Page 2 of Caress of Fire
Marielle’s eyes left the monster’s to lock on her brother’s face. There it was, that innocent turn of the lips, outraged at Ignio Marula’s proposition-slash-threat. Devan’s flaming, wild and curly red hair—a trait he shared with Marielle—fell over his brows. A storm of freckles over milky white skin just like hers covered a broken nose, a nose previously straight and strong, but now bent sideways. His single open eye shone gray and bright, full of an explosive temper—one to which they owed their current position. Another trait Marielle shared with her brother.
She couldn’t let anything happen to him. No matter the cost.
But I can’t dothat, either.
Marielle bit her lower lip but her head bobbed up and down in acquiescence, then she looked away from Devan and his childish indignation.
Ignio Marula’s mouth stretched over his too-large teeth, giving his wrinkled face the appearance of a shark. He extended a bony hand to Marielle, wrapping thin fingers around her own, his brows raised in encouragement. “If you’re good, you might even earn a bit of pocket money.” His eyes slid down her tattered dress and she could almost feel his evil thoughts permeate the fabric and touch her body. “I like to take care of my girls, everyone knows that.”
Yes, everyone knew that Ignio Marula took care of the poor souls living between the dirty walls of his brothels, their eyes dull and their smiles as empty as their hearts. In the city, rumor had it that he liked to break them himself, and that the girls had to keep to their beds for a month after Ignio Marula’s attentions. He beat them and used them with his men until there was no fight left in the souls of those who were unlucky enough to find themselves under his ‘care’. And once a girl walked inside his door, she never left. Not while she was alive.
Marielle shot out of her horrified trance and found herself standing. “Don’t touch me!” She wiped the hand Ignio Marula had touched on her dress repeatedly. “You’re mistaken if you think I’ll be one of your whores!”
Ignio Marula lifted his brows at her, his eyes flashing in sudden shock, his hand falling flat to the table. The air filled with a deafening silence as the Ferlin twins slowly inched closer. Ignio Marula got to his feet, the shock on his face giving way to an intense expression of controlled anger. Nobody talked to him like that—certainly not humans.
“Then I guess you might want to say goodbye to your brother.” The venom was barely contained in Ignio Marula’s voice as he tilted his head at the twins. “Because you will never see him alive again.”
The Ferlin twins moved on each side of Devan and roughly lifted him to his feet. Her brother screamed in pain as he was forced to put weight on the ankle the twins had shattered with a metal bar.
If he had cried, Marielle might have not done it. But he stifled the next scream and looked at her with acceptance in his eyes.
Like the boy who used to eat from the jam jar with his fingers, then cried to escape his punishment.
She could not let him go, that boy she had raised since she was fifteen and he ten, after their father died in the fire that claimed two hundred human lives in the lowest part of town.
“Don’t hurt him. I’ll repay you.” Marielle lifted her chin and steadied the trembling in her hands. “I’ll take over Devan’s debt.”
“No!” Devan’s voice boomed from behind her, full of anger and outrage. “Marielle, don’t do this.”
Marielle stared at her brother, at his juvenile, ruined face. He was still such a child. He didn’t understand. Anger flashed inside her, despite herself.
Then what? You don’t get to just die on me. You’re all I have left.
“I knew you would be reasonable,” Ignio Marula spoke, instantly attracting her attention, a smile on his full-of-teeth mouth, his eyes trailing down her body like a brand. “It will take you some time, sweetling, to repay your debt, that’s for sure. But I’ll take good care of you if you take good care of me. I’ll even let your brother visit from time to time. I’ve heard he’s rather fond of my niece, Rela.”
The oxygen went out of the room and she tried to breathe. Her lungs didn’t work and she opened her mouth like a fish until dark little spots danced in her vision.
But there was something she could do. Something that would solve all their problems and get them enough money to live free of danger for the rest of their lives. Get rid of Ignio Marula for good.
If she survived. But anything was better than a life in the bowels of Ignio Marula’s brothels.
“I’m not going to whore for you.” Marielle flipped her long, flaming-red hair away from her cheeks.
“That’s not really up to you, is it?” Ignio Marula glanced at one of the Ferlin twins and chuckled. “Now that you’ve taken the debt upon yourself.”
“Yes, it is. And if you want to be richer than a lowlife like you could ever dream about then you’ll listen.”
Marielle swallowed, twice. For four years, she had hoped to never have to fall back on this but now she had no choice. She turned around and walked slowly to the chimney. She could feel their gazes on her back like she was a target: Devan’s surprised stare, Ignio Marula’s crimson eyes, already assessing how much he would make off her.
How many men could use her body until she was all used up.
Marielle’s hand rested on the loose stone at the far right of the chimney. She hesitated, but only for a moment. She had no other options. If she found herself in Ignio Marula’s claws, she would never crawl out from under their grasp.
She dislodged the stone and put it down, then reached into the hollow behind it. There used to be more there, a few pieces of old jewelry, money enough to last them through rainy days. Only the rainy days had kept coming, giving way to hard times, and then the money was gone. The only piece of jewelry that remained was her grandmother’s opal necklace. With trembling fingers, Marielle took the necklace out, then reached further inside and retrieved the piece of paper.
It was crumpled, and stained from humidity, but the writing was still legible enough.
“With this, I can repay you double what Devan owes you.”
