Page 55 of Twisted Bonds
"I'm good, thank you," Ryan says to the therapist. "Can we just start?"
"The floor is all yours. Last session we ended just when you were about to tell me about getting caught sneaking food to a few of the women in the cells,"Pearce reminds Ryan.
"Yes. I'm not allowed to interfere in how Mario treats them; I learned my lesson the hard way. So, I waited until he was done for the day and brought down a food basket since he doesn't feed them well. I was just passing the last two women their portions when Mario came down and caught me."
"What happened then, Ryan?"Dr. Pearce pauses, and when Ryan doesn't continue immediately, she asks, "Do you need a break?"
"No. I just needed a minute. Mario didn't do anything at that time."Ryan continues,"He waited until the next day when Sergio would be gone all day, and Luca was the only one home."
"Go on,"the doctor urges when Ryan pauses. "What happened next?"
"I was punished."
Thirty-One
Beau
I hate that I'm listening in on a private conversation, but if my father is telling the truth, Ryan will be okay with it. Then again, maybe she is only okay with my father listening to it. However, I need to know what happened to her besides the videos they sent me. Perhaps then I will know how to go about helping her heal.
In just above a whisper, I hear Ryan's response,"I was punished."
"Do you want to discuss how you were punished?"the doctor asks.
Ryan scoffs, and I hear a chair scrape."Not really, but I know I need to in order to heal. That's what Bain says anyway."
"Bain is your stepfather whom you're having sexual relations with?"
"You know very well who Bain is, Dr. Pearce."I can hear the annoyance in Ryan's tone, and I smile.
"Yes, but I still have to bring it up to ensure you're still in the same mind frame and consenting to it all. Are you still wanting Bain to use the whip on you and more to the point, are you happy with where this agreement has taken you intimately?"
"Bain is not making me do anything I don't want to do. He's the one who didn't want this at first, but I persuaded him that it would work in our favor if we did. Nobody wields the whip like Bain does, or so I'm told, and I don't want to give some stranger the power to hurt me.Moving on…"
It seems Ryan was getting testy with the doctor even way back then.When exactly did she start liking my father?I can't let myself think that. It was too soon for her to have those feelings for him; I know her better than that. That's why I know deep down that my place is here, by her side. I won't abandon her; too many people in her life have disappeared; I won't be one of them—not again.
"Luca always said that Sergio was the sadistic one and the worst of the three brothers, but that wasn't the case, and I learned that lesson very quickly.
As I said, Sergio was gone; both he and Dante had a meeting with some new clients on the West Coast and would be gone all day. Luca had all six women brought upstairs and lined up in the dining room. I was then made to order his men to hit, punch, kick, pinch, spit on, and even bite the women repeatedly. Those women were beaten so badly all because I tried feeding them."
I can hear the devastation in her voice, and my eyes burn just listening to it. Thankfully, Dr. Pearce speaks up with another question,"What would Luca have done had you refused to do it?"
"He held a gun to my head the whole time. Once the women were weak and bleeding, they were carried downstairs, and Luca ordered his men to have some fun with them. I will never forget what he told me when they disappeared out of view. He said, 'Everything happening to those women is your fault, poppet. Remember that when you go down tomorrow and make them get out of their beds broken and sore. Remember that they are like that because you couldn't listen to a simple rule.' Luca was grinning from ear to ear like he was enjoying that they were being hurt."
I hear Ryan's voice crack as she continues, and my heart breaks a little more."I-I had asked Luca if I could go to my room, but it seemed to piss him off more. He told me that he wasn't through with me yet. The look Luca had in his eyes scared me, and right then and there, I decided to submit to him; I wouldn't fight him. Luca was a sadist and loved inflicting pain on others. He may have had the baby face and the smile, but it was all for show, and he used it to his advantage when collecting their product."
"What did Luca do, Ryan?"
"Let's just say that I now know how unforgiving the barrel of a gun is. I thought I was going to lose my life that day because it was fully loaded. Luca got a kick out of using it, so it wasn't the last timeit was used."
"How did you feel about that at the time?"
Therapists irritate me, always asking questions but never answering any of their own. It doesn't take a genius to know how she felt being fucked with something like that. Jesus, who the fuck is this doctor? No wonder Ryan is fucked up like she is. She sure as hell didn't get any help while going to this specific doctor.
Shutting the tape off, I decide I can't listen to it anymore. If Ryan wants to tell me about it, then she will. In the meantime, I'll do what I can. I leave the tapes and recorder behind as I leave the office. My father waits for me just outside and cocks his brow at me, knowing I haven't finished both tapes.
"In order to understand her, you have to know, Beau."
"I'll know when she wants to tell me…" I walk past him, letting my voice trail off.
