Losing Pieces of Me

by Briner, Rose

  “Please do, but if you could park around the corner that would be great,” I tell him with a small smile as I open the door and shut it behind me. I glance up at the building slowly before looking back down at the paper in my hand. The paper that I took from Jayden’s office. I might have nothing to go on, but I’ve been snooping around in his office for the last couple of days trying to find out what I can about his family. He doesn’t like to talk about his father and he doesn’t have a great relationship with his brother, so the only way I’m going to get any closer to finding Katrina is by doing some of the work on my own time.

  Imagine my surprise when I found a piece of paper hidden at the bottom of a stack of folders that had a bunch of notes on it and Hayden’s name. I don’t know if this has anything to do with Katrina, or if I’ll ever get any closer to finding her, but anything that has Hayden’s name written on it I have to investigate.

  I stare up at the building warily and then in the direction that the cab went. I almost turn and go back to the cab, I don’t like to look of this place –or the entire street for that matter. This isn’t a place where a woman like me belongs, this looks more like a place where shady people do their business.

  But that very thing has me moving towards the building and up to the front door. What would two rich men be doing involved with a place like this in this part of town? I’m about to find out.

  I think about reaching up and knocking on the door, but instead I try the handle. Surprisingly, the door is in better condition than the entire building. I would’ve thought the door would be falling off the hinges, but the door has been reinforced as if they want to keep people out of the place. I hold my breath when the knob turns and the door slowly creaks open.

  I poke my head inside, afraid that I will find a serial killer waiting for me on the other side with his ax ready to chase me back down the street. But instead of finding a killer or a man at all for that matter, I find a reception desk and there’s a woman sitting behind it.

  I push the door open a little bit more confidently than I feel and shut it behind me. I steel myself to remain strong as I turn and plaster a fake smile on my face.

  The girl looks up at me before looking back down at her computer, but then she does a double take and is staring at me again.

  “Welcome to Prosperity Agency, how can I help you?” she asks pleasantly.

  Prosperity Agency? What in the heck is Prosperity Agency? For sure this isn’t one of Hayden’s nightclubs, this place looks like a well-established business. What on Earth is a place like this doing out here? Obviously I don’t have time to pull out my phone and look up the company or go to the library to search them up, so I think quickly as I walk towards her.

  “I was in the area and stumbled upon this place and thought I’d check it out. What kind of services do you offer here?” I ask calmly. I feel anything but calm as I wait for her to answer. This is either going to go one of two ways. Either she’s going to kick me out of here or she’s going to fall for my lame attempt to gather information about this place and tell me all about it.

  “I’ll do you one better,” she tells me with a smile. “Would you like a tour? I think this place would be perfect for you,” she stands from her chair and moves around the front of her desk so she’s standing beside me.

  I don’t know why she’s agreed to show me around this place, but I’m not going to question it if it gets me closer to finding my answer about what this place is and what it has to do with Hayden.

  “I’d love one,” I tell her.

  “Great, follow me,” she says as she approaches the door near her desk and pushes it open. I’m expecting to find an empty room or for the place to be a giant mess, but this is clearly a business that is well maintained because all the walls are done in white and the area is a wide open space. It looks like they removed all the walls and turned this place into a giant studio.

  That’s exactly what this is, a photo studio. So that’s why this woman is so willing to show me around this place, she’s seeing dollar signs. I bet they told her to look for women like me who would be perfect candidates for their line of work.

  “This is such a beautiful place,” I comment as I turn in a circle and have a look around. “What do you photograph here?”

  She gestures for me to follow her and she leads me to the very back of the building where there’s a wall separating the rest of the place. When we walk around the wall, I come face to face with a live photo shoot. There’s a girl posing for a shot, spread-eagle on the floor wearing nothing but bikini bottoms. Is this a magazine shoot or something?

  “This is our newest client, she’s taking photos for her portfolio. She wants to be a model,” she states proudly. I almost ask her who in their right mind would pose for that shot to try and get a modeling gig, but I don’t do it. If I seem too critical of this place, she might show me the door.

  “That sounds wonderful, how does one sign up to become a client?” I ask her enthusiastically. I’m more confused than I was when I got here, but maybe if I continue to act interested, I might find something I can use to my advantage.

  “Let’s go up front and talk,” she tells me as she leads the way back to the front of the building. I look back one last time and find the photographer staring at me, so I quickly turn and follow behind the girl as she heads towards the front.

  She doesn’t say anything when we get to the front as she sits down and begins to type on her computer. When she prints out what she’s looking for, she places the paper and pen in front of me. “Fill this out, and then we’ll talk.”

  I take the paper and pen and look around me for a place to sit. I find a lone chair in the far corner away from the door and sink down onto it, preparing myself to fill it out. I almost get up and walk out of the place when I start to read the questionnaire. Besides asking for my name, it asks everything under the sun about my body and my sexual preferences. What does any of this have to do with modeling? There’s only one way to find out right?

