Page 32 of The Arianna Arrangement

I wanted to refuse, but if I did, Leyla could end up on this bed. Taking the brand from him, I turned towards the girl and tried to apologize with my eyes as I pushed the scorching hot metal into her flesh.

To all of our surprise, she didn’t scream. She didn’t make a sound. Tears streamed down her face, but it was the only indication that she actually felt what I was doing.

Thankfully, hot branding only required holding the brand to the skin for a second before I could remove it. I wanted to push it into the side of Lucian’s face, but refrained as I handed it back to him.

The smile on his face made the bile raising in my throat increase. “Good job, boys. You are dismissed. Go home and clean up and get a good rest. Tomorrow morning you’ll complete your final task and blood oath before the wedding celebrations begin.” He clapped me on the shoulder with his empty hand. “Only a week until you’re officially part of the family.”

Everyone was silent as we left that basement and headed for the car. We’d barely made it to the parking garage when I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I made a break for it, reaching the trashcan before barfing up all of the contents of my stomach.

Hopefully, Lucian wouldn’t play back the video feeds to see that.

As soon as we’d gotten back to the estate, I headed to my room and hopped in the shower. I was supposed to let Apollo know when I got back, but I had to try to scrub the regret and self-loathing off my skin first.

After thirty minutes under the hottest water I could stand, scrubbing every inch of my body multiple times, I still wore the feeling of being filthy because of the shit I’d done over the weekend. As I stepped out of the shower and wrapped the towel around me, I wasn’t sure the feeling would ever go away.

Walking out of the ensuite into my room, I wasn’t surprised to see Apollo. Even though I hadn’t told him I was back, someone on our team would have as soon as they’d seen me.

If it had been my dad, Atlas, or even Percy, there would have been pity in their eyes. But Apollo just looked at me the same way he always had. “What do you need? We can talk about it, you can cry over it, get wasted and try to sleep it off, or we can go to the gym and spar. I’m here for whatever you need.”

There was a brief knock, then Sandro came through the door, closing and locking it behind him. As soon as it was locked, he turned towards us, slid down to the ground, and broke out in a sob.

Apollo and I watched him in silence, completely caught off guard by this.

Sandro had rarely shown any emotions in the eight years I’d known him. I’d never even seen Ari cry before, so I kind of figured neither one of them was even capable of it.

After a couple of minutes, he took a deep breath and wiped his eyes, then looked up at us. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.” Sandro stood up and straightened his shirt, not making eye contact.

Apollo was the first to speak. “I’m glad you did. I can’t imagine how hard it is to have everywhere in your home bugged and not feeling like anywhere is safe to let it out. And honestly, seeing you break down right now gives me hope that when that bastard is dead, you’ll turn the family into something better than this.”

I pulled on a pair of sweats and slumped down on the couch Apollo was resting on. “Join us. We were just going to debrief.”

Sandro gave me a nod and sat on the other couch. “I’ve always hated the sex trade part of the business. I argued against opening the brothel, but he wouldn’t listen. I know it’ll bring in a shit ton of money, but it’s not something I can get behind. I’ll murder a guy in cold blood any day, but selling a woman’s body against her will isn’t something I’m okay with. But now, I just spent the weekend raping eight of them.” His eyes looked up and met mine, tears filling them.

Apollo shifted in his seat. “You did what you had to do to survive. No one here is going to judge you for what you did at the brothel, or for breaking down over it here. You’re a good man, Sandro, and I look forward to the day that the Vitale family is in your hands.”

“You said before we went that if we didn’t do those things, Ari could end up there. I have no doubt that’s true. It could be her virginity that he was going to auction off if we didn’t do as he wanted.” Knowing that didn’t make me feel any less dirty, just as it wouldn’t make him feel better about what he’d done. But it was what kept me from regretting those things.

“I’m a little confused.” Apollo looked between us. “Who’s virginity is he auctioning off, and what exactly did he make you do? He agreed you wouldn’t have to do anything other than strap the women down if they needed it and watch.”

Sandro scoffed. “If I know my father, he agreed Tuck wouldn’t have to have sex with the girls. He probably said something like there are other ways he can… participate. He would have made it sound like restraining them was all he’d do, but didn’t exactly promise that was all his part would be.”

“He had me mark each of the girls with my semen. Just like the other three had to. I didn’t have to fuck them, but I did have to restrain some and even helped Sandro come up with the plan to make the most defiant one compliant.” I wanted to puke again, thinking about it.

Apollo nodded. “Does Lucian know it was your plan?”

Sandro shook his head. “We made sure when we discussed it that there was loud music playing from Elio’s phone close to the camera, and Tuck had his back to the camera so he couldn’t see his lips moving.”

Apollo let out a breath. “Good. Now, whose virginity is he auctioning off?”

Tears formed in my eyes as I looked at my uncle. “Leo’s daughter. He said that she cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars and was going to make it up to him. Ap, she can’t be more than fifteen. We have to do something.”

Apollo punched the couch's armrest beside him. “Son of a bitch.” His hands wound through his hair and he tugged before letting out a sigh and relaxing back into his seat. “We can’t. We don’t have any favors right now, and even if we did, they wouldn’t go against the Vitale’s. Making a move to save her means putting our entire family at risk and everything you’ve done here would be for nothing.” He looked at me with regret in his eyes. “I can’t have Darla taking her place.”

I understood it. As much as I wanted to save that girl, if we had to choose between her and one of our own, it would always be our family that took priority.

My eyes found Sandro’s. “Tomorrow is the end of it, so we just have to survive a little longer.”

He huffed. “Tomorrow is the end for you. I’m his heir and will have to keep doing his bidding until he finally kicks the bucket. Unfortunately for everyone, that asshole takes great care of himself so he’ll probably outlive all of us.”