I aim the knife at his back and Devious grabs my wrist, twisting painfully, making it drop the knife on the bed next to me. My heart clinches in my rib cage and tears fall down my cheeks.
What? How? No! This can’t be happening!
“Devious, please let go,” I whimper. “You’re hurting me.”
But he squeezes so hard I think he’s going to break my wrist into two.
“You think I’m fucking stupid. Like I didn’t know what you were planning all along,” he sneers, wrapping his thick fingers around my neck squeezing hard. My airway is cut off and my vision keeps going in and out. I claw at his hands, but he doesn’t flinch. His eyes are lifeless like a corpse.
“Please… please…don’t…” I can barely get the words out. Please don’t kill me, Devious. Please.
“You were planning to kill me. How touching?” He mocks in my voice, letting go of my throat.
I cough, wipe the tears from my eyes and snot from my nose.
He grabs the knife, grazes the icy metal against my neck, down to my breast, down to my torso, down to the valley of my pussy. I shake my head so hard I think it’s going to snap into two.
“P-p-please d-don’t c-cut m-me,” I stammer.
“I have to say, I didn’t think you would go through with it. I didn’t think my little Nymph was brave.” He stands up from the bed and I let out an audible breath. “I knew along you were plotting to kill me and you were going to move to Germany.” He goes to my suitcase, grabbing the box Tommy gave me, slinging it across the floor. Pieces of broken wood scatter the floor.
“How did you know?” Flinching, I crawl away from him as much as I can.
“I have a spyware on your phone. I saw all your text messages and you were caught on surveillance speaking to him. How did you think it was so easy for him to get on my property? I allowed him in. Get up and put some clothes on.”
“What are you going to do to me?”
He snatches me by the hair, slinging me like a rag doll on to the hard ground. My scalp feels like it’s on fire and I scream at the top of my lungs. My back and legs ache from the cold floor. “I said get fucking dressed.”
I grab a white T-shirt and a pair of shorts and I watch him put on a pair of gray sweatpants. He snatches me by the collar pushing me towards the elevator. He taps the button and pushes me in the elevator.
“I’ll be good, Devious. I promise. Don’t kill me,” I say low.
He snatches me by the arm again, and I kick and punch him, but he doesn’t flinch. “Please, stop. Don’t do this! Help! Don’t kill me!”
He yanks me over his shoulders. When the elevator opens, he tosses me to the floor and my tailbone aches.
I make my way in the corner, cowering like a damn dog.
“Get up, Roselyn.”
“Are you going to punish me?” I stand up, keeping my distance.
Devious yanks me by the arm, pushing me into the basement. Cells made out of plexiglass lines up in rolls and the smell of piss and blood wafts in the air. I feel the blood from my face draining. He stops by a small closet with a code on the knob and types it in, grabbing a pocketknife. “Welcome to my dungeon.”
We stop at a cell and Devious hits the light switch and the dim lamp lights up the glass box. Tommy is tied to the chair; his head hangs and both of his eyes are purple and swollen shut. Devious opens the door and the smell of shit hits my nostrils.
“Let him go!”
“This is what happens if anyone tries to help you escape me,” Devious says, punching Tommy in the face.
“Please don’t hurt him anymore. He’s innocent. It’s my fault.” My legs knock together as I press my palms over my mouth.
“Sit on the bed,” Devious says, pointing to the cot. Slowly, I sit on the stiff thin mattress.
Tommy lifts his head up and mumbles something.
“You’re going to watch me slit his throat,” he says. “If you try to get someone to help escape me, then I’m going to make you kill them. You’re my property. Do you understand?”
I shake my head as I sob uncontrollably.
“Answer me, Roselyn Vitali.”
“Y-yes, sir.” I put my head down.
“Look at me. You’re going to watch.”
My eyes stay glued to Tommy as Devious grabs him by the hair, pushes his neck back, slicing his golden skin. His throat cuts like leather and blood drips down his neck as his head falls back.
“You psychopath!” I scream at the top of my lungs as I watch Tommy’s lifeless eyes. My stomach empties out on the dark concrete. “You’re so fucking cruel!” I stand up, start beating him with my fist and he grabs my wrists holding them above my head, using the back of his hand to smack me in the face. My cheeks throb and the pain slithers around the crown of my forehead.
“Cruel is killing you and Lex. Instead I spared you and him. Someone had to die for your actions.” He cleans his knife with Tommy’s shirt. Devious grabs me by the arm and shoves me in the other cell, next to Tommy’s. I cry out in tears.
“Let me out of here!” I scream, balling up fist, beating on the plexiglass and Devious types on the keypad, disappearing into the darkness. Several minutes later, he strides back with a leather belt in his hand.
I shake my head and the door slides open.
“Pull down your pants.”
“Please, Devious. I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry because you got caught. You committed an act of treason, so I have no choice but to treat you like a prisoner. Now, pull down your pants. I’m not going to repeat myself again.”
With shaking hands, I yank down my shorts. Devious sits on the cot,
