Chapter 15 Artemis
I’d spent the night mostly in Donovan’s arms. After the shower in the amazing rainforest waterfall bathroom, we snuggled up together on the bed. We couldn’t be there together for too long since one of us had to be out in the foyer on watch.
We switched around a bunch, and then eventually just both got up. It was the middle of the morning when Maya eventually showed up, dressed how she had when we first met her with a face of makeup and the fashionable expensive clothes.
“Oh my god, how long have you been up?” she asked, clopping away towards us in her heels.
“We’ve got to go out and grab coffee from this cute little place.
It’s a short ride away. I’ll give you the instructions.
” She pushed open a small invisible wall which revealed a clothes rack of outer wear.
“I’m also going to need the two of you to escort me to some interviews.
I got word last night, and—” she looked the two of us over, folding a beige trench coat over her arm.
“And I came out here, but nobody was around, so I’m guessing. ”
“Probably changing over,” Donovan said. “I love the sound of coffee.”
“Me too,” I said.
“And breakfast croissants, maybe something stuffed with egg and cheese too,” she added. “Oh god, I’m actually very hungry it seems.”
I could only hold back a smile. I wanted to be her friend, not someone wo would need to watch her back with two guns around. I knew there was a very real threat to her life, and the last thing I wanted was for her body on my conscience, especially with all the good work she was doing.
* * *
The coffee shop was a Vietnamese place, selling authentic Vietnamese coffees and breakfast sandwiches.
It was a treat, especially the coffee. They had condensed milk at the bottom which was a pure hit of sugar to my system—and I’d been going on over a month without any sugar from Donovan’s strict schedule.
It was at the coffee shop when Maya started to walk off—up a flight of stairs. We rushed up after her as she giggled like it had been some game. “Come on, I know you guys have to stay on my tail. Well, I also have my first interview here.”
An older lady directed Maya to a room in the corner. There was a woman on a bed with a small baby rocking in her arms. Her face lit up to see Maya, then she pulled away, holding the baby tight. “No, no, no,” she said, shaking.
Maya stepped forward, telling us to wait in the hallway.
The older lady spoke to us, in some broken English. “You bad men,” she said. “No take baby.”
I couldn’t even comprehend wanting to take her baby—we weren’t here for that. I didn’t understand a single word they were saying, and from the look on Donovan’s face, neither did he—but he seemed more concerned with all the pictures on the walls.
“We’re not bad people, are we?” I asked him.
Donovan rubbed a thumb against my chin. “You got some of that bahn mi on you. And no, we’re not. We might have to do bad things, but we’re really here to do good.”
I liked the way that sounded. Doing bad to do good. I could actually live with that.
After about ten minutes, Maya came to us in the hallways.
She didn’t look happy. “So, I just found the thing that’s going to break my case wide open,” she said.
“Her baby’s father is Julian. She’s going to go on record as being trafficked over here under the recruitment scheme, promising her three-thousand dollars a month with free housing and job progression.
The actual work conditions were fourteen-hour workdays, isolation, confiscated passports, abuse from handlers, and their debt increased daily with so-called rent. ”
“Perfect,” I said. “So, it proves that—sorry, what does it prove?”
“Proves that Julian knew about the trafficking,” she said. “It proves that they can’t claim innocence in all this. But what we’re really after is Margaret. She’s not going to see any jail time if I don’t find someone who can testify to her knowledge about this.”
“How can we help?” Donovan asked.
“You can’t,” she said. “Thanh in there thinks you’re going to take her baby away from her.
I think you should ditch the suit thing.
You’re just—standing out too much.” I looked her up and down, and she saw me, with the biggest grin in the world.
“When I dress up, it’s fashion, when you two do it, you look like secret service.
Which, for the photo ops, I’m here for, but for being around the people who are going to testify, they might get spooked. ”
“Jackets off,” Donovan said.
“Why are you undressing?” Jinksy asked in my ear.
“Less secret service, more business men just near you,” Donovan said. “How does that sound?”
“And maybe ruffle your hair up a touch,” she said. “It’s giving mannequin.”
I immediately went in to mess up Donovan’s hair—but he didn’t really have much. It was pin straight and usually shaved down to a shade.
“And another question,” she said. “Be honest with me. I’m not going to say anything, I just need to know. Did the two of you fuck last night?”
Like an overripe peach, my cheeks must’ve gone ten shades pinker. “I—”
“I didn’t hear anything,” she said in a whisper.
“It’s just that you both seem, lighter. And I could also probably mention how the two of you are a little more touchy with each other today.
Don’t forget I am an investigative journalist. I can spot these things.
Just like I can spot Julian’s offspring in that room.
Will need a paternity test, which he’ll have to be compelled to do, and since Thanh doesn’t want to get deported.
Ugh. Ok, I need to think about this now. ”
We got off with it. And then, all the things she’d said to me came flooding back. I was in a bubble with Donovan, touching, smiling, being. And Maya had brought me out of it. That woman in there was a victim, and she deserved justice.
“We could probably get his DNA,” I told her.
“You could?” she asked.
“We could,” Jinksy added in my ear. “I’m not sure if anyone is around to do that grunt work though.”
“We’ll get someone on it,” Donovan said—to all of us. “I’m thinking there’s got to be someone who will do it. We’ve got to have someone within the Ashford family who can do it for us.”
“I’ll be back after I’ve talked to Mercy about this,” he said.
I knew I shouldn’t have promised the world to her like that, I stared at Donovan, expecting him to whisper that I would be in for my punishment later tonight. Yet, he didn’t, in fact, he smiled and said it was a good call.
