Society Girls: Matisse (18 page)

“Oh my God, Ken,” she yells when I open her
door. “I didn’t know what they did to you. Reina was so mad, and
then I couldn’t leave. Are you okay?”

“No. I’m not okay.”

“Matisse is such a bitch! I can’t believe
she didn’t understand, and sicced Reina on us.”

Whoa! I wasn’t expecting that reaction, and
it couldn’t be further from the truth. “What do you think happened
last night, Wave?”

“You told Matisse, and she flipped out. I
saw her crying, and I told her off for you.”

Shit. This is worse than I thought. “I
didn’t tell her. She was crying because she heard about our
engagement…from Klas.”

“They found us?”

“Yes.”

I explain everything to her as she covers
her mouth in horror. “No wonder Matisse looked so devastated. I
can’t believe I yelled at her.”

“I did much worse.”

“You should’ve told the truth.”

“And put you in danger?”

“Denying who she was to you hasn’t saved us.
If Klas believed you, he wouldn’t be insisting on seeing me. You
hurt her for nothing.”

I sink down on her sofa when I realize she’s
right. We’re dealing with the same outcome now as we would have if
I’d told them Waverly and I weren’t together, and that I was with
Matisse. “I didn’t know it at the time. I thought I could protect
you if I downplayed my relationship with her.”

“I told you she’d understand about us, but
now that you told me about the guy in D.C., I don’t know. She
thinks she was with a cheater again, and that’s gotta really
suck.”

“Not helping, Wave.”

“As your best friend, I have to be realistic
with you. I’m going to do anything I can to help once we deal with
Klas, but you may have lost her for good.”

“That’s not an option.” I won’t let it
be.

“Unfortunately, it’s not up to you now. I’m
sorry, but you need to accept that.”

“I can’t, Wave. I can’t lose her for
good.”

* * *

Matisse

I keep up the charade until I’m locked in
the storage container with the other women and children. As soon as
the doors are closed, I hop up and look around. The container is
equipped with low wattage lights, and there’s a line of toilets
along the back wall. Bags of chips and cans of soda are on a table
to my right, and that tells me they want us to be alert, not
starving, but they don’t want us too well fed, either.

“How long have you been in here?” I ask one
of the women near me. She looks to be around twenty, and seems a
little less scared of me than the others.

“A week. How did you wake up so soon?”

Spy 101 teaches you not to trust anyone,
because even if they aren’t a plant, desperate people often make
very bad decisions. “I don’t know. I was drowsy, and then I
wasn’t.”

“All the blankets are gone, so you’ll have
to sleep on the floor.”

“I’m not staying in here, and neither are
any of you. We need to fight next time that door opens,” I say,
walking among the fifty or so inhabitants of this container.

“They’ll kill us. They said they’ll kill us
if we cause any trouble,” another woman tells me.

“You think they’re going to let you go if
you behave? I’d stake my life on the fact that they’re going to
sell us all as sex slaves. Is that how you want to die, underneath
some smelly dude who bought you and decided to get too rough?
Because I’m not going out like that.”

“We don’t have weapons, and we haven’t been
fed much,” one of the other women says.

“Anything can be a weapon,” I tell them. “We
can do this if you help me. There are way more of us, and if I can
get to a phone, I have friends who will come help us.”

“Let’s do this,” the first girl says.

* * *

Kendrick

Waverly and I are holding hands when we walk
into the dining room in the building. It’s normally used for group
dinners, when everyone is here and we can’t fit in an apartment.
Tonight isn’t an official holiday, but I’m hoping we’ll get our
freedom, so I’m considering it an unofficial one.

Klas smiles when he sees her, and she
squeezes my hand tighter. “Hello, my dear, you are looking well,”
he says.

“Hello.”

“You aren’t going to give me a proper
greeting.”

“As per your training, I just gave you one.”
I squeeze her hand, reminding her to not engage with him.

“You were trained to be submissive to your
master.”

