My Masters' Nightmare, Season 1 / Episode 14 (6 page)

My eyes went to the soldier, who followed
him. I swore in my head when he stopped in the doorway. I’d wanted
to use the blade to cut myself free, but with him there, I couldn’t
do jack.

He crossed his arms over his
muscular chest and leaned against the wall,
his eyes locking onto my
body.

“
Having a good look, pervert?” I
asked.

He didn’t answer me, just kept
staring.

Wanting to
mind fuck him, I continued
talking, “You have more muscle in your little finger than that bag
of bones Donatelli. Why are you taking orders from him? Are you a
pussy or just dumb?”

“
Be quiet.”

“
Not going to happen, Steroids.
And I’m leaning towards thinking you’re dumb. That’s probably why
you let Christo tell you what to do. You’re all muscle and no
brains, which means, you’ll be a lowly
soldato
for the remainder of your worthless
life. You’ll be doing all the shit jobs the
Capos
and
Dons
consider beneath them. Hey, does Christo get you
to wipe his ass too, because you stink like his shit.”

“
Be quiet, woman!”

“
What will you do if I don’t?
Nothing. Or maybe you’ll hit me. Yeah, that’ll prove you really are
a wimp for striking a woman, like your pissant Don.
Pathetic.”

“
Last warning!”

“
Why? Is there a self-destruct
button or something that will go off if I keep talking?”

He started walking towards
me.

“
Why are you coming over?
Because you obviously like men, since you bend over for
Christo.”

The man’s face reddened. He pulled a
ball gag out of his pocket.

“
Even if you gag me, I’ll still
be thinking you’re a
fenucca
who likes taking Christo’s cock up his
ass.”

He
punched me in the stomach, then
grabbed my hair and yanked my head back hard. I shouted in pain,
getting the ball gag pushed into my mouth a second later. He smiled
smugly at me as he went to tie the straps behind my head. Glaring
at him, I pissed on his foot. He looked down, then yelled out and
jumped back.

I pushed the ball gag out of my mouth with
my tongue, since he hadn’t finished tying it up. “You really are a
magnet for piss and shit,” I said.

“
You dirty
troia
!” His hand whipped out, slapping me
across the face.

I winced, the strike hard.

“
There will be more like that if
you defile or insult me again,” he snapped.

“
So be it.” I spat blood on his
shoe.

He looked down, then raised his hand
again.

“
What are you doing?!” a
yell came from the
door.

He spun around. “She pissed on
me.”

Christo stormed over. “Only I can strike
her!”

“
But s
he pissed on me.”

“
You shouldn’t be near
her.”

“
She wouldn’t shut up, so
I tried to gag her.”

“
Get out!” Christo yelled,
pointing at the door.

“
I didn’t mean to
offend.”

“
Out!”

The soldier took off, disappearing out
the door.

Christo’s hard gaze moved to me. “I can’t
leave you alone for five minutes without you causing
trouble.”

“
I didn’t ask for you to come
in, and you could’ve just let him do what he wanted to me. By the
way, he fucked me while you were out there, that’s why I really
pissed on him.”

He gritted his teeth. “You think I’m
stupid enough to believe that?”

“
Well, part of that
sentence is true, because you are stupid.”

He moved closer to me, his face a breath
away. I considered head-butting him, but refrained, my face hurting
enough as it is, his strikes yesterday combined with the soldier’s
nasty.

“
I will make you suffer as I
pull out every fingernail Frano has,” he said. “I will also break
all his fingers and toes, then beat the
merda
out of him in front of you.”

Angered by his words, I rammed
my forehead into his, no longer caring about the consequences. He
yelled out and stumbled backwards, his hand going to his head. Fury
shot across his face
, then his fist barreled into my nose, making me holler in
agony. But I didn’t have enough time to think about it as his hands
moved to my nipples. He squeezed them hard, causing me to scream,
the pain bringing tears to my eyes, my nipples overly
sensitive.

He glared at me.
“There’ll be more
like this until you learn to show me some respect,
schiava
.”

“
Fuck you!” I spat at
him.

He roared with anger, then
his
fist
barreled into my face again, this time knocking me out
cold.

5

FRANO

The Landi soldier
pulled up to the
dilapidated cottage that Sophia and I used to meet in, the place
holding good memories. Though, nothing good was going to come out
of today. My gaze went to the car waiting in the driveway. It was a
long black vehicle with tinted windows. Two Donatelli soldiers were
leaning against it, both holding guns. I removed my own gun from my
jacket and shot the Landi soldier in the head, knowing he would’ve
followed me regardless of what I told him, getting Rita killed in
the process.

The Donatelli shouted outside, demanding I
drop the gun. I did, then pushed out of the car with my hands
raised.

“
Walk towards us slowly,” the
fatter of the two soldiers shouted. He had his gun pointed at me,
his face scared.

I did as he asked, stopping in front
of him.

“
Remove your jacket and throw it
on the ground,” he added.

Again, I did what he
wanted.

The other soldier
started patting me
down. He looked barely out of his teens, the kid needing nappies
not a gun. Once finished, he jerked his head to the car. “Get in
the trunk.”

“
I will ride up
front.”

“
My Don’s instructions are for
you to get into the trunk.”

