Nicu’s face fell; everything about him went still, like armor sliding into place, his black eyes that turned into glaciers. Cold and deadly. Arak might not have noticed the change in his son from what he usually portrays, but I did, and I think he just signed his own death warrant. He wasn't smoothing down anything, tapping anything; the muscles in his shoulders and neck weren't tight. This was the face of Nicu when he had his last string of care sawed off and spat on. This was the look of a man who didn't give a shit about the man in front of him, not anymore.
“And you,” he looked at Ion with disgust, “you’re just like your mother, as pretty as you are useless.” He turned away from him so quickly, not seeing his son's face fall as his whole world crashed around him. The one thing he always wanted he would never get.
Arak’s hands went out like he would hug Cezar, but Cezar just growled like an animal, swiping at his father like he could get him and tearing him to shreds. “My creation, my beautiful monster. You were perfect. The perfect soldier, the perfect killing machine. You did everything I wanted without hesitation,” his hands fell, his voice going cold, “and now you’re no longer useful, the biggest disappointment of the bunch.”
He shook his head, turning away from the three men he had just torn down like they were less than nothing to him. Words that any child hearing from a parent would crush them into dust, but when I looked at these men, Nicu’s face devoid of anything, Ion’s hot, angry tears of vengeance running down his face, and Cezar looking like an atomic bomb about ready to go off. I knew Arak made a mistake in cutting these men off. Of finding their weakness useless.
The men who stood behind his back now looked like men who would make him eat his words. The only question was, would it be in time?
“But you,” his pearly whites glistened in the dim light, “you’re the perfect fix for all the mistakes, for both the past and the future.” His gaze went down my body like a slithering snake, weighted and vile.
“What the fuck do you want with me? Why me?” I tried to hide the fear in my voice and be strong like Nicu told me, but it was hard when the devil stood before me, looking like he was ready to run a victory lap.
Cezar’s low voice ran in the background, over and over, staring in my direction as he twisted his hand in his shackles. “Don’t fucking touch her. Don’t you dare fucking touch her! I’ll kill you. I will fucking kill you. Don’t fucking touch her. Don’t you dare fucking touch her! I’ll kill you. I will fucking kill you.”
Arek ignored Cezar and sat down next to me, smiling like Mr. fucking Rodgers as he brushed some hair out of my face. “Why you? Well, there are several reasons for that. You’re the last Romani princess of the Lee clan, which produced the most talented seer bloodline. People would come from around the world to meet with your grandmother and get a taste of her predictions.” His hand struck out, yanking back my head by my hair as he snarled next to my face. “Your mother was supposed to be mine! Then all of this would’ve happened much earlier, and yet that bitch,” he threw me against the headboard, and I cried out as my head and shoulders sliced with pain. “She got pregnant with my second in command!”
He shot up from the bed, stalking off to turn around and run right back to my side. He grabbed the front of my dress, lifting me up with his lip curled in a fury, “I killed that disloyal fuck, killed all of his men and anyone loyal to him, and then went to get rid of you from her belly, but she ran away. Flew to America and hid herself!”
Spit dribbled from his mouth as he yelled in my face, “So I killed all those that she loved. I killed every single Lee, every single person with Romani blood in this country!” He let go of me, eyes scanning my rumpled form, and he tried to smooth the dress, running his hands over my body to clean up his tantrum.
A dread filled my soul and he took a few breaths, Cezar’s voice still in the background, and he turned to him and yelled, “Shut the fuck up, or I’ll saw off this pretty little leg.” He grabbed my thigh hard, “I don't need her to be whole, only alive and able to hold a baby.”
Cezar’s eyes went wide; his jerking movements were that of a captured animal, just a hair away from gnawing his own hand off to get to me. Nicu hushed Cezar, giving me a look, telling me he just needed time and that he hadn't given up. A small bit of strength filled me, even as my bones shook in fear. If he hasn't given up, I won’t either. Taking a short breath, I focused on Arak, who turned back to me.
“You see that! That's what I get for trying to breed with a lesser one! I tried to find replacements for your mother. I even took her cousin, one with no seer powers, just the last name Lee, and tried to make the child I needed. The one with magical blood. You see, that’s the only way to be the leader of all three families.”
