8. Maksen
8
MAKSEN
S even days since I last saw her.
Seven days since I haven’t fucking stopped thinking about her and the nightmares she might’ve had while I was away. The nightmares she’d always had and I had no idea.
I raised my gaze to the mirror in front of me and a mischievous smile came on my face. The knife was cutting deep into my flesh and the tears were not even starting to show.
I loved pain as much as I loved inflicting it.
The blood was running down my legs as I pressed the blade deeper. I wanted to scream, but I kept my mouth shut. I wanted to take the knife out, but then I remembered Annalise and how badly I was missing her. So I pushed the blade deeper, a stabbing pain striking up my leg as the blood began to trickle down.
I took the knife out and the moment I looked at myself, I saw the vulnerable man whom I didn’t ever want to see.
I couldn’t be vulnerable. Not anymore.
I stabbed my other leg with such ease, letting out a broken scream as the pain was devouring me from the inside out.
The basement’s walls trembled, facing my growls, and I fell on my knees, my palms splashing the pool of blood I’ve created. I moved my fingers in it and let out a useless cry for help because no one could’ve helped me. Not even myself.
I stood up, trying to take the first steps as my legs were shaking frantically. I needed to do it. I needed to feel the pain so I could be indestructible.
Cautiously, I started making my way to the stairs and the darkness rushed to take me in its arms. I fell prey for it and I stopped once I managed to grip the metallic bar of the stairs.
I took a deep breath in, trying to find my will power to continue walking.
I could do it. I could do whatever the fuck I wanted, even though my body burned in flames. I had to learn how to love the pain and make it my secret weapon because that was the only way I could win in the shitty life I had.
I raised my leg and stepped on the next stair, the pain growing even more. I clenched my fist, leaning on the walls and pushing myself further onto the stairs.
Each of the fifteen stairs felt like I had to go through hell, but I made it, and I was fucking proud of myself.
As soon as I reached the secondary hallway of my house, Tyler rushed my way and grabbed my hands.
“I don’t need help!” I yelled. “Prepare the wagon for a long drive. Make sure I don’t have any transmitters on it.”
“Sure will,” he promptly replied and walked in the opposite direction of me.
Every man who worked for me was used to my impulsive reactions and knew how much I hated to be helped. I didn’t need anyone to be worried for me – not even when they saw me covered in my own blood, fighting to stay alive.
My head hurt when I opened my bedroom door, and the moment I reached the bathroom, I became dizzy, the image in front of my eyes becoming blurry. I put my hands on the edge of the sink, breathing in harder and harder until I started hyperventilating.
“One,” I mumbled. “ Two,” I added and a tear rolled down my cheek. “Three. Four. Five.”
When I reached number five, I punched the mirror and broke it into sharp pieces that fell on the ground.
Now I could finally see my true self, as I looked down at my broken reflection.
I wasn’t whole, just as that mirror.
I was shattered, destroyed from inside out, trying to glue my lost pieces of soul back together. The only problem was that I wasn’t even able to find those pieces, even though I kept trying.
The clothes were making me itch with every step I made because of the wounds I had on my legs. I kept walking until I reached the front door of the Makenova’s house and as soon as one of their bodyguards opened it for me, I stepped inside and inhaled the familiar scent into my lungs.
Everything about their house reminded me of Annalise and no matter how much I tried to not think of her, I always ended up doing so.
It pissed me off that she had to be the center of my entire universe.
“Lukyan and Annalise are having lunch in the backyard. Please, go and have a seat,” Olivia told me as I walked towards the living room.
“Thank you!” I replied and gave her a gentle smile as I turned around and made my way to the backyard.
The smell of freshly cooked food hit my senses as I got closer to the tall glass wall that separated the living room from the paved path of the backyard.
I walked over the threshold of the door and as I raised my glance, I saw her. She was quietly sitting in the chair to her father’s right, taking small bites from the food she had on her plate. She seemed so detached from reality that it made my heart burn with anger and disappointment.
I felt guilty for whatever she felt at that moment, even though I didn’t know what it was.