“
Does your Don sit in the
trunk?”

“
Of course
not.”

“
Then you shouldn’t treat
me any differently.”

“
But—”

“
There are no buts! I’m a Don
and I demand to be treated as such around
soldati
.”

“
I—”

Moving fast, I yanked
him towards me and
grabbed his gun, using his body to shield mine before the other
soldier could react. “I’ll snap his neck if you don’t concur with
my wishes,” I said, pointing the gun at the other soldier. “I’m
here willingly, so give me the common courtesy of allowing me to
ride up front.”

“
My Don—”

I cocked the gun.
“Are you
questioning me?”

The soldier shook his head vigorously.
“No, no, I was just going to say I have to get permission from my
Don first.”

“
Do it, then.”

He
removed his phone from his black
jacket. He was sweating profusely, the stains under his armpits not
just from the heat. Obviously, the Donatelli were scraping the
bottom of the barrel for their soldiers, especially since I was
able to overpower them within seconds.

A second later, he was
explaining the situation to his Don
. He moved the phone away from his ear,
the shout of “Incompetents!” coming through the line loud enough
for me to hear. He put the phone back to his ear.
“
La
prego
,
Don,
mi
perdoni
,” he
said, begging for forgiveness. “
Sì
, we will do that.
Grazie mille.
” He hung up and slipped his phone
into his back pocket, his attention returning to me. “You may ride
in the front passenger seat.”

I let go of the young soldier
and shoved him towards his partner, then got into the front
passenger seat. The two soldiers climbed into the car after me, the
fat one taking the wheel, his hands shaking. I shook my head in
disgust, thinking this was what had become of the Donatelli
famiglia.
Even worse, I was
going to die surrounded by these rejects.

Within seconds, we were
heading
towards our destination. I closed my eyes, certain I would
be seeing Alberto in Hell soon.

***

The
soldier turned into a driveway and
drove down the bumpy lane, the car ride short. A large barn stood
amongst a green field with a few cars hiding behind it. The soldier
parked beside them. He asked me politely to get out, the man
rightly showing me respect.

I
climbed out and waited for
instructions, not knowing what to do, other than be a lamb to the
slaughter.

“
My Don’s waiting for you inside
the barn,” the fat soldier said.

“
I will pay you both two million
if you help me,” I said, upping what I’d offered during the car
ride.

“
Again, we wouldn’t live long
enough to enjoy the money.”

“
The offer still stands,
and I’m good for my
word, so if you change your mind, make sure you take out Christo
when he least expects it.”

“
Not
happening.”

“
You have no
balls.”

“
More like I want to keep
them.”

Frustrated, I exhaled
loudly
. “So,
what am I walking into?”

“
Death, but I think you
already know that.”

I grimaced.
“Then, let’s get this started.”
I headed around the barn, entering through the large door. I
stopped in my tracks, horrified by what I saw. Rita was hanging
from a rope, her arms stretched tight. She was naked, while her
face was swollen and bloodied. She looked either dead or
unconscious, my woman beaten to a pulp. I ran for her.

“
Frano!” Christo shouted.
“Don’t touch her!”

I came to a sudden stop in front of Rita,
my head whipping to the side. Christo was sitting in a chair next
to the Rosso Don and his eldest son, the men glaring at
me.

“
Fuck you!” I yelled. I turned
back to Rita, feeling for her pulse, beyond relieved when I found
one.

“
Get your hands off my
schiava
!” Christo shouted.

I spun around. “This is my woman. My
woman! How dare you beat her!”

He pushed out of his chair. He was a
shadow of his former self, almost unrecognizable, only his pale
blue eyes unchanged. Unlike his twin, he was deadly thin, a
skeleton waiting to be buried, the man clearly sick.

“
The arrogant
troia
asked for it,” he
said. “She head-butted me and spat in my face. She’s lucky to be
alive.” Holding a gun, he walked towards me, stopping a few feet
away. “If anything, she was probably trying to get me to kill her,
so I didn’t have any leverage over you. I know how people’s minds
work, though she doesn’t know mine, because no matter what, you’re
not getting out of this alive.”

“
Then set her free now. I’m
here; you must abide by your word.”

“
No, I want her to watch you
die. Through you, I will break her. After that, I’ll leave her to
mourn over your dead body.”

Don Rosso cut in, “What’s left of
it.”

My
glare shifted to him. The grizzled
old Don was sitting next to his oaf of a son, glaring at me. He was
in his sixties, although he looked older, the man having lived a
hard life.

“
Looks like the Landi were right
about your
famiglia
.” I spat on the ground. “Traitors!”

Don Rosso
pushed to his feet with his
cane, which he needed after having a recent hip replacement. “I
will enjoy your death. I want you to suffer for what you did to my
daughter.”

“
I did nothing to
her
.”

“
Liar!
You drove her to her
death.”

I sneered at him. “No, you and my father
did by forcing me into marrying her.”

“
You promised to love and
protect
her.”

“
I never said that. I promised
to marry her and provide a child—that’s all. It wasn’t my fault
the
troia
was barren.”

The Don’s son shot out of his seat and
rushed forward, a look of pure hatred on his hard features. Unlike
his father, he was big and strong. He reminded me of a slimmer
version of Alberto, his face just as brutish.