“You keep forgetting that I am the one who
owns her now, not you.”

“Kenyi, stop,” my father says, turning to
Klas, his “friend.” “You know he has always been headstrong.”

“Maybe he should’ve gone through my training
as well.”

My mother actually manages to look horrified
for a moment before schooling her features back into a mask of
acquiescence. “It’s too late for that now.”

“Nice to know how you really feel about
me.”

“You are weak, Kenyi. We let you have your
toy, but now you need to take her as your wife or give her
back.”

“How is that you can talk about people like
they’re nothing but commodities? You have more than enough money,
and you don’t need his business anymore. Please cut ties with
him.”

My parents own a successful
hotel chain. One which Klas uses to host “retreats” for businessmen
and politicians. He also takes women from them if he sees one he
wants. He pays them well, but they really
don’t
need that money. The problem
is, they want it.

“You bought Waverly with that money,” my
father reminds me.

That was one of the first times I had to
look at what was more important, and make a hard decision. I didn’t
want to touch any of that dirty money, but when I graduated and
they offered me so much, I knew I could save my best friend with
it. I did it, and I would do it again. Thankfully, I’ll never have
to.

“I shouldn’t have had to. I’m going to say
this again—she is a human being, and not a ‘thing’ to be bought and
sold.”

Faith brings out our dinner, and we all stop
speaking. I know she’s heard everything, and I can tell she wants
to kill right now. She’ll get her chance soon enough.

* * *

Matisse

We don’t know when the men will be back, so
we work fast. Those of us who are strong enough break the legs off
the table. Others twist the blankets tight so they can be used as
weapons, too. We’ve got the numbers, but I know they have guns. I
don’t sugarcoat it to the women, but they still stand with me
because life isn’t an option if they’re taken from here.

All of the children are moved to the back of
the container as the rest of us gather in the front. We’re all
getting more anxious as time goes by. A few of the women have
watches on, so we know the time. An hour passes, and almost another
before the door opens.

We charge, and easily take down the first
man. I tore the spikes off my boots, and I stab the next one in the
eye before he can react. I grab his gun and take down two others
while the other women beat a third one down. I hear shots, and see
two people fall. I take out the shooter as the women run like I
told them to. I won’t leave the children, or the injured.

I move towards the women who are down, but a
shot hits the pavement in front of me. Then I’m hit in the right
arm, just below my shoulder, but I can still shoot with my left
hand, and I take the woman who shot me down with a bullet to the
throat.

I hold onto my arm as I get to the women.
From what I can tell, they’re both going to be okay. One was hit in
the side, but it’s a through and through. The other took a bullet
in the leg, but it didn’t hit an artery, so I just tell her to
apply pressure. There are no more shots fired, so I think we got
them all, or the rest have run. I keep watch over the fallen women
as I hear the sirens.

We did it. I told them we could, but I was
scared. More scared than I’ve ever been in my life. I don’t break
until I see Stella and Ellie running towards me with the paramedics
behind them, and then my tears start to fall.

“We’ve got you, Teesy. You’re safe, and I’m
so fucking proud of you right now,” Stella tells me as Ellie runs
into the container to get the children out.

Kendrick

“I feel a little sorry for the two of you,”
Klas says after we’ve finished eating.

“We don’t need or want any pity from you.
Our lives are going very well,” I tell him. Waverly has still not
spoken again, because we all agreed she needed to play the part of
subservient wife-to-be as much as possible.

“But you never found that mythical society
of women you were looking for.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I
tell him, but we both know I’m lying.

“You were never alone when you were at the
universities, Kenyi. I monitored all your internet searches. I saw
the chat rooms you entered, looking for the ‘Society’ as it’s
called. If it were real, I have no doubt it would save you.”

“It
is
real,” Faith tells him as Reina,
Isa, and Ainsley enter the room with her.

“Reina Corrigan. So nice of you to join us.
For a moment I thought our chef might be serious.”

