King of Slaves (Jenna's Story) (The Slave Series Book 5) (3 page)

“Thank you,” both Jenna and Nick said in polite unison.

“My name are Coun Meme Theo Tanomo and I be your contact person while your stay.” The man spoke broken English with a strong accent, and Jenna had to focus to understand what he was saying.

“We is all very excited about work that you be doing and the future of our great country.” The man kept his eyes fixed on Nick the entire time, and it made Jenna clear her throat to get his attention.

“That’s great,” Jenna started. “My name is Jenna Davis and I’m the head of this project. Nick here is one of the nine architects on my team.”

Meme’s forehead fell into deep frown lines and his head snapped back and forth between them. When he leaned back in his chair and scratched the back of his head Jenna knew they had a problem.

“That will not do,” Meme said in a low tone while shaking his head. “You boss?”

“Yes, I’m in charge of the project,” she confirmed.

He waved a finger and made a tsk-tsk sound. “Not possible.”

Jenna felt her hackles rise. “I assure you, sir, that it will do just fine. I’ve been a head of projects for many years and I’m very good at what I do.”

He nodded. “Yes… in America. Not in Spirima.”

Even though she knew the answer, she still asked. “And what exactly is your concern?”

He gave a long hard sigh and eyed her. “You are a girl.”

“A woman,” she corrected him.

“Yes. That is problem.” He seemed to be thinking hard. “I must talk to my king.”

“Why? Surely if he put you in charge, you can handle this.”

He shook his head. “No, there is rules… laws. I need to speak to the king.”

“Maybe I could speak to him,” Jenna suggested. Coun Meme clearly found that idea preposterous, as he openly scoffed and rolled his eyes. “No! You wait here.”

And then he left.

“I guess they aren’t big on women’s rights here, huh?” Nick tried to tease, and even though she knew he was just trying to ease the tension, she didn’t find the situation funny.

“I warned Miranda this might happen.” Jenna walked over to the window overlooking the beautiful garden. 

Nick kept in his seat. “It’ll be fine. I’m sure they’ll clear up this misunderstanding quickly so we can get to work.”

The room was warm and stuffy and Jenna longed to go outside and smell the flowers. They waited for twenty minutes before she had had enough.

“Let’s wait outside in the garden.”

“But what if the guy comes back?” Nick said and glanced at the door.

“We’ll be right outside and we can leave a message for him on his desk.”

“I don’t know, Jenna… why don’t you go, then I’ll stay and wait here.”

“Suit yourself.” She turned on her heels to head outside, feeling annoyed with Miranda for putting her in this situation. It was humiliating to arrive after an almost twenty-hour-long journey only to be rejected.

A guard, walking close to the entrance focused in on her, and Jenna raised her hand to wave at him.

“I’m just going to sit on the grass for a bit,” she called out but realized he probably didn’t understand English.

He looked serious and his eyes were clearly taking in every detail of her person, but he didn’t approach her.

Sitting on the grass wasn’t possible, as getting up and down in the damn pencil skirt would be unwise. Instead Jenna admired the flowers in the garden; they were for the most part unknown to her. Her mom had loved to garden and taught her about botany, but she was far from home and didn’t recognize much.

Intrigued by the colors and beauty of the place, her curious nature made her wander farther than she intended. She had her whole face close to a white flower when heavy footsteps made her look up to see two large men jogging toward her. They were talking and laughing and sweaty enough that she concluded they were finishing off a long run. The sight of two men in modern running gear was so alien to the formal atmosphere of the palace that she couldn’t help smiling. These two guys in their mid-thirties could have been running in a Chicago park and blending right in with their Adidas shoes and armbands holding their cell phones.

They quickly came closer, and it didn’t take them long to spot her. To them, it must have been as odd to see her, a blond woman in a too-tight secretary outfit, as it was for her to see them.

They looked curiously at her and slowed down.

“Hello,” Jenna said in a friendly fashion, wondering if maybe they were guards out running in their free time. It was likely that the king’s guards lived here somewhere and were allowed to use the park.

“Hello,” One of the men called back and they walked toward her while talking between themselves in low voices. She winced internally when she felt their eyes run hungrily over her body.
At least have the decency to be discreet about it, will you?

Jenna turned her back on them, turned off by their lack of manners and respect.

One of the men spoke to her in what she assumed was Spiri, the local language. She gave him an uninterested shrug and said, “Sorry, I only speak English.”

They most likely didn’t understand her and would hopefully just walk away, but to her surprise a deep voice flowed toward her, speaking fluent English.

“Are you enjoying the king’s garden?”

She faced the men and saw that one of them had pulled off his sunglasses and was now shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand.“

“Yes, it’s very beautiful here,” she said with a strained smile.

The guy without sunglasses grinned and plucked a large red flower and handed it to her. “A beautiful flower for a beautiful woman,” he said flirtatiously and winked. If these two men were the prototype of Spirimian men, then she was impressed with the physical gene pool of this country. They were both tall and had dark hair and deep chocolate-brown eyes. They were similar in height and size but their faces were very different. One of them had handsome features and the most amazing unruly curly hair; it was thick and dark and invited a woman to pull and tug at it.
Wait… did I just think that?
Jenna shook her head and looked at the other man, who had a short military haircut and looked fierce, with a large scar running down over his eyebrow giving him a roguish look.

Yeah, probably guards because they definitely had that whole masculine, testosterone thing going for them.
Good thing my sister isn’t here… these are exactly the kind of guys Alex would fall for.  

“Are you lost?” Mr. Come-pull-my-gorgeous-hair asked.

