Deadly Vows - Chapter 31 (Patreon)

I am jolted awake by the sound of the door unlocking. I don’t know how long I’ve been in here. There are no windows, and there are no clocks. I try to keep up with time by the number of meals they bring me, but from my count, if they bring me three meals a day, I have probably been in here almost a week. A whole week, and no one has come and said anything to me. The pretty blonde comes in and holds conversations with me, but I refuse to respond. And when I ask her why I am here, she just ignores me.

I sit up in the bed and look toward the door to see a man walking in. I have no idea who he is. He is dressed in a nice suit, with dark hair and blue eyes. He has a folder in his hands that has “Pasquino” printed on it. He has a carton with two cups of coffee in it, I am assuming. He takes a seat at the table in the room, placing both objects on the table. He opens the file, flipping through it, still not speaking.

He finally looks up at me and grabs a coffee out of the carton and pushes it across the table toward me.

I stay seated in the bed, not daring to move as I eye him suspiciously. He looks to be about the same age as Luca. Except his face is softer. He must smile a lot.

“Sorry for the delay. I was actually out of the country, finishing up a case, when I got a call that we had Luca Pasquino’s wife in custody.” His eyes shift to the untouched cup of coffee.

“Not thirsty?” His voice is light and carefree.

I still don’t answer him. He only shrugs. Just by this small confrontation, I can tell he is not in the Mafia. The fact that he hasn’t slapped me for ignoring him when he is talking to me tells me sure enough. He shrugs at my silence and opens the file.

“Elise Trovoli, now Pasquino since your marriage into the Pasquino family. Twenty years old next month. No occupation, no driver’s record, hell, not even a license. No school record, no credit cards, nothing. I can see why Luca kept you under the radar. You are a pretty thing, aren’t you?” He looks up, giving me a light smile, but I am still trying to understand his comment.

“Kept me under the radar?”

He looks around, as if trying to come up with the right words to explain.

“Kept you away from the government eye. Quite honestly, we didn’t know you existed until the incident with your half-brother. Your whole statement was scratched from the record.” He places the file on the table, and I can see articles and pictures of Luca.

I look up at him, still confused.

“Before we get into the logistics of things, I want to first apologize for the way things went in your car. We thought you were your husband.” He gives me an embarrassed smile.

I still stare at him. What the hell is going on?

“My name is Agent Jeffries. I work in the top secret division of the US government. That’s really all I can give you right about now. If I tell you anything else about us, well, I may have to kill you.” He laughs, but immediately stops when he sees I am not laughing. I guess he doesn’t understand that kind of thing isn’t funny to someone like me.

“Look, miss, bottom line is, we have been trying to bust your husband for years now. But men like him are smart. Too smart. They do things that make it impossible to catch them. Your husband is a threat to us and everyone else, and I think you know what I’m talking about. All I need from you is a statement, and we can have probable cause to search his properties. Maybe even some of the clubs he owns. There are whole halves of the city that are indebted to him because they pay for protection but refuse to give statements for fear of their lives. Do you know how many lives and people can be liberated from him? He is the biggest crime boss in the United States, probably has just as much power, if not more, than the president. He controls so many interconnected networks, and if we can just take him down, then we will have made the largest bust in the history of the United States.” He sits back in his seat, smiling at me.

I can only stare at him.

“A statement?” I laugh bitterly aloud. “Luca is not one to be messed with, sir. And for good reason. He would probably kill me if

I did something like that.” Agent Jeffries stares at me.

“Quite honestly, I’m surprised he isn’t here now. He implanted a fucking tracking device in me.”

This catches the agent’s attention. He leans back in his chair and pulls a baggie out of his pocket.

“You mean this?” He sets down what is left of my tracker chip on the table. “We had it taken out and destroyed before you even left the car. You probably didn’t notice it because the pain blended with your injuries from the wreck.”

I can only stare at the chip.

“I really support you guys in this, I really do, but I don’t think you understand what you are asking of me. I can’t turn against my husband, and not for the reasons you think. I have my own life and my brother’s life to think about. I’m sorry, Agent, but you’re not getting anything out of me.”

