eight years ago, when a benefactor, a man who knew the Masters’ Admiralty’s secrets, had stepped in to raise the Bellator Dei to its former glory. The man had supported them in their ordained quest to rid the world of the corrupt and evil secret society that controlled the world governments and promoted unholy unions between one woman and two men.
He’d stopped believing the doctrine years ago, when he realized exactly what the Bellator Dei was, though he’d assumed at least some part of what he’d been taught about their “enemy” was true.
But none of the stories about the Masters’ Admiralty mentioned that the secret society also operated in America.
Luca took another sip of the wine, wincing as the tart liquid stung a cut on his lower lip.
Selene noticed his discomfort. She rose and walked around the kitchen, opening several drawers until she found a towel. Then she went to the freezer, grabbed some ice, and wrapped it up.
His eyes widened with genuine surprise when she handed it to him.
“Here. This might help until the pills kick in.” She leaned closer, inspecting the injuries on his face.
“You know how to take a beating,” Oscar observed. “You were moving away from the worst of the blows.”
Luca nodded. He’d learned at a very young age how to disassociate, how to accept the physical pain while blocking the emotional impact of the beating—the sense of helplessness, the fear. “I have suffered worse beatings than this.”
“From the Bellator Dei?” Oscar asked.
Luca searched Oscar’s expression for any hint of duplicity, still doubtful that these two, who were clearly members of the Masters’ Admiralty, had never even heard of them. How humbling that, while for the members of the Bellator Dei, defeating the Masters’ Admiralty was everything, to members of that secret society, they were nothing.
“Yes, and from earlier. From my childhood.” Luca purposefully didn’t look at them, not wanting to see the pity he knew would be there. “It made me easier for the Bellator Dei to indoctrinate.”
“Indoctrinate?”
“I believe this is the word.” Luca’s English was good, but not perfect.
“I think I know where you’re going with this, and yes, that’s the word,” Selene said.
“The Bellator Dei, the warriors of God, are a cult.”
Oscar put his head on the table and thunked it there several times while muttering “another fucking cult.”
Selene patted Oscar’s back while looking at Luca. “Ignore him. Keep talking.”
“I, uh…” Luca relaxed back into the chair. Their reactions were not what he’d expected, not the anger or derision he’d anticipated. The sense of camaraderie was probably an act, a subtle way of getting him to drop his guard and reveal his secrets. They needn’t try so hard. Luca had no one else to turn to for help.
“They found,” us, “me when I was young. Thirteen. In an orphanage in Tbilisi, Georgia. My name then was Nikoloz.”
“You were adopted by a cult?” Oscar raised his head. “Fuck.”
“I was, and I was grateful for what they did for…” He took a sip of wine. “I was desperate for the new start, anxious to leave the boy I’d been behind. I was happy to forget who I’d been, that poor Georgian orphan, to become an Italian. Become a man. The Bellator Dei filled my hungry stomach, gave me responsibilities and a good education. I worked very hard to become a man worthy of them. I embraced my new home, my new country. I was devoted to them and their mission.”
“Which is?” Selene asked.
“To eradicate the Masters’ Admiralty.”
Oscar and Selene stared at him for a moment, then looked at one another.
“They blame the corrupting influence of the Masters’ Admiralty for the current ungodly state of the European governments.”
“Corrupting because…of the trinity marriage?” Selene asked.
“Yes, the union between two men and one woman is—”
“Don’t forget two women with one dude,” Oscar said.
“What?” Luca blinked at him.
“Or three men, three women. It’s any combination of three.”
Luca opened his mouth, then closed it.
“Bet the religious nuts wouldn’t have objected if the trinity marriage was only one man with two women.” Selene’s mouth curled up in a sneer.
“Of course not,” Oscar said. “The whole point of most religious cults is so gross old men can rape teenage girls.”
Luca wanted to run to that chicken phone and call Joli. Wanted to see if this information—which he’d, suspected based on his own observations—would be enough to break their hold on her.
“I saw your brother with Ms. Edwards and Mr. Blake, and I thought they seemed…”