by Kara Parker
Rose watches as Matos, just getting to his knees, catches the woman as she leaps at him, rotating her over his hip and slamming her to the ground. She cries out with the impact. Matos then forces her legs open and drives into her once more, thrusting furiously. The woman slaps and scratches as she screams in rage and pain. Matos fights her off then twists her breast. There is no mistaking the sound of intense pain in her shriek.
Joseph can’t take anymore. He makes one step toward Matos and woman when he feels the gun in his ribs, forcing him to stop.
The woman gets a hand under Matos’ chin and forces his head back, Matos grimacing in pain and effort as he tries to keep thrusting while at the same time pulling her hand away. Finally he succeeds in freeing his head from her grasp and backhands her savagely for her trouble.
The woman grabs at Matos’ throat, both hands going around his neck. Matos stops thrusting, grabbing her wrists, twisting to break her grip on his neck. They roll, the woman coming to rest on top, bearing down on Matos’s throat as he grabs her own. Locked in a mortal struggle, Matos once again begins to slam hard into her, both combatants gasping and wheezing as they try to subdue the other, their faces growing redder by the second.
Still thrusting madly, Matos grabs the woman by the hair again and pulls savagely hard, breaking her grip. He heaves in a great lungful of air as she tumbles off of him. Still holding the struggling woman by the hair he forces the kicking and slapping woman onto her back then delivers three hard slaps across her face.
Rose sees the fight go out of the woman with the final backhanded slap. But Matos isn’t done. Though the woman tries to keep her legs closed, he forces them open and back, pinning her knees to her shoulders. The woman, realizing what is about happen, issues a throat rending scream as Matos drives into her ass. She twists and fights, locking her legs around his head as she pulls his hair, the muscles on her arms standing out as she strains. Matos once again roars in pain and tries to get her hands out of his hair. Failing that, he begins to thrust into her again while twisting a breast with what has to be excruciating force.
Screaming, desperate to free his hand from her breast, the woman pushes hard with her legs, standing Matos up onto his knees even as the pounds into her. With his head still locked between her legs, she releases his hair and tears his hand free of her tender flesh. With another roar, Matos suddenly becomes still, his breath coming in bellows like pants has he pulls on the woman’s legs. She releases him and rolls to her side where she begins to sob softly, holding her breast and curling into a near fetal position.
Rose can feel her tears of sympathy for the woman as Matos gets to his feet. In the process he picks up his robe and slips it on, pulling a small container out of a pocket. He pinches a bit of white powder between two fingers, holds his fingers to his nose, and sniffs quickly several times before wiping his nose.
Matos smiles at Rose. “That’s how a man fucks, señorita. Shall I fuck you next?”
Rose watches as two other women help the battered woman to her feet. Then she notices that all the women seem to be bruised up to one degree or another. It seems Señor Matos likes the rough fucking. She will die before she allows that asshole fuck her, but…
“That’s the best you got?” she challenges. “My great-grandfather can fuck harder than that,” she sneers, donning the tough bitch Athena persona.
The entire room falls silent, every eye upon her. “Rose! What are you doing?!” Joseph hisses.
“You look like a gambling man. I offer you a wager. Me against you. One on one. No holds barred fucking. You up for it?”
“Rose!” Joseph hisses again.
Señor Matos settles back onto the cushions on the floor. “You have nothing to bargain with, Rose,” he says, emphasizing her name.
“But I do. If I fuck you until you can’t fuck anymore, we go free.”
“And if I win. If I make you beg me to stop?”
“I will stay and you can fuck me every night, knowing each time you do you have out fucked the best lover I have ever had. Him,” she says with a jerk of her head at Joseph.
“Rose! No!” Joseph cries, lunging at Matos before two men restrain him.
Matos considers it. “No. I will play your little game, but for you only. If you can fuck me until I can fuck you no more, you shall have your freedom. But he stays. I can’t allow the man that defied me to live. But I warn you, señorita, I won’t go as easy on you as I did Lucia. I might have to get rough with you, eh?”
Rose smiles with a confidence she doesn’t feel. “The rougher the better. I am Athena and can out fuck and out fight any five of your Mexican peasant bitches.”
Señor Matos chuckles. “Shall I make him watch as I fuck you? Shall I have him lick my come out of your ass?”
“Do we have a deal, then? If I can best you, we go free?”
“Just you, dear Rose. Just you.”
“No deal then.”
“Fine. Kill them both.”
The men begin to haul them out. “Wait a moment,” Matos calls as a stunningly beautiful woman, impeccably dressed, speaks in his ear. “No!” Matos says firmly with a dismissive wave of his hand. The woman speaks again, too low for Rose to hear.
Finally Señor Matos sighs and nods as the woman smiles and stands up. “This is my son’s wife. She has an alternate bargain for your Mr. Warner.”