Apparently Sanctum could get you or do whatever it wanted for you. You wanted to fly to the moon, guess who was going onto the next manned trip up out into orbit. You wanted cola the way they used to make it, guess who got the recipe.
Maya took Thanh’s statement and made her sign some documents before asking for a cotton swab of the inside of her daughter’s cheek. We weren’t near for any of it, but Donovan signed something to say he saw the entire thing happen and would attest to it not being contaminated.
* * *
Across town, we were above a dry cleaning and tailoring store.
There was a young woman. She was recently rescued from the trap the Ashford family had put her into.
This time, we were allowed to stay in the room, and I didn’t know if I could handle it.
I’d tried as hard as I could, but listening to the young woman—similar age to me, as she talked about a job that took her from the Philippines were she was told she’d be a hotel maid, and ended up an escort.
Her arms were cut up pretty badly, claiming she escaped through barbed wire and a chips of glass that had been set on top of concrete walls.
Donovan took me to the side of the room as I began to hyperventilate. “I know,” he whispered. “I see it, I hear it. It’s exactly why we do the job right. Not fast. Not angry. Right.”
“People should burn for this,” I said behind clenched teeth. “They should go out in the worst way possible.” My voice raising, I couldn’t help it.
“Maybe, yes. But maybe Maya’s case is what will burn them in the worst way.
The eyes of the law will be the pain that keeps hitting them, time and time again.
I believe it. And it’s our job to make sure she gets everything she needs for that to happen,” he said, slowly nodding with me as if he remember how to regulate my breathing with me.
After last night, it was impossible to hate or even pretend to hate him now.
I didn’t quite understand what we were, but I don’t think we would ever get an answer to that while under Sanctum’s thumb.
I could see a little more clearly about what I’d signed away—and even though the money was nice, I felt like I was going to be owing Mercy my life by the end of it.
It wasn’t going to be easy, but I knew I could eventually pay my way out of it, and that’s something I had to tell myself in that state of mine. It was like I’d gone absent behind the eyes, and everyone in front of me knew it.
“I’ve got everything I need,” Maya said. “Are you two ok?” she asked. “I don’t want to be asking for two new protectors, do I?”
“No, Ma’am,” Donovan said.
“Ew, do not call me ma’am,” she mocked. “It’s Maya, or if I give you a glare, Ms. Chen.”
He nodded and had that sorta half smile I totally fell for when we first started hooking up, and again now. “We’re ok,” I told her. “It’s a bit of a raw subject for me, but don’t worry, I am absolutely fine to continue working. Where are we heading to next?”
She clapped her hands twice. “Lunch,” she said. “I might’ve opted for a lunch at the hotel, but since I’ve got the two of you on my arm, let’s go somewhere nice.”
I envied her ability to put what she’d just heard somewhere she wasn’t actively touching. It would take me a while to put that into the back of my mind. But the mention of lunch brought about my appetite.
We walked out of the room, leaving Laurisa in the room alone after her statement had been taken.
“I’m pretty hungry,” Donovan said. “Did you have anywhere in mind?”
“Well, since my benefactor is paying, somewhere expensive,” she said.
“Those types of places book up fast,” he said.
“We should know, where did we try going that one time when you and I were together, and they said they didn’t have any room for us until like six months down the line,” I said, not quite as professional as I knew Donovan would’ve wanted, but it just came out of me.
I was a blurter—especially when my entire body felt like it had been zapped by a thousand volts of electricity.
“I can see if my friend can get us a booking somewhere,” Donovan said. “Jinksy?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said, coming through my comms. “Does she want somewhere dark and discreet and out and open?”
Relying the question put a big smile on Maya’s face, to which she responded. “I want to be seen,” she said. “I need people to know I’m back in town, and I want the Ashford’s to be scared. Since I have the two of you, and all.”
A nervous tickle broke out in my throat.
I didn’t know how much I liked the sound of that.
To be provoking the family she was actively coming for—and one of the richest in the country.
I went from excited about an expensive lunch to nervous I’d need to jump in front of a gun for her—or, in my mind I’d jump, then Donovan would jump in front of me.
We headed back out of the store with Maya leaving a thick envelope of what I knew to look like cash did.
Donovan was already outside, checking to make sure we were clear to leave.
And I’d stared at Maya a little too long.
“It’s for Laurisa,” she said. “I can’t actually give it to her directly because it’s considered a bribe, and with you two as witnesses, but I can give it to someone else who can pass this blessing along. ”
I nodded. “I wasn’t trying to pry.”
“Your face said otherwise,” she chuckled
“No, no, don’t listen to my face,” I laughed. “Did you give anything to Thanh?”
She nodded. “Yes, I’m just trying to help.
I grew up relatively poor, and I always hated it when people said, money won’t buy you happiness, but I always found it brought me peace of mind, and if that’s not happiness, I don’t know what is.
” As she said it, I was already sucked in to everything else she had to say—it was also one of my beliefs.
Before I could say anything, Donovan beeped the car horn, and Jinksy came back with a restaurant. Physically jumping, she laughed. I had to be on guard all the time, and that meant being skittish on loud noises.
“Aurora & Ash,” I said to Maya as I guided her to the car.
“Oh, I love them. Owned by the Harrison group,” she said, climbing into the back of the car. “Rich, pretentious, exactly the right type of vibe and people I want to be seen by.”
“Good,” I said, closing the door and getting into the passenger side. I also hoped they had good food alongside it all—I didn’t want to be eating some type of foam on a cracker shit. No thanks.