Jenna looked up at the palace, where she could still see the window to the room where Nick was waiting for her. “No, I’m just waiting.”

“For what?”

“The king’s decision, I suppose.”

The men exchanged a quick glance. “So you’re here to see the king?”

“Yes, I’m here to help,” Jenna said and added in a mutter. “If he wants my help, that is.”

A wide grin spread on the guy’s face. “What man wouldn’t want your help?” he said flirtatiously and moved a bit closer. Jenna gave a nervous chuckle and leaned back slightly.

“I hope you’re right, because I just flew all the way from Chicago to be here, and it would be a long flight for nothing, if he says no.”

“Says no to you?”

She nodded. “My contact person, Coun Meme, is talking with the king right now and I’m waiting for his decision.”

“Now you have us curious…” The guy with the scar stepped closer to. “What does he need to decide?”

Jenna felt a bit overwhelmed by the two large men and stepped back a bit. “Whether he wants to rebuild his country or not,” she told them in a no-nonsense kind of tone.

They exchanged a glance. “Ohh, I can assure you that the king will rebuild this country,” the guy with the scar said. 

“I hope you’re right, because as I said; I would hate to have come for nothing.”

“And what exactly did you come for?” he asked.

Jenna straightened up but it only meant that both men stared at her chest now, since she had pushed it out in the process. The buttons on the shirt were stretched out enough that the fabric was gaping slightly over her chest, offering a peek of her bra.
For Christ’s sake… really?
    

She crossed her arms to cover herself and cleared her throat. “My name is Jenna Davis, and I’m here to lead a team of architects, sent by the US government, to help rebuild Spirima.”

The two men looked at her in astonishment before they broke into laughter. “To
lead
a team you say?”

“Yes, and that is apparently a problem, so now Mr. Meme is talking to your king about it while I wait out here.”

The handsome man took a step closer. “A woman can’t lead, I can guarantee that it will be a very short conversation with the king, but…” He smiled seductively. “I’m sure we could do something to make your journey worthwhile.”

Jenna looked surprised as he stepped into her personal space and let his eyes glare down her cleavage while wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. “Why don’t you come with us and let my friend and me offer you a memory from Spirima that you’ll never forget?”

Jenna was stunned by his crudeness. 

“What do you take me for? Get away from me,” she snapped at him and bashed at the air, accidently hitting his hand.

The man had the nerve to look offended, and his friend stepped closer in a threatening manner.

“Apologize,” the rogue said.

Jenna scoffed. “I really don’t have time for this. You don’t even have the manners to introduce yourself before you come on to me. I don’t care if you are the hottest men in the entire kingdom, I still wouldn’t have a threesome with you two baboons.” 

“Baboons? What is a baboon?” the handsome one asked his friend, who scowled at her.

“I suggest that you look it up and you’ll see that their way of approaching females for sex is very similar to yours.”

With a snort she turned and walked away. She would wait for Meme in the safety of the office; at least there she wouldn’t be accosted.

Jenna had only been back in the office for less than fifteen minutes when Coun Meme came storming back in, making a dramatic entrance with the door slamming against the wall. Behind him were two guards with mean expressions and drawn weapons. 

“You!” he shouted and pointed accusingly at Jenna.

She stared with wide eyes and felt fear grip her heart. They were so angry, and she had no idea why. She wasn’t used to people shouting at her, and she had never in her life had a pistol pointed at her.

Nick pulled her up from the chair and backed away from the three men. “Wha… what is this about?” he stammered.

“You insulted king. You call him ape,” Coun Meme sputtered.

Nick looked at her in shock. She had told him about her run-in with the rude men, and now they both understood whom she’d been speaking to.

“But I didn’t know who he was,” she pleaded; in fact she still wasn’t sure which one had been the king.

Outside the door they heard further commotion and the two runners came in, with more guards following them.

“Baboons you say?” the man with the scar shouted at her. “And you say we have no manners. We showed you a deep honor by offering our company.”

Okay, so he must be the king then.

Things were said in Spiri and the guards drew closer to Nick and Jenna.

“This is a misunderstanding. We are here to help you, not argue with you – and I thought you were guards, I didn’t know you were the king,” she pleaded to the man with the scar.

He gave the guards instructions, and they pulled her from Nick in a harsh manner and pushed her out the door.

Jenna craned her neck to see Nick and called out to him. “Call the American embassy, get me out of here.”

“I promise,” he shouted back and then a door was slammed between them.

“There is no American embassy in Spirima,” the guy she had thought was handsome said in a cold voice, and he had the audacity to smirk. “I’m afraid you’ll have to feel the consequences of your actions for as long as we choose to punish you.”

“You male chauvinistic asshole,” she shouted before she could stop herself. Hopefully there wasn’t a stupid law against insulting the king’s friend too…

Because of her struggles with the guards, two of the buttons on her shirt finally popped open and left her exposed. She couldn’t reach the floor, and was helplessly carried between the two strong guards down hallways and stairs before they finally entered a small room with only a rubber mattress on the floor, a bucket in the corner, and a sink on the wall.

The two guards pushed her down on the mattress and started searching her body. Jenna felt violated and was sure this couldn’t be legal in any civilized country. She hadn’t done anything to deserve this rough treatment.

When they found her cell phone they took it and then they left, slamming and locking the door after them.

The sound of the door was loud and scary, and Jenna felt vulnerable and alone in the cold place. She sat down on the bed, wrapping her arms around her legs, and wishing she had her phone to call Miranda and tell her what a disaster it had been to send her here.