Revenge So Sweet

Prologue

Esperanza sat in a bare cell. Her back was stiff and she could still feel the sting of the whip there acutely. She tried to lick at her dry cracked lips and tasted blood. She had bitten down hard on her lip to prevent herself from crying out when she was being beaten, causing it to bleed. She licked at the area now and it made her wince. The bite of the cold night air reached deep into her bones, but she would not move. Beams of moonlight from the only window high above her head shone through and lit up the cell casting an eerie glow. The glow was suddenly cast in darkness when something large passed by.
She glanced up.
Sails.
A large sail had passed by. She could just make out it's insignia, and it filled her with rage.
"Damn him to hell."
She said in disgust.
"Damn me to hell?"
A voice asked from behind, startling her. She tried to move, to crawl to the far side of the cell away from the bars and away from him but she felt a sharp pain on her scalp and felt her head snap back to the bars as he ripped her back towards him.
He pulled her up against the bars and held her with one hand yanking at her hair and the other arm slipped around her chest just below her breasts.
"This did not have to be so hard Esperanza. If you would have only submitted to me willingly. I would have been gentle. I would have given you anything desired."
"I want nothing from you Gonzalo. Where are my father and brother?" She roared.
"Come now Esperanza. You have been here for 4 days, and I have missed you."
Her eyes narrowed.
"You imprisoned me after having me whipped with 30 lashes. You tried to take what did not belong to you. You have the audacity to think I would ever link myself to such a coward?" She growled at him.
"Yes it gave me," he paused, a slow grin forming at the corners of his mouth.
"Well...It gave me great pleasure actually, to watch your back bared to me Esperanza." He chuckled.
"But it was a pity to leave such grotesque scars across that lovely fair skin of yours. As for leaving you in this prison. I would have finished what we had started, woman. With you struggling beneath me."
His voice taking on an edge as he recalled how he attempted to force himself on her.
"Alas, even more pressing engagements called for my attentions." he said simply, a hint of humor in his words.
"Your father certainly was clever not to tell anyone the location of his kings reward. Not even to his own children. The value must be great for him to keep his secret so close. Had your brother not been injured so severely, then of course he would inherit the great Guerra's treasures. As it was, your father had proclaimed that your intended mate should be rewarded so abundantly."
Gonzalo sneered at the last bit.
"Yet what a fool your father is for trusting me so easily. I walked among you all and your father didn't have the faintest idea that I was working for the very men he tried to escape from." He smiled in triumph.
She kicked at the bars.
"Oh Esperanza, don't be angry." Gonzalo mocked her. "You refused to marry me of your own free will. But I admit, that did please me greatly. Because it meant I would have to take what I want from you. By law your maidenhead would mean that you belonged to me. More importantly the treasure would belong to me. Guerra would have been forced to concede to his word and give me the exact location I desired." He sighed. "But of course you were difficult, and got away from me to tell daddy."
"I wish I had killed you then!" Esperanza roared.
"Ah yes. Pity you are a woman. Perhaps if you were stronger you would have overcome me. But as it is, you are weak and always will be. Women have no place on the seas except to warm a man's loins and lick his boots."
She struggled against him. But he held her firm in his grasp.
"Had I succeeded, then I would have profited. And none may have died Esperanza. But for your arrogance you have lost all you hold dear." Gonzalo whisper soft, in her ear.
Again Esperanza struggled against him to no avail.
"Answer me you coward! Where are my father and brother?"
"Dead." he said the one word, delighting in the torment it caused her.
Tears stung her eyes.
"Your brothers death was quick. He and your fathers prized ship were sent beneath the depths. But your father..." he paused allowing his words to sink in and then continued.
"I will allow, that the great Francisco Guerra lasted a whole 3 days under torture , and gave nothing away." Slight admiration apparent in his tone. "Not even his three commanders could break his body enough to get it out of him." He chuckled.
Danielle tried to detect the bluff in his words, but could not and heart shattered thinking of her fathers suffering.
"No matter. The man is dead. Your brother is dead. As for you mi hermosa." His grip on her tightened painfully.
"I already know that you know nothing. Guerra's treasure is lost." Gonzalo said disgustedly.
"But I will not walk away with nothing Esperanza. Although your maidenhead has no more value. I think I will take all the I can out of your body. The pleasure alone in causing you maximum pain when I use you over and over again, mayhap I will even sell you. I doubt you will be worth much when I am through with you though."
He removed his hand out of her hair and grabbed her chin forcing her face up towards his.
His hot gaze set upon her lips and his other hand repositioning to grab one of her breasts. She quickly reached down through the bars and ran her hand along his thigh briefly, his response was a sharp inhale of breath as she slid her hand closer to the part of him that throbbed with need for her.
He let out a yelp of pain when she grabbed him there in his most sensitive area and squeezed as hard as she could.
She swung around to face him when he released his hold on her and she tried to back away.
But he was quicker than her as his hand shot out through the bars and grasped her by the neck.
"You bitch!" He roared.
She heard a small knock and then footsteps entered the space and whispered something to Gonzalo. Involuntary tears were clouding her eyes and she couldn't make out who the intruder was.
Gonzalo let out a sigh of frustration.
"You owe me something, Esperanza. And I will come back to collect it from you. One way or another. I will take every last thing you care for. Prometo esto." he said menacingly in her native language meaning 'this, I vow.' He squeezed her throat cutting off her airway.
She blacked out before she hit the floor.

When Esperanza finally came to, she was still lying on the cold hard cobbled ground of the prison. Her throat ached and she could only manage to open her eyes to slits at first. Relief flooded her because in her hand she could still feel the sharp small object she had swiped from Gonzalo. The key to her freedom. The key to her vengeance.