Losing Pieces of Me (14 page)

   Well, I think that is what is going to happen, until I hear a voice from the past, a voice I’ve been running from for a long time.  A voice that changes everything.

Chapter Twenty-One

“Now boys, can’t you two just learn to get along for once?” questions a voice from behind us.

   I squeeze my eyes shut and pray that I’m hearing things, but when Hayden addresses the man I know he’s really standing with us right now.

   “Father, so nice of you to join us.  Unfortunately, the decision has already been made.  Jayden gets to get the firm for now,” states Hayden, his voice full of loathing for his brother.

   “Not going to greet me, Jayden?” asks my stepdad.

   “I have nothing to say to you.  Now if you’ll excuse us, me and my wife have to be going,” he says, taking my hand in his and leading me away from the two men.

   “I see you wasted no time getting the man to trust you, Mireya,” there’s this amusement in his voice as he speaks.

   Unfortunately for me, Jayden heard him and has now stopped and turned back to face them.

   “Don’t you dare address my wife!” shouts Jayden as he drags me behind him as he storms back in their direction.

   Frank smiles at me, and now I know what their game is.  I just know they are going to do something to tear me and Jayden apart.  They just couldn’t let Jayden walk away with everything today and now I know Frank is behind my sister’s disappearance.

   “Oh, your wife didn’t tell you who I am?” Jayden just looks from Frank and then back down at me before turning his attention back to Frank.  “Clearly she hasn’t told you all about our connection.  You see Jayden, this is my stepdaughter.  You two are stepsiblings, I planted her here to trick you into giving up the information you have on Prosperity Agency.  You fell right into her hands and now I will use her to destroy you completely.  She was supposed to make sure you didn’t get to keep control today, but I guess I’ll just settle for having your dreams crushed instead,” he states with a winning smile.

   Frank and Hayden are the only ones who are smiling right now.  I’m not because even before this conversation is over, I know that I am about to lose everything.  Frank has been looking for us for a long time and the fact that he’s standing here right now, says he’s going to take me with him one way or another.

   “I don’t believe you, Mireya loves me,” he says as he hugs me into his side.  “Mireya?” he asks when I don’t respond.

   I’m too busy looking at Hayden right now who is making a gesture of cutting my head off if I don’t give the answer they want and so with a heavy heart, I lie to Jayden for the first time.

   “I don’t love you, Jayden, I used you to get information out of you for Frank.”

   “That can’t be true,” he hisses, pushing me away from him.  Oh, how quick he is to believe his father and brother over me.  I know that we haven’t known each other for very long, but I meant what I said to him last night and in the boardroom, I do love him more than anything.  More than finding Katrina, that’s how profound of an effect he’s had on me.

   “Oh, but isn’t it Mireya?  You don’t find it odd that Katrina brought her to Orchid Boiler to meet you?  You don’t wonder why she was telling you she was about to lose her apartment and become homeless?  More than that, you actually believe that Katrina went missing instead of being safe and sound with us?” he clucks his tongue at Jayden as he reaches for my hand so he can pull me over to stand next to him.  I almost trip and fall when he yanks me over to his side.  “I planted Mireya there, she never loved you, she was just supposed to make you believe that she did, and based off of that look on your face right now, she’s done one hell of a job of convincing you.”

   Jayden glares at me, but when I don’t blink or falter, his blue eyes turn hard with hatred.  “I took you into my home when you had nowhere to go, I offered you comfort and money to help you get back on your feet, and this is how to repay me?  You betray me with the two people that hate me more than anything else in the world.  I want all of your shit out of my house within the next hour or all of it will be out on the curb waiting for you.  Expect to hear from my lawyer,” he announces before turning on his heels and leaving me behind.  He doesn’t look back at me once as he enters the elevator and the doors shut behind him.

   I want to cry out for him to take me with him, I want to declare how much I love him, and more than anything I want to tell him that Frank wants me dead.  But I can’t do that, they have the one thing that will silence me forever, Katrina.  I may love Jayden, but a sister’s love is a completely different type of love and I have to save her from these two men.  I can always convince Jayden later that I love him, for now I have to save my sister.

   “Let’s go tramp,” growls Frank as he latches onto my arm and drags me behind him towards the stairwell.  Right before the door shuts, I see Jeanette watching a short distance away.  Her eyes are full of hurt and confusion as she stares back at me.

   When the door shuts behind us, I immediately struggle against him, managing to get myself free of his hold and start to run down the stairs.  I don’t get more than about five steps before the both of them are upon me and push me down the stairs.  I can’t stop myself from falling as I ram head first into the cement wall and go down hard.

   I don’t pass out, but I’m out of it enough that I can’t bring myself to stand as the two men reach me.

   “Carry her, Hayden.  We need to get her out of here before Jayden decides he wants to be the hero and save her from us,” he states moving around us so he can continue down the stairs.  “It won’t be long before he pieces this together and discovers we’ve tricked him.”

   They think Jayden is going to come back to save me, but I know better.  I hurt him, I saw it in his eyes as he stared down at me and came to the realization that I never loved him.  I do love him with all of my heart, but right now, he hates me and with Jayden hatred lasts a really long time.  Alfred told me that late one night when I asked him why he and Hayden don’t get along.  He never did tell me what happened, but he did say that it was a long time ago and they still hate each other as much as the day of the incident.

   I don’t know where they are taking me as they push open the door at the side of the building and lead me over to a waiting van.  Does it really matter?  Even if I could manage to walk on my own and get away from them, they would just end up catching me all over again.  The best thing I can do for right now is just allow them to take me.  Maybe I’ll find Katrina wherever we are going.  That’s what I need right now, my sister to help me figure out what to do.

