Brienne’s POV

A splash of cold water woke me up from my fainting. I came to, confused, but upon looking down at the blood on the ground, reality doused me with another rude awakening and my memories came flooding back. I was alone with Eladio now, the others had left and dragged the dead body with them.

He eyed me with shameless lust, like he didn’t just kill a man. My legs, tied to both legs of the chair were spread, my pleated skirt riding up to show more of my thighs than I was comfortable with. His eyes crawled all over me, caressing every curve, taking in every inch of exposed flesh and soaked fabric, his gaze licked my skin like fire while I sat as still as I could manage.

I was painfully aware that with both my arms tied behind my back, between the cold of the water and the things his eyes did to me, my nipples would get hard against my will soon. My top was a light satin, made all the more transparent by the water he’d poured on me… I felt more than exposed.

“Do you know why you’re here?” he asked me, taking a break from toying with me with his eyes.

“Yes” I replied “My father’s debts”

“And?”

I took deep breath and said a little prayer to my mother before replying “I don’t have it all signore Eladio”. I hurried to add “I have thirty thousand right now, but if you give me a little more time, I swear I’ll get it. I’ll work day and night shift everyday till I get it”.

Thirty “k” was everything I’d made from yesterday plus my meager savings, if I gave it all, surviving long enough to pay the rest would be damn near impossible… but drowning girls and straws.

The ghost of a smirk played across his lips as he pretended to think about my offer. In that very moment I felt an intense hatred for him, more even for myself. My life was in his hands, and he was toying with me again.

“That won’t work…” he said calmly, the mirth in his eyes gone just as quickly as it came “he’s long exceeded the grace period, so I need it all… today.” He pulled his gun out of his hip, death it seemed wasn’t done with me today. My eyes darted between his gun that’d already taken one life, and the impassive expression on his face, trying and failing to keep myself from hyperventilating.

He dropped the gun on the stool between us. “My money, or your life… you choose”

My vision blurred with tears and I blinked them back. He said it so casually, like he was asking me to choose between chicken and salmon.

He stood up and I flinched when he pulled out a pocket knife. He walked up to me and squatted between my legs, reaching down and cutting the ropes that kept them bound… and spread.

His touch on my ankles sent heat tendrils racing up my legs and my thighs, straight to my core, even as he held a knife he’d most likely slit my throat with. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, but I couldn’t think straight with him between my legs, his hands burning my skin where he made contact.

His eyes roamed up my legs, and my stomach, to my breasts. A smirk tugged at his lips and I knew why, my nipples were hard. Pushing through the light fabric of my bra and top, begging for things too dirty to ever come out of my mouth… not for him… not for the devil of Vasari. I closed my eyes in shame and held my breath as I heard him stand and walk around me.

He cut the ropes holding my hands in one swift motion and I gasped. A shiver ripped through me when he gathered the locs of my hair from behind me, exposing my neck. I squeezed my eyes tighter and bit my tongue, not trusting my body. I felt him lean in and whisper… “How about… my money, or your soul”

My eyes snapped open. I knew exactly where he was going.

“You can be my pet for a year, and consider all your father’s debts canceled.”

“I know about your student loans too… close to two million dollars unpaid” he walked back to his chair and sat, watching me with those eyes of his.

“I’ll pay everything you owe, and when I’m done with you, I’ll give you more money than you’ll ever need… because the Vasari mafia is generous”

Eladio Vasari was a vile man, with well-known proclivities that made my skin crawl. Everyone had heard how he kept women as his pets. They would go with him wherever he went, sitting at his feet in skimpy clothes that showed off the scars he’d given them in punishment, and for his pleasure. I once heard he called them his little angels and he did it to break them... their innocence, and their will.

I hated my mother now. For dying after my father had borrowed us into more debt than he could ever pay, trying to save her. On her death bed she’d asked me to take care of him; my father… shouldn’t it have been the other way around? Why did children have to pay for the sins of their fathers, when said father was still alive, dragging himself from the bottom of one beer bottle to the next.

Now I was left with only one real option. I picked up the gun, pointed it at my temple and pulled the trigger. I chose my life.