CHAPTER 7
“Look, food!” Brian exclaimed, rubbing his hands together with the satisfaction of a child who got his favorite toy as a birthday present. He turned to the illegal cage fight club owner. “I asked the head of the kitchen to send two portions for you, too.”
“I only eat the finest, and this is far from that.” The older of the two guests grimaced in disgust. “As for my little fuck toy, he breathes, eats, takes a leak, and everything else, only when I tell him to, and right now I tell him no.”
“Once a bastard, always a bastard.” Lazzaro put the delivery bag down and advanced to his former boss, hands balled into fists. “Who the hell do you think you are to behave like that with another human being?”
“Once a loser, always a loser.” The man calmly replied, grinning evilly. “I see you left a promising career as a cage fighter behind to become a… food delivery boy? Well, to each their own. As for this one here, I took him from the streets and offered him food and shelter, so yeah, I have the fucking right to tell him what to do.”
“Romjin.” Lazzaro got dangerously close to his former boss, hands still clenched into fists. “That’s the name of the poor boy you exploit, and you better fucking use it when you talk about and to him.”
“Easy, gentlemen.” Brian, who closely examined Martino’s cousin and didn’t intervene in the heated dispute, raised both hands in surrender. “Lazzaro, why don’t you take the food and go to the main hall? I bet Romjin is hungry, and I’m sure you haven't eaten yet, either.”
Lazzaro nodded. “Come on, buddy, let’s stuff our faces with some goodfood. Winter is the best cook in the world and all the dishes he prepares smell and taste divine.”
Brian waited for the two youths to leave the office, then gave his older guest a piercing look. “I don’t think it’s wise to insult our champion. Firstly, you are disrespecting me, something I won’t tolerate, and secondly, you risk losing a great deal of money.”
The other man huffed contemptuously. “You are joking, right? I mean, this clown can’t be your fighter, all he knows is losing match after match. No sponsor in their right mind…”
“Well, probably the guys who pump money into this tournament are a bit crazy, because they pay to see Lazzaro fighting. What they do with their cash shouldn’t be your concern.” Brian spoke in an ice-cold voice. “And, anyway, if your champion is so good, and ours nothing more than a caricature, you don’t have anything to worry about, if the two end up fighting against each other in the final. I mean, your guy would clearly win, wouldn’t he?”
“You Mafia fellows are weird.” The other man showed his yellow teeth in a grin. “But yes, you’re right, it’s not my business to stop your associates if they want to put money in my pocket.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, your fighter is foul-mouthed, and I don’t like that. Also, I don’t want to see him anywhere near my slave.”
“Don’t worry, we play by the rules here.” Brian felt his anger rising and bubbling inside of him, and made colossal efforts to rein it in. “And the rules say any interaction between the members of rival teams is totally forbidden for the duration of the tournament.”
“Those are some great rules.” The man grinned again as he stood. “I’ll leave you to eat…whatever you have there, and I’m going home, to have some caviar and lobster. Will you please call your champion and tell him to bring my slave here? They shouldn’t interact anymore, you said so yourself.”
“Oh, my!” Brian exclaimed, covering his mouth with one hand. “How could I be so forgetful! From today on, all the members of the cage fighting teams participating in the tournament will be camped here, at The Base, until the competition ends. It’s a decision of those who finance the tournament, so, if you want to complain about it, I’ll put you in touch with them.” His voice had a tinge of malicious satisfaction. “As for Romjin, he’s my guest, so I hope you don’t mind if he stays at the library a bit more.”
The man grumbled something unintelligible under his breath, then left the office and, at Brian’s request, exited through the back. Rumors had it, those who were financing the competition belonged to the Old-World Mafia, an organization whose members, from the youngest to the oldest, were not to be crossed.
Back when Lazzaro was the eternal loser at his cage fight club, he and the slave boy, Romjin, had a thing, so the man wasn’t very happy that he had to leave the teenager in the fighter’s company, but didn’t have much of a choice. At least, he should have sent one of the guards with him, to emphasize how important he was. What’s done, is done, he grumbled, cursing his own superficiality as he looked around, a bit disoriented, waiting for someone to pass so he could ask for directions.
Alone in his office, Brian left his seat and went to the bookshelf covering the whole wall behind him. Taking the mini-camera carefully masked between books, he downloaded a few pictures of the cage fight club owner and Romjin and messaged them to Elyan, asking him to do some digging on them.The librarian was mainly interested in the boy with delicate, almost feminine features and fragile body, because he sensed Lazzaro had feelings for him.
Meanwhile, in the library, Romjin finished eating and was staring at the bottom of the empty plate. He was still very hungry, but didn’t dare to ask for seconds, afraid that his owner could walk in on him at any moment, and the teen didn’t want to anger him more than he already had when accepted Lazzaro’s current boss’s kind invitation.