  I reluctantly fill out the paper with a fake name and fake answers and bring it back up to the girl. She looks it over, humming every now and again as her eyes move down the paper. When she’s done reading it, she looks up at me and proceeds to look me over. I start to feel uncomfortable the longer she stares at me. It’s almost like she’s trying to imagine if I would be willing to do some of the things on that piece of paper.

  “What now?” I ask when she doesn’t say anything for a while.

  She clears her throat and sets the piece of paper down on the desk next to her computer. She crosses her arms in front of her as she leans back in her chair and smiles up at me.

  “The next step is it arrange a meeting between you and Mr. Leopold, he’ll be in tomorrow if you want to stop by? The both of them will be here tomorrow to screen the new applicants. They only choose the very best candidates and I think you have a very good shot at being selected. You look a lot like one of the other candidates that just came through here and she ended up doing really well,” she says as she smiles at me.

  The strange thing is that I have this feeling she’s talking about Katrina. Sure, Katrina may be taller than I am and more graceful, but we have the same bone structure and facial features so I guess it wouldn’t be far fetched to believe she is referring to my sister.

  “What happened to the client?” I ask, but realize my mistake a little too late. Her face starts to change, so I quickly cover my tracks, “I mean, did she get far? Did she get a modeling contract?”

  This seems to appease the girl and has her smile being put back on her face, “She did, she got the best contract of all,” she says mysteriously. I have no idea what that means and she really hasn’t given me anything to go off of other than clearly Hayden runs this place and maybe even Jayden. Although, from what I know about Hayden, this seems more his type of place.

  “Thank you,” I tell the girl as I start to walk towards the door. “I’ll come by tomorrow, what time would be good?” I as
k, stopping when I reach the door so I can turn to face her.

  “One would be a good time,” she says. I start to turn back towards the door, but her voice stops me, “oh and Melanie, bring the sexiest thing you own.”

  Melanie is the fake name I gave her. I never have any intention of coming tomorrow. Could you imagine Hayden’s face if I showed up here? I think I’ll pass on that one. He would no doubt use that against Jayden when it comes time for the board to make a decision about Jayden’s continuing to run his company.

  As I sit in the taxi for the drive back to the hotel, I think long and hard about what happened back at Prosperity Agency. The girl didn’t really give me anything to go off of, but with the notes that Jayden made in combination with what I saw today, I know something more than modeling is going on in that place. The question is, what exactly is going on, and what does my sister have to do with it? I think they might be trafficking women out of that place. That’s a long shot, but I have this eerie feeling that’s what it is.

  All I can really do at this point, is go back to the hotel and do some research to see what I can find out. The girl said they would be there tomorrow, but Jayden and I have plans for tomorrow afternoon and one. So if Jayden is not going to be the other person, then who is? A cousin, their dad maybe? Could be anyone at this point. I’ll never know without asking Jayden directly. I think I’ll pass on that one.

  Walking back into the hotel and up to the room, I know I am in deep shit. The bodyguard Jayden provided me with when we arrived is standing outside the door glaring at me. I ignore him and use my card to open the door, only to find a very pissed off looking Jayden sitting in the armchair near the door.

  “Where have you been?” Jayden asks getting to his feet. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you, do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?” he roars at me, his whole face turning red in anger as I slowly shut the door behind me.

  “I’m fine, I just needed a little break for myself, that’s all,” I tell him as calmly as I can, trying to keep my hands steady as I set my purse down on the dresser. In all reality, I’m terrified, he looks angry and angry men do things they wouldn’t normally do.

  “Shit, I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you,” he says, his voice a lot calmer than it was moments ago. I turn to face him in confusion when his voice cracks, “there are a lot of people out there that want to hurt you because you are my wife. The only way I can keep you safe Mireya, is if you stay with the bodyguard when I’m not around. Please make sure you stay with him, I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you.”

  Confusion fills me as he brings himself to stand before me. He looks scared and I can’t figure out why. No one would hurt me, no one even knows who I am.

  “It can’t be that serious, Jayden. No one would come after someone like me, let’s be realistic about that for a moment. Whether or not I’m married to you, no one would come after someone who looks like I do.”

  “Sure they would,” he says, reaching his hand up to brush my cheek as he comes to stand before me. “Your beautiful and charismatic, of course they would come after you.”

  The way he says it and the look on his face tells me he knows exactly who they are.

  “Jayden is there something you aren’t telling me?” I ask him, hoping he’ll trust me enough to tell me.

  “I don’t want you to worry about that, you have a dinner to get ready for and a table of men to charm, let me worry about them,” he says cryptically. There’s a lot of conviction on his face and now more than ever, I have to find out who they are, because that might be the only thing that keeps me safe.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Walking into the restaurant downstairs to meet Jayden and the other men for dinner, I know I’m in big trouble. I’m already on edge because of what happened today and what Jayden said upstairs and now I’m down here about to sit across from none other than the man who was shooting the photos this afternoon.

  He’s charming and engages Jayden in conversation throughout the entire meal, but he keeps giving me this look that says he knows it was me in the studio earlier today.

