“Vipera,” I said for no other reason than to state the obvious.
What was it with the wilds of nature and me? Why did I always come face to face with these sorts of dangerous creatures? I almost cursed fate, but then decided against it. The Italians were rubbing off on me. I was too superstitious to even consider the thought,could it get much worse than this?Because at that moment, I was positive that it could.
My body was within striking distance. And the serpent of Eden looked like it wanted an excuse to chase after something. The weather was like an inferno , and theviperawas irritated. It just looked it.
It was either theviperaor me, or the men or me. Theviperaseemed more immediate. I would probably survive Giovi’s men, even if they abused me before we arrived at his hidden villa. He wanted me alive. I doubted very much that I’d survive the poisonous snake—it definitely didn’t care if I lived or died. Just out of its way.
I used every bullet in my arsenal to blow the hellish creature to smithereens. I flicked a random piece of snake off my arm. It landed in the grass with a low splat. Overkill? Yes. But I couldn’t seem to control my hand once the trigger had been pulled and the bullets started whizzing.
At this juncture, there was nowhere to go and nothing to protect myself with. I could continue to crawl, but then what? What if there was more than one of those snakes? And what about the men? The blast of the gun no doubt had alerted them of my whereabouts by this point.
I flopped on my back, breathing heavy, allowing the sun to beat down on a face that was probably free for another ten seconds or so. It was true. The air tasted and felt different when it was yours. It belonged to me.
Footsteps drew nearer. The crackle of dried grass beneath feet couldn’t be hidden. Shadows moved across my face, as storm clouds move across the sun. I lifted my arms in ajust take me and get it over withgesture. I knew for certain that there was a man to my left and one to my right. Each man grabbed an arm and lifted me up. Sweaty palms slid against the slickness of my own skin.
I had to force my eyes open.
A string of men were moving in the grass, most of them coming toward my two captors and me. The entire scene was chaotic. Cars were lined up along the road, some men still searching through higher patches of grass, thinking I had somehow made it that far.
“I wish,” I mumbled to myself.
One of the men that had me by the arm screamed something out. I could only assume that he was alerting them that the irreverent prisoner—me—had been found. His grip on my arm wasn’t gentle.
Like the snake,Ifelt irritated that I had been found. The sun blazed, and whatever limit was programed inside of me had been met.
I attempted to yank myself from his hold, which seemed to irritate him even further. Apparently, hunting through high grass wasn’t his idea of fun either. He yanked back so hard that I tilted toward him, to the left. The guy to my right seemed to find this insulting. He yanked me back to the right.
A tug of war with me as the rope ensued. The two of them started to yell at each other, a lot ofahahah!punctuating their heated words. I was yelling that my arms were about to be ripped off, and somehow five more men were added to the mix, the shouts echoing from the pitch of it.
The mob mentality that I had tried to avoid started to creep its way closer. Tension came from them in strong waves—I was a detail they wished never existed.
I couldn’t understand them. They couldn’t understand me. However, I was pretty sure “ow, ow, ow!” was the same in any language. I just didn’t want them to start on me once they fully realized who caused the problem—me.
Somewhere in the field another man started to scream, “Vipera!” A moment later, it seemed like he had been struck.
Without warning, a strong hand smacked my ass, the sound of the wallop so loud that it could be heard over their bickering. My entire body flew forward, and the pain ran up my spine to the base of my skull, then backward with the pull of the two holding my arms.
One of the men had hit me with a hand that seemed to be made of concrete. Another man did the same not long after the first. I didn’t need to understand the language to know that my ass was about to get whipped by every man sent to watch over me.
I sucked in a breath and then hissed it out. I had never been stung that hard before. Bruises were promised—I hoped nothing would split open by the time the last man hit the same spot.
They were lining up, making an occasion of it. Laughter and encouragement went around and around, reminding me of men having a good time in a bar.
On the fourth strike my knees buckled, but the two men held me up, keeping me upright for the next hit. Tears ran unbidden down my cheeks, so cool against the heat of my skin.
Dr. Nicchi came to mind. How was she going to feel when she had to doctor me again? For some reason this made my lip tremble. The thought of her putting ice on my ass, and perhaps having to stitch it up, felt worse than the actual beating.
All right, perhaps not worse, but for some reason the thought made me almost sob.
Another man came up the line, this one taunting before the blow. The language was lost on me, but I knew he was saying something close to“I am going to enjoy this” just by the smile in his voice and the way it seemed he kept rubbing his tongue over his lips.
He lifted my skirt to raucous jeers from the other men and then pulled down my underwear. He was going to beat my bare ass, or even worse.
“Oh God,” I called out. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no.” Then thoughts of Brando almost crippled me, worse than the blows. Closing my eyes, mumbling almost silent prayers, I sensed his hand stretch back and attempted to prepare myself for the onslaught. But it never came.
Opening one eye, I saw that every man had gone still, and some dark faces had gone quite pale in the blazing sun. I opened the other one. The two men holding me up had death grips on my arms, their eyes trained to whatever was going on behind me.
At the sound of the voice, I almost collapsed in relief and fear. It was plain to see the men felt the latter emotion. It swirled around me in spades, almost sucking all the heat from the atmosphere and replacing it with stone cold dread.
