Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
Allora
I squeeze my eyes shut as a woman named Marisol puts me in an ice-cold shower and scrubs my body with the world’s hardest brush.
“Gets off dirt and blood,” she mutters.
I try not to flinch as she scrubs me from top to bottom, even my most intimate parts. When she’s done she pulls me out of the shower and wipes me down with a towel, like I’m incapable of doing it myself.
“On the table,” she says, pointing.
We’re in another cold, sterile room, just outside the bathroom. I think this is an old office building but it’s impossible to tell because there are no windows.
The table is metal and it occurs to me this might have been a morgue.
Ew.
I squeeze my eyes shut as I get on the table.
“Who are you?” I ask, hoping to delay the inevitable. “Who do you work for?”
“Don’t ask questions,” she says, plugging a little container into the wall. “Better you don’t know.”
“Don’t know what? I mean, obviously you work for Pete. Tex.”
She chuckles. “You think I work for him? You funny.”
She has a weird accent but I can’t place it.
Not Russian, not French or German, but something European.
“How would you feel if they did this to you?” I ask.
She laughs. “They did. I was smart enough to work my way into a position of power.”
Power.
Is that what this is? Power over people in vulnerable positions?
“My father has money,” I say. “He can get you out of here.”
She hesitates, looking at me for a moment. “Yeah? You think we’d live long enough to enjoy it?”
“My father isn’t a nice man. I promise you that. He can protect us.”
I see a spark of interest in her eyes, but then the door opens and Vito walks in. I shudder involuntarily, memories coming back faster than I can keep them at bay. The way he laughed the whole time he raped me. The way he and Baron took turns, over and over, like they had all the time in the world.
His eyes gleam when he looks at me but I refuse to cower. He’s already seen me naked, already done the unthinkable. This time, I won’t scream or cry or beg them to stop.
“Whassa matta, little princess? Daddy and your big bad bodyguard couldn’t protect you?” His New York accent is distinct and he leers at me.
“Out of my way.” Marisol brushes past them. “I have work to do. Boss man wants her bare.”
“Yeah, that’s why we’re here. You gonna do all three girls. They don’t want hair. Personally, I think it’s kinda hot, makes them look like women. But other guys, they like it baby smooth.” He winks at me. “You’re smooth on the inside, aren’t you, princess?”
I bite my lip so hard I taste blood, but I can’t react.
I was getting somewhere with Marisol.
If they would just leave, maybe she’ll help me.
Unfortunately, Vito is here for the express purpose of watching her wax off my pubic hair. I don’t have a lot. I had laser hair removal done to my bikini line when I was modeling and I’m naturally fair so I’m not overly hairy to begin with. And I keep everything tidy down there.
As she spreads the hot wax onto the area, I think back to a conversation with Landon about it.
“…does the hair bother you?” I ask just as he’s about to move between my legs.
His head snaps up and he frowns. “Your pubic hair?”
I nod.
“Why would it bother me? It’s part of you. It’s healthy. Doesn’t it protect your vagina from germs and such?”
My heart melts.
“I don’t think it’s much of an issue in modern times where we have unlimited running water but biologically, yes.”
He lowers his head. “I love every inch of you, Allora. Please don’t change anything.”
Tears sting my eyelids. I already miss him so much it’s hard to breathe when I think about him dead, lying on that road in the middle of nowhere.
“Don’t be a baby,” Vito sneers. “Jesus, it’s just wax.”
Idiot thinks I’m crying over the waxing.
Like I don’t have way more important things to cry about.
Marisol goes Brazilian on me and I yelp as she pulls off the last of the wax.
“Your legs aren’t hairy. What about your pits?”
I just raise my arms so she can see.
“Blonds so easy. That Mexican girl gonna be a lot of work.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her that’s racist, and then I remember where I am and who I’m with. They don’t care about anything except money, I guess. Why else would they be working with someone like Pete?
I’m still struggling to wrap my head around the idea that’s he’s behind all of this.
His obsession with me turned so dark it’s hard to imagine the lengths he’s gone to.
And for what? He really thinks my father is going to let him live?
Take me abroad and use me as a brood mare?
My father will hunt him down to the ends of the earth.
And my gut tells me Rage will want to avenge his friend’s death.
But if anyone is going to kill Pete, it’s going to be me.
I don’t know when or how or what I’ll have to endure to get him to trust me but it’s going to happen. Someday, at some point, he’ll let his guard down, and I’ll end it. Take his life the way he took Landon’s.
Fuck, but I’m getting tired of the tears.
“Oh, very nice.” Pete walks in and looks me up and down. “You still have hair on your head so I guess you behaved.”
“She tell me her father has money,” Marisol tells him, smirking at me. “You think I should take it?”
“If you can find a way to get it without actually giving her back, have at it. He likes pussy. Gets more than his fair share too, the old fuck.”
Dammit.
I thought I was reaching her.
But I’m officially on my own.
“Put the collar on her,” Pete says, handing something that looks like a dog collar to Marisol.
She immediately wraps it around my neck snugly, buckling it in place and locking it before handing Pete what appears to be a key.
“That’s a shock collar,” he says to me. “If you so much as look at me wrong, you’ll get a shock. Want to know what it feels like?” He holds up a little remote and wiggles it.
“N-no,” I whisper.
He laughs. “Good girl. You’re already learning.”
“She need clothes,” Marisol says.
“Nope. No clothes. She stays naked until we land in Tirana. We’re using a private airfield so she won’t have to go through security. And I don’t trust her. If she has clothes, she’ll run.”
Like being naked will stop me if I have the chance.
But I don’t say that, let him think what he wants.
“You won’t need any clothes once we’re at our new home. You’ll be naked and ready for me to fuck you whenever I want.”
I simply watch him, trying to figure out why he gets off on this kind of power. He’s always said he loves me, never got over me, that we’re soulmates. This is how he treats a woman he loves?
He has no idea what love is, I realize. Not when we were teenagers and certainly not now.
“Take her back to the cellar and chain her up. Not the neck, just the arms. I already have my favorite accessory around her neck.”
I’m just about to stand up when I feel a shock and a yelp escapes me.
Pete winks. “That was just for fun. Get used to it.”
I reach up, rubbing the area under the collar, my heart thundering with fear and anxiety that momentarily overrides my determination to kill him.
“When do we leave for the airport?” Marisol asks him.
“About an hour.”
“Can I play with her until then?” Vito asks.
Pete turns with a scowl. “You know I’m ready to put a baby in her.”
“She has that implant in her arm. You can’t get her pregnant yet.”
“What implant?”
Vito laughs and turns to me. “Show him your arm.”
I don’t move.
“Show me your fucking arm!” Pete backhands me hard enough to snap my face to the other side.
Slowly, I lift my arm.
Pete stares at it. “Fuck. Well, we can’t have that, can we?” He turns to Marisol. “I need the first aid kit.”
She frowns.
“Just cut it out!” Vito laughs.
“I plan to but I don’t want to risk infection. She can’t give me a son if she’s dead.”
He shrugs. “Well, you could share the wealth, you know. She’s pretty hot.”
“Last time wasn’t enough?” Pete seems more amused than anything else.
“Her pussy’s tight—I like a tight one.”
“What do you think?” he asks me. “Keep your implant and fuck Vito or take out the implant and fuck me?”
My heart is pounding so hard I’m positive he can hear it but I have to do whatever it takes so earn his trust. So, I swallow my disgust and look up as innocently as I can.
“Whatever you want, Pete.”
Please don’t choose Vito, please don’t choose Vito.
“You’re already learning.” He reaches out and cups my breast. “The flight to Albania is going to be a really good time.”