Chapter 5
"W-what?" Tallia asked, struggling to focus on Costa while the car slid across the driveway as if it were skidding through an oil slick, and then righted itself like an animal shaking itself.
She could feel the tires grip the road, and she smoothed her hands on the edges of the seat, trying to relax. Costa was right. He knew what he was doing. He had to have driven this car before, and he certainly handled it as if it were an old friend. She knew he was sober, so logically she was safe; there was no need to panic, yet her stomach was knotted tight and lodged in the back of her throat, and she could hardly seem to draw in enough air.
"How long have you known Fidelio?" he asked again, his tone more crisp and demanding.
"Not long," she replied, grateful to him for taking her mind off the car as they zipped onto a road that was as smooth as a black satin ribbon. The car was so lux, if not for the land streaking by on either side of them, she might have believed they were still sitting parked in the driveway. But with a sidelong glance, she could see the odometer, and her throat ran dry as she watched the needle glide steadily upward as they took off like a rocket.
"How long?" Costa asked in a faintly patronizing manner.
She glanced at him, and there was a slight smile curling the corner of his wide, full mouth. Sensing her looking at him, he turned and flashed her a broad grin that was shockingly appealing. Jerking her head back around to stare at the road, so as not to distract him, Tallia wished she had insisted they walk or cancel this excursion. She simply could not relax, not in this car. It was too much like Emmy's old fire red Ferrari, all speed and growl with no substance. She felt as if she were strapped to a bomb that could go off at any moment.
"Well?" Costa pressed.
"Three or four months," she mumbled, closing her eyes to blot out the scenery that was beginning to blur all around her. Rather than calm her down, being in the dark only made her fear ratchet up as her imagination got the best of her, and she flicked her lashes up, staring fixedly at the road ahead as if she could will them safe passage.
"Only three months?" Costa remarked casually, "That is hardly enough time to really get to know a person, wouldn't you say?"
She shrugged, and when Costa turned to look at her, realized he could not see her reactions. Tallia blurted out a firm, "No, not really," eager to keep his eyes on the road and not on her.
"Yet he seems to have formed quite an attachment to you," Costa commented.
"I-I guess."
"What about you Tallia? What are your feelings for my brother? Are you as fond of him as he appears to be fond of you?"
"Yes, I suppose," she muttered, swallowing thickly when they came to a sharp bend in the road and Costa turned the wheel using just the heel of one hand, without even letting up on the gas. The car responded beautifully, taking the curve as if it were fixed to rails. Tallia's relief, however, was short lived as she noticed the road hugged the edge of a cliff. There was no guardrail between them and a sheer drop down to churning surf, far, far below.
"Oh, my God! Pease slow down," she whimpered.
Costa laughed, "I am insulted on Fidelio's behalf. You don't sound quite sure about your feelings for my brother."
"We're just friends," she retorted a bit sharply, annoyed with him for completely ignoring her request that he slow down.
"Just friends?" Costa exclaimed, incredulous.
"Please slow down," she repeated, though she relaxed as the road drifted away from the cliff and they began racing through rolling hills covered with small trees.
"Does Fidelio know you consider him just a friend?"
"Of course!"
Costa turned to give her a long look, though it was difficult for her to read his expression when he wore such dark sunglasses. "Don't play games with me Tallia. I promise you won't like it if I get angry," he purred in a deadly undertone.
Tallia stared at him in mute shock, wondering if she had lost her mind and was hearing things. "…What?"
Jamming the stick shift into a different gear, Costa sent the car hurling blindly over a hill. Tallia squeezed her eyes shut as she felt the tires lose the road, and the horrid weightless sensation of flying tugged at her. They hit the asphalt a moment later, and the tires shrieked as the sports car careened down a steep, winding series of switch backs that looked like a black snake slithering through the dusty green and brown landscape.
"Fidelio wants to make you part of this family," he mocked. "Don't deny it- and don't deny it’s what you want," he added harshly when she opened her mouth to interrupt him.
"I- I don't think you understand-"
"Oh, I understand very well Tallia. You are hardly the first to come sniffing around looking for a free meal ticket and hoping to get a ring on your finger. I've run more girls like you off than I can count, and trust me, you aren't even the best or the brightest I've had to deal with, though I'll admit you do have some appeal," he added, turning his head to flash her a cold, cruel smile.
"Watch out!" She shrieked when she saw something standing in the road up ahead.
