Chapter Eleven: The Pope Who Didn't Change His Name

As Talia drew closer, back in Gotham City, Bruce, and Lucius Fox scrutinized a series of cell tower pings to try and triangulate where the initial message to Gordon had originated.

As Fox typed in another set of coordinates in accordance with traffic surveillance cameras, hours away in the isolated cabin, Bane yanked the dingy linen off of Lia.

"Quit the act and sit up," he ordered.

Lia let out a slow breath as she sat upright, stifling a groan from the aches in muscles she didn't realize she even possessed.

"Eat," Bane grunted in a cro magnon man tone as he tapped the toe of his steel-toed boot against a sliced apple that looked a little sad on a white plate.

Lia quickly reached for the squat mug of tepid water that held a strong mineral taste, but she was so thirsty and hungry, she nearly choked eating and drinking too fast.

"Thank you," Lia sighed as she set the empty glass on the floor.

"Stand up," Bane ordered musically and watched her struggle to her feet.

Lia kept her eyes glued to the wood grain on the floor as Bane's gaze moved over her, knowing Talia would want an explanation of the bruising if it brought the price down. He had rinsed the matching bra and panties she had been wearing when he had brought her to the cabin and dropped them at her feet.

Lia looked up at him with a frown.

"Put them on."

Lia stayed still as he closed the distance between them and repeated himself with a dangerous melodical lilt to his voice. "Put them on, now, Miss Gordon."

"No. Why?" she stammered.

"Because Miss Gordon, the winning bidder is on their way and want a good look at what their money bought them."

"You can't actually sell me," Lia spit and shook her head as she took a step back and stumbled against the edge of the bedding.

Bane capitalized on the moment and moved with ferocious speed as he captured her upper arms and practically lifted her off her feet as he brought his masked face dangerously close to hers.

As he spoke, Lia could feel his medicated exhale brush against her full lips. Bane felt fireworks in his nervous system as her heart raced so fast, he could see her pulse pounding in her neck and his cock twinged with aching want as old as early man as her pupils dilated with his close proximity.

"Put on the clothes Miss Gordon or I shall do it for you. I am but a moving piece in the design and have no ability to change your situation."

Bane forced himself to take a step back when Lia began shaking from head to toe but began slipping out of her minimal clothing.

He felt filled with the power of Mercury as he mimicked the power of the Pope who didn't change his name as his eyes memorized her supple nudity. Bane felt a pull inside and a spike of necrotic jealousy and envy of someone paying for her naked curves and untouched pink center.

Lia moved methodically as she slipped into the plain bra and panties. She wanted to move faster but felt off-balance and didn't want to risk falling and feeling further vulnerable if that was even possible.

Bane remained in resolute silence while inside his nervous system was alive and moving adrenaline like a freight train throughout his body.

Lia followed his hand's movement as he pointed to a stiff-backed wooden chair.

She settled uncomfortably on the bare, wooden seat as Bane circled her, a shark further evolved, a Megalodon, the product of intrauterine cannibalism as he assessed her hungrily.

4.5 billion thoughts swirled inside his cranium and raced a hot pathway up his brain's corpus colostrum and leapfrogged his hemisphere's as he clenched his teeth behind his mask so hard that his jaw popped and he averted his eyes and handcuffed her hands to the chair before he slipped a canvas blindfold in place over her eyes, pulling it tightly until he earned a painful gasp from her throat.

Bane continued walking around her in critical circles, the weight of his gaze heavy even under the wrap of the blindfold.

"Please," Lia began to babble. "Please you can't sell me, there has to be something else," she stammered.

"What else could there be Miss Gordon?" Bane asked as he paused his circles and leaned down to speak against the crown of her head. His breath warmly tickling her scalp through the front of his mask.

As Lia struggled to put together an answer, Talia and company grew closer as Fox and Bruce continued to utilize the spyware equipment in Applied Sciences.

As the software continued to narrow down the cell phone origination point, Blake kept his foot jammed on the accelerator and urged the large engine north. Gordon had shared that he'd reached out to Bruce and now they were all working together to find out where Lia could be and the motivation of the release of those specific prisoners or if that was just a smoke screen.

As forces converged and whirled about in the general direction of the isolated cabin, Bane walked around Lia and squatted in front of her. "Please enlighten me on some alternatives to your situation Miss Gordon?" Bane asked with melodical amusement.

Lia frowned behind the blindfold as she stumbled over her words. "My mom's money, there's an estate trust, you could practically name your price."

"I'm not motivated by money," Bane murmured as Lia's mind whirred and generated another scenario.

"Let me run away, say I escaped," she pleaded.

"That would never happen," Bane said with such deadly emptiness to his words that her bladder tightened.

"What do you want to let me go?"

Lia lapsed into tears behind her blindfold as Bane silently watched her shaking shoulders for a few painfully long minutes before settling his palms on top of her bare thighs and squeezing with growing intensity.

"You have to be sitting here when the buyer and rest of the security detail arrive, anything less will immediately alert suspicion."

Lia's tears slowed and she nodded as Bane continued, tightening his grip on her thighs.

