“You’re not?” Torelli scoffs. “I don’t fucking believe you!”
Torelli reaches down – and before I can react, he presses something beneath his desk.
Holes suddenly open in the walls to our left and right. Tiny little holes – with red, laser tracers emerging from them.
The red dots paint our bodies. Each one is presumably connected to a weapon. If Torelli presses that button again, we’ll all be mincemeat.
Not a word is said.
Hadrian and Kitos are tense – literally vibrating with energy.
Out of the corner of my eye, I make sure that Allie is low enough to the ground to be beneath the gunsights. I thank the Gods she is. If the weapons start shooting, she’ll survive, at least – and with her concealed weapons, amidst the chaos that follows, she’ll at least have a chance to escape.
Torelli stares at us with his dead eyes. He doesn’t say a word, waiting for us to snap first.
The tension grows and grows – like drops of water into an over-filled glass, ready to spill over the moment the surface of the water breaks...
Only, in this instance it’s not going to be water that’s spilled.
Finally, I speak:
“You know, Torelli – it’s hard to get blood stains out of a carpet, and this is a very nice carpet you have.”
Torelli stares at me for a second, and I wonder if I’ve just signed our death warrants.
Then, suddenly, he laughs – low and cruel.
“You think you can just walk in here on my fucking turf, wave some money around, and I’ll fall for it? You stink of Law Enforcement. I might be a businessman, but I'm not stupid. I’m not going to risk getting my fucking head chopped off with the promise of a few easy bucks. When you get on the Aurelian Kill list, there's only one way off of it...”
By being killed.
Torelli growls: “You're going to need to prove to me you're not cops.”
Prove we’re not cops? How?
I take a deep breath. I suddenly have the feeling I’m going to have to murder an innocent to win this man’s trust.
I’m shocked I’d even consider such a thing – but I would. I don’t know how far I can degrade myself for the sake of Allie and her sister, but I know I’d do terrible things to win her heart and trust.
“Okay,” I challenge Torelli. “How?”
Torelli smiles. This time, it actually reaches his eyes.
“Aurelian Law Enforcement might bring in a fake pleasure slave – just to make them look like they’d gone Rogue. However, they wouldn’t fuck her – especially not with people watching.”
Ha! I can see where this is going.
Torelli reaches down slowly – and, for a second, I think he's going to have a change of heart, and press the button beneath his desk. If he did that, those automatically aimed guns would turn us all into mincemeat.
Instead, he presses on his comms-link instead.
"Giovanni. Prepare the stage. The Aurelians are going to put on a little show.”
I clench my fists, but I keep my emotions in check. We’re now facing an impossible choice between blood, violence, and dishonor.
When we came to The Rhino tonight, I’d had no idea we’d be going up against an Aurelian. He wants us to know who the Top Dog is around here…
…and he’s not going to let us out alive if we don’t fuck Allie in front of him, and the rest of the patrons of this establishment.
But I can’t do that to my unwilling mate…
Allie has made her distrust of us clear. She’s told us what she needs from us to prove our allegiance to her. Even then, we all sense her clear distrust of us.
So, we can’t do this.
No – instead we’ll fight, and bleed, and die if that’s what is necessary to preserve her honor.
21
Allie
Oh, Gods!
I’m going to get fucked! Fucked in front of a huge crowd of stranger!
I’m going to face the humiliation and shame of being bred by these three, huge Aurelians – all while strangers jeer and watch. A shudder of humiliating lust crawls down my spine. I suddenly feel the strangest heat between my legs.
I reach out to the auras dwelling in my mind.
Hadrian and Kitos are both balls of pure, raging fire.
Daccia is nothing – as cold and emotionless as usual.
Then, suddenly, he speaks – but not with words. Telepathically, through the Bond:
“We can fight him. Say the word, Allie. We’ll do it in the elevator, away from his weapons.”
I realize with horror that Daccia is suggesting we fight our way out of The Rhino, rather than submit to Torelli’s disgusting challenge.
We’ll fight out way out – without weapons!
I can’t imagine we’ll get far. If we manage to reach it, the elevator might not have weapons inside it – but this whole whorehouse of a club is like a trap.
But I feel a surge of affection realizing that Daccia would rather fight and die than pressure me to do something I don’t want to. If I said the word, my triad would fight and die for my honor alone.
But I’m not going to let them die – not just to get out of the shame of being taken, hard, in front of a crowd of strangers.
If that’s what we have to do to prove to Torelli that we’re not working for the Aurelian Law Enforcement agency, and win his reluctant trust, then that’s what we’ll have to do.
If Torelli has any information about my sister, we’re not going to get it by killing him – or by letting him kill us.
“It’s okay,” I telepath to the triad. “We can do it. We have to.”
Daccia never changes his outward expression, but the edge of near-violence dissipates from his aura.
He turns to Torelli, and sneers: “You want us to fuck this little slut? In front of a crowd?”
Torelli stares at him, emotionless.
After what seems like an eternity of staring at each other, Daccia snorts:
“Fine!” Then his eyes narrow beneath his goggles. “But after we