  Finally he turns to stare at me during a lull in the table conversation, “So, Mireya is it?”

  I gulp down my water before I look up at him, “Yes, Francisco my name is Mireya.”

  How rude that he can’t even remember my name. The table spent most of the night talking about me and he even greeted me by name when Jayden introduced us formally for the first time. I know what he’s doing, he knows what name I wrote on that application.

  “What do you do for work?” he asks me, smirking at me as he casually takes a sip of his wine.

  “I don’t have a job right now, I’m trying to embrace my role as a newlywed right now,” I tell him. My hands shake as I clasp them together under the table. I know he’s seconds from blowing everything out of the water. If he mentions Prosperity Agency to Jayden, he’ll know that’s where I went today.

  “You don’t work?” he asks skeptically as he blinks back at me.

  “Clearly you know that no wife of mine will work Francisco, I would never allow her to slave away when I am more than capable of providing for her,” he says as he leans over and kisses me tenderly on the cheek. I close my eyes as his lips touch my cheek and I’m dumbstruck for several moments as I open my eyes and stare over at him dreamily. Like I was saying the deeper I get into this thing, the harder it is for me to keep a clear head about the two of us. I’m scared to admit to myself how hard I’ve fallen for him.

  “That’s interesting because if I’m not mistaken, Mireya wants to be a model, don’t you Mireya?” he sneers at me. The color quickly drains from my face and I stare over at Francisco in horror.

  I open my mouth to speak, but Jayden quickly grabs my hand under the table and squeezes it hard as if to warn me not to open my mouth.

  “You are mistaken, Mireya doesn’t want to be a model, she has zero desire to be one. Right, love?” he asks me in a tender tone, but his eyes are blazing in anger as if daring me to deny it.

  “That’s correct, Francisco. You are clearly mistaken, I never have –nor will I ever- desire to be a model,” I tell him as I tear my eyes away from Jayden and look over at Francisco.

  Francisco is giving me this look like he wants to drag me away from this table and do evil, nasty things to me. The look on his face right now is downright sinister.

  “If you’ll excuse us gentleman, we’re going to turn in for the night. We’ll see you tomorrow night for the investor’s ball,” he says abruptly standing from the table and throwing his napkin down on top of it. I stare at his napkin for a beat before I stand and chase Jayden out of the restaurant. He’s moving quickly away from the restaurant and towards the elevator. I don’t want to spend a single moment alone with Francisco, so I hurry to catch up to Jayden. Believe me, that’s not an easy task in these damn heels. Now I remember why I hate these stupid things.

  I end up catching him right before the elevator doors close and the second the doors close behind us, the silence is deafening.

  “Jayden-” I start, but he holds his hand up in front of my face to stop me from talking. I wisely snap my lips shut and watch as the elevator gets closer to reaching our floor.

  The second the elevator doors ding open, he’s out and storming off towards our room. He only stops long enough to open the door and bark orders at my bodyguard.

  I don’t catch most of what is said, but I do catch the end of it.

  “Make sure we’re not disturbed the rest of the night. I don’t care if the building is on fire, do not knock on this door,” he growls before slamming the door shut behind him.

  I almost think about going back downstairs to give him some time to cool off before I go into the room, but when I don’t make a move to exit the elevator, the guard turns his attention to me.

  “Word of advice, Mireya?” I nod my head in consent, “don’t do it. You’ll just make him even more upset, he wan
ts you in the room right now.”

  I huff out a breath in frustration and exit the elevator. I walk slowly, I am in no hurry to go into the room and get yelled at some more. Plus, I don’t get what the big deal is, Francisco was never going to get me to model for them anyways.

  I put the card in the door slowly and push it open. I turn my head to look at the elevator doors one last time before I go inside the room and shut the door behind me. I don’t turn to face Jayden, even though I know I can’t avoid him. I’m scared where this conversation is going to go.

  When I finally do turn to face him, I find him pacing back and forth across the room, waving his hands frantically around him as he mumbles to himself.

  He must finally realize I’m in the room because he stops pacing and glares at me.

  “Start talking, now,” he orders, turning his back away from me.

  I’m quiet for a few minutes as I move to sit on the edge of the bed and take my shoes off. I don’t know where to start, or even how much I can tell him. For all I know, whatever is going on here, he’s involved in it.

  “I don’t want to be a model, if that’s what you are thinking Jayden,” I start.

  He turns to glare at me and crosses his arms over his chest, “I would never allow that anyways, even if that’s something you did want to do.”

  I’m a little offended by the way he says it, it’s almost like he doesn’t think I could make it as a model.

  “I know I’m not model material, Jayden. But damn, you don’t have to make it so obvious that you think I couldn’t cut it as one.”

  “That’s not what I meant, Mireya,” he says, his shoulders slumping slightly, but his anger still clearly there.

  “What exactly is Prosperity Agency?” I ask him. I think I take him by surprise with my directness. No point pretending I don’t know about it.

  I can see the hesitation on his face as his eyes search mine from across the room. “I’m not sure I can trust you. How do I know you aren’t working for them?”