"Events could enfold in a different order when the buyer arrives and money is presented if certain conditions were altered," Bane growled as he began to slide his hands up and down the outside of her thighs.

"What would need to change?" she managed as he slid his hand to rest over her bare kneecaps.

"My motivation," he grunted as he slid his hands up the smooth skin of her inner thighs and pushed her legs apart.

"What does that mean?" she barely managed to whisper.

"Do you want to live?" Bane asked instead, ignoring her question.

Lia moved her chin, distracted by the pressure of his palms pushing her thighs further apart.

"Do you want to live Miss Gordon?" Bane grumbled loudly as he roughly shoved her thighs as far apart as she could manage. "Do you?"

"I do, I want to, I want to live," Lia stuttered and felt a furious blush threaten to make her nose bleed as he stroked the fingertips of one hand over the thin cotton that kept her intimate center from his penetrating gaze.

"I want to live," Lia repeated before her voice broke as she tried to close her legs.

She immediately ceased all movement and froze when she heard the metallic click of a switchblade and the cool touch of the blade as he traced the sharp edge up the inside of her thigh.

"What can you offer in return Miss Gordon? There isn't much you can put up for collateral is there?" Bane asked on a rasp as he teased the tip of the blade in the simple edging of her plain panties.

Every part of Lia was frozen as he continued, tugging the thin fabric further away from her body.

"What can you even do Miss Gordon besides smile and pose for pictures with your father at charity benefits and pancake breakfasts?"

Lia's anger surged and competed with her fear. "You don't know me," she spit while still robbed of sight.

"Tell me who you are then Miss Gordon," Bane demanded as he traced the edge of the knife up her belly and the linen clasp of the bra between her heaving breasts.

"Can you keep a house, manage the finances of a household?" he continued, not giving her a chance to answer.

"I, I can..," Lia stumbled before Bane interrupted her.

"Can you be a partner? Someone to keep the home warm and the bed?" Bane murmured on a husky whisper as he gripped her chin and traced the pad of his thumb over her lower lip.

"Tell me," he ordered and fought to maintain the semblance of a warrior or at least a strong façade even though he was hidden from her eyes by the rough cloth knotted over her eyes.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to say?" Lia said, her voice growing in volume along with her evolving fear.

"I'm going to give you one choice and one opportunity to answer," Bane murmured melodically and smoothed his hand the length of her jaw until he could cup the back of her skull with his palm.

"Do you understand?" he growled as his tone verged on feral as he tightened his hand into a fist in the silken fall of her tangled hair until he could pull her head back and the line of her neck taut.

Lia moaned and tried to nod within the limited amount of room she could move in his ironclad embrace.

She gasped when he remained silent, but soon felt the cool, metal kiss of the blade against her throat.

Bane held the knife with enough pressure that an earthquake would've opened her skin if she had even entertained the thought of struggling as he spoke.

"I'm going to ask you again if you want to live. If you answer yes, it means I'll keep you from the buyer and fuck you before we leave after destroying the evidence of your former life. If you say no, I'm going to fuck you before I send you off with the buyer and however long remains of your life."

Lia's lips parted but no real sound emerged as Bane adjusted his grip on her hair as his words waterboarded her thought processing center.

"What kind of a life would I have with you?" she breathed, asking her question up to the darkness that covered her eyes.

"I am a warrior," Bane mechanically voiced as he trailed the tip of the wickedly sharp blade up the line of her neck, along her jaw and around her full lips as he continued. "I will provide for you, shelter and protection," he growled. "In return, you'll give me every part of yourself without complaint."

"Do you want to live?" Bane asked on an inhuman growl as he lowered his masked mouth to hover over her parted lips as she panted breathlessly.

Lia nodded, not trusting herself to speak, only his voice to keep her company under the darkness of the blindfold.

Bane closed the knife and slipped it into his side pocket before ripping her blindfold off her face.

"Look at me," he demanded in a strangled mechanical whisper.

Lia opened her eyes to meet his haunting gaze, his eyes furiously searching hers as he groaned on a warbled melody of broken words. His tone a piano falling down several flights of concrete stairs.

"Do you want to live?"

"I," Lia started and watched his eyes widen as she began to speak. "I want," she said before her voice broke and she started sobbing.

Bane stared down at her, his lust still growing, her tears were maybe even napalm to the forest fire of his want.

Lia met his eyes and spoke without blinking. "I want something first," she said breathlessly.

"What do you want?" Bane asked on a ragged whisper as he smoothed his hand from her mouth down to tug at her bra until he could cup her warm breast with his palm. His breath caught and his chest tightened as he could feel the galloping of her rapid heartbeat through the supple flesh.

Lia pressed her lips together and tried to not be distracted by his fingertips teasing her rose pink nipple to a stiff peak.

"I want to see your….. your face," she murmured.

Bane stilled his rough fingertips on her delicate skin as he narrowed his eyes down at her.

"Why?" he finally asked when she tried her damnedest to hold his unblinking gaze.

"Because I want to see the face of the man that's taken everything away from me," Lia managed before the strong façade of her words was broken by a sob.