Chapter 8 #3
"Don't forget to tighten your abs when you stand up," Kamal said as I finished my series on my yoga mat.
"That hurts like hell!" I groaned, which made him laugh.
Kamal was charming but above all kind. He was one of Ganesh's close guards and often helped me with my training.
It had been two months since we met Ganesh, and our whole lives had changed.
Ganesh led the Master on, asking that I serve him at his home rather than at the club, and he took Kenji and me to a remote hangar where he had specially moved in for us.
There was a gym, a computer room, a classroom, and he trained us with the best tutors, with his own men, giving us everything we needed.
He tried to get us out of the club at least once a week, and sometimes he would come for the whole weekend, as was the case today.
"Focus, damn it!" Ashwin suddenly shouted from the ring where he was training Kenji.
"I told you to keep your right elbow up.
Is that how you think you're going to protect her?
You can't even defend yourself! We may have to replace you!
" He continued to yell, pushing my friend, who said nothing and let him do it.
I felt anger rising and stood up to stop him, but Kamal held me back with his hand around my arm, "no, don't get involved," he said, but I shook my head.
"I'm not going to let him talk like that.
.." "Then you'll take away the only thing that keeps him going?
" Kamal asked me suddenly, staring into my eyes and freezing me in place.
"What?" I asked, confused. Kamal sighed and pulled me toward the bench, where he threw my towel at me as Ashwin and Kenji started trading blows again.
“The system this Master has put in place with the Stars and the Shadows is completely twisted. He made you believe that the Shadows’ purpose is to protect the Stars, but the training he gives them is minimal,” he began to explain.
“When faced with real danger, the Shadows are incapable of defending you. Master’s true goal is to establish psychological manipulation over the Stars by using their Shadows.
At the slightest mistake on your part, it is your Shadows who are punished.
They are your leashes, which he pulls however he wants in order to subdue you,” he continued, handing me my bottle of water.
“But Kenji does not want to be your leash, Sienna. He wants to become your friend, your confidant, your protector. He has decided what a real Shadow should be, and he is working to become one. But it is not an easy path he has chosen. He will fall more than once, and protecting him is not how you will help him,” he finished with a sigh, his gaze meeting mine again before he suddenly froze.
He stood up so abruptly that the bench overturned with a loud crash.
“Sienna? Wait, wait… why are you crying? I… I’m sorry, don’t cry,” he began to panic, not knowing what to do, as footsteps quickly approached behind me.
“Enna?” Kenji breathed, turning me toward him, and my eyes met his worried gaze.
“What’s wrong? Did you get hurt?” he continued, but I shook my head and buried my face against his damp T-shirt, soaking it even more.
I hated being seen crying. Suddenly, the towel around my neck was pulled over my head as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders.
“I don’t deserve you,” I sobbed, “I’m such a troublemaker, the worst things always happen to me and will probably keep happening.
And you’re going to suffer because of me…
” “No. You are the best thing that has happened to me in years. You are one of the rare things I will never regret in my life. I would carry hundreds of scars like this one for you, Sienna,” he cut me off, his arm tightening around my shoulders, and I began to sob even harder.
“Idiot,” I sobbed, wiping my face against his T-shirt, “I care about you, but wipe your snot and pull yourself together before Kamal has a stroke,” he said, which made me let out a small laugh.
“What is going on here?” Ganesh’s voice suddenly echoed through the warehouse, making all of us jump.
I stepped back and used my towel to wipe my face as the men moved away to join Ganesh, while light, quick footsteps approached me.
“Sienna?” a small voice asked. I removed the towel and looked at the girl standing in front of me.
She was only two years younger than me, yet I felt as though she was just a child compared to me.
As if I were already thirty, as if I had lived through decades.
But I was no longer a child, was I? Life had forced me to grow up.
“Anjali,” I breathed, caressing her chubby cheek.
I had had the same cheeks a year ago, the same innocence, the same purity.
The thought turned my stomach, and I quickly withdrew my hand.