His hand rose up my trembling thigh as he scooted closer. “You see, in the old days, crime heads would take a romantic bride, and she would bless the family, making it so evil wouldn’t come to your doorstep. Then rivals started going for the wives and children instead of the men, wanting to get rid of their good fortune.”
The pad of his finger ran up and down my arm, caressing it as his voice went low. “So the Romani women wouldn't be with any of us anymore. Weary of inviting death to their doorstep, but they always liked the money we provided for services, so we kept in contact.” His hands drifted down my arm, over my chest, and down my belly. I couldn’t keep my body from trembling in fear at his touch.
“It's a hidden rule, not told to anyone until they become a boss and are sworn to secrecy.” My breathing grew ragged as his fingers went lower and lower. “This is why I need you.”
He climbed up on the bed, and fear took over as I yanked on the chains, trying to get away from him. “No. Leave me alone.” My weak command didn’t phase him as his hands slipped under my dress. His hand feeling like claws ripping his way up my thighs, catching the string of my underwear and yanking it down.
Feeling him closing in, I struggled to get away from him, turning and wiggling to escape his hungry hands and cruel smile, but all he did was laugh. “You’re going to help me take out all my anger. I’m going to fuck you so hard you bleed from every hole in your body, paying for your mother's sin’s until I’m fully satisfied.” My throat closed up, sheer fear kicking in as I tried to squish into myself, to hide. Keeping my eyes on the threat coming for me.
Chains rattled furiously behind him, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the man who was about to rape me, the man who looked like he was going to enjoy it.
“Then I’m going to do it over and over again,” he licked his lips as he turned me back around with ease. Every cell in my body told me to fight, to run, to get out of this situation. My wrists were turning raw with how hard I kept trying to yank out of their gasps.
There was a moment when he moved his leg wider, and I took the opportunity to rear one leg back and kick him square in the chin as hard as I could and bellowed, “Get the fuck off me!”
He tumbled to the side, and I kicked back, shoving myself into a corner of the bed where the chains were placed. There had to be something around this crusty old basement that I could use. A rusty nail, a hammer, something that I could use to defend myself.
Swinging my legs around, I went to get up from the bed when my head was yanked back, and I screamed at the searing pain on my scalp. Arak was on top of me now, and I bucked underneath him, trying my hardest to get him off, to just get away.
He laughed and laughed as blood flowed down his chin and dripped onto my chest. He bent over and licked at the blood, and I screamed in frustration. “I’m going to have so much fun breaking you.” He scooted back, sitting now on my knees as he raised a knife from the back of his pants and slammed it into my thigh.
The blade entered with a sickening ease; an unforgiving bite of unnatural pressure sliced through, forcing skin to split apart. My mouth opened, my scream caught in my throat, and all my thoughts jumbled. Was this really what was happening to me? Just a month ago, I was in LA with my mom, complaining about having to pay for a parking pass when the school had already charged me an arm and a leg.
A burning, electric agony radiated from the wound, pulsing in time with my heartbeat, too loud, too fast. Chains rattled again in the background, but it faded just as fast as the monster on top of me dug his finger into the wound next to the knife, my screams the only thing I could hear at that point.
Harrowing pain went up and down my leg, my brain trying focus on that instead of the man on top of me, until I couldn’t ignore him anymore. His bloody hands skimming up and down my body, pinching and tugging at whatever he wanted. A foul stench of blood and fear filled my lungs. I could feel my mind receding into itself, wanting to escape this horrific reality and go somewhere safe, somewhere with Nicu, Ion, and Cezar, where we felt like we could relax and let go.
His breath drifted into my nose, the air like a poisoned whisper, a wretched perfume woven from cruelty and narcissism. “I’m going to fuck you in front of them to teach them a lesson.” He gripped my face between his fingers; the pressure of his grip was so hard I thought my jaw would pop out of place. “This territory, this family, this organization, it's all mine.” He grabbed at the hem of my dress, taking it in both hands and tearing it in two, exposing my body to his violent lustful gaze. “You’re mine, and I’m going to prove that to them, over,” his hands went down to his pants, “and over,” the sound of the zipper caused me to squeeze my eyes shut, “and over again, just so they understand. Boys do need to have a heavy hand when being raised.” Feeling pain all over my body, I kept my eyes closed.
Just get through this. I just need to not cry, not let him enjoy torturing me. That would be the best revenge. Telling myself that over and over again.
