Chapter Ten #4
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. ”
“They have zero net profile I can find, but I’m not done yet.
” Sophy might be working as some kind of assistant to her uncle, but she had absolutely followed in her momma’s footsteps.
She was a phenomenal hacker. “And it was Damon and Penny who asked us to figure out the newbies. He’s worried your mom and dad are soft when it comes to this.
Ariel is planning on having sessions with them, and she’s excellent at what she does so Damon and Penny feel comfortable with her profile, but they wanted some more insider info.
I’m going to pull out the black card tomorrow. That makes me lots of friends.”
It made a lot of people try to take advantage of her.
“I know you’re working for the Brits, but I would love a report on anything you find,” Kala said before sitting back down at her station and picking up her brush. “Now can we get to the questions I’ve been waiting to ask for hours and hours.”
Oh, there was no question what was about to come out of her sister’s mouth. “You can’t kill Ben.”
“Why would we kill Ben?” Sophy asked.
Vivi sighed like she was disappointed, like she’d hoped she hadn’t been right. “He was kind of cold when he first came in. He’s probably struggling with the whole you’re twins thing. Have you always worked together well?”
“No, and we finally talked. Well, he had me talk.” She stared at herself in the mirror.
She was on some sort of precipice. Whatever happened next would change her life for the good or the worse, and she wasn’t sure how she would bet this would go.
“It was good. He’s just unsure about how to handle his role as my Dom. ”
“Is he?” Kala asked. “Because I did not see a Dom this afternoon. I saw a sulky boy.”
She wanted to argue, but she’d kind of thought the same. “He made up for it.”
“I don’t see how. Oh, I’m sure he blew your mind in bed, but you know that’s for him, too,” Kala began. “He’s the kind of guy who definitely thinks he can control you through sex.”
And Kenzie shut down entirely. Kala was talking about how Cooper would never do that to her and how TJ worships the ground Lou walks on and Kenzie should demand better.
A weird numbness settled over her as she brushed her hair and finished her makeup.
Kala always did this with her boyfriends.
They weren’t good enough. Not smart enough or strong enough.
They were all assholes who didn’t fit because they hadn’t grown up together.
Kala wouldn’t admit that. She would say things like Matt was a dick face because he watched a lot of sports.
Leo was wrong for her because he didn’t understand foreign policy.
TJ didn’t understand foreign policy either, but he was perfect for Lou.
Kenzie’s friends were dumb, too, and Kala was pretty bang-on when it came to those, but it still hurt.
Or didn’t anymore. She’d thought things would change once her sister was happy.
Kala had everything she could want. The perfect husband.
The best best friend. Parents who thought about her all the time because she was special.
Kenz was the one who didn’t need as much watching, as much care.
“Are you even listening to me?” Kala asked.
Kenzie stood, pushing back her chair. “Sure. I’ve once again picked an entirely unsuitable person to bring into our group. He’s an asshole who can’t even forgive a hard-core betrayal overnight. I should probably kill him and accept the fact that I’m destined to be alone with my dogs.”
Kala didn’t seem to get the sarcasm in her tone, which was weird since it was her main language. “You’ll be happier with them than you will be with that asshole. He ignored you and you let it happen.”
She couldn’t do this with her. It had been a horrible couple of weeks, and she hadn’t had a Cooper to go home to at night.
She didn’t have a Lou who would sit by her side.
She’d had sisters, but they were married and moving on with their lives and she was happy for them.
But she wasn’t going to listen to this. “I get it. You’re the main character and I’m the dipshit sister.
You know, how about you go back to your happy marriage and all your friends and I won’t bother you anymore.
Maybe you’re the one I need to be more professional with.
Now, I’m going to play with the asshole who will inevitably break my heart, but don’t think you’ll get a second of grief from me.
I won’t cry in front of you or ask you to listen.
You can sit in self-satisfaction knowing you beat me again. ”
Her sister’s eyes had gone wide, and for once she looked genuinely shocked. “What are you talking about?”
She couldn’t. She couldn’t have this fight with her right now. Her skin felt too tight.
Between the morning with cold Ben, the afternoon with warm Ben, the further proof how entangled he was with Huisman, and now she realized how long she’d been fighting her sister over this and it was a storm inside her.
One that she was supposed to drown in pop songs and overly dramatic gestures because that was who she was.
Simple. Easy to deal with. A little dumb.
She was her twin’s opposite, and everyone took Kala seriously.
She knew her sister loved her. There was no question about that. But then Kala didn’t really like her very much.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll see you at the meeting tomorrow. Have a good night, Mistress Kala,” she said.
Kala moved into her space. “You need to change into fet wear. I’ll help you and you can explain this hissy fit to me.”
“Hey,” Vivi began. “Maybe you should back off.”
But that was just it. When Kala got mad it was always serious.
When Kala was hurt the world stopped because everyone worried she could do some damage.
When Kenzie cried, she would get over it.
It was teen girl stuff or young adult stuff, and she would get hugs and promises it would get better while Kala got therapy and long discussions about life and her place in it.
Kenzie worried she was starting to see her place.
“Viv, I love you, but this is between me and my sister,” Kala was saying. “She’s got to get into that damn corset she wears, and she can’t do it on her own.”
Oh, but there was another option. Kenzie pulled the T-shirt she wore over her head and tossed it aside before pushing her jeans off her hips. She wasn’t wearing underwear. She turned and shook out her magenta hair, checking herself in the mirror. She looked hard and beautiful and cold.
Maybe that was what she needed to be. She worried who she was without her sister, but now she asked herself if she ever truly had her in the first place.
They’d been close as children, but when Tasha had come along, she’d taken on the role of Kala’s adviser.
Then Lou had become her best friend, and now Cooper had her whole heart.
The only thing that bound them together was the job they’d longed for, and now that was over.
At least it felt like it was ending and she needed to figure out who she was because she was worried the Agency wouldn’t want a single Ms. Magenta. Hadn’t she always been the one they tolerated so they could have their dream operative?
“I think I’ll skip the clothes,” Kenzie said. The one place she’d always felt powerful was the dungeon floor. “I won’t need them.”
“Please tell me we’re not going into angry queen mode,” Kala said with a sigh.
Kenzie got into her sister’s space, not giving a damn that she wasn’t wearing a stitch. “I’m not angry, Sister. I’m just done.”
She noticed Lou walking in, but it didn’t matter.
She walked out and like Sosa before her, she didn’t look back.