3. Chapter Three
Chapter Three
Sienna
Dante’s mansion is elegant and beautiful. Soft grey walls mixed with glass decorations and accents. Dark hardwood floors that give the place warmth.
It’s just a shame a mad man like him lives in such a nice place.
For some reason, that thought makes me cry harder as I’m bound, naked, to his cross in his strange room full of objects I don’t understand.
The wall across from me is covered in whips and floggers and what look to be the shape of a man’s penis.
I was never allowed to date since I was saving myself for marriage.
Catholicism was a big part of my life growing up. I was taught to only give my body to my husband after we were married. My father was going to find a good man for me to marry one day. But then he died and all those plans changed.
And now Dante has kidnapped me and stripped me naked and has tied me to this cross. Why does he even have a large cross in his home? It feels like defilement against God.
I stare at the things on the wall harder.
The things that are shaped like a man’s penis.
I can’t tell what they’re all made of but some look soft and some look like they’re made of wood.
Some are colorful like bright purple and blue while some look exactly like…
a man’s penis. I may be saving myself for marriage but I still understand anatomy.
My mother made sure of it. It was my father who was the religious one and instilled those beliefs in me but my mother had always been a little bit rebellious.
She was fine with me waiting for marriage for the sake of my reputation but she always thought I should understand some things.
But she never taught about the things Dante has on his wall. Why does he even have them? It doesn’t matter, I guess. A man like him doesn’t make sense because a man like him is insane.
I tug at the binds around my wrists but they only dig in tighter. I’m not escaping this nightmare I’m in, am I? I’m not going anywhere.
My arms begin to ache after an hour of this. I know because fortunately, Dante has a clock mounted to the wall. It almost feels like a slap in the face. Counting down the hours until he returns to do who knows what with me.
I was supposed to be free by now. My mother and I would have been leaving for America the following night.
And now, I’m probably going to die here after Dante tortures me. I don’t even know all the ways someone can torture another person but I’m sure Dante knows. I’m sure he’s done it to countless people.
The memory of him shooting my mother in the stomach hits me and I cry harder. Is she dead? Or by some miracle, is she alive?
Even if she does survive that, will I survive long enough to be able to see her again? That thought settles in my stomach like a weight. Dread curls over my limbs. I’m on my own here. I might have to accept that I’ll never see my mom again.
After a few hours of me bound to the cross, crying my eyes out, I no longer have tears to fall. Everything is out of me and I’m left here, feeling like a husk.
That’s when Dante returns. Four hours like this. My arms are numb given they’ve been tied over my head. Maybe that’s for the best. The less I can feel, the less Dante can hurt me.
He strolls into the room with a smirk. “How do you feel now?”
“Why are you doing this to me?” I whisper. My voice is still weak. Will it ever sound strong?
He lowers his head until it almost presses to mine.
Being this close to him is uncanny. Frightening.
“Because I hate you. I hate that Gabriel was going to make me marry you just for fucking peace. I hate what you stand for. A good little mafia girl who was raised to expect marriage. Am I right about that?”
“I haven’t done anything to you. I never asked Gabriel to marry me to you.”
“Oh, I’m sure you didn’t. But that doesn’t matter. I refuse to be leashed. To be caged. I was supposed to do the right thing by you. Marry you. But this…” His eyes rake over my naked body. “Is much more fun.”
“You’re a monster.”
“And you’re sexy. A sexy, little body I can’t wait to dip my fingers into one day.”
I gasp. “Please.”
Darkness fills his eyes and I can’t make sense of it. “Are you asking me to touch you, Sienna?”
“No. I’m begging you to let me go. My arms are asleep. That’s bad, isn’t it?”
“Mmm. You’re right. That is bad. I don’t want you dying on me just yet.” He unties my arms and they flop to my sides but he doesn’t untie my legs, still keeping me bound to the cross. I can’t even feel my arms to untie my legs but even if I could, I doubt Dante would let me.
“Here,” he says, grabbing my right arm and rubbing life back into it. I’m not going to fight him on this. He’s trying to help in his strange, twisted sort of way.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why help me get feeling back into my arms?” I can feel the blood flowing through my right arm again and wiggle my fingers. He switches to my other arm.
“Because I don’t need you losing your extremities. That would defeat the point, wouldn’t it? If you’re dead, then I can’t have my fun with you.”
