"Lyse you really have to go to the hospital." Vanessa's voice was filled with concern as she looked at the bruise on Lyse's face.
"I agree." Janine concurred.
Lyse scowled and waved a dismissive hand. "It's just a little bruise, I think that Janine has more serious concerns than I do."
Knowing how stubborn Lyse could be, Vanessa gave up trying to convince her and instead turned to study Janine's bruises.
"I got these a week ago, they might look terrible but they don't hurt any more." Janine assured her.
After that was said, Vanessa called to one of the volunteers, "Please show Janine to her room."
Lyse and Vanessa watched as Janine was led away and when they were out of sight Vanessa turned to Lyse and lowered her voice.
"We have been having problems with some of the girls, they seemed to have disappeared out of the blues."
Lyse frowned and asked, "have you spoken to Callie, does she know?"
"Yes, Callie is on it currently but it has been so hard tracking them." Vanessa answered. "We suspect that it might be the same people."
Lyse nodded while thinking pensively then spoke, "Don't worry, I will have someone to check up on it."
"Thank you so much Lyse, I also don't want to have you worried but we are running low on supplies and need some more money."
"I will get to working on that, see if I can find some of our donors to give us some funds." Lyse assured her.
"If that is all then I guess I will start leaving, I will come back to check on Janine later this week." Lyse said and hugged Vanessa before leaving the house.
It was a nondescript place out in the suburbs, with very few neighbors and none too close. To anyone who happened to come across it it resembled a small farm but it was really a shelter for women in danger.
Lyse and Vanessa had met each other as teenagers after they had survived getting trafficked. The experience led to them coming together to help girls and women who had gone through what they had faced and also abused women and children.
They had worked together and successfully helped hundreds of women escape the dreadful fate. Besides that, Vanessa was unaware of the fact that Lyse had been working behind the scenes.
Lyse was determined to not only help the victims but she was also trying to target the perpetrators responsible for the thousands of missing women who were sold into sex trafficking or killed even. It was her belief that the evil had to be cut off from the root.
As she headed back to the apartment she ruminated on how she was going to get more money for the shelter, the women needed her and unfortunately she did not have a lot of money at that moment except for a small amount which was to be used for rent and utilities.
She realized that she really had no other choice than to return to Levi and take his offer. The pay was sufficient enough for her to give up her savings until she was able to get access to her funds that were currently tied up.
When she got back to the apartment she was glad to see that James was not in, she would have been forced to give an explanation as to what had happened to her.
When she was in her room she opened her laptop and typed out a message and waited. It did not take very long before she got a ping indicating that she had received a message which read.
"Right on it boss, I will let you know the details as soon as I get them."
Lyse signed out and and looked reflectively out of the window. Her mind gone back to the horrifying time that she had been kidnapped and even though she managed to escape it had had impacted her greatly.
She tried not to go down that memory because it was still so traumatizing and it with it came a darkness that stifled every little bit of happiness around her.
It had been years and many leads after but she was still unable to find the mastermind who had gotten her kidnapped, she was however determined to not stop until she found them.
*
Levi was taken aback when he opened the door to his office and encountered the well formed back of a female and as he walked closer he realized that it was Lyse, his wife.
Today she had dressed better than an art student on their way to an evening class, gone were the baggy linen pants and shirt with the too long sleeves. And in their place was a charcoal grey pencil skirt suit that stopped at a little above her knees and molded her model like curves and heels that made her legs look endless.
He walked by her to his desk then he sat down and looked up at her then came to an abrupt stop, taken aback by the sunglasses she was wearing.
As he stared at her, plenty thoughts ran through his mind. Sure she had been dumped at the altar by the man she loved but that did not mean that she could show up at work so hungover that she needed to wear sunglasses.
"What is that?" He demanded curtly.
"What? What is what?" Lyse asked as she looked around as if looking for what had drawn Levi's attention.
His face hardened and his voice sharpened, "What is that on your face!"
"My face?" Lyse asked and touched everywhere on her face except the offending sunglasses.
She had worn the "adult clothes" like he demanded, Lyse wondered why that was not enough for him.
Levi took a deep breath as he looked at Lyse's antics and was determined even more to see what she was hiding under the glasses.
"Lyse, take off the glasses."
"These glasses—"
"Don't test my patience!"
"Yes boss, of course. Whatever you want." Lyse sighed and reluctantly took the glasses off.
Levi jumped to his feet, his jaw hanging open. Lyse grinned awkwardly and said with a flourish.
"Ta-da!!"