The woman steps forward. “You took something from me,” she says in a purring Spanish accent while looking at Rose. “I intend to take something from you. Him. I will have him for as long as he pleases me. You will know that he will never touch you again, yet I will be in his arms every night until I tire of him. And as he will watch you and papa, you will watch him... and know if he ever fails to please me, I will kill him myself.”
“Fuck you, you whore,” Joseph snarls.
“Wait!” Rose cries. “Joseph, you have to do this!”
“No!”
“Remember what we talked about this morning. You have to!”
“No! I’ll die first!”
“Joseph,” Rose pleads. “For me. Please! I can’t bear the thought of you dying. Please!”
Joseph stares into Rose’s face as she silently mouths the word please. “Fuck!” he snarls, breathing hard. “I need some time. I’m tired and hungry. Can we clean up, eat, and rest? Please, Señorita. If you want my best, allow me this.”
Señor Matos nods. “Take them to the guest rooms. Separate rooms. Tonight, Mr. Warner, we’ll see if you can manage to stay alive. Then I will take care of señorita Rose.”
“Tomorrow, Señor Matos. I want you at your best also. I like a challenge.”
Hector Matos laughs. “You are a brave one, señorita. Tomorrow evening then. I too would like a challenge.”
CHAPTER FOURTY-SEVEN
“Rose? Can you hear me?”
“I can hear you.”
Joseph wants to rage at her for what she has agreed to do… for what she has asked him to do. But he can’t. “I love you, Rose.”
“I love you too.”
Rose is quiet, contemplating what they are being forced to do. “Matos… he’s insane.”
“Yeah.”
“Why do they stay? The women. Why would they stay and let him abuse them like that?”
Even though Rose can’t see him, he shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe they like the money and the prestige. Maybe they are just a crazy as he is and they like it. That woman, she started out willingly enough... and she had to know what was coming.”
“Yeah. She didn’t even try to get away. I noticed that some of the other girls are bruised up. That isn’t the first time something like that has happened.”
“No,” Joseph says.
“Promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“Tomorrow, if I can’t do it myself, grab a gun and kill me before that bastard Matos touches me.”
“Rose…”
“Promise me!”
“I promise,” he says, just loud e
nough for her to hear.
“Thank you, Joseph. Think of it as the last kind thing you can do for me.”
“I will see you again soon thereafter.”
“They’re not coming for us, are they? The Nines.”
“I don’t know. If Steven is smart, they won’t.”
“But we gave it good run, didn’t we?”
Joseph smiles. “The best.”
“Will you promise me something else?” Rose asks.
“If I can.”
“I want you to make that bitch scream tonight. I want you to fuck her until she is begging for mercy. Can you promise me that?”
“Rose… I…”
“Joseph! Promise me! I have to know you will be there for me tomorrow. Please!” He is quiet for a long time. “Joseph?”
“I promise,” he finally says.
“Thank you. It will give us another few hours.”
Before he can answer he hears keys in his door. Two men step in, one carrying food, the other a deadly machine pistol. They set the food on the table and exit, saying nothing. “Food’s here.”
“Here too,” Rose says. “I can’t believe it, but I’m starving.”
“I believe it. I am too. It’s been nearly two days since we’ve eaten anything.”
“At least the food’s good,” Rose says as she inhales her lunch.
After they have eaten, the guards return with clothes and collect their trays. “Did they bring you clothes?” Joseph asks.
“Yes. I wish you could see this. I will look like something out of a bad sci-fi movie. You?”
“Just jeans and a shirt.”
“She may be a bitch, but Señorita Matos obviously has better taste than Señor Matos.”
“Lucky me…”
“Joseph… I want you to sleep, okay? Get cleaned up and sleep.”
“Rose, I can’t sleep!”
“You have to. I’m not talking to you for the next six hours. So get cleaned up and sleep. That’s what I’m going to do.”
“Rose? Rose?”
Rose hears him calling her name, but she doesn’t answer, sitting on the on the edge of the bed while weeping silently. She has been talking like a tough bitch all morning, but she is terrified. Terrified for Joseph and terrified for what may happen to her. This morning she thought she would be free or dead by now. But the Nines haven’t arrived, and may never arrive. Not in time to save her, at least. But maybe in time for Joseph…
She is exhausted, but she goes to the bathroom and showers all the same. Slightly refreshed she looks through all the drawers, looking for anything sharp, anything she can use, but finds nothing. Not so much as a toothbrush. Disappointed and about to drop on her feet, she tumbles into bed and instantly falls asleep.