I shouldn’t touch her. I was dirty. But my heart tightened when she suddenly threw herself into my arms, hugging me tightly.
“Why did you cry, Sienna? Mama (uncle) Sienna is crying!” she called out to Ganesh, pulling me along with her.
He gave me a worried look, but I smiled at him and shook my head.
“Who made you cry, Chhori ? Which one of these idiots?” he asked, striking the floor with his cane, putting on a fake angry expression.
“Kamal,” Ashwin and Kenji answered in unison, and Kamal froze, staring at them in disbelief.
“Stop it, idiots. Kamal is the nicest of you all,” I quickly defended him, rubbing his arm as he shot a dark look at the other two.
“Look, Sienna, I cooked this,” Anjali called out to me again from the table we used to eat at.
I quickly joined her as she lifted the lid of the Tupperware.
A delicious smell immediately filled the room as steam rose.
There was rice and what looked like chicken in sauce.
“It’s chicken tikka masala with basmati rice.
I made it for you,” she said, bouncing in place, as I felt the three gorillas approaching behind me.
Men and food were truly a fascinating thing to watch, sex and food.
I had to admit that the rumors about them remaining in a primitive state were probably well-founded.
“Thank you, Anji, I’m sure it’s delicious,” I thanked her with a smile, which made her bounce even more.
“But I doubt it will be enough for all of us,” I muttered as the boys cast hungry looks at the poor little Tupperware.
“Let’s leave my niece and Sienna alone, shall we?
Your food is in the trunk, you bunch of idiots,” Ganesh scolded them, chasing them away with his cane.
They disappeared very quickly, which made me laugh.
“Beti, would you mind setting the table while I talk to Sienna for a moment?” he continued.
Anjali obeyed, heading toward the small kitchenette, while I followed her uncle toward the desk at the back of the room.
“Here,” he said, handing me the cardboard folder.
I opened it, inside were details of Ganesh’s latest weapons transactions, quantities, prices, locations.
“This information is far too important for me to give to the Master,” I replied, throwing him a worried look, but he simply shook his head.
“If the Master allows Kenji and you to leave the club, it’s because you give him good and important information about me,” he answered, pushing the folder back when I tried to return it.
“And besides, he won’t do anything with this information.
He just wants to keep an eye on my activities.
Don’t worry” I eventually sighed and accepted the folder.
He was right, the only reason the Master allowed us to come here was to obtain information on the Indian mafia.
A scheme he had set up with Ganesh’s brother in order to get rid of him and put his brother in his place.
Something that would never happen. We were watching his brother’s every move, and at the slightest suspicious gesture, it would be over for him.
“I’m still in favor of warning the Ivanovs,” he suddenly said, sitting against the desk, his eyes fixed on his niece as she ran back and forth between the table and the kitchenette.
The Ivanovs were the family who ruled the Bratva, the Russian mafia. And the Master, whose real name was Vassili Kosnetzov, was also part of the Bratva. But he had used his power to create something rotten, something that would destroy him if the Ivanovs ever found out.
I shook my head. We couldn’t warn them. Not yet. I had to find Valentina first. I had promised her. I had promised myself.
But the guilt of postponing the rescue of all the others was a weight I had chosen to carry.
I refused to abandon her. And there was also the matter of the Stars who were sent into “retirement.” We still had to find out what really happened to them.
If the Ivanovs discovered Vassili’s parallel business, all those women would be lost. The Master would leave no trace of them. Ganesh sighed but didn’t insist.
“We finally received your order,” he informed me suddenly, and I looked at him eagerly.
“Really? How many?” “Between five hundred and eight hundred boxes. I think that will be enough for all the girls for at least six months,” he said with a smile, as I bounced in place.
I had been waiting for this news for so long.
The girls would finally be able to protect themselves.
“And the Master agreed to distribute contraceptive pills. He had no choice, given the way I twisted the minds of almost all his major clients. None of them wants bastards,” he added with a grimace.
“And we don’t want to carry the spawn of demons either,” I muttered, crossing my arms.