He sits back in his chair, frowning. The room is silent for a moment.

“Look, I know you’re scared, but if we can just get this from you, we can offer you protection. You’re the only option we have. No one else is willing to testify. And your words will definitely get us the court order we need. Once we arrest your husband, we can hide you in protective services.”

I continue to shake my head.

“Look, Agent, I told you no. There is no place safe for me if I betray my husband. People won’t testify for good reason. They’d be signing a death warrant! You people have rats that work for him already in these top secret divisions. I’m sorry, but you’re going to

have to find another way to bust him.”

His face turns from friendly to angry.

“I see. Then I guess there is nothing we can do for you here.” He stands to leave, and upon the door’s opening, two men step into the room, grabbing me roughly and dragging me out of the room.

* * * * *

It’s completely silent as I ride in the car with a bag over my face. All I can see is the small light streaming in from the little holes. It smells stale. My body rocks as we hit another bump. I have no idea how long we’ve been driving for. All I know is that it has been a while. Wherever we are going must be somewhere hostile. They zip-tied my hands behind my back uncomfortably tight. My muscles are beginning to ache. I can feel the burning of my wounds coming back. The nice, top secret government facility was giving me pain medicine. But since I am not helping them, I guess they think it’s fair to leave me without them. And damn if my hip doesn’t hurt where they took the GPS out.

The car suddenly stops, and I am being jerked out of my seat. They are pulling me so fast I don’t have the time or strength to catch my footing. For some reason, I haven’t shed a tear up to this point. I guess I have Luca to thank for that. If these guys are anything like him, I just may be prepared for whatever they have in store for me.

I can hear the sound of doors opening, and I am hit with cold air. There are people shouting around me. The tops of my feet are stinging from being rubbed raw by the men dragging me across the concrete. I am sat in a seat, and the bag is jerked off my head.

There is a woman in front of me. She is a little on the bigger side and is shouting at the men behind me in Russian. They obviously don’t know that I speak Russian. It is something I’ve picked up in the years of being neglected by my father. I also speak French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Latin, which I barely know, because it is a dead language. So finding lessons on it is hard.

“You bring me this thirty minutes before the auction starts? I don’t think so. She can wait until next week.”

“We don’t have that long. She wasn’t taken from some nobody’s home. She’s the wife of Luca Pasquino. He could be hot on our trail. We need to get rid of her as soon as possible.”

I keep my eyes trained down so they don’t catch that I can understand them.

“Pasquino? Why the fuck would you bring her here? He finds out she’s at this place, we’re all as good as dead!”

“No, we’ll be fine. The agency gave her to us. They wiped the trail and are leading him on a chase. By the time he finds out what’s really going on, she’ll be too far gone for him to bother us.”

The lady contemplates for a moment before responding. “Fine. Leave us.”

The man nods and exits the room. The woman looks at me. She stalks toward me and reaches out to touch my hair, and I immediately slap her hand out of my face.

“Ohh, you’re feisty, aren’t you, sweetie,” she says to me in English. “We’ll fix that soon enough.” She roughly jerks my left hand, snatching it tightly as she jerks my wedding ring off. “Can’t have this where you’re going.” She sneers at me and walks away, inspecting the ring.

It probably costs more than she will see in her lifetime.

Twenty minutes later, I’m sitting in a room, with dark-red lingerie on and an open robe that reveals more than I’d like it to. The woman that scrubbed my skin raw and waxed my entire body has a hard time getting it done. She has giant welts across her skin from my nails to prove it. This is pure madness at its best. For once, I actually wish Luca would come and save me. I don’t want to be auctioned off like some piece of meat.

There are two different auctions. There seems to be one for common girls and some private auctions, which is where I and a few other girls are right now. There is a girl next to me that looks as frightened as I feel. She is literally shivering even though she is wearing that heavy fabric over her lingerie. I reach over and place my hand over hers, and her frightened eyes meet mine. I try to give her a small smile of reassurance, but I must not have looked too convincing, because tears fill her eyes and she bursts out into loud sobs.

