AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Learning the trade with Livy? How's it going?"
She mumbled a response.
"What's that?" Wesley leaned closer to her mouth, turning his ear to hear. "Speak up, my dear. How's it going?"
"Great!" Tala blushed, her brown skin flushing all the way down her neck. "Perfect, wonderful. I'm learning so much."
"That's what I like to hear." He ran a hand down her sleek black hair. "Such beautiful hair. So much power. My clients will empty their wallets to break you."
He dropped his hand and stepped back, leaving Tala to choke on unsaid words. I interlaced my fingers with hers, squeezing tight. This was one woman he wouldn't break. Not if I had anything to do with it.
"Assessment over," Wesley announced. He waved his arms, sparks flying out of his fingers. "I am proud of your accomplishments. Keep it up and I will reward you all."
Wesley left and the room broke into nervous chatter. Another assessment, over. Even the girls that had been here for years let out a relieved sigh.
"Alright, ladies, back to work," my mother yelled. She swung her hair that hung down in retro waves over her shoulder. "Some of you need to put in time at the gym, others need to refresh on your etiquette lessons. You know who you are. No dawdling."
The girls groaned and began to file out of the ballroom.
"Aya, could you please stay behind?"
I dug the heels of my house slippers into the floor and waited for the last girls to leave. Tala sent me a concerned look before she left, but I smiled warmly at her. She didn't need to be worrying about me.
"I was so worried about you," mom said, taking my hands in hers. "What happened last night?"
I clasped her fingers. "Nothing bad, I promise. It was my friend. Wesley didn't know."
Relief washed over my mother's face, but worry still hung thick on her voice. "Are you sure Wesley didn't figure it out? He's so perceptive."
"No, absolutely not. My friend's SI. He knows how to handle this stuff."
"If he's SI, why didn't he take you with him?" she asked, clutching at my fingers. "He could've saved you from this place."
I smiled at her. "He didn't have backup and I'm not leaving this place without you. I was sent here to rescue you."
She dropped my hands and took a step back. "Please tell me that's not true - that you didn't turn down your one chance to leave this place. I can't leave, Aya. I can never leave this place."
My mother had lived in fear for so long, she couldn't recognize hope when it was standing right in front of her.
"I know you're scared..."
"I'm not scared, Aya." She turned and ran a hand through her hair. "At least not for me. And I could've left here a long time ago if I had wanted to, but I didn't. Wesley saw my flair for management and assigned me to run the Ranch when it was just a fledgling business. I could've escaped a million times, but I didn't. He trusts me. And I want to keep it that way."
It was like I'd been punched in the gut. If what she was saying was true, my mother chose to abandon her children. Without her around, we had grown into our messed up versi
ons of adults, with baggage for miles.
She turned to see the bitter scowl on my face. "Don't look at me like that, Aya. I didn't mean for this all to happen. This mission was supposed to be my last for the HQ. I was going to hand in my notice as soon as I got back. Harpy justice had changed so much during my time. We weren't doing good any more. We were causing more problems than we solved. I just couldn't be a part of that."
I hugged my torso. If she'd quit the HQ and came home to us, our lives would've been completely different. Maybe dad would've gotten help sooner for his drinking problem. Maybe Nicky wouldn't have turned into a homicidal maniac. Maybe I would have grown up with family around me.
"What happened to you?"
The question held more weight for me than the simple four words I uttered. Why hadn't she come home? It had to be the world's best excuse or I would crumble right then and there onto the floor.
"Someone blew my cover." She hissed through her teeth, anger flashing in her eyes. "A traitor among HQ told Bobby Caro I was coming. He tortured and starved me for three weeks before selling me to Wesley Blake for a discount. I barely made it out of there alive."
I thought about the HQ with their gleaming white walls and impressive office among the high-rises of Chicago. It didn't look like the kind of place that harbored traitors. Someone must've really hated my mother.