“I assure you,
Klas¸
we take our mission
very seriously,” she says as she pulls out her gun.

“I have people outside.”

“Your men and women have been taken care of
already.”

“We could join forces, Reina. Think of how
powerful we would be together.”

“You have no power where I am
concerned.”

“In Africa, I am all powerful.”

“That might have been true at one time, but
you won’t be leaving this building alive,” Faith tells him. His
eyes widen, because it’s obvious she’s not kidding.

“You should also know that I have a team in
Africa right now, liberating the people you’re holding against
their will.”

He smiles then, and I know there’s something
else. He looks like he’s won. “Too bad they can’t save your
girlfriend, Kenyi.”

I’m out of my seat, and pulling him up out
of his before I even realize I’ve moved. “Where is Matisse?”

“Right about now, she should be on her way
to the airport. She might be awake right now, or maybe not. Her
online auction is set to start in the next few minutes.”

I reach back and grab a knife, stabbing him
in the leg, bypassing his artery for now. “You know I got a medical
degree, right?”

“Yes,” he says through gritted teeth.

“I know every spot on your body where I can
cause the most pain without killing you, and I also know how to
kill you slowly. In addition to that, Reina here is quite possibly
the most talented person in the world when it comes to torture, and
I’ve been working with her.”

“Maybe you’re not so weak, but I’ll die
before I give you your girl. Do you worst.”

I slam his face onto the table, grab another
knife, and slam it between his upper vertebrae as he screams. I
pick up yet another knife when he doesn’t speak, but Reina stops
me.

“She’s okay. She was shot in the upper arm
when she led the group of women she was being held with in fighting
against their captors, but she saved them all, and she’s okay.
Stella’s following her ambulance to the hospital.”

“You’ll deal with everyone here?” I ask.

“Yes.”

“Kenyi, please,” my mother says.

“You chose this path, mother. Now you need
to deal with the consequences.”

“Kendrick?” Faith asks.

“Go ahead,” I say as I walk out the door,
Waverly right behind me.

I may have just signed my parents’ death
warrants, but I won’t witness it. I remember the times when I was
little, and we were a happy family. I also remember when they
brought Waverly to me, and that makes me angry enough to know I’ll
be at peace with their deaths.

“I’m so sorry, Ken,” Waverly says as she
gets in my car.

“What do you possibly have to be sorry
for?”

“He took Matisse to punish you because you
helped me.”

“That’s on him, not you.”

“He was going to sell her,” she says, and
for the first time in many years, she begins to cry.

“She’s safe, and so are you,” I tell her,
placing a hand over hers.

“Will you go back to Africa?”

I nod. “I have to hire someone to take over
the hotels, and I want to clear out the house before I sell
it.”

“You’re not staying?”

“No. What happened over the last 24 hours
has made me realize Africa is no longer my home.”

“She’s not going to take you back easily.
She may not even agree to see you.”

“I know, but I have to see with my own eyes
that she’s okay. Even if that means just reading her chart.”

“She’s amazing. I can’t believe she
convinced those women to fight back.”

“I can. Matisse can do anything she sets her
mind to, and she knows how to get her way.”

After all, she got her way with me. Now I
just need to convince her she wasn’t wrong in wanting us
together.

* * *

Matisse

Bullet wounds hurt. Especially once the
adrenaline rush of a successful escape wears off. I know I’m lucky
it’s just lodged in some muscle, but I want it out…like yesterday.
Stella’s been keeping me company while we wait for my x-rays to
come back, and see if I’ll need surgery, or if it can just be
pulled out.

“I would’ve pulled it out for you if the
paramedics hadn’t been right behind me,” Stella tells me.

“What if I started to bleed out?”

“Please. You think I don’t know emergency
field medicine? You’ll know it by the time your training is over,
too.”

“I knew that.”

“But you didn’t
know
it.”

“True,” I tell her with a laugh, which makes
my shoulder shake, and fuck, that hurts.