Rather than jerk the wheel or brake, Costa pressed on the horn and flashed his high beams with the twitch of a finger. Tallia braced herself for impact, knowing they were traveling far too fast to avoid the animal meandering leisurely across the road.
She watched in horror as they bore down on the hapless creature, which looked to be a goat. At the last moment the goat noticed the danger it was in, and with an athletic leap it sprung into the grass on the edge of the road and darted away. She could hear its plaintive bleating through the window, distorting into a queer whining howl as they shot down the road without decelerating in the slightest.
Costa tossed his head and laughed, his legs pumping as he shifted gears and swung the car off to the right as they came up hard on a wide fork in the road. He was a madman, she thought desperately, her hand reaching for the door before reason intruded. She realized she could hardly throw herself out of a moving vehicle, especially one traveling at such insane speed. She would be killed instantly.
"Stop the car Costa, so we can talk," she said, amazed at how calm she managed to sound when everything inside of her was beginning to quake with terror.
"We can talk just fine in here," he informed her blithely, telling her quite clearly that he had no intention of doing what she wanted.
"Please-"
"Did you really think it was going to be so easy, that you would dazzle him with your good looks, that you would get him to marry you, and that would be the end of it?" Costa bit out coldly. "Don't you realize that everything Fidelio has comes from me? My brother may be a charmer, but he's never done an honest day’s work in his life. And, no, we do not come from money. Fidelio depends on me for every dime he has, every-"
"That's of no interest to me-"
"Never interrupt me," Costa snarled at her, turning to pin her to her seat with a tight-lipped glare that she could feel right through his sunglasses. "You will not sink your claws into my brother," he spat contemptuously. "I would rather cut him off without a cent then see him throw his life away on a little opportunist like you, who thinks she can live off other people’s hard work."
"You don't know anything about me!" Tallia cried, jarred from her mute dismay by his biting contempt.
"Really?" Costa sneered. Reaching across the car he grabbed one of her hands and rubbed his thumb across her palm as he remarked caustically, "These don't feel like the hands of a hard worker. Even the mildest pencil pusher has rougher skin. What, have you been in a coma for the past ten years?"
"As a matter of fact-"
"Save your lies," he hissed, "I'm not interested. You and Fidelio are through. You can accept it gracefully, and we can work something out that will be mutually beneficial to the both of us, or I can make your life a living hell. My brother is too soft, he falls for every pretty face with a sad story- and I'm sure your story was very sad,” he mocked. “Regardless, you will never see Fidelio aga-"
&n
bsp; "How can you-"
"Don't interrupt me!" he barked in a voice that made her shrink in her seat.
Tallia hated her cowardice, but he was scaring her and that implacable tone stripped her of her confidence. Suddenly she felt like a thirteen-year-old girl standing in front of her domineering stepfather, helpless to do anything but take his abuse. She shuddered at the memory, her darkest fears rising up to choke her from the place where she kept them locked away tight.
"You will be honest with me Tallia, or I will make things very uncomfortable for you. Is that understood? I do not tolerate liars. You know I am a very wealthy and powerful man, and I assure you I make no idle threats. Do I make myself clear?"
Nodding miserably, she tried to think how she had managed to slip into such a nightmare. She could almost hear her stepfather Kevin’s voice in her head. He had sounded just as cool and rational as Costa did, when he had berated her. Kevin had enjoyed it, wielding his authority over her, and she could hear the same pleasure in Costa's voice as he lay down his dictates.
"Answer me," he demanded, his eyes fixed to the road as it began to rise above them as they headed up into the cliffs on the far end of the island she had seen from the terrace that morning.
"I-I understand," she whispered softly, burning with shame at her meekness, but knowing from experience that the best way to get through an ordeal with a man bent on exerting his will like a weapon was to be quiet and acquiesce.
"Good," he purred, sounding almost friendly. "Now, tell me exactly what is your relationship with my brother."
"We're just friends," she cried, her face flushing with frustration as she struggled to think of a way to convince him he was wrong, though from the steely sound of his voice she already knew it was hopeless. "You don't under-"
"Do not lie to me Tallia," Costa cajoled in a voice that made her blood run hot and then cold.
"I'm not l-lying, Fidelio is not-"
"You are trying my patience," Costa bit out so sharply his voice slid like a knife across her skin.
"Please, Fidelio is marrying my- oh God," she gasped, forgetting what she was about to say when the car suddenly left the road again as they crested the top of the cliff at full speed. For a moment it seemed as if they left the earth behind and headed straight into the sun, because she couldn't see the road anymore. When they hit asphalt again the engine roared like a beast, and the car shot towards the edge of the cliff.
