CHAPTER 16

“So you think I’m a cunt, huh?” Alisa said. Her eyes sparkled with sadism as she glared at Steve, pressing the trigger of the drill and inching closer to him.

“No! I’m sorry, Alisa! I didn’t mean it! Please don’t hurt me!”

Alisa grinned. “Ah, not so tough anymore, are we?”

“I didn’t mean what I said, I swear,” Steve said, his sobs making it hard to speak.

“Oh, I see, so it was just an ‘in the heat of the moment’ thing, huh?”

“Yes! Yes! That was all it was, I swear!”

Alisa appeared to give it some thought, and when she released the trigger and the buzzing sound of the drill ceased, the relief Steve experienced was such that he didn’t even consider the possibility she was just playing with him, just giving him false hopes.

Alisa sniggered. “So, all talk, no action, huh?”

Steve nodded desperately. “Yes, that’s it.”

“So you are a pathetic coward, aren’t you, Steve?”

“Yes, yes, I am,” Steve said, too panicked to feel shame.

A wicked grin stretched across Alisa’s lips. “What about your mother? Would you say she was a slut?”

He sobbed miserably and, thinking that this was the only way to avoid more pain—not knowing that Alisa was going to do it anyway—he said she was.

“So say it, Steve.”

“My mother was a slut,” Steve sobbed, hoping that, if his mother could somehow hear him right now, she would understand why he had to say it.

Alisa chuckled. “Say you hope she suffered in the car accident.”

Tears clogging his throat, snot running down to his lips, Steve repeated that awful sentence, feeling like a despicable human being for saying it.

The combination of sorrow and self-hatred etched on his face made Alisa beam. “Wow, you’re willing to do anything just to avoid pain, huh? Even piss on your mother’s memory. I would never do something like that. You’re such an awful son.”

She smiled with delight as she saw her words penetrating him and reaching his soul.

Alisa raised her eyebrows. “Well, Steve, I’m afraid it was all for nothing, because I’m going to hurt you anyway. I’m going to do to you the same thing I did to that disgusting dog.”

She pressed the trigger of the drill and loomed over him.

Steve’s eyes glittered with unmeasured fear. “NOOOO! PLEASE!”

Alisa grabbed the bottom of his face with her left hand, her fingers digging into his jaw, while holding the drill with the right. “Stay still now, Stevie, and it’ll be over before you know it.” She wasn’t sure whether that was true, but he would make her job easier if he stayed still.

She inched the drill bit closer to his left eye, her eyes narrowed in concentration, while Steve screamed and begged and cried.

When the drill bit bore into his eye, right in the pupil, a sharp, cold pain sliced through his head, as if he’d been stabbed in the eye with an icicle, and a piercing screech burst out of him as the vitreous body and blood leaked out of his socket.

The pain was such that the poison ivy rashes on his skin were totally forgotten.

Through his deafening screams, Alisa laughed, enjoying every ounce of his suffering. She pulled out the drill bit and gazed in total amazement at what was left of his left eye. It was so fascinating to her that his screams no longer reached her; it enthralled her.

His body convulsing, his permanently blinded left eye an unspeakable mush of gore, Steve stopped screaming and, after endless minutes of suffering, passed out.

Gazing at his body, at his ruined eye, a fresh wave of arousal coursed through her, perversion making her eyes glimmer.

◆◆◆

“How’d it go, sweetie?” Jeff asked her when she emerged in his study through the secret gap behind the shelf. He was sitting at his desk, reading a newspaper, and glanced over his shoulder. “Judging by the look on your face, I’d say it went pretty well.”

“It did.” Alisa smiled at him. “That was so much fun, Dad.”

Jeff laughed. “I’m so glad to hear that. What’s his current state?”

“Unconscious.”

Jeff nodded and shrugged. “Guess he deserves a small break every now and then.”

“I guess. When he wakes up, though, he’s going to wish he was dead, that’s for sure,” Alisa said, excitement seizing her voice.

Diana stepped into the study, wearing an apron over a blue cardigan. “Dinner’s almost ready, guys.”

“Great,” Alisa said. “I’m starving.”

Diana grinned. “I can imagine. I bet all that torturing makes you work up an appetite.”

“Yeah, I guess. Um, guys, I’ve been thinking…”

“Yes?” Diana said, raising her eyebrows.

“Having fun with that asshole down there is great, but I’d also like to find someone to, you know…”

“Settle down?” Diana said with a knowing smile.

“Yes.”

“You would like to find a husband,” Jeff said, like he wanted to confirm what they all knew.

“Yes, I would. But not just any husband.”

Both her parents laughed, and Alisa scowled at them. “What’s so funny?”

“Your father said the same thing,” Diana giggled.

Jeff cleared his throat, turned to Alisa, and his face grew serious.

“We all want things. All the time. I think humankind is greedy by nature. I, for instance, would like to buy more cars to add to my collection. And I’d like to own property in several European countries. Italy appeals to me the most.”

“Okay?” Alisa said as she raised her eyebrows. “And what exactly is your point?”

“My point is that, whereas those things are achievable—in fact, there’s this gorgeous house in Tuscany I’ve had my eye on for a while, and I think next month I’ll sign the papers and it’ll be mine—your goal, however, is more challenging.

Because you, my dear, are special. And for the first time in my life, there’s something I can’t buy you. ”

“We know the type of husband you need,” Diana chimed in. “It’s going to be hard to find one like that. Hard isn’t the same as impossible, though.”

Alisa gazed at her mother, letting all the information sink in. “You think I can actually find someone like that?”

“Sure, why not?” Jeff said. “It will take some time, but as the saying goes, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day.’”

“Just go out, have some fun, start dating again,” Diana said. “And keep an eye out for potential candidates.” She gave her daughter a sly smile. “I’m sure you’ll be able to spot them with no difficulty. You have a nose for that.”

Alisa’s lips curved upward in a reciprocal smile. Indeed, she did. She knew who the weak, submissive ones were just by looking at them. It was her innate ability.

“All right. I can do that. Now, the question is, what if the next one doesn’t give me what I need either? What if I keep on trying to find the right one and they all turn out to be jerks?”

Her parents remained silent for a few seconds, giving it some thought. Then, a grin popped up on Jeff’s face and, nodding at the hidden gap behind the shelf, he said, “Well, there’s enough space down there for many more, sweetheart.”