Schism (31 page)

“I’ll pull my gun on him…you, I mean.”

Ben inched closer. “What if I’ve got my hands all over you? How would you get a hold of your gun from inside your thigh
and
give yourself enough space to get a clear shot, or at least make me believe you’ve got a clear shot?”

“I don’t know…I’ll seduce you…him,” she quickly corrected.

He raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Seduce him? How exactly?”

Andy’s face grew red. “I’ll…I’ll kiss him,” she said, trying to sound certain.

“You sure that’ll work?”

She lifted her chin defiantly, her eyes flashing. “You don’t think I can seduce someone?”

He shrugged. “How would I know? I’ve never seen you try to seduce someone. You’ve never tried to seduce me.”

She froze. “No…of course not,” she stammered. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, I just want to make sure that you’ve thought this whole thing through. You have to pretend to be a Helen, and Helens…”

“Have you asked Maria if she knows how to seduce someone?” she interrupted him.

“No.”

Andy crossed her arms. “No? But you asked me.”

“No, I didn’t.
You
asked
me
if I thought you could.”

“Now you’re twisting my words,” she said with a huff. “What you really mean is that you think Maria can seduce someone but I can’t.”

“I’m not worried about Maria. I’m worried about you.”

“You don’t care what happens to Maria?”

“Of course I do. Now
you’re
twisting
my
words.”

“Then what did you mean when you said that you’re worried about me but not Maria?”

Ben let out a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair. “Because I know the type of girls Luke goes after, and you fit the type perfectly,” he said looking into her eyes.

Andy’s infuriation quickly turned to trepidation. Then trepidation shifted to determination. She released her arms and let them hang at her sides. Her eyes narrowed.

“Andy, all I’m saying is…”

But she stopped him. Not with words, but with her mouth. In a single, fluid motion, she closed the gap between them, placed her hands on his shoulders, rose up on the toes of her shoes, and tilted her head to kiss him. She didn’t hold back. After a few gentle caresses with her lips against his, she gradually opened her mouth. Ben reciprocated and wrapped his arms around Andy’s waist, his fingers pressing into her hips. She slid one hand up his neck until her fingertips dug into his hair, and what started as her proving a point turned into a lengthy embrace that only ended when she finally pulled away. She placed her fingers to her mouth and looked down at her feet. Ben’s fingers remained loosely on her body. Still averting his eyes, she gathered enough poise to ask him plainly, “How was that?”

He had to take a deep breath before answering, “Uh, yeah…just do that.”

“Okay,” was all she could manage to say before backing out of the room. For the rest of the evening, she kept touching her lips as though expecting the same feeling to return.

Chapter XXIII

T
he beat of the music was hypnotic, the melody sensual. It struck the bones and reverberated through the body, eliciting the desire to move without a care or worry. It was the kind of music that made people rip each other’s clothes off.

With their heads and shoulders flung back and their eyes closed, the bodies pressed tightly together, swaying in a blissful trance. A temporary spell was created by both the music and atmosphere, and from the chemicals flowing through their bloodstreams. As she watched from the periphery of the main dance floor, Andy studied her fellow survivors en masse.

Since learning of Sean’s existence, Andy had been unable to entirely grasp how in six years’ time, a single teenager could rise up to manipulate the lives of a million people as he had done. But watching them now, how they quelled their pain with dance, music, and drugs, the puzzle came together. He didn’t care what people did with their lives as long as they respected the society he had carefully designed. And since sex was abundant, and drugs were readily available, the people had enough diversions to numb them from the realities of their existence—and everyone seemed resigned to it. It was simply easier to give up fighting and give in to hedonistic apathy, particularly when a place like
Papillon
existed.

“Excuse me.” A young woman brushed up against Andy as she dragged another girl onto the dance floor where they quickly meshed into the sea of people.

Stirred from her thoughts, Andy regained her focus on the job at hand. As she scanned the area for Luke, she briefly locked eyes with Maria, who was several feet away in a seductive red dress and looking equally as stunning. Maria subtly shook her head, indicating that she had not spotted him yet. Though both Ben and Jim had described his appearance, Andy and Maria were told that the best way to identify him was based on location. He was second only to Sean in rank, and therefore would often sit in a secluded area of the club with a few guards nearby to protect him and the Helens who kept him company.

As her eyes and ears grew accustomed to the sights and sounds of the club, Andy strolled about the place with an air of belonging. The shoes that had troubled her only days earlier were now the pedestals from which she would mount her offensive. Her dress hugged the natural curves of her torso, and her hair and makeup had been carefully arranged and applied hours earlier by Morgan and Susan. Assembled flawlessly for the role of a Helen, she now had to act as one: to laugh and flirt and preen for attention while revealing as much skin as possible. Such behavior wasn’t natural to her, but for the sake of the unwitting survivors now surrounding her, she would forget who she was for the night.

***

A few blocks away along Greenwich Street, Ben and Jim were waiting. Susan and Charlie were positioned at the New Jersey end of the Holland Tunnel in two separate vehicles. Nearly an hour had passed since Andy and Maria had filed inside
Papillon
, and there was no way of knowing how long they would be gone. Under the shadows across the street from the club, Ben and Jim had watched the girls enter the club, before they disappeared into the crowd. As he and Jim retreated to their designated rendezvous point, Ben muttered a prayer under his breath.

