“What? What are you talking about?”
He laughs. “For such a bright student, you can fucking dumb at times. The lot of the young, Am I right, Sergio?”
Sergio grunts a chuckle out behind me. He’s fiddling with his cellphone as George continues talking to me. “We professors often have to work two jobs to make ends meet. You already know about one of mine. Time to find out about the other. Come with me, Anna.”
“Hold on,” Sergio says. “Don’t forget the other thing.”
“Oh, yes. Of course. Go on then, get it done.”
Sergio walks in front of me. He’s got his cellphone in one hand and a gun in the other. “You’re going to look here,” he says. “And you’re going to say that you hate Leo. Going to tell him you’re glad he got burned in the car crash. Wished he died. Tell him you hope he burns in hell for kidnapping you and sign off with a flourish. Tell him to go fuck himself.”
I shake my head. “I’m not doing that.” I pull out the gun he gave me and point it directly at him. “You go fuck yourself.”
He laughs. “Try pulling the trigger. See what happens.”
“I’ll do it. I’ll shoot you both.”
“No, you won’t. You haven’t got the balls.”
“I might not have balls but I’ve got bullets.” I squeeze the trigger but nothing happens. Just a dull click.
Sergio snatches the gun out of my hand. “Thought it was a live one, didn’t you? Dumb broad.”
George appears next to me, shoving his cellphone into my face. “Look at this,” he says, talking like he’s discussing the weather. “You see what’s on this screen?”
I look down. It’s security camera footage of a miserable looking room. Blank walls, single light in the ceiling. Fleur is tied to a chair in the middle of the floor, tugging at the ropes holding her in place. She’s coated in sweat, her hair sticking to her forehead, her clothes clinging to her.
“Modern tech,” George says. “I set the thermostat to go up by one degree every half hour. By the end of today it’ll be too hot to survive. Such a shame if she had to die because you’re not willing to film one little home movie.
“It’s not like I’m even asking you to lie. I know you hate Leo. I know you want to be free of him. This is your chance to get revenge for what he’s done to you. Sergio told me about the kidnapping, the forced marriage. Even told me about you walking through the house like some kind of display whore, his cum all over you.
“You won’t be treated like that in my house, Anna. You are a princess and you will be treated like one. Everything your heart desires, you will have it but only if you play ball. So say what you have to say or Fleur bakes to a crisp and I take you anyway. I heard you like pain. I can give you a lot of pain. Too much, maybe, unless you do as I say. Make the fucking video and don’t whine. It’s an unbecoming habit.”
“I won’t do it, you asshole.”
“Sergio, shoot her in the knee.”
Sergio raises the gun toward me.
“All right,” I say, holding my hands out in supplication. “I’ll do it.”
“Good.” He grins. “See, that wasn’t too tough, was it?”
Sergio points the phone at me. “Say it,” he says. “Make it quick. Giorgio isn’t the most patient of men.”
I look at the phone, swallowing hard. “Leo,” I say after a moment’s thought. “I hate you. I’ve always hated you. You’re an asshole and I’m glad the fire burned you. I only wish it had killed you back then. Go fuck yourself.”
Sergio hits a button on his phone. “Good girl. Now I’ll send that to him and you can go and join your friend in Giorgio’s house. Don’t worry. I’ll keep Leo company, tell him you ran away, show him the video to prove just how much you hate him. Enjoy your new life.”
He waves toward the helicopter, gun still pointing my way.
“Do I have to go with you?” I ask as Giorgio reaches a hand out toward me. “I thought you were a good person, George. You funded our dig, you helped us pass our course. You were a good teacher.”
“A man can be more than one thing,” he says, shoving me into the helicopter. “I can be a good teacher and want to fuck one of my students. I can fund your dig and be obsessed with you. I can help you study and plan for years how to get you to be my wife.
“Look at you. You can be a paleontologist and a whore. You can be interested in science and fuck other men while I watch. Make me a fortune, you will. You want to know how much people are willing to pay for a mafia Don’s daughter on film? Stripping? Fucking herself? Getting fucked? They will pay a fortune, Anna. You’re going to earn your keep.
“Leo is going to see that video you shot and then get killed when he turns up at what he thinks is my house. Last thing he’ll have in his head will be the thought that you always hated him. Isn’t that delightful? Sometimes I surprise myself with how good I am at all this shit.