CHAPTER FOURTY-EIGHT
The smell of food pulls her from her slumber and she looks up groggily just as her door closes. She is laying sprawled nude on top of the bed. She hopes they got a good eye full... the bastards. Rose decides she will dress in her own clothes, dirty as they are, rather than the sex kitten outfit she has been provided… but her clothes are nowhere to be found. “Dammit…” she murmurs as she begins to dress. At least it beats walking around nude like all the other men and women.
“Rose?”
“Yes, Joseph?” she answers when she hears him call her name.
“Are you okay?”
“As well as can be expected. Did you sleep?”
“Some.”
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
“Talk to me,” she says as she begins to eat. The food smells so good and she is still hungry.
“I can’t do this.”
“You have to.”
“I can’t.”
“You can. You must.”
“But, Rose…”
“Stop! Don’t think about me! Please! I need to you be strong for me just a little longer. Please, Joseph!”
“I’ll try.”
“Pretend it’s me. Or take out all your anger and frustrations on her. I don’t care what you do! I just need to know you are safe tonight.”
“Why, Rose. Why?”
“Because… I’m afraid for tomorrow. Because it gives us just a few more hours of life.”
“For you, Rose.”
“Thank you. Do you hate me for asking you do this?”
“No… do you hate me for dragging you into this?”
“No.”
“Can you forgive me for what I have to do?” he asks.
“Nothing to forgive, my love. Can you forgive me for asking this of you?”
Rose hears him break, a single sob in the distance. “Nothing to forgive,” he says after a moment.
“No matter what, Joseph, remember that I love you. No matter what you do tonight, I know you are doing it to save me.”
She can’t hear him sob, but she can sense it all the same. “I’m so sorry, Joseph, for asking you to do this.”
“For you, I will do anything,” he says, pulling himself together.
“I know, and I love you for it. I will gladly trade my last few hours of life just to have you hold me once more,” Rose says, recalling Melina’s words as she mourned the loss of her husband, Tim. She weeps silently for a moment, afraid for Joseph and herself, before pulling herself together. She will be strong for him tonight and try to give him the strength he needs to do what he must.
As the afternoon shadows grow long Rose hopes that something has happened, that they won’t be coming for them. She is looking into the courtyard through the barred window when she hears keys in her door. She draws herself up with great dignity as the guard escorts her out.
They are led into the great room again, but now there is an array of chairs in a circle around the huge cushioned area in the floor where Matos previously met them. The chairs are occupied by men of various ages, each attended by a scantily clad or nude woman.
Rose grimaces. It’s not enough that Joseph has to perform like a circus animal, but he has to do it in front of an audience. Señor Matos, standing in the center of the cushions, smiles as they enter the room and speaks to his guests in Spanish. As he does Rose leans in close to Joseph. “You fuck her good. Do to her what you did to me the night before you were shot. Show these bastards how a real man makes love.”
“Come, come…” Matos says, waving Joseph forward, and the guard gives them a shove. “Señorita, you sit here,” he says, waving her to a chair at the front, “so that you may clearly see as another woman takes your lover for her own. And you, Mr. Warner, we shall watch as you fuck as if your life depends on it… because it does.” His smile turns nasty as he steps in close to Joseph. “If you attempt to hurt Amalia or escape, I will give señorita Rose to each of these men in turn. And if she survives them, and me, then I will give her to the rest of my men until she is dead. Jesús is especially interested in having a chance.” Joseph says nothing, but after a moment Matos steps back. “I see we understand each other.”
Matos sits down next to Rose. “We shall watch together. We’ll see who has the bigger dick, eh?” He looks at her then smiles. “I think we both know, though, eh?” He then speaks to someone in Spanish and a woman hurries out.
The room becomes restless until Amalia steps from around the corner and saunters to Joseph. She is dressed in a negligee of the richest red with a deep, plunging neckline, drawing the eye to her full breasts, and a slit up one leg that plays “peek-a-boo” with her thigh as she walks. As she molds herself to Joseph she turns his back to her so she can look over his shoulder at Rose. His arms remain at his side as her eyes close and her mouth opens slightly with an audible gasp of mock pleasure, before she meets Rose’s eyes. Her hand comes to the back of his head and she pulls his lips to her neck, her eyes never leaving Rose’s as she smiles.
“If you don’t please me, I will gut you in front of your whore,” she says in the breathy whisper of a lover.
Rose watches as Joseph’s hands come up, taking her into his embrace as he
begins to nuzzle her neck. Amalia’s eyes close again and she gasps, holding Joseph’s head to her neck. Rose knows that Amalia is playing her, trying to get under her skin, and it’s working.
Amalia is a woman of exceptional beauty… tall, leggy, and smelling of flowers. As he holds her to him he can feel himself hardening... and he hates himself for it. While kissing her neck he decides Javier was probably like his father, and she is used to being taken roughly, so he starts out slow and gentle.