terrified group of
women huddled together on my right, the line of beds behind them
telling me what type of whores they were: the dehumanized puttane known as holes.
Their scared faces were all trained on the men surrounding them,
the Landi staring at them with pity rather than lust.
Not wanting to look at them, I
descended the next staircase, stopping on the floor the guard had mentioned.
A few Landi soldiers were opening the cells, checking each one.
Mario’s shocked cry alerted me to which cell he was in. I rushed
inside, finding a soldier pointing a gun at him, Mario looking as
if he thought he was going to die.
“ Put
your gun down!” I barked. “He’s one of mine.”
“ Mi
dispiace ,”
the man apologized, “I thought he was Christo Donatelli’s
son.”
“ He is, but
he’s still one of mine.”
The guard apologized
again, then
quickly moved out of my way as I headed for Mario. I grabbed Mario
into a hug, Mario hugging me back tighter. After he had calmed
down, I let him go, doing my best to ignore his smell, the man no
doubt not having been allowed to clean—Hell having no
showers.
“ It’s good to
see yo u, Mario,” I said.
Mario nodded, the pain within
his eyes making me worry about what had been done to
him.
“You are safe now,” I
added.
He squeezed his eyes shut for a
moment, then reopened them. “I saw what they did to Jagger and
Sasha, and...” He looked down, “to my slaves. They slit Julie’s
throat in front of me,” he let out a shuddering breath, “while
Cocoa is barely alive, the abuse they heaped upon her beyond what
any human can withstand. And Red... They hurt her to hurt me, raped
and beat her while I was tied up, committed horrible atrocities all
because...” he let out a sob, “I love her.”
I exhaled, having
k nown it for
a while, the privileges he’d given the slave something I had
reprimanded him for. Though, I had allowed him to keep her,
pretending to Mario that Red required more training so it would
stop him from fixating on the other slaves, Red the only one
getting special treatment. I really did need some proper trainers,
because both Mario and Jagger were too soft for the job. Maybe I
needed to get my own hands dirty, to do some training
myself. S ì , but I still needed more trainers—and a
lot of them, because after today my cells were going to be brimming
with women.
“ We
will go find Red now,” I said to Mario, hoping that his woman
wasn’t dead.
We left the cell and entered
another, where a Landi soldier was unlocking Sasha. The Russian was
facing a wall, the metal cuffs attached to his wrists the only
things holding him up. His naked body was hanging limply from them,
the man looking barely conscious. And across his ass, the
word puttano was painted in blood. My eyes widened. No, it wasn’t
painted; it was etched into his flesh.
As the last cuff came off he
slumped to the floor, exhaustion enveloping him. The Landi soldier picked him
up, Sasha looking almost dead.
“Sasha,” I
said.
He didn’t react, his
eyes remaining glazed over.
“ Take him to
your boss’s hospital,” I said to the soldier, then headed out of
the room with Mario.
On our right, a group of naked women were
being ordered out of a cell. A redhead appeared, the woman’s eyes
instantly snapping to us ... no, to Mario. She let out a cry,
practically bowling others over to get at Mario. She launched
herself at him, wrapping her arms and legs around his body, looking
as if she never wanted to let go. I watched them for a few seconds,
seeing how Mario peppered kisses all over her face, not caring that
it was smeared with dirt.
“ Mario, ” I said.
He turned his head to me, his happy
expression dropping instantly. I knew why, because he’d always been
told off for showing his slaves affection, the man impossible, but
I could make this one concession, Mario deserving some
happiness.
“ If you wish
to keep her as your own,” I said to him in Italian, “she is
Kelley R. Martin
Becca van
Christine Duval
Frederick & Williamson Pohl
Amanda Downum
Monica Tesler
David Feldman
Jamie Lancover
G. Wayne Jackson Jr
Paul C. Doherty