   They throw me into the back and my head pounds as I make contact with the floor of the van.  I wish I could pass out as my eyes grow heavy, but I never do fall asleep during that ride.  I’m tossed back and forth, side to side, as we travel in the van.  My head hurts and my entire body too heavy to sit up.  I want to die more than anything right now.  The only thing that keeps me going are my memories of Jayden, they are all I have left of him now.  My first everything, my first love, and a man that no matter how much time passes I will still love as much as the first time I realized I loved him.

   The van screeches to a halt and I’m thrown against the side of the van so hard that I’m clutching my arm in pain when the doors fly open.

   “Out we go, princess,” orders Frank as he reaches his hand inside and grabs hold of my leg so he can drop me to the ground outside.  My entire body screams in protest when I hit the cement.  I don’t remember Frank being this violent back when he was with my mother, but he sure has changed now.  Most kidnappers only do things to victims when they are provoked, all I did was look at Frank and his angry side came out.

   He leaves me on the ground long enough to realize that we are once again outside of Prosperity Agency.  Just great, that means that they have plans for me here.

   This time, Hayden is the one who drags me up from the ground.  I don’t fight this time, instead just allow him to roughly grab me by the arm and lead me into the doors I just entered yesterday.

   The place looks exactly the same as it did before, only the girl that was sitting behind the desk is now leering at me knowingly, like she knew the entire time that I would end up back here.  I should never have come here in the first place, this place has been a nightmare for me ever since I discovered that address in Jayden’s office.

   This time they don’t take me where the girl did when Francisco was shooting photos of the girl, instead, they take me to a hidden staircase in the very left corner.  I struggle against Hayden when he tries to lead me up the stairs.  I don’t want to go up there, who knows what they are going to do to me up there or what other horrors I might find hidden in this place.

   “Up the fucking stairs sis, or I’ll make sure Jayden suffers for the rest of his life.  I think cutting off one of his limbs will do the trick,” he sneers at me.

When I stop fighting, he laughs and throws me over his shoulder so he can carry me.  I don’t think Hayden would do that, but that’s a risk I cannot take.  Even if we are never together again, I want him to be happy and live a healthy life.

   I don’t like Hayden, I knew from the first moment I saw him that he was a bad man who would do evil things, turns out I was right.  Too bad my sister and I didn’t figure this out before we ended up becoming his latest victims.  Although, now that I realize our connection, it’s likely that eventually we would’ve crossed paths anyways.

    “How about a little reunion for my stepdaughters, does that sound like something you think they’d enjoy, Hayden?” asks Frank as he stops at one of the doors and produces a key.

   “I think during their final days, they should be together.  The auction is coming up tomorrow night, so we might as well allow them to say goodbye to each other, that’s the least we can do for our family,” Hayden says cockily as him and his father share a laugh.

   I don’t like it, but if Katrina is on the other side of that door, I’ll take it.

   “Behave yourself daughter, or I’ll make sure Hayden and his friends have a go at you before the auction,” Frank says as Hayden tosses me inside the room and the door slams shut.  I wait for the lock to click into place before I focus on the room.

   The room is incredibly dark.  I’m sure there’s a light in here somewhere, but for some reason my sister has chosen to keep it off.  That is,
if
my sister is the other person in this room with me right now.  God I hope it is her, I don’t think I could bear it if someone else was in here that is going to hurt me.

   I slowly get to my hands and knees as best I can without causing myself too much more pain and try to look around.  I can’t see anything so I decide talking might work better.  Maybe Katrina is as scared as I am about who is in here with her.

   “Kat?” I whisper hoarsely.  I lick my lips and clear my throat before I try again, “Katrina?” I ask a little bit louder this time.

   A bright light flickers on in the corner and I am forced to squeeze my eyes shut against the burn of the light.

   “Reya, is it really you?” asks Katrina.

   I force myself to get to my feet as quickly as I can so I can go to her, but when I take my first step I freeze and stop in place.  My sister doesn’t look the way she did when I left her that night in the club.  She’s still wearing that same dress she was that night, but most of it is gone.  There are holes all over what is left of her dress and her hair is matted to the top of her head and she has raccoon eye going on like she just started crying hours ago.  That’s saying something since I haven’t seen her in nearly six months.  Her lip is swollen and her right eye is puffier than the left one.  She looks like she’s been to hell and back, all the while I’ve been living with her captor’s brother.

   “Oh Katrina,” I cry as I go to her.  I approach her and try to hug her, but we both wince in pain, so I quickly release her and take a seat by her side.

   “God you look like hell, Reya.  I thought you were living the high life, what happened?”

   “Well, I wouldn’t put it quite like that.  I married Jayden because he offered me the money I would need to hire a private investigator, but things didn’t end up going quite as planned and now here I am,” I reply with a shrug.  There’s no need to burden her with all the things I was doing for the last two months.

   “Yeah, I never would have guessed that Hayden was following me around and that’s why he invited me to the VIP area that night I met him.  Turns out Frank has known of our whereabouts for years now and was just looking for the right opportunity to bring us in.  He figured Hayden was the best route since Hayden is a scumbag.  I always thought that Jayden was a nice guy though,” she says thoughtfully as she stares at me.

   “He is a nice guy,” I tell her.  I don’t want to discuss this anymore, instead I want to find out what she knows about what is going to happen tomorrow night.  “What is this auction they keep speaking of, Kat?  This is a human trafficking operation isn’t it?”

   She nods solemnly, “That’s exactly what this is.  They bring in young women who want to become models and they promise them things like lots of money and fame if they sign their contract and in reality the girls are signing away their lives.  I’ve seen a lot of girls come and go from this place, I’m the only one they keep, but that’s because they needed me to get to you.  Now that they have us both, I think they plan on sending us to the auction together.  I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never seen it.  The auction is basically modern day slavery, where the highest bidder gets to buy you and they take you home and keep you forever.”