“What do you want?” I ask again, this time in a whisper.
“Everything.”
“Everything of Angel’s...” I quietly correct him.
Dante stops in his tracks and I want to kick myself—Don’t jab him, Catalina!—but the ghoul seems more entertained than hurt by my foolish words. “I can see why my brother fell for you,” he whistles. “A feisty senorita to challenge him—that’s the kind of man he is, always looking for a challenge. Well, I gave him a challenge. Really, he should be thanking me.”
For a split-second, I swear I hear Dante’s voice crack when he says that word, ‘thanking’... does he regret all of this?
I wouldn’t be surprised, but I doubt it’s for any human reasons. He probably just misses his old carefree lifestyle.
“Why do you want me?” I prod, curiosity taking control of my vocal chords.
Dante’s reptilian eyes blink up and down my body. My arms want to cross over my chest and hide my figure from him, but I remain stoic.
Oscar yawns behind the devil and I take deep, slow breaths.
“You still don’t remember, do you?” Dante sneers. “But I guess that’s to be expected. How many men did you offer yourself to before you found the right price? What did my brother pay for that body? Whore...”
My sharp fists clench at the insult. How dare he call me such names in front of my son? The nails I’ve whittled into weapons dig into my palms as I quietly dare Dante to get any closer. “I’m not a whore...” I mumble under my breath.
Dante huffs with derision. “Of course you are, idiot. How long were you trying to sell that tight little body of yours before my brother took you for his own? At least six years...”
My first instinct is to snap, but then Dante’s words ring around between my ears and I’m frozen still.
Six years...
How the fuck does he know that?
The truth is, that night at the gala where I first met Angel wasn’t my first attempted foray into higher society. It all started just over six years ago, when a shady friend of a friend introduced me to a man who said he could introduce me to the kind of people I sought.
He wasn’t lying... but I should have never trusted the bastard. The men he knew weren’t interested in partnerships, they wanted slaves. Sex slaves.
I was brought to an old church in a nearby town, and the second the front doors closed behind us, I was tied from head to toe and dragged up to the altar. In the pews were a dozen shadows with evil Cheshire grins. On stage with me were half a dozen other poor girls.
We had been lured to our doom, now we were to be sold to the highest bidder.
A shiver works its way across my skin as I remember my price climbing higher and higher until it seemed like a victor was finally emerging...
And then, the church door burst open and a stream of heavily armed policias entered with their guns drawn. The men all scrambled; some escaped, some didn’t, but me and every last one
of the girls who had been kidnapped alongside of me were saved.
The effort was led by my old mayor, Luis Morelos—it’s why I enshrined him forever in Oscar’s name.
Oscar Luis Alzate. Oscar Luis Alzate-Montoya.
But what does that have to do with Dante?
Unless...
“You were at the church!?” I blurt out, and I hear a curious gurgle come from Oscar’s box.
“Finally!” Dante sighs, raising his arms to the ceiling in a big show of just how exasperated he is. “Did anyone ever tell you that you were a little slow?”
I don’t respond to his lashing. I’m still confused. Buying a sex slave definitely wouldn’t be out of character for Dante, but he would have been so young... though, I guess I was, too. I guess that’s how I first recognized him... even if I didn’t want to.
“Mama?” Ozzy’s innocent little voice floats around Dante’s sulking shadow and my heart breaks.