, she still has a huge net worth and reputation. I can’t imagine any big-time L.A. lawyer is going to say no to taking her on as a client if they think they can win. So either she’s lying about the control he has over her, or she’s already tried and no one will take the case because there are legit reasons she needs a conservator.”
I frowned. “You think?”
“I don’t know. Honestly, I’m playing devil’s advocate because you came to me. I get that you care for her. I see the bond between you, and to be fair, when you’re together, I don’t see anything negative. At all. She’s beautiful, articulate, and talented. When she looks at you, her heart is in her eyes, so I don’t see deceit or anything that raises my spidey senses, and that’s what I do for a living. However, she could be in love with you while simultaneously unaware of how bad her disease is impacting others. Or she could just see you as the perfect ally to help her get away from her father.”
“Is that a bad thing?” I countered. “If she loves me but doesn’t understand her disease because her father has always controlled it?”
“Not necessarily. You have to consider everything, though. Including the fact that she’s an entertainer, an actress in addition to a singer. What if this is all about using you to help her get away from her dad?”
I frowned. “I don’t want to believe that.”
“I know.” He paused in front of another door and did the same thing.
“What are you looking for?” I asked, since there didn’t seem to be anything else to say about Ariel.
“Trip wires, explosives, jimmied locks that could be opened in the middle of the night when we’re sleeping. Anything that could help a bad guy get into the palace when we’re least expecting it.”
“You do this every day?”
“Someone does it every day, but a different guy, at a different time. The only one who has the schedule is the head of security, Joe. He’ll call someone who’s on duty and say ‘door check time.’ And we do it. Sometimes at six in the morning, sometimes at dinnertime, other times at midnight. So no one who works here, like a cook or a maid, sees a schedule and could do something based on knowing someone checks the doors and locks every day at nine.”
I nodded. “Got it.”
He smiled. “Wanna be a bodyguard?”
“No thanks.”
We chuckled together.
“What are you going to do?” he asked as we continued to walk.
“I don’t fucking know. I think we need to have a heart-to-heart, but it has to be framed in a way that it won’t upset her because she’s really sensitive about it.”
“After living with the disease for so long,