Page 4 of Cooper

“I-I got lost,” she said shaking her head. “I was headed back to the village, something I’ve done a million times but I was sad and lost and the rains made it difficult.”

She kept her head lowered, hoping that he wouldn’t recognize her face. But he’d been in her shop, he’d seen her with her parents. He wasn’t a man that could be easily fooled.

“I know you,” he smirked. “The little bird making purses for tourists. How quaint. And your family. Yes, your family met a terribly unfortunate demise during the construction of my golden coliseum.”

Bianca said nothing, knowing that she was going to die. If only Cooper had listened to her and allowed her to stay. She was just trying to get a front row view to the destruction of the man that had taken everything from her. Her family, her entire world.

“Why were you on my land?” he asked.

“I told you, I got lost,” she said shaking her head. He backhanded her, his ring slicing a line across her cheek, blood dripping onto the carpet.

“You see what you’ve done!” he screamed. “You’re a whore who wanted my bed.”

“NO! No, I swear,” she cried. “I was lost. Please, just let me go and I’ll go home.”

“Go home? No, you’ll never go home,” he said leaning forward. He pulled her chin up to stare into his face and he looked down at her delicious breasts. Taking the sides of her top, he ripped it in half, exposing her simple white bra and the breasts oozing from the top.

“This will be more fun than I expected,” he said. Reaching into his pocket he opened a small packet and forced it into her mouth. She cried, kicking and begging, then suddenly an unwelcome euphoria stretched over her body.

He pressed the back of his hand just below her throat, pushing hard against the flesh as he ran his hand between her breasts. His ring, the one with the silver crown sliced into the flesh, giving a single line of blood that matched her face.

“Shall we stay, sir?” asked the man. He’d almost forgotten they were there.

“No. No, I have this,” he smiled. “I may sleep in a bit in the morning. It depends on how good she really is.”

The men left, happy to be out of his sight and out of the range of his anger. The woman, was not so lucky.

Marco stripped to his boxers and then removed everything except the woman’s bra and underwear. He was going to enjoy this and enjoy her flesh. He tucked his thumbs into the boxers and grinned to himself.

“You’ve sinned enough, don’t you think?” said the deep voice from behind him. He turned so fast, he lost his footing, falling to the carpets. He opened his mouth to scream for guards but nothing came out. The figure before him was misty and unrecognizable, then became clear.

“You will not succeed,” smiled the man. “You will not succeed because good men will stop you. Men that will never allow people like you to live.”

He tried to move, tried to speak but could not. The figure moved toward the woman, seemingly releasing her bonds with a snap of his fingers. She fell forward into his arms and he picked her up, still hovering over Marco.

Try as he might, he could not get his legs or arms to cooperate and move. Nothing was working for him.

“I will enjoy watching you die and a man like me does not admit that often,” he said holding Bianca closely to his chest. He kissed the girl’s forehead and whispered to her.

“Let’s go home, child.”

CHAPTER TWO

Cooper stared at the dark hair fanned out across the pillow. The nurses had done an exceptional job of keeping her cleaned and showered, never letting her look less than human.

But that didn’t apply to him. He felt like an animal. The fresh scar across her cheek and chest reminded him that by dismissing her, she’d placed herself in obvious danger.

“You know her?” asked Blythe.

“Yes. Sort of. She was our informant on that last mission. Her name is Bianca Garcia. Her family was killed by Rodriguez. She wanted to stay with us but I told her to leave, to go home. I thought I was protecting her.”

“You were protecting her,” said Blythe.

“Why won’t she wake up?” he asked.

“Rodriguez, at least we assume it was him, pumped her full of drugs. They didn’t kill her but damn near. She’ll wake when her body is ready.”

“Thank you, Blythe.”