Tallia gripped the sides of her seat for all she was worth and screamed, "Stop the car!"
"Not until you tell me what I want to hear," Costa bit out, turning the wheel sharply so the car hugged the road, a road which ran along the very edge of the cliff with nothing between them and a sheer drop, but a narrow strip of gravel on the shoulder.
"We- we're lovers, ok?" she cried, tears of humiliation burning in her eyes. It was just like when she was a child, Kevin hounding her relentlessly until she said exactly what he wanted to hear.
Costa said nothing and she dared to look at him. Tallia's inside's shriveled when she saw the furious tension in his face. His full lips were drawn so tight they were edged with white. She thought her reply would appease him, but it only seemed to make him more angry. Desperate to placate him, she struggled with the words she knew he wanted to hear.
"Lovers?" he prodded in a flinty undertone.
"Y-yes, I- I seduced him. I want him to marry me… I knew he was your brother, that he was filthy rich, so I went after him. Now please, stop the car!"
"Is he the first man you've tried to trap?"
Aghast at the vile implication, Tallia almost denied everything, but then the car glided closer to the edge of the road, and she lost her nerve. "No," she whispered.
"How did you do it? How did you trap him?" Costa demanded angrily.
Tallia slammed her head back against the headrest, gritting her teeth to keep from begging him to stop because she knew he wouldn't. He was as hard and cruel as she suspected from the first and he wanted to strip her totally bare, rip away any pride she might have, and grind her down. He wasn't satisfied just getting her to submit, he wanted her total destruction, just like Kevin had. He meant to punish her just for drawing breath, extract his pound of flesh for the pleasure it would give him to see her crawl.
"I threw myself at him," she said, her voice shaking, "The first time I saw him. I threw myself at him! I knew it might be my only chance. I played on his sympathies, t-told him a sob story, told him… told him," she repeated frantically, her mind blanking as her fear and panic got the best of her.
The car was still careening down the twisty road, so close to the edge that she couldn't even see the shoulder anymore, just the rocks below. Her tongue seemed to lodge in her throat, sticking to the roof of her dry, sticky mouth.
"Very good Tallia, that's enough," Costa said in a smooth, condescending voice that cut through her like a rusty saw.
Tasting bitter bile in her mouth, Tallia was just thankful that the car began to decelerate. She was shaking in reaction, soaked in sweat and desperate to get out of the tiny, enclosed space. Squeezing her eyes shut to keep herself from further humiliating herself by becoming physically ill in the posh leather confines of the car, she gripped the door latch like a lifeline with both hands, ready to spring from the car the moment it came to a full stop. She was so distraught she didn't notice their surroundings and even forgot the seat belt.
"You know they say confession is good for the soul?" Costa derided her in a sarcastic drawl, "what do you think?"
"I think I'm going to be sick," she groaned, throwing open the door as she felt the car slide to a stop. When the belt caught her up short she thought it was Costa and threw herself against the restraint, frantic to escape him.
The belt didn't budge and she clawed at it wildly, her eyes on Costa as if she feared he would attack her. Despite her panic she finally managed to release the buckle, and she tumbled out of the low-slung car onto the strip of gravel at the edge of the road.
On her hands and knees, her breakfast came up in one bitter heave of her stomach. Scrubbing the back of her hand over her mouth, Tallia scrambled to her feet, she could hear the other car door open and Costa's low, unpleasant laugh. Shuddering, she took off blindly, bumping into the back of the car in her haste and almost sprawling face first in the gravel.
She would follow the road back the way they came, she thought wildly, the heat and the blinding sun, which was already searing the top of her head be damned. There was no way in hell she would ever get back into that car or remain anywhere near Costa Eustakhios.
She heard him call her name, and it felt like a lash burning through her. Throwing an anxious look over her shoulder, she forced her legs to move as she saw him coming towards her at a dead run. Her stomach dropped at the sight of his face, and she let out a terrorized moan, throwing herself forward and away from him with all her strength. She had never seen a man look quite so dangerous as he came after her, his feet crunching in the gravel as he closed the distance between them with a speed that defied logic.
"Tallia!" he shouted in warning, but she refused to heed him. Then his arms were closing around her, and the world whirled before her in a blinding rush. Pain exploded through her body and she knew nothing else as she blacked out, hurling straight down into an all too familiar tunnel of burning hot agony.