Iya shrugged, "Why not? It started with her mother. She was a very beautiful woman. I bought her at a black market auction in Spain. She came from a very noble family in the south of Italy. Her father had squandered the family fortune and he got the great idea that he could make some money with his oldest daughter. He made her disappearance appear as a kidnapping, while he actually sold her instead. He did the same in the following years to her younger sisters. He was eventually caught and sent to jail, where he had a rough time of it from his fellow inmates. He didn't last long. I brought Lisa's mother back here to the island. She fought me tooth and nail. I still have the scars! She had almost as much pride as I did, but she tamed down some once she had Lisa. She poured herself into protecting that girl. She was special and I kept her exclusively to myself and I didn't share her with my twin brother, which was a mistake. My twin brother grew jealous and when I was gone he raped her for days and then killed her. He raped Lisa as an afterthought and would have killed her too, but my men stopped him, because she was of my blood. I was angry with my brother, but he was of my very own blood and she was but a good lay, so I let it pass and just gave him a good beating. I waited to see what would become of Lisa. Alone and without a mother she was picked on by the other children and their mothers, but she surprised me by how hard she fought to survive. She really surprised me one night when she was twelve. She snuck into my brothers' room and killed him and his favorite woman, who had picked on her the most. The others gave her a wider berth after that. She is tough, but in some ways very fragile. Now that you see what you're up against what do you think?"
Flint didn't say anything, but just continued to stare at Iya idly, caressing the stem of the glass with a finger.
"You think I'm a monster don't you?"
"You said it, not me." Flint said as he stood up.
Iya was mildly surprised that he was leaving. They really hadn't discussed much of anything of importance, yet.
Suddenly the figure of a man materialized out of the darkness from the direction of the house to come up alongside Flint. "Get what we came here for Tyre?"
"Yes." Was all the slimmer man responded with.