Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 149641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 599(@250wpm)___ 499(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 599(@250wpm)___ 499(@300wpm)
Sosa’s eyes were bright with unshed tears. “I did not want to be this thing they made me.”
“Then be something else.” Kenz stood, looming over the young woman on the floor. “Fight. You’re not eight years old anymore. You’re strong and you’ve survived, and now it’s time to let them know what a fucking mistake they made when they took you. Now it’s time to burn it all to the ground and dance in the ashes.”
“That is what he say. I hear him when he talks to the boss. He say he will rule the ashes,” Sosa replied.
“Not the same thing.” Kala was suddenly at her side. “Huisman wants to burn the world down. All you want to do is torch the place that tortured you and will torture other girls in the future. He’s an asshole, and you’re doing the world a major favor. But you do need training. That was pathetic.”
Sosa lay there for a moment and then held up a hand. Kala reached down but Sosa shook her head. “This is between me and her.”
Kenzie helped her up.
Sosa straightened her clothes. “When they take me, I only have one toy. It is still at the base. It was Bratz doll. Sometime she was my only friend, the only piece of me from before. I’ll take your training. I think you might be good person to have on my side. So you should know, I have seen your man before. Not in person. He doesn’t come to the castle. But when the bad man comes, he has a room. They set it up for him. One of the things he keeps with him is a picture of your man. The girls he abuses say he always sets up the picture like he wants the man to watch what he does.”
The thought sent a chill through Kenzie.
She knew Ben had an obsession with Huisman and it was wrapped in guilt and fear and anger, but somehow she’d thought it was one sided. Like Ben was nothing more than a fly to swat in Huisman’s eyes.
But there was something sick and twisted, like a love affair with the darkest intentions, and she was either Ben’s way out or perhaps his final sacrifice to the relationship that had truly defined his life.
Or Sosa was lying.
There was only one way to find out. Spend time with her. Train her. Analyze her.
All while watching her back.
Sosa started to walk toward the door. “I think I’ll go and check on Gabby. She’s having trouble being away from home. Isn’t it weird? I feel like I can breathe for first time and she’s crying.”
Kenzie looked to Vivi, who usually loved to spend her time explaining how feelings were normal and we should accept them.
Vivi simply shrugged. “Yeah, weird.”
Oh. She’d been given a mission. So she was more comfortable here than she let on. Vivi always said she did nothing but answer the phones.
“Tomorrow morning. There’s a gym on the fourth floor. Meet me there before breakfast. And Sosa, was there really a doll?”
Sosa stopped, her hand on the door. She didn’t look back. “Maybe there was. Maybe there wasn’t. In the end, none of it matters.”
She walked out and the door closed quietly behind her.
Kala nodded, her lips curling up in a smile. “I like her.”
Kenzie rolled her eyes and turned to Vivi. “All right, what’s up with you? That should have turned into a session.”
Sophy joined her roomie, standing side by side with her. “She doesn’t know us. She thinks we’re nothing more than a receptionist and a rich girl working with her even wealthier uncle, and I’m not going to disabuse her of the notion. You know I love to use the airhead, rich-girl thing.”
“So Ariel wants the two of you to watch them?” Kenzie asked.
“I was going to if Ariel didn’t,” Kala admitted. “They’ll be on their guard around us.”
“They’ll be on their guard around everyone.” Vivi’s pretty face had lost its careless expression, and she was the hawk Kenzie knew. “But they might slip up, and they don’t know how much Russian we understand.”
“I’ve already caught them talking about whether they can trust your parents.” Sophy’s Russian was every bit as solid as Kenzie’s or Kala’s. They’d all grown up speaking it as often as they did English.
Kala frowned. “I thought Gabby’s Russian was terrible. Didn’t Sosa say that?”
Kenzie nodded. “She did.”
Sophy shrugged. “It’s not great but they do go into Russian when they obviously don’t want us to understand. Sometimes French, but Sosa constantly points out how much she hates it.”
“What’s your take on them?” She trusted Vivi’s instincts.
“One of them is lying. They don’t fit right. I know that sounds weird and everyone reacts differently to trauma, but something is off between them. I’ll figure it out,” Vivi said with confidence. “We’re taking them to buy some clothes tomorrow, and we’re going to make it a whole girls day and see if we can learn anything else.”