With murder in his eyes, he was unaffected by the two sobbing women at his feet. “Ramon’s wife and daughter.” He kicked the mother, forcing her to land on her side on the hay, moaning when he struck her right in the rib cage.
I’d seen my father do worse, so I wasn’t surprised by his cruelty—but I was surprised by his insanity. “And what are you going to do to them?”
“Exactly what Ramon did to my wife.”
My jaw almost dropped to the floor. “Father…”
“His daughter is quite pretty.” He looked down at her, a girl who couldn’t be a day older than twenty. “And young. You’ll take her. Ramon will watch as we rape and torture his family.”
Jesus fucking Christ. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”
He walked over to the door where Ramon was locked away. He used his key to open it and then swung the door outward.
Ramon took one look at his family and sprinted.
My father slugged him in the stomach then forced him back. “Move, and I’ll kill them both.”
Ramon collapsed against the wall, horrified by the sight.
My father grabbed both of the women and dragged them into the cell.
Ramon immediately clutched both of them and cradled them into his side even though he was powerless to protect them from my father’s menace. “Caspian, don’t do this. Do whatever you want to me, but don’t—”
“Don’t what?” My father stepped farther into the cell. “Don’t rape your wife? The way you raped mine?”
Ramon shut his mouth, knowing he couldn’t argue with the words that flew out of my father’s mouth.
“Don’t rape your daughter?” my father asked. “The way your men raped my wife? My son will take her first, and then my men will take her. When they’re both begging for death, I’ll torture them and hang them in this very barn—so you can watch their corpses rot in the Tuscan heat.” He backed out of the barn.
“Caspian, listen to me!” Ramon struggled to his feet. “I’ll give you whatever—”
My father turned around. “The one thing I want is my wife. Give her to me, and we’ll call this whole thing off.”
Ramon breathed with his panic, his face covered in sweat as he tried to think of a solution to this problem, to spare his wife and daughter from gruesome deaths. But money couldn’t fix this problem. Nothing could fix this problem.
My father grabbed the door. “That’s right…you killed her.” He slammed the door then locked it. “Enjoy your last night with your family. We begin tomorrow.” Sobs sounded from the door as the women started to heave in terror. As if nothing had happened, my father brushed it off and walked toward the barn doors.
My eyes followed him before my feet did the same. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am.” He pushed the doors open then approached his truck. “He gets exactly what he deserves.”
I wanted justice for Mom as much as he did, but I knew she wouldn’t want this. She wouldn’t want us to hurt two innocent people. “It won’t make you feel better. It won’t make losing Mom easier.”
He turned around, flashing me another look of disappointment. “I thought this was the one thing we were united on. Now you’re telling me you’re a coward.”
“I’m not a coward. I just don’t want to rape someone.” Just when I thought my father couldn’t get any worse, he did. Just when I thought he couldn’t be crueler, he was. He’d completely lost his sense of humanity.
“I don’t want to rape those women either, but we have to.”
“But we don’t.” I threw down my arms. “Mom wouldn’t want this. Yes, she would want you to kill Ramon but not hurt his family. They had nothing to do with this.”
“And neither did she.” He’d already made up his mind, and he wasn’t going to change it. He displayed the coldness of a statue that stood in the snow, his expression permanent.
“Ramon didn’t touch me or Lily.”
“But Lily is a lunatic in a mental institution, and my son is a coward.”
“She’s not in a mental institution…she’s in rehab.”
“Whatever.” It didn’t matter; he couldn’t care less. “We’re doing this.”
“I’m not.” I didn’t care if my father hated me forever, but I wasn’t going to rape someone. I wasn’t a good man, but I wasn’t evil either. Plus, I had absolutely no desire to force a woman to do anything. I got more pussy than I could handle. “And you think Mom would want you to fuck someone? Rape someone?”
“It doesn’t matter what she wants. I need Ramon to suffer the way that I suffered.”
“But it won’t change anything!” I threw down my arms again. “Mom is dead, and she’s not coming back. This rampage isn’t healing your wounds. It’s making them bigger, making them fester.” Now I understood why he didn’t torture Ramon right away. Even before he captured him, my father knew he was going to take Ramon’s family—and he didn’t tell me because he knew I would never approve.