“She’ll be all right,” his cousin reassured him.

“Who?” he muttered as he checked his watch, pretending not to be worried.

Jim scoffed. “Are you kidding?”

“I’m worried about both of them.”

In the darkness, Jim shook his head. “Sure, whatever.”

Ben ignored Jim and rubbed his eyes, nearly rubbing loose his colored contacts. “Danny was certain that Sean wouldn’t be there tonight?”

“That’s what he said.”

“Let’s hope so.”

***

“What’s your name?”

Andy could smell the alcohol on Luke’s breath, she was that close to him. After spotting her from across the room, he had pulled her aside from the rest of his group and immediately started to caress her shoulder and run his fingers through her hair.

“Katrina.”

“And why have I never seen you here before, Katrina?”

Andy smiled coyly, thinking it the best reaction. “I just came to New York a few weeks ago.”

He smiled back, his eyes staring intently into hers. It made her uncomfortable and she dropped her gaze for a moment.

He lifted her chin with his fingers. “You have a beautiful face, Katrina. Don’t hide it.”

Andy said nothing as she forced her eyes to stare back into his once more. They were large and hazel. Despite her towering heels, Luke still stood nearly half a foot taller and was physically very fit. It was obvious he believed that no girl could resist him, and though Andy did find him attractive, she was in the habit of comparing every man to Ben, and to her there was no comparison.

“You thirsty?”

She wasn’t thirsty, and she definitely did not want to be drinking alcohol, but she couldn’t refuse the offer. “Sure, but tell me who you are first,” she replied, playing dumb.

“I’m Luke. I’m the Director of the Infantry.”

Look impressed. Sound dumb. Be dumb.
“Wow. That sounds
really
important.”

Luke smiled, obviously pleased with himself. “It is. What I do is very important.”

“Really? Why are you here then, and not out there…‘directing’?” Though not a stupid question, Andy’s tone made her sound like she had left half her brain outside the club.

“Because everybody needs a break from time to time. Even me.”

Then Luke slid his arm around her back, sending a shiver up her spine, and guided her toward the bar. Along the way, she caught sight of Maria, who didn’t see her as she walked by. Since they were pretending not to know each other, Andy couldn’t call out to her.

“What’s your poison?”

“What?”

“What do you want to drink?” Luke restated, clearly amused by the naïveté of his latest plaything.

“Um, whatever you’re having,” she quickly answered.

“Perfect. Whiskey and water it is.”

Whiskey? Jesus…

Luke was served immediately. He passed Andy her drink and escorted her to the private area where his friends were sitting. Introductions were not made—he was not planning on staying on the main floor long. He had his own private room in the rear of the club, which he intended to use shortly.

Currently, his group of friends consisted of three men and four women, each woman dressed similar to Andy. They were all very beautiful, and if she hadn’t been preoccupied with the task at hand, she might’ve felt more self-conscious. Three of the girls were engrossed in heavy flirting with the three young men. Probably other Directors, Andy assumed. The fourth girl, the most beautiful, sat alone and appeared rather bored.

Andy placed her drink on the edge of the coffee table that sat in the middle of the cluster of large sofas and chairs. Several other half-consumed drinks and small piles of white powder that could only be cocaine were scattered across the table.

“Come, sit over here,” Luke instructed, indicating a spot beside him on one of the sofas.

But Andy decided to speed up the entire process by sitting on his lap instead. “I hope you don’t mind,” she whispered in his ear after carefully positioning herself across his thighs. “But this seems more comfortable, don’t you think?” She pulled away just enough to stare back into his eyes while lightly biting her bottom lip. Morgan had told her that guys liked this and to do it whenever possible. It seemed to work.

Visibly pleased by the progress he was making, a smile slowly spread across Luke’s face. “I agree,” he whispered back before kissing her neck. Just as he was about to pull her face toward his, the girl sitting alone reached over and gave Luke a hard slap to his arm with the back of her hand, causing him to abruptly turn her way.

“Who’s that?” she demanded with a quick nod at Andy.

“Why do you care?” he snapped before turning his attention back to Andy.

The girl made a face. “Excuse
me
,” she said in an exaggerated tone before adding, “I just wanna know who I’m sharing my coke with.”

“Hey, this is
my
coke!” Luke yelled.

But the girl flipped her hair angrily. “Whatever,” she sputtered. “It’s all Sean’s anyway, so what difference does it make who he gives it to?”

Andy wanted to tell the girl that she wasn’t interested in the cocaine but figured it was better not to say anything that may risk damaging her persona.

“Just ignore her,” Luke muttered in Andy’s ear as he ran his hand up her back before cupping the side of her right breast. “Lily’s still getting over her little stint in prison.”

“Prison?” Andy asked a bit too loudly.

“Fuck you, Luke!” Lily shouted as she stormed away from the group. Before disappearing into the crowd on the dance floor, she turned back and yelled to Andy, “Good luck with
that
one, honey. He can’t keep it up longer than five seconds!”

Luke’s face turned bright red, and he shoved Andy off his lap to go after Lily. He started charging toward the dance floor when his friend reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Dude, she’s not worth it. Let it go.”

His nostrils flaring in anger and hands gripping tightly into fists, Luke appeared incapable of calming down, but after several deep but labored breaths, he returned to his seat and beckoned Andy to return. She forced herself to obey.

God, get me out of here
, she thought.