Chapter 7
Sienna
"Enna?" Kenji called out when I didn't answer, his warm hands against my cheeks.
"No," I whispered, grabbing his wrists. "You'll never betray me," I replied, smiling softly at him.
"But I'm tired, Kenji. So tired," I murmured, closing my eyes, my eyelids suddenly heavy.
"I'm tired of doubting everything around me, of doubting myself. "
"At least you have a living body to feel tired," Wendy's accusatory voice sneered in my head, and I pressed my lips together.
The voice that followed me everywhere I went, the voice that haunted me, that tortured me.
I had started hearing it in the hallways of the institute, at night when I lay in my bed and stared at her empty bed for hours, when I felt her breath on my neck, her mocking voice cursing me.
I cried, begged her to forgive me and leave me alone.
People started looking at me as if I were crazy.
And maybe I was, because few people could remain sane after seeing bodies being swung off a cliff, right?
"Her voice is there, Kenji," I confessed, my fingers digging into his skin.
"She's taunting me, mocking me," I whispered.
Kenji knew, he was the only one, even the girls didn't know anything.
Someone had to know, I didn't want to be the only one who knew, I was scared.
I didn't know how to silence her voice, hers and the others.
"Try jumping off a cliff, Stella, it'll work," she sneered again, making me grimace.
"Focus on my voice, Sienna, on mine, on your sister's, your nephews', your family's," Kenji said, his hands gripping my shoulders and shaking them gently.
"You're the strongest woman I know, but even the strongest have limits.
When you reach those limits, lean on someone.
I'll always be here for you, Enna, but you have to trust other people.
You can't keep living like this. You can't always be in survival mode," he continued.
He was right, I couldn't keep living like this.
It wasn't living, it was surviving, as he said.
I sat up, swallowing hard, rubbing my face with my sweaty hands as I focused on Kenji's warm hands on my shoulders, on his presence, on his warmth, and gradually calm returned.
"I'm going to live, Kenji, once the Master is dead,", I said, turning back to the windshield, my thoughts back in order.
"I'll rest once I've killed him," I said, as Wendy's mocking laughter echoed in my head.
Yes, I was crazy, the craziest of them all and I will fucking kill them all.
—
I entered the club with a confident stride, my Shadow behind me, night was gradually falling, and preparations for the evening ahead were almost complete.
I walked between the tables and empty chairs, my heels clicking on the black marble floor as the spotlights danced across the dance floor.
I arrived at the bar where Raoul greeted me, lifting the side of the counter to let me pass behind it, followed by Kenji.
We entered the back room where hundreds of bottles of alcohol were stored before going down to the basement.
"You're late," Esme accused me, pulling on her mini dress as she got up from the cash register where she had been sitting.
"A delay," I grumbled, glancing over my shoulder at Kenji, who ignored me as he headed towards the other Star Shadows at the back of the room.
"Anything new?" I asked, grabbing the glass Ava handed me before plopping down on one of the many crates we had placed there so we could sit.
It was our place to meet, hidden from the Master's gaze, right under his nose, where he wouldn't think to look.
"I was with one of the guys who works at the Minnesota border two days ago," Emma said, exhaling cigarette smoke and shaking her head gently, her little blonde and pink curls bouncing against her cheeks.
"He was one of Yelsky's men, and told me about Yelsky having secret meetings with the Canadians," she continued, her blue eyes sparkling.
The Canadians? Selina had told me that the Ivanovs were negotiating a merger with them, a merger that would save them from their dependence on Minnesota and Yelsky.
It was perfectly normal that Yelsky would want to prevent them from signing the contract.
"What do we know about the Canadians?" I asked, turning to Esme.
She was the one who recorded all the information the girls reported, even the most trivial details.
Knowing even an important man's allergy could change the course of history.
"Not much. William Tremblay heads an oil empire, but he also leads a very active criminal biker gang," Esme explained, thanking Azad, her Shadow, who draped a shawl over her shoulders.
The two of them were madly in love, a romance that had blossomed after years of friendship and affection.
It was complicated for them, with Azad having to wait outside Esme's door while she spent nights with men, unable to do anything about it.
But they had found a way to get along, and above all, they had no doubt that the day when they could live peacefully would come, very soon if we succeeded in our mission.
"He handles most of the drug and weapons trafficking in Canada.
He's based in Ontario, as far as I know," she added, and I nodded.
"We have girls in Ontario, Abby and Zina," Diane said suddenly, taking out her phone.
It always seemed strange to me to see her with a phone in her hand.
It was a recent development; three years ago, we weren't allowed to have them, but I had managed to convince Vassili that it was vital for us to be able to communicate with each other in order to organize ourselves.
And besides, he knew it. Who else could we call for help?
The cops? They were all corrupt. Our families?
Most of us didn't have that, which is why we were the perfect choices to be Stars, no one who would come looking for us or report us missing.
And run away to where? With what money? Our old lives had disappeared long ago, and the old us along with them.
"Yes, they're in Ontario," Diane confirmed as she read her messages.
She was the one who kept track of each girl's movements and knew by heart who was where.
There were hundreds of us Stars scattered across the American continent.
Vassili's business had taken root so well and was running so smoothly that information about South American cartels, Italian and Russian mafias, Chinese triads, and every other criminal organization passed through his hands thanks to the Stars.
He may have been the biggest psychopathic bastard, but that didn't change the fact that he was intelligent, so intelligent and cunning, that asshole.
"Do you think they can get close to him, or at least one of his closest man?
" I asked. I needed information; this merger had to happen.
There was no way Vassili's power was going to increase through Yelsky.
I wasn't going to let them take on the Ivanovs so easily.
Diane nodded as she started typing again.
"They'll do anything for you, Enna," smiled Ava, already downing her third shot since I'd been there, and it couldn't have been her third, judging by how she was swaying and the dark look her Shadow gave her as he approached to catch her when she leaned dangerously forward.
"I don't want them to do everything I ask them to do, only what they want to do," I sighed, turning to Kenji, who looked at me when he felt my gaze on him.
"Do you know their Shadows?" I asked uneasily, not wanting to put the girls in danger.
One was twenty and the other twenty-two, too young.
Kenji nodded, crossing his muscular arms over his chest. Time had changed him; he had grown, he was no longer the slender, small boy among the others.
He now towered over them, more muscular than some, a late bloomer, I would say.
"Maxime and Luc, I trained them myself. They are eighth generation.
Loyal, strong, and quick," he explained, scratching his chin.
Eighth generation, that wasn't so old. Every year, Vassili, the Master, formed new groups of girls and boys to expand his network.
We were the fourth generation, from the beginning of the business.
There were eleven generations in total at the moment, and the twelfth would soon arrive, and it would be the last. I was going to do everything I could to make sure that was the case.