Chapter 3

The jet lands. They drag me straight to the Greco estate, down to the basement that never sees daylight.

This is where Matteo used to keep his Rottweilers. The air still stinks of dogs.

They chain my wrists and leave me face-down on the concrete.

The iron door creaks open.

"Tsk tsk. Still got that pride, huh?"

Vanessa walks over and lifts my chin with the toe of her heels.

"You wanna know why he locked you down here?"

She crouches and leans in close to my ear, sweet poison in her voice.

"Because you're filthy. He's scared you'll give him something. Right now, every time he pictures you under those old men, he can't even keep his food down."

I close my eyes. My breath is barely there.

She doesn't like that. Her eyes flash.

She signals the guards behind her.

"Teach her some manners."

Two of them yank me up by the arms.

Vanessa pulls a small electric prod from her pocket.

"Back at the auction block, they used one of these on you all the time, right? Let's jog your memory."

She jams the prod straight into the raw, unhealed meat on my inner thigh.

"AAAAAHH—!"

I thought I was ready. I wasn't. Everything goes white. My body convulses off the floor. The wound splits open. Blood soaks through what's left of my clothes.

She keeps clicking the button. Again. Again. Again.

The world starts to dim.

The door opens again.

Matteo stands in the doorway, watching like it's a movie.

Vanessa pockets the prod instantly. The concerned-girlfriend face snaps back on.

"Babe, you came down? It's filthy down here."

Matteo walks straight to me. He has a folder in his hand. He drops it on my face.

"Sign."

I force my eyes open. I can read the words.

Voluntary Surrender of All Shares and Assets of Lane Holdings.

Stapled behind it: Lifetime Servitude Contract.

"You said you loved me, didn't you?" His voice is ice. He's looking down at me like I'm something on the bottom of his shoe.

"You're already ruined. So I'll buy the rest of your life with that eighty million. You'll be my slave. That's the deal."

"Sign it, and I'll bring the doctors. Don't sign, and you rot down here."

I look at the folder.

Something cracks inside me, and I start to laugh.

It echoes off the basement. Thin. Awful. It doesn't sound like me.

It sets him off.

"What the hell are you laughing at?"

"I'm laughing…" I lift my head. I lock onto his eyes and I don't let go. "I'm laughing because you're never going to get what you want. Not from me. Not ever."

I pull together every scrap of strength I have left.

And I spit a mouthful of blood right onto the contract.

Matteo loses it.

"Beat her! Beat her until she can't move!"

Vanessa's eyes light up like Christmas. She waves the guards on.

Boots come down on my ribs. My back. My face.

Matteo just stands there. Watching. Cold. The fury of a man who's never been told no.

Somewhere in the haze, I make myself a promise.

I'm going to live through this.

And when I do, I'm going to bury every single one of them.