“And it’s always gotten me what I wanted, hasn’t it?” she asked her grin widening.
“Yes. It has.”
I leaned down and reached for the small brunette girl and pulled her too up by her arm. I looked up her up and down carefully as she kept her eyes to the floor.
“Very nice,” I said with an approving nod. “Your name?”
“Ilse,” she replied softly.
“Give her here; you have enough,” Danique said pulling her out of my grip. I rolled my eyes and let the girl go. She was beautiful and would probably make me a great sum of money, but it was true. I had more than enough whores and wealth than I knew what to do with these days.
“Up you go,” I said to the last girl, securing her arm in my hand. She hesitated for a moment, turning her face away from me, before she let me pull her up unsteadily to her feet. “Look at me, Lieve,” I whispered softly. I knew it was her by the profile of her face and the curves of her body, now that I could fully see it.
She shook her head and tried to pull out of my grip, but I held on, made my way around her, and stopped when I was facing her. She turned her face again so I couldn’t see her face. I put my hands on her arms letting her use hers to cover herself with, and felt a single tear drop land on me. Her body shook as she struggled to keep her eyes away from my face, but I knew Lieve well enough to know it wasn’t from fear. She shook as hard as she did and cried her quiet tears because she was furious with me.
“Take her and wait by the door,” I said to Danique. She nodded and took Lieve from my arms, as well as Ilse from my side and turned to leave the door when a glass flew passed my head and shattered on the wall. “Is he always this childish?” I asked Ilse, who darted her eyes nervously toward Luuk.
Danique pushed Ilse out of the room and closed the door behind her. I raised an eyebrow as she quickly began to pick up the shards of broken glass before taking them to the table and dropping them on an empty plate. She sat down in the chair I had been in when I was attempting to negotiate Lieve’s freedom with Luuk and spoke.
“I know I asked for one month with the American, but I’ve got a better deal for you. I’ll stay here as long as you want, work as many hours a day as you want, fuck as many men and women as you tell me to, if you let her go now. This will be the debt I told you I would owe you,” she said conversationally.
Luuk, the angry boy House Master, leaned forward to look Danique directly in the face. His eyes were so stern and evil, but she didn’t falter. Not when he told her no, not when he demanded she leave his house, and not even when he grabbed a shard of the glass and made a terrible gash along the side of her beautiful face for her defiance.
Seven
Amity
Holy shit!
I moved away from Kerstan’s side and went over to Danique who was still sitting across from Smith. She had calmly taken a cloth napkin from the table and placed it against her cheek. Her heaving shoulders told me that she was in pain and when I reached her, she looked up at me with glossy eyes and a small smile.
“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Kerstan shouted.
Smith got to his feet, dropped the bloodied piece of glass on top of the table, and looked at Danique.
“You have a new face courtesy of your new friend,” he said with a smirk as he walked toward the door.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, my voice cracking. She held up her hand for a moment, then waved it quickly to let me know she had already forgiven me. Danique, a woman I had never met before today, had already forgiven me and I couldn’t even forgive myself.
“Help me,” I begged Kerstan desperately. He came over quickly and pulled the napkin away to see her face. Oh God. I had to turn away. Not because it was a deep cut, but because I knew it would leave a terrible scar and it didn’t have to happen.
“Can you walk?” Kerstan asked her. She closed her eyes tightly for a moment, before she nodded and pushed herself to her feet. At first she was a bit unsteady, but Kerstan gripped her tightly so she wouldn’t waiver any more.
“I can’t do this anymore,” I said more to myself. I sank to the floor and choked back my tears. I couldn’t live this life anymore. I couldn’t live the life that caused p
eople around me to get hurt because of a young man’s boyish tantrums. If I hadn’t fucked up my life with Theo none of this would have ever happened.
“I need you to help me get her out of here, Amity. We have to take her back home so the grandmothers can tend to her,” Kerstan said, leaning down to pull me up off of the floor.
I didn’t realize how strong he really was until that moment. And with the way he held her against him and did his best to make sure I was okay too, almost made him seem human. But I knew this would come with a price too. There would only be one way to end this entire charade once and for all and getting to where I needed to be to end it would be damn near impossible.
I took ahold of myself, calming my emotions. I wasn’t sad anymore and I wasn’t desperate either. I felt what I was feeling in Camogli after I had surfaced from seeing the Christ of the Abyss statue. I felt what I was feeling when I woke up in a strange house with a strange man and had to fight to stay alive. I felt like Amity Crane; not playful, somewhat bitchy Amity. No, I was the real Amity. Determined, strong, and a fighter.
I was going to show Smith why Theo had fallen in love with me. I was going to make him understand the parts of me he had never seen before and I was going to make him understand what it was like to survive; truly survive like the villa in Italy had taught me to do.
I pulled myself away from Kerstan, “Take Valentina outside. Get her in your car and take her back to your place. I’ll be behind you soon.”
“Not without you,” he said firmly, shaking his head.