“Good afternoon, son,” Lukyan spoke as I sat on the other chair.
“Good afternoon,” I quickly replied, trying not to look at Annalise too much.
But I couldn’t fucking resist the urge. I tilted my head, hoping to meet the emerald pair of irises I loved. But I didn’t.
She looked at her plate like it was the most interesting thing in the world. However, I knew she wanted to look at me, feel my gaze on her beautiful face and let her lips stretch into that beautiful smile she gave me every time.
“Please, eat! You need all the energy you can get for what I’ve planned for us.”
I let a false smile sneak on my face. I grabbed a spoon and put some potatoes onto my plate alongside a piece of baked chicken breast. I wasn’t hungry at all, but I knew that it was a sign of disrespect when you were having lunch with your family and you refused any food they had.
We started eating in silence as the tension between the three of us grew even bigger. I wondered where Katya was, but then I thought that she might’ve been in the city, trying to recover from a night full of alcohol and drugs.
Lukyan’s attention was driven to his phone and his eyebrows were almost touching each other into a confused furrow.
“Annalise, you can finish eating in your room. Me and Maksen need to have a talk,” Lukyan said sharply.
She didn’t say a thing but left the plate on the table and walked past her father. I followed her with my gaze and the view she offered made me move in my seat, suddenly aware of the feeling of pleasure growing in my pants. Thank God the table was covering my legs, or any false promise I’ve made to Lukyan was going to go shit.
She was wearing a white dress that became transparent when the sun rays touched its soft material. But as soon as I tried to see more of her, Lukyan cleared his throat and caught my attention immediately.
“There will be twelve new girls and I need you to bid and win the auction for the best of them,” he explained and let the fork fall on the plate. “I don’t want the McKnights to win in front of us. We need to have the best girls out there.”
“We’ll surely have the best of them. No need to worry about it,” I replied with such ease that I felt horrible for myself. “You know I’m always winning the right ones. The ones who’ll provide us the most money.”
I was sick just thinking of what I’d just said. But I had to play it hard to maintain Lukyan’s trust, even though I would’ve let it all go.
That’s what I had to pretend to be. A mischievous, unscrupulous man who liked to play with children’s souls and bodies. A man who found pleasure by watching them getting raped and exploited by the richest men alive in the United States.
I wasn’t proud of myself and I’m sure my dearest Annalise wouldn’t be proud either.
That’s why she didn’t have to find out what I was doing for her father besides killing people. Because killing people wasn’t as bad as trafficking children — but if she ever found out, I’d explain to her that even though I was the one buying children at auctions, I was also the one saving them and giving those girls the life they deserved. Or at least, me and Tyler, my technology guy, tried to.
“Finish eating. We’ll be leaving in twenty minutes,” he informed me as he stood up from his chair and walked away from me.
His leaving shocked me considering how much Lukyan loved to leave the table once everyone finished eating their food. It didn’t bother me though. I didn’t want to have him close now.
Over the years, since he first instructed me to lead my father’s organization, I tried to convince myself that I was a bad man who liked seeing children suffer. A man who… but I couldn’t.
I was nothing like my father, nor like Lukyan. But two years ago, when I saw the mobsters molesting a poor girl after an auction, I decided that no matter how much I needed to keep my family’s legacy, I knew that was not who I was. So that’s when I started working on my own to save the children.
As I let myself fall into my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed I finished eating and Olivia already started clearing the table. I looked at her and I saw a flinch of emotion cradling up her face as she was already scrutinizing me.
“I sense that you’re trying to say something and I’m mostly not wrong with my intuition,” I whispered to her and she gulped at my words.
Her facial expression explained to me more than her silence did. She seemed like she wanted to tell me something but she couldn’t.
She started to analyze the surroundings, searching for any familiar face who could’ve heard what she was going to say. But she kept silent and took a napkin from the table, pulling out a pen from her apron and writing something on it.
I furrowed at the sight of her and the confusion grew inside my head. She took the napkin and folded it into a ball, then threw it at me and left with some plates in her hands.