In total, there are about ten women sitting in this room, and they are all important somehow, because we hold higher value over the general auction. I can remember listening to my father talk about these kinds of things when I was younger. Never did I think I would be the poor soul stuck in one.

“Oh my god, you’re Luca Pasquino’s wife.”

I turn around and see a girl staring at me in shock. I have no idea who she is, but she looks to be older than me by a few years.

“Who are you?”

She looks around before shuffling toward me. “I … uh, I was …” Her cheeks burn red as she tries to explain it to me. “I was one of Luca’s father’s mistresses. You know, when he was alive.”

I look at this woman who is sitting in here with me. She looks around my age, maybe older. And she was having sex with Luca’s father? Sick bastard.

“He told me about the wedding. Luca’s wedding. He showed me pictures. That’s how I recognize you. You’re very beautiful. Luca is very lucky to have you.” She then realizes what she is saying. “How on earth did you get here?”

I take a deep breath before responding, the weight of what is going on triggered by that question. This whole time, I have felt numb, shutting off my emotions and trying to keep it that way. But now the tears I have held back are starting to resurface and threatening to spill over.

“They kidnapped me, and because I wouldn’t help them with taking Luca down, they’re throwing me in an auction so that he can’t find me.” A sob breaks out of my throat.

“Oh no,” she whispers with her hands over her mouth. Her eyes widen. “They?”

Before I can respond, the girl next to me pipes up. “Please, what are they going to do to us?” she whispers to her.

“They sell us by value. They make the ones that are known for their affairs with the crime bosses go first. Like me.” She opens her robe, showing us the lingerie beneath. “They coordinate us by color. See? Girls like me wear gold. The next ones that go are the most valuable, because, well …” She trails off as she stares at the girl next to me. “They’re virgins. They wear white. And they cost a lot. Usually, there’s something unique about you, which is why you’re in the private auction.”

Her eyes meet mine, and they are filled with pity.

“And the ones that go last are the most important. They aren’t virgins, but they have a very important significance. They are a major crime boss’s daughter, sister, or … wife. Some form of relation to them. Most of the men that come to these are very important men, so having someone like you is very useful. Which is why you wear red.”

I stare at her in horror.

“How do you know all this?”

She looks away, a little embarrassed. “I’ve done it before. Women like me serve a purpose, and once our boss gets tired of us, he sends us back. But we know what men like them like, which is why we are of some value.” She shrugs, as if it were not a big deal, but I feel as if I am going to vomit. I am about to be auctioned off. To the highest bidder.

I look to the girl that is telling us all this with pleading eyes. “Please, whoever you get sold to, you have to find some way to get into contact with Luca. You have to tell him what happened and where I was last,” I beg to her with tears in my eyes. I know in the back of my mind that this is stupid of me to want Luca to find me, but human nature is to flee to what you know. And right now, Luca is all I know. And he is my only hope. I am about to be sold to God knows who, and I am terrified.

The door opens, and a man comes in, roughly grabbing the first woman as the auction begins.

* * * * *

I am the last one. The most valuable. My heart is hammering in my chest, and the tears are a never-ending stream as I am led into a dark room with a spotlight being shone on me. The speaker overhead sounds.

“Elise Pasquino, nineteen years old. Not a virgin, but the wife of the North Mob’s notorious Luca Pasquino.” The robe is ripped off me, and I am stuck sitting in the middle of the room in a pair of sexy bra and underwear.

“Let’s start the bidding at $100,000.”

* * * * *

The robe is back on me, and I am being rushed, to where, I have no idea. I can hear the sound of the door, and the heat hits me, so I know we are outside. But then I am met with the sound of a door, and I am roughly pushed inside of a car. The towel around my eyes is soaked with my tears, and I strain to hear any kind of noise.

A deep voice comes out of nowhere, causing me to jump.

“My, you are exquisite.”