Free Beloved Beast by Cathy McAllister

she found hard to suppress.
    Instead of answering her question, Mario got up and went to the door. He opened it and called out to his two bodyguards. Crissy felt fear choking her, and her stomach seemed to have knotted. The two men looked anything but pleasant, which was of course the point of their job.
    “No!” she screamed, as the men came to her and dragged her out of the armchair. “What are you planning to do, Mario?”
    “It’s not that I don’t like you, Crissy. I already told you that when I left you in the swamp. Back then I had to get rid of you. Today I have another purpose for you. You’re my means to an end.” He laughed cynically. “Your dear Ramon seems to have a weakness for my girls. First I lost Angel because of him and now he wants you, too!”
    “You are so two-faced! You sold Angel to him! And you threw me to the alligators. He neither took Angel from you, nor me. You didn’t want her any more, nor me !”
    “Put her over there!” Mario ordered his men with a wave, without addressing Crissy’s question.
    “You damn ass-hole!” shouted Crissy and she defended herself violently against the two men who were dragging her along.
    Mario grinned.
    “I’ll prepare a little surprise for Ramon,” he said in a tone of doom that made Crissy’s skin crawl.
    The bodyguards pushed her against the wall where lots of metal pipes ran. They fastened her arms onto the pipes with ropes, so that she had to stand upright with her arms stretched high above her. Crissy had no idea how she was going to stand this. Her arms were already hurting and the ropes were cutting into her flesh.
    Mario pulled out a knife from beneath his jacket and walked up to Crissy. Her heart beat faster. Her eyes, full of fear, were fixed on the blade. She tried not to think of everything that he could do with it. Panic ran through her and she bravely tried to fight it and stay calm. Nothing occurred to her that she could do in this situation – apart from praying – so she did that. She silently begged God to stand by her. She did not believe in miracles, but she prayed that God would give her the strength to die well and not to give Mario the satisfaction of making her scream.
    Mario nodded to his men and, without warning, they tore Crissy’s blouse from her body. She screamed in shock and starred at her ex-fiancé in anger. Mario looked at her thoughtfully.
    “You really are very beautiful, Crissy,” he said, and slid the cool blade slowly over her breasts. “Immaculate.”
    Crissy summoned up all her courage and spat at his face. Just as the first time, when she spat at him in the swamp, he rewarded her with a smack on the face. Only this time he also thumped her in the stomach.  She gasped and doubled up, as much as the ropes would allow.
    “Soon you won’t feel like spitting any more,” he snarled sinisterly, and he smiled nastily.
    He took the blade and cut Crissy on her left breast. Overcome by unimaginable pain, she screamed at the top of her voice.
    *
    Ramon pulled his knife out of the last guard’s chest and wiped the blade on the damp grass. Then he froze – a piercing scream shot through the night. Crissy! What had the bastard done to her? Ramon really had to stop himself from charging rashly into the warehouse. It would not help Crissy. Moreover Mario would not kill her before Ramon turned up. He would not kill her – but he would torture her!
    “Damn it!” he cursed.
    Warning himself to be calm and level-headed, Ramon carefully entered the warehouse. He could not see anyone. Of course someone could be hiding behind one of the shelving units, but Ramon’s instinct told him that no one was there. So he went on to the back of the warehouse, where the office was. Here there were blinds hanging at the window that looked from the office into the warehouse. But he could see silhouettes. A man in the room was moving back and forth.
    “How could I have been so wrong about you?” he heard Crissy say.
    He was