I picked it up and put it in my pocket as I heard Lukyan’s voice speaking on the phone. He seemed angry, which concerned me a bit.
“Everything all right?” I asked as I turned on my heels and faced him.
“No! The McKnight’s are fucking with us and I’m not going to let them win. We’re buying all the girls, no matter what. And we’ll be selling them all to McKnight’s enemies. They have no idea what they’re going to be facing. “
His tone of voice sent a shiver down my spine because I knew something bad happened. He seemed to have his limits tested and I was the only one who knew how he behaved in such situations.
“We have the control, Lukyan. Calm down and let’s leave. The auction will be starting soon.”
He mumbled some swears between his lips and as we were leaving the house, my mind still flew to the napkin in my pocket.
What did Olivia write on it?
“Four hundred thousand dollars for the McKnights! Four hundred thousand dollars once.”
“Four hundred and fifty thousand,” Lukyan growled and lifted up the little circle that had his number on it.
The man smirked at me and moved the microphone closer to his mouth. Our girl was already trembling from each of her joints and I wished I could do something to help her.
“Four hundred and fifty thousand for the Makenova’s! Let’s see! Can we get more for this pretty little woman right here? Four hundred and fifty thousand once. Four hundred and fifty thousand twice.”
“Five hundred thousand.”
Killian McKnight’s voice cut through my head and I felt my blood rushing down my entire body. Lukyan tensed beside me and I knew the bid was higher than we expected for a girl like her. But she was going to make the most money because the Latinas were the ones the richest men were looking for.
I had to do something. I had to go over my limits and win over the McKnights tonight.
Even though he liked winning and having the most profitable girls, he didn’t like to buy them at such a high price. He thought they weren’t worth a dollar, but he had to go to auctions to have them.
What a pathetic piece of shit. Not even being grateful for what those girls were enduring for his pocket to be filled each day.
“Five hundred thousand dollars for the one and only Killian McKnight! The pretty lady must be red in her cheeks knowing such men are battling over her,” the man said with a mischievous grin on his face as the girl started shaking even harder. “Five hundred thousand dollars once. Five hundred thousand dollars twice.”
What I was going to do was going to shock everyone.
“Eight hundred thousand dollars,” I said promptly and the silence that came in the entire hall made my lips stretch into a smirk.
That was what I fucking wanted.
The girl started crying on the scene and I saw the man next to her punching her from behind to calm down. I wanted to stand up and go right to him and punch him in his face. But I couldn’t.
I looked at her and I saw the fear she had in her eyes as she looked at me. I tried to send her some comforting looks, but I supposed she wasn’t catching any of those considering how terrified she was.
“This night is the most interesting of them all, ladies and gents! Eight hundred thousand dollars once. Eight hundred thousand dollars twice.” He spoke slowly, waiting for someone to come up with a higher bid than I did. But no one did, just as I expected.
“Eight hundred thousand dollars for the man behind. The girl is all yours, Mister Brown!”
I smiled gently as he spoke and felt some sharp looks coming for me. It was either Lukyan’s, Killian’s or everyone else’s, but I couldn’t care less.
I stood up from the chair and walked to the stage where the girl was already escorted out. I led my feet towards her and as I reached her, I saw how hard she trembled.
I took her hand in mine and started walking to the area where we were going to send the girls to our facility to prepare them for the next step.
“Don’t worry. You’ll not have a better life with us, but I can assure you that it will be nicer than with the McKnights.”
“I-I-I want to go h-home,” she mumbled and I noticed her accent.
“I know. But I can’t help you. I did more than I could to not let you go with those awful men.”
“You are all awful! I-I…”
“Just say thank you for now. You wouldn’t want to know what the other girls will be going through now that they’re bought by the McKnights.”
I won tonight.
But I wasn’t proud of it.
When I got back home, I took off my suit and searched for the napkin in my pocket. Even though I had a lot to do tonight, my mind didn’t stop thinking about the message Olivia left for me.
I sat down on the bed’s edge and took in a deep breath as I unfolded the napkin.
Save Annalise
And my heart suddenly stopped beating.