No, not naked, but damn near close to it. Shimmering emerald leaves, as soft as feathers, covered my breasts and below, along with a bit of matching tulle, that was about it. Part of my contract with Nemours stated that I had control over my outfits—this was just demeaning, and I didn’t want Brando to see me this way.
“Just another day at work, my angel.” I ran a hand down his face. “Are you going to take care of me?”
“I gave you my word.”
I lifted on my toes, putting my mouth to his ear. “Remember what I said. You’re my tender. I’ll be done soon.” I kissed his cheek. “You need to release me now.”
“Never,” he said in Italian. “Not even when I’m dead.”
A man opened the door and was waiting for him.
Instead of making him walk away, I went into the steel cage with Rocco, and he shut the door. The cables trembled, and the cage rattled before it began its decent.
Brando was hidden in the shadows, but even so, the connection between us was stretched so taut, I fought to resist the urge to climb the bars, which I knew I could do, and run back into his arms and never let go—damn them, and they could kill us together. He pulled me toward him with all his might, though he wasn’t even touching me.
“Why are they doing this to him, Rocco?”
He stood quiet, a formidable figure in the shadows.
“Why? Tell me, Rocco!”
He was so much like my husband that it was uncanny.
“Please,” I added, looking at him.
“They mean to test him. To control the wildness that lives within. So when the time comes, he knows how to uncap it, release the force of his anger, and then cap it up once again.”
“They are using me to get to him.”
“Sì. They are more than curious about you. They believe you could really be the creature Nemours has described to them. To control such a man as my brother is near impossible. Nothing, besides this, would make him move. They know this—apparently, he has been denying them all of his life.”
“They don't know my husband. He's not like them!”
“We are all like them,bella.”
“What did they use against you, Rocco?”
“No need. I was bred to know my place.”
“Oh.” And my heart broke for him.
The cage came to another level, this one identical to the one we had just left, and the cables shimmied and then grew taut.
“We, ah, have a little time. They are not ready for you. Tell me how the two of you met.”
“Brando and I?”
“Sì.”
“I suppose you could say that I’ve known him my entire life, but we didn’t truly meet until I was fifteen. I was dancing in the window of my parents’ studio, back in Louisiana, and he was curious. But he waited until I was eighteen to see me again.” I shrugged, smiling. “The rest is, as they say, history.”
“Ah, he is a smart one, my brother. He gave you time to grow up.”
“I never thought of it that way.” I laughed. “But yes, he is. And so are you. Thank you for trying to keep my mind off of—” I waved a hand around.
The door opened, a stream of light flooding the floor before a man holding a drink came close to the cage, handing it to Rocco. Rocco nodded, taking it without a word. The man disappeared, and we were submerged in darkness again. Anise drifted from the black flute, and I knew right away what it was.
“Why do you need to drink,bella?” Rocco brought the dark glass to his nose, sniffing, before he tasted.
