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Chapter Three
ARIA
My thoughts are everywhere as I feel myself again, coming to. I don’t know where I am yet, who has taken me, or why yet. Though, a million horrible thoughts are going through my head without any sort of order or control about how this is going to end; if my father will come for me or if I will die before he can find me.
I guess when the word danger has been ingrained in you for such a long time you put it in the back of your mind and become desensitized. You live your life, and sometimes you even dare to let your guard down because nothing has happened yet. In your heart you know it doesn’t mean you are safe forever, but you behave as if you are.
That’s what I have been doing now. I have done it for so long, it has become second nature like I am a normal girl. But I am nothing of the sort. I am Italian and Romanian, descended from a long line of rich and ruthless criminal leaders, and my blood means money and power. It means leverage and threats. If I make it out of here alive, I don’t think I would ever be able to forget that again.
My eyes flutter open, and I notice that I am in a large, unfinished room. There is mostly concrete. It is not dirty, but it is a bit on the stuffy side. I am in a chair like an old dentist’s chair, buckled down. It is then that I know some of my worst fears are likely to be realized. I notice a bed over in the corner, but there is no comfort in that either. There are lots of cabinets, and I do not know what is in them. I don’t want to know.
And then I hear footsteps. My head can turn, at least, and out of the corner of my eye, I see there is a set of stairs leading down from somewhere. Is this a basement? A better survey of the simple string light above me and what was a small window tells me only a little. It could be a basement or a small warehouse. L.A. has plenty of those, but it isn’t like I know for sure I AM still in L.A. But whose basement or warehouse? I think I am about to find out even though that question is probably safest going unanswered.
I instantly recognize the man that walks in front of my clear view, and I don’t know whether I want to look way from his smirk or look into his eyes to show him I am not afraid. But I doubt not being afraid now will save me.
"Cheng." It is a simple statement, a realization as to who has captured me. He is one of my father’s slimiest business associates; the leader of a Chinese gang that possibly does worse things than the mafia to earn its money and fearsome reputation. If he has me, he wants something from my father, and I hope it’s that simple. Because if my father has angered him, I won’t be spared. This man is very openly a monster. I can see it in the way he looks over me.
"Aria, so nice of you to grace us with your presence," he says, the men who came down with him chuckling lightly at his asinine joke. I keep my face blank. There will be plenty of time to react, I am certain. "I thought it would be nice to have a little chat now that you're awake. Is that okay?"
He waits, wanting an actual response from me. I nod my head and avoid an eye roll that could cost me my life. I am not useful in many aspects to Cheng, and so I doubt he would miss me if he felt rageful enough to end my life.
"Good. I have always known the Funars to be understanding. Which brings me to the reason you’re here. See, this is not personal at all. Not against you, anyway. Your father hasn’t kept his end of the deal we have been working on. I don’t take too well to such things, as I am sure you know. I would guess your father has certain punishments for the same thing?"
He squats down much too close to me for comfort. He again wants me to answer. I nod again, my heartbeat picking up at his words. Whether or not my father had a good reason to go back on a deal with this man, he must have realized what it could mean. I should have at least been warned...been better protected. But it is too late for that. The punishment falls on me.
Cheng looks almost regretful as he speaks his next words. "Now, you will pay the ultimate price for his sin."
Suddenly, everything is feeling very biblical as I realize I will have to face the sins of my father, and I wish I prayed more often, then I might know what to say to get saved right now or to at least pass out so I am oblivious to what will be done to me.
With a sigh, Cheng stands back up, tugging at his taupe vest as if to smooth it out. "I want to be straight with you, Aria. I have plans for you and so do my men. You are in for a lot of long nights. First, we will take it slow. You will be tortured, beaten, just for fun. I will allow some of the newer members to do that; get their feet wet and all. You will likely be in a lot of pain with your injuries, but I will not let them kill you. So, no worries there."
His smile is like he is doing me a favor. There are some things worse than death, and I get the feeling I am about to know those things intimately.
"Then, if you aren't too far gone, I am going to allow you the courtesy of a bed while a few of my men get to indulge in your untouched body. As you can imagine, not many of them get the pleasure of a complete virgin." I can barely hold it together now, and my head shoots up at that. There are so many reasons why that is the worst thing that can be done to me. I know exactly how this will affect both my father and myself, not just here and now, but in the long term.
"Tomorrow, it will continue. More men will come to see you. I will give them the freedom to have you wherever they want, since you only be so pristine anymore. And then, you will continue to wake up and do it all over again. As I said, I do not want to kill you, at least not right now. Eventually, all my men will have you. Some of them like some pretty sick things, not enough love in their childhood or something," he says with a scoff and shake of his head. "And you will be spent. You will be viewed as a broken little thing, and that’s if your father even gets to look at your face again." That’s when he stops smiling and comes up to me, his fingers painfully digging into the sides of my mouth, forcing me to look into his eyes. "You will no longer be something Baptiste can use to his advantage."
Yes, this is the worst thing he can do, and he knows it. If I am saved, if he lets me go, it won’t matter. There will be no turning back from what has been done to me. Even if it not by choice, my body will be considered soiled by my father and the other Romanian or Italian men he may have tried to marry me off to before. I will still be a Funar, but I will not be IN the family.
And to think, I have been saving myself just like I am meant to, for the man my father would choose to take my hand in marriage. He would have been a powerful and upstanding man to take care of me. Now, I get nothing. I am nothing. Cheng has already won and hasn’t laid a hand on me yet. And I no longer feel a need to hide any pain, fear, or anger from any of these men. They will get pleasure out of me either way.
I will suffer either way.
