The Lion’s Mail Order Menage

Chapter 12

“Meena.  Meena, please, wake up.  You’ve got to wake up!  I need to know that you’re OK.”

It was like when she had been on the plane, that plane that had carried her to her new life what felt like a thousand years ago.  She was in a deep sleep, one she felt she might never be able to bring herself out of, and she didn’t want to.  She was afraid of what she would find.  She couldn’t quite remember why she was afraid, but she knew there was a reason.  Better to stay down in the deep dark.  Better not to know.  That way she could be safe.

“For Christ’s sake, Meena.  Wake up!  You have to be OK.  You just have to be.”

Safe?  Is that what she thought?  She was acting like she was going to get back to some kind of safety she had only just recently been taken away from.  But she had never been safe, not really, apparently not even when she was with Caleb and Tyler.  She was only getting a short reprieve.  Living on borrowed time, just like she always had been.  Just like she always would be.

“Kyra?”

But that wasn’t possible, was it?  She hadn’t seen Kyra in months and months.  She was gone.  She had left her sitting in an airport with nothing but her suitcase and a wad of cash, an address in her hand and fear in her heart.  It couldn’t be her, except that now there were little pieces of things coming back to her now that made it impossible for her to continue to sleep.  She had to get up.  She was in danger, and so was her friend.

“Thank god.  I was so worried!  Do you have any idea how long you’ve been out?”

“No,” she winced as she rubbed the temples of her pounding head, “not really.  What happened?”

“How much do you remember?”

That was a good question.  What did she remember?  It came to her in waves, along with a nausea rooted stubbornly in her gut.  Waking up in Caleb’s bed, feeling the most delicious kind of contentment and stretching her body out on his soft, luxurious sheets.  Looking for him or Tyler or both in the apartment, only to find herself alone with a persistent knocking at the front door.  Bella.  Bella at the front door handing her an envelope.  She remembered everything and suddenly she was afraid.

“Oh my god, Kyra, why are we talking about me?  Are you OK?  I didn’t know.  I would have come so much sooner but I didn’t know they had you.  When you didn’t come back at the airport I figured-”

“God, I can’t believe I did that to you.  You will never know how sorry I am for that.”

Her eyes filled with tears and Meena just sat there, wanting to comfort her but not having any idea how to do it.  She wasn’t used to seeing her like that and she wasn’t sure she knew her well enough anymore to be her shoulder to cry on.  But she had to try, right?  This was why she had come.  To rescue her friend, to finally be the one to take care of her instead of the other way around. 

She put one hesitant hand on Kyra’s shoulder, hoping not to make her feel uncomfortable.  It didn’t feel like enough, but she could see that it was helping anyway.  That was good.  She had a feeling they were going to have to stay as calm as possible if they were going to have a shot in hell of getting out of here alive and unharmed.

“Kyra, it’s OK.  Really, it is.  I’m not angry.  I’m just trying to explain why I didn’t think to come after you.”

“I know, you’re too sweet to get really angry, aren’t you?”

“No, not to get really angry, just to stay really angry.”

“Ah,” Kyra laughed shakily, “that’s a very important distinction to make.”

“I think so.  Now, how much time do we have?  Can you tell me what happened?”

Meena looked up quickly, scanning the room they were in after realizing that she had no idea where they were.  She hadn’t made it all that far after receiving her letter.  Sh*t, letter.  That was a laugh.  It wasn’t a letter, it was a demand.  If she ever wanted to see her friend Kyra again, she would come and she would come alone.  If she didn’t come, Kyra would die.  If she came with any sort of backup, Kyra would die.

There wasn’t any part of it that made it seem like Meena had a shot in hell of coming out of it unscathed and the smartest thing would have been for her to just turn a blind eye.  Kyra had abandoned her once, when she had needed her badly, too.  Maybe now was simply the time to return the favor.  Except that she couldn’t do that.  It wasn’t in her nature to do a thing like that. 

So she had gone out to a part of New York she had never been to before.  It was by the water and full of what looked like industrial buildings and abandoned warehouses.  She had been more afraid than she could remember being in her whole life but it hadn’t mattered.  It was the only thing to do.  She had gone into one of those awful abandoned buildings and met a man who made it very clear he would not be moved by anything she said.

“Well, then what do you want from me?  Why did you bring me here?”

“Simple, sweetheart,” the man laughed in her face coldly, “you gotta pay for the sins of your friend.”

“Pay for her sins?  I don’t know what that means.”

“Kyra.  See, what she did, well, it pissed Victor the fu*k off.  He’s of the mind that you two owe him.”

“Owe him what?  I don’t have much money, but I’ll give you what I have.  Just don’t hurt her, OK?  I’ll give you what I have and I’ll see if I can get you more.  Just don’t hurt her.”

“Well, aren’t you cute?  No, I don’t think that’s going to work.  You don’t have the kind of money Victor’s looking for.  Not now.  But you sure as fu*k will after we find the next buyers.”

“Buyers?”

Her heart was beating like a jackhammer in her chest and her skin was tingling with a warning she should have listened to before she let herself get this far.  She had known this was a bad idea and she had done it anyway.  Jesus, she wished she had told Caleb where she was going (not that he would have let her do it if she had), or at least written a note.  Nobody knew where she was.  There was nothing she could do.