From across the desk, Martino’s cousin examined Romjin, his only true friend in the hellhole the cage fight club was. The kid lost a lot of weight since the last time he saw him; he was thin before, but now he became almost transparent, and more fragile than ever, flinching at the faintest sound and casting fearful glances around.
When the boss moved Romjin from the barracks into his private quarters, Lazzaro envied the boy, thinking that the man wanted to turn him into the club’s next star fighter.The boy wasn’t built for such a brutal sport, but that could be solved with some cleverly designed sets of bodybuilding exercises.
Lazzaro wasn’t the type who held a grudge against someone who was offered a chance at something he dreamed about, too, so, instead of drifting away from Romjin, he became more attracted to the beautiful boy, who seemed to reciprocate. In the rare and short moments when they saw each other, the two confessed the love they had for one another and made plans for the future.
“Why?” Romjin broke the silence, his voice shaky and barely a whisper. “Why didn’t you come to get me out, as you promised when you left?”
“I couldn’t right away, I didn’t know anyone, and needed time to plan everything by myself, just like when I escaped from the barracks.” Lazzaro’s answer came in a gentle voice. “Then, I found out some pretty cool things about my family and I, and, just when I was about to tell my new friends about you, I got the news about this tournament, and thought you would come here anyway. I mean, after all, you are his best fighter.”
Romjin didn’t reply right away; for a few good seconds, he stared in disbelief at the man across the desk from him, then huffed out a bitter laugh. “Did you really think he got me out of the barracks to turn me into a cage fighter?” The other nodded, so he continued. “You are so fucking na?ve!”
“What or who are you to him, then?” Lazzaro’s voice was shaky and his head started to spin as he tried to figure the answer out. Hoping at the same time it wasn’t the one that came to his mind. “His personal assistant, his butler, what…”
“His baby-making machine, that is what I am!” Romjin almost yelled the words. “He gave me these pills that enabled my body to carry a child, then raped me day in and day out, and sold me to others, too. When the baby is born, he’ll sell it to a rich, barren couple. Then it will start all over again.” The fragile boy stopped, drained of energy and emotions. “I want to die, so this thing inside me would die, too.”
“But…but I thought you wanted us to have children this way, and you to be the one who carries them.” Lazzaro stuttered in shock. “Or did you just say that so I'd get you out of there, take you with me, and now, that I didn’t do it fast enough, you are showing your true colors?”
“I still want to raise a family with you.” Tears were pooling in Romjin’s eyes, threatening to spill. “But not like that. I could never love this child; every time I’d look at it, I’d remember how it was put in my womb.”
“I… I’m sorry.” Lazzaro ran a hand over his face, sighing tiredly. “I don’t know how to help you, but I know a lot of people who can. One of the things I recently found out is that the Italian branch of my family is part of the Mafia.” He inhaled sharply. “I’ll talk to my cousin Martino, he has this other cousin from his mother’s side who is a strategist of sorts and also knows their Laws.”
“The long-haired guy who invited us into his office…he seems like a nice guy.” A weak smile played on Romjin’s lips when he said the words. “I felt at ease in his presence, and I thought he could help me, too.”
Lazzaro nodded in approval; indeed, Brian, the librarian, was the one who helped him the most, in more than one way, since he came to The Base. He was a wise, generous man, who had the respect and support of the people running the place. The lunch break wasn’t over yet, so they could talk to him without being interrupted by the school kids, teachers, and other adults who came to borrow or return books.
Jamie, the assistant librarian, came back from their lunch break, and when Lazzaro told them he and his friend wanted to talk to Brian, they volunteered to take care of things until they were finished. Thanking the nice person, the young cage fighter gestured to the corridor that led to the office, and Romjin followed him, his stomach tightening in a knot.
Lazzaro knocked at the door, and, from the other side of it, Brian invited him in. Seeing Romjin, the librarian wrapped him in a warm, understanding-filled gaze, and listened to his story with great attention. Then, the man speed-dialed a number and, when whoever was at the other end of the line answered the call, he offered them a condensed version of Romjin’s story.
Lazzaro frowned and started to listen intently, trying to figure out who Brian’s conversation partner was. Eventually, he recognized the voice, turned to his boyfriend and, a triumphant expression on his face, gave him two thumbs up. Your problems are over, he mouthed, eyes shining with hope.
Indeed, a few minutes later, a man in his early thirties, with pitch-black hair and dark-blue, piercing eyes, stepped into the office and was introduced by Brian to Romjin as Elias Bloom, The Base’s boss. In a deep, pleasant, warm voice, the one who ran the place assured the young man that the nightmare he was living in was over.
The young man, emotionally and physically exhausted as he was, nodded mechanically, without really believing the man’s words. However, about an hour later, when all his things were moved in the tiny dorm he didn’t share with anyone else, Romjin started to hope that, maybe, things will finally get better.