Camilla scrutinized her handiwork for a long moment, glaring at Kara in disappointment. At last, leaning back against the edge of a table and crossing her arms, she said rhetorically, 'What to do with you . . . what to do with you . . . The men that abducted you were well on their way to taking you to your father. But that wouldn't have got you out of the way for good. You'd still have been alive, legally married to Roman. I'd hand you over to your brother, but there's no absolute guarantee that he'll kill you, either. You see, by now your father's men have heard that your brother is here with an accomplice, and seems intent on killing you. Your father will want to know what your brother's part is in all this, and what he is doing away from New York. And he will soon discover, however inadvertently, that the name Savalas is well-known across the Caribbean, and he will not be pleased with your brother. Not one little bit!
'But your father would think twice about going after your brother, now wouldn't he? After all, your brother, by all accounts, is a very dangerous, very resourceful man. He is also very elusive, having escaped the authorities and your father's notice for several years now. How exciting! I find that I want to meet this brother of yours! Perhaps he would like to watch you die, uh?' Frustrated by Kara's silence, she shouted, 'Well? Why don't you say something?'
Kara held her silence, having witnessed this sort of ranting before. She knew that trying to reason with Camilla was pointless, that it might actually make things worse.
'Look at you!' Camilla said in a low voice. 'So virtuous; so untouchable! I'll bet you hardly made a sound while your father whipped you. Which explains why he kept at you, trying and trying to break you! But that isn't the way with you, is it! No, it has to be something else . . . something totally morally degrading . . . something unthinkable! I'd turn the men loose on you . . . but they'd never do what I have in mind, fearing what the Castellans would do should they find out. Roman would slay out-of-hand any man who defiled you. Well, I shall just have to do the next best thing . . . using you, I will make an alliance with your brother against your father. As your father and your brother know where each other stand, this will present no problem-'
This might have been me, Kara mused, no longer listening to Camilla. A spoiled, unrealistic wretch, warped by unearned privilege and a wholly selfish, exclusively egocentric, graspingly materialistic view of the world. She shook her head with mixed pity and loathing.