“What sort of fun?” I whisper. Dread fills my stomach and yet, I feel the tiniest bit of tingle there as Dante continues to touch my arm.
“The sort of fun that’s probably only going to be fun for me and not for you.”
“Is my mother alive?” I blurt out. “Have you heard anything?”
“I shot her in the stomach. I doubt she’s alive.” His cold bluntness makes me flinch.
Tears somehow manage to well up in my eyes again. “But she could survive that.”
The raise of his eyebrow makes him more handsome. Why does someone as handsome as him have to be so monstrous? “Do you really want me to go check? I doubt you want me seeing if your mom is alive.” The threat in his voice is clear: he’ll finish the job if she is alive.
“Kill me. Please. I don’t want to be tortured. I don’t want to be alive if my mom is dead.”
“You love her that much?”
“She’s my mom,” I say it like it’s obvious. “She’s been my rock since I was a child.”
“Mmm. That’s interesting.” He lets my arm go. The feeling has returned to both of them and yet, I can’t raise them to attack Dante. I know how that would end anyway. Not good.
“Why is it interesting?”
He cups my face and presses his head to mine. I can smell his breath: a mix of mint and alcohol like he had a drink right before this, though I’m not sure which one. I’ve never had any sort of alcohol in my entire life. “Because I hate my mother. Hated. The bitch is dead now.”
I gasp. “How can you hate your own mother?”
“Because she was horrible. Liked to hit me a lot as a kid.” He lets me go with a laugh. It’s so sudden it makes me flinch. “Maybe that’s why I like to hit people now. Huh. Who knew?”
“And your dad?”
“Dad died fucking some whore. He owed debts to some mafia man. Shot right in the head when he had his cock inside the poor woman. She was shot right after.”
“How do you know all of this?”
The slow smile that crosses Dante’s lips makes my body tingle. “Because I’m the mafia man who killed him. He was an asshole. A problem that had to be dealt with so I handled it. Now he’s gone. Good fucking riddance. It left space for me to become my own man.”
“And so you chose to be like this?”
“Do we choose to be who we are, Sienna?”
“Yes,” I say with as much force as I can muster. As long as Dante is talking to me, he’s not hurting me. “I choose to be a good person. I choose to not kill people or torture them. Past trauma is no excuse to do bad things to others.”
“Oh. How cute you are. How innocent. It’s a miracle you’re like this when your father was a mafia man. It’s a miracle how so many mafia fathers raise their daughters to be so innocent. Na?ve.”
“It’s not na?ve to be a good person.”
“In the mafia it is,” he says in a lower voice. His eyes rake over my body again. I cover my breasts even though he’s already seen them. “You have a sexy body, you know that? Has it ever been touched before?”
“I’m saving myself for marriage.”
“You’re saving yourself for marriage?” he mocks with a laugh. I flinch. “I hate to break it to you, Sienna, but that’s not going to happen any longer. You’ll eventually give me your body.”
“Why not just take me and be done with it? I’m never going to willingly give you my body.”
He stalks back towards me like I’m his prey. Well… I guess I am. “You say that now. But I can be very persuasive. I’ve had a lot of women in this room. Fucked a lot of women in this room. And every single one of them left happy.”
A blush forms on my cheeks. No one has ever spoken to me like this before. “But did you kidnap them or did they come here willingly to begin with? Or were they just as crazy as you are?”
“Cute. You’re cute, you know that? Maybe they were a little crazy.
But you make a good point. I didn’t kidnap them.
But that won’t matter in the end. You’ll eventually be begging for me to take you.
It’s all part of the fun. It’s why I won’t touch you right now. I’m making it last. Making it count.”
I’m not sure if I should be relieved or not. As long as Dante doesn’t touch me, I’ll be safe for now. But I don’t trust his word. It could all be lies and he could rape me whenever he chooses.
Keep talking, I remind myself. It could be my way out of this.
I nod at the wall opposite me. “What are those things?”
“Curious, are you? You want a dildo inside of you?”
I frown. “A what? I’ve never heard that word before.”
He tilts his head to the side, gazing me over.
“You really are innocent, aren’t you? It makes everything more fun.
I’ve never had the chance to truly corrupt a woman before.
Not one so virginal.” He points to the penis shaped objects on the wall.
“Those are dildos. Used for pleasure. You insert them into your sweet, little cunt and fuck yourself with it. Or someone else can use it on you. That’s the nice thing about sex toys, you can usually use them however you want. ”