Page 42 of Faithless
“So.” Nella went back to ignoring him and turned to me with a pleasant smile. “Are there any you would like to try? I’m happy to give you my personal recommendations, if you like.”
Fucking hell, she acted like she was talking about dresses in a clothing store. If pretending to be Torr’s wife wasn’t hard enough, I also had to act like I was down with sexual slavery? It was a miracle I hadn’t thrown up right into the sand below. This was abhorrent on all levels. Probably one of, if not the most, evil things human beings could do to each other.
And it started to dawn on me why Astarte called on me for this. Kidnapping people. Forcing them to fight and have sex. This evil had to be rooted out. It could not be allowed to spread. This place was already obscenely wealthy from the clients it picked, so they had to be planning for even more growth. More enslavement.
But what the fuck couldIdo? A place with this much money also had power. And what kind of people were involved? Who was at the top, pulling the strings? Who hired Nella and the armed guards? They were finding these people somewhere.
I felt like a mouse going up against a wolf. I was one person, a nobody. Sure, I had Torr with me, but two people weren’t an army. Not against somethingthisbig. Fuck, I had never wanted to ask my parents for advice so badly.
The answer is right in front of your face. You know what to do, child.Astarte’s voice came through, powerful and gently chiding as a parent’s would be. The white dove flew down moments later, perching on one of the empty colosseum seats a few rows away. She cooed softly and preened her feathers.
Steeling myself with a breath, I met Nella’s smile with one of my own. “We can spend time with the gladiators alone? My husband doesn’t have to be there?”
Torr’s head whipped in my direction, staring daggers into the side of my face.
“Yes, of course,” Nella said. “For safety reasons, we can only permit you one gladiator per session. If you’re interested in group sex, your husband will have to be the additional person.”
“No, that’s alright. One is fine.” I ignored Torr’s stare burning into my temple while I scanned the fighters below again. No matter what, I kept coming back to the man with the shaved head and pretty eyelashes. “What’s he like?” I asked with a lift of my chin. “The one with the machetes.”
Nella hummed with approval. “Ah, yes. The Butcher is a popular choice among our guests. One of our best lovers, as well as one of the most brutal fighters you will ever watch. His events are not to be missed.” She pulled a slim notebook from inside the pocket of her blazer and flipped through pages. “He’s booked up with several appointments this week, on top of an upcoming fight, plus his training schedule. I can set you up with him next Tuesday, but no sooner than that, I’m afraid.” She looked up. “Is there anyone else you would like to try? The Tormentor has availability tonight.”
“That’s okay. I can wait until Tuesday,” I said. “In the meantime, I think we’ll settle in and enjoy what else the resort has to offer.” I grabbed Torr’s hand, leaning into him, but nearly yelped when he squeezed my hand in a death grip. The guy wasnothappy.
“Excellent. Your session with the Butcher will be Tuesday afternoon.” Nella scribbled it down in her notebook and slipped it back into her jacket. “I’ll send a reminder card to your suite.”
“Thank you.”
We turned away from the enslaved men in the sand below us and left the colosseum for our opulent suite in the resort.
15
TORRANCE
“You’re not actually going to fuck him, are you?” The words flew out the moment Rori and I were alone in our suite, which was bigger and grander than her family home back in Four Corners. There were multiple huge bedrooms, a gourmet kitchen, a deck with a pool and hot tub with unobstructed views of the canyon, and tons of plush couches and armchairs centered around an ornate glass fire pit.
“I don’t know.” The dismissive answer hit me like a slap.
Dumbfounded, I watched Rori as she breezed from room to room, checking out the massive suite. She looked everywhere but at me. But I was fucking used to that, wasn’t I? She never looked at me.
“Rori, he’s aslave.” The word burned my mouth like poison. “He can’t consent to having sex with you. Jesus, I can’t even believe I’m saying this. This whole place is way more fucked up than I imagined.” I headed straight for the extensive liquor cabinet in the kitchen, then stopped myself right before opening the glass door. Fuck, I needed a drink, but all this top-shelf booze was likely bought with slave labor. I wanted to burn this whole place down and wash myself clean of its stink.
“I know.” Rori leaned against an armchair, rubbing her forehead. “I’m using the time to talk to him, find out more about this place.”
“So what’s with the, ‘I don’t know’ then?”
She spread her hands, palms up, as she shrugged. “I mean, what if he gets in trouble if Idon’tfuck him? What if they see it as, like, he didn’t please me or whatever and he gets punished?”
“Listen to yourself. That’s your anxiety playing the what-if game again.”
“But it might not be, Torr. You saw how beaten and broken down those men were. Who knows what they do to them?”
“Well, we know they fight to the death and get whored out like rentable dildos.” I rubbed my mouth, spinning around in search of a bathroom. Ah, there it was, between the kitchen and bedrooms, the size of a conference room with a walk-in shower taking up one entire wall and a bathtub the size of a small swimming pool. “God, this place makes me sick,” I groaned.
“Me too.”
I turned back around to face Rori. “Not so sick that sampling the goods is out of the question, huh?” I knew I was being an asshole, but in that moment, I just couldn’t bring myself to care.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Torr, I’m just trying to be realistic. Of course I don’t want to take advantage of a guy in that situation, but if the alternative is him getting beaten to death? Sure, I’ll have sex with him to save his life.”
