Chapter Eight Five

The Council Members huffed at him shaking their heads,

‘Non essere ridicolo, Don Romero, grazie per averci portato il marmocchio, ma ora puoi tornare alla tua villa e noi ci occuperemo di lei.’ [Don’t be ridiculous Don Romero, thank you for bringing the little brat to us but you may return to your villa now and we will deal with her.]

He could only watch helplessly as the Council Guards turned and pointed their guns at his men. They were outnumbered, as many of the Dons had brought their own guards to add to the Council's numbers. It had not occurred to him that this would happen, and he would not risk his men's lives in a pointless shootout. For now, he would retreat to a nearby hotel and send for reinforcements.  

When the guards had dragged her down into the dungeons they were quick to strip her out of the designer suit and shoes, she did not fight them as she was cuffed to a wall her feet barely able to touch the floor.

‘Non sei così intelligente ora, puttana?’ [Not so clever now are you bitch?’]                                                They laughed and one of them ran his hands up her body to cup her breasts,

‘Penso che dovremmo spogliarla dei suoi ragazzi nudi, divertirci un po' con lei. Ha bisogno di sapere che il suo posto è sulla schiena o sulle sue ginocchia per dare piacere agli uomini della sua vita.’.  [I think we should strip her naked boys, have a little fun with her. She needs to know her place is on her back or her knees pleasuring the men in her life.]

He squeezed her breasts hard but Juliette did not react she had closed her eyes and let her head hang down so that her long red/gold hair covered her face. She sank into herself the pain of Romero’s betrayal ran so deep nothing the guards said or did touched her, they soon grew bored when she remained pale and still. The dungeons were damp and cold, the walls covered with slimy moss and all the other residents were men who had been beaten so badly they either lay or sat on the dirty concrete floor waiting for death. No one left these places alive, they were tortured and beaten for information and then if they did not die from their wounds they were shot.

They had never brought a woman down there, so they had no idea what to do with her so they left her where she was a beautiful pale shadow and time lost all meaning as the minutes turned into hours. The pain as her limbs protested was unbelievable, her arms felt like they were being pulled from their sockets and her back screamed in protest as the damp and cold seeped into her. Every part of her hurt but she never made a sound tears streamed down her face as she suffered in silence. Her limbs went numb from the cold and she knew if she tried to move it would be agony slowly as the hours passed the pain of  his betrayal turned to anger,

‘We will do this together.’

He had said even though she had told him she was leaving him,

‘I will never let you go.’

Her mind had those two sentences repeating in her head fuelling the flames burning inside her, it was time to act, time to show these fools that she was not a toy for their amusement.

She started screaming, the sound was so alien in that dark, damp place that it startled the half-dead men into action and they began to shout and bang things against their bars. The cacophony of noise brought the  guards running from their warm comfortable rooms,

‘Stai zitto, stai zitto, cazzo.’ [Shut up, shut the fuck up.]

They yelled lashing out at the half-dead men who quickly subsided into silence and that was when they heard her screaming. No orders had come from the Council as to what they should do with her and as she had been so quiet and still they had forgotten she was there as they went about their day-to-day chores. She was dirty and grey from the cold and damp, her body was covered in bruises from their manhandling and from her struggling against the chains that held her against the wall. It was a punishment they used for a few hours but she had been left there for more than a day and the Guard in charge quickly ordered his men to release her from the cuffs. They were so panicked they did not realise what this would mean for her and her screams only intensified as the blood returned to her limbs causing agonising pain. It was all too much for Juliette and her body shut down leaving the guards with no choice but to rush her to the Medical

Centre. The Council Leaders had only meant for her to be incarcerated for a few hours to teach her a lesson but a feud had flared between the Cartel and one of the families and the local police had demanded they resolve it before innocent civilian lives were lost. It was all down to poor communication and a lack of compassion from those who could have made sure she was safe, it was a mistake they would pay for.

Juliette recovered quickly, once she could move her limbs she ignored the pain and escaped, it wasn’t difficult as always they underestimated her believing it would take her days to recover from her ordeal. They did not know the hours she had spent with her Instructor going through survival techniques, she had been trained by the very best and now she used that training. It took her a couple of hours to find an isolated farm where she could rest, she had stolen some clothes from a washing line and managed to look reasonably ‘normal’. The farmer's wife had taken pity on the pretty girl who presented herself saying she had got lost and then stumbled onto their delightful farm and did they have a room for a few days. She had been given a small but scrupulously clean room in one of the stables and it had an ensuite bathroom.