She lifted her gun and shot him in the head. She watched dispassionately as he flew back, his chair toppling over, wine glass smashing as it hit the stone floor. Then she nodded at the men holding Renaldo down and turned away as they completed his execution. She smiled and looked down at Benito’s expression as the bullet thudded into the table as it exited his son’s skull. Benito screamed his anguish at the loss of his sons.
She dropped to her knees and before Reyes could stop her she dragged the suddenly frail looking man into her arms as he lay dying in a pool of his own blood. “Now do you get it, Benito?” she crooned. “It fucking hurts.”
“F-fuck you, p-puta,” he managed to say through a face full of blood, snot and tears.
Then he lunged up at her and reached for her gun just as Reyes gripped her arm and dragged her away from the Mexican arms dealer. “Back the fuck up, Casey!” Reyes snapped sharply. “Don’t touch him again, he’s like a feral dog that needs to be put down.”
Casey stood, blood dripping from her white dress. “I’m not done hurting,” she murmured and turned back to the table. “You have one secret here you thought no outsider could find out. The reason you’ve gone without a wife all these years. No woman to legitimize your children.”
Her eyes glowed with vengeful fire, amber and green, as she stared at the man that had sat to the left of Benito without fail for the past thirty-five years. He stared coldly back, ice clashing with fire. He knew what was coming.
“Please!” Benito screamed, blood and spit flying from his lips, when he realized who she was after. “I’ll do anything, give you anything! Do not take my Mano, I’m begging you! Jewels, money, all of my trade routes, they’re all yours… take them! Please, god, just don’t kill him. Please…” he sobbed, finally a broken man. “I’m so sorry.”
“Tell that to Sandra Palmieri when you see her,” Casey told him and then shot Benito’s lover through the heart.
Casey dropped to her knees on the hard stone floor next to Benito and growled, “Hurts, doesn’t it, puta?”
“Have you no mercy?” he appealed, holding his bloody hand out to her. “You have the face of an angel… but so little mercy.”
She laughed bitterly. “Where was your mercy when you gave me to Ignacio Hernandez? Where was your mercy when you ordered the death of my infant son? You should have gone back to that hospital and finished me off, Benito. That would have been mercy.”
Real fear flashed through his eyes an instant before Casey filled his head and torso with holes, emptying her gun. Reyes dropped to his knees behind her and wrapped his arms around her, ignoring the spray of blood across her dress, face and hair. He kissed the back of her head and whispered, “What about the children? Do we take the entire line as he tried to do to yours?”
She shook her head. “No, Reyes. We don’t kill children.”
He grunted and she knew he had his own opinions, probably ones they wouldn’t agree on, but this was her party and he’d already agreed to let her make the rules.
“Are you done yet, nena, or do you want to kill more of them?” he asked, gripping her hair and tilting her head to the side so he could kiss her neck. She knew it turned him on to watch her shoot. He was a merciless, sadistic son-of-a-bitch. And she loved him.
She tilted her head further to the side, giving him better access, which he immediately took advantage of, heedless of their rapt audience; half of which were pissing themselves in terror and the other half wondering where the insane, ethereal blond came from and where they could get one.
“Maybe one more,” she finally said. “For good measure!”
“Okay, cariña,” Reyes chuckled and helped her to her feet. “Which one do you want?”
She turned her sharp eyes back to the table and immediately pointed at a man she’d recognized the moment she walked into the room. “I know that mean son of a bitch from my Ignacio days,” she smiled coldly as he squirmed in his chair. “And he knows me, he’s a disgusting piece of shit that would try to put his hands on me every time he thought my bodyguard wasn’t looking. I think I’ll play with him a little first…”
Casey trailed her gun along the back of the other men’s chairs, thunking it satisfyingly against the wood, as she approached the one she wanted. He tried pleading with her. “Mrs. Hernandez, C-Casey, so good to see you and looking so fine,” he said in a high-pitched voice. “I never meant nothing by it, you know?”
“But it’s not nice to terrorize women, Stephan,” Casey scolded him, pressing the muzzle of her gun hard against his wrist where it rested on the arm of his chair. She pulled the trigger but nothing happened.
She looked surprised and then giggled and shrugged her shoulders. “Used them all on Benny.”
Alejandro came up behind her, squeezed her shoulder and offered his weapon. She grinned at him and shook her head, her blond hair, now liberally streaked with blood, swaying with the movement. “No thank you,” she whispered loudly, “just make sure he suffers. Not just for me, but for every woman that didn’t have a bodyguard to protect her from this disgusting piece of work.”
She turned to Reyes who was at her back, always at her back. “I think I’m done. Can we go home?”
Reyes grinned and wrapped an arm around her waist. “Anything you want, mi reina.”
CHAPTER THRITY-FOUR
Reyes turned to Alejandro, his voice full of death. “You know what to do.” Then he escorted Casey from the dining room.
They walked side by side through Benito’s hacienda. Despite the bloody evening Casey had both instigated and endured she felt a sense of peace wash over her. She walked tall next to a man that wanted her height and her power to equal his. She knew she would never match his level of brutality and blood lust, but she was a match for him in every other way. She was his queen and now she’d proved it. She’d avenged her family in spectacular fashion.
The clip of her heels against the stone pavement was the only sound that followed them as they made their way through hall after hall toward the garden where their vehicles waited to take them back to the airplane. The bottom floor of the hacienda was glowing beautifully in the rising moonlight. Casey glanced down at her dress, now covered in blood, completely ruined. It looked beautiful to her.
“I’m all… red,” she whispered, flaring the skirt out away from her thighs as they walked.
Reyes looked at her, his face filled with dark hunger. “You can see it, nena? You can see this colour?”
She smiled over at him and let the fabric flutter between her fingertips. “I can see it if you ask me to, see the things you do. I see them through your eyes, Reyes.” She stopped walking, turned and tugged him against her. He stepped easily into her, wrapping his broad hands around her slim hips.
Casey shoved her fingers into his hair and abruptly brought her lips to his, stopping just short of touching them. “You want me, you take me,” she whispered, her breath rushing over him. His fingers clenched hard against her, biting into her flesh through the thin fabric of her dress. It felt so fucking good with the fresh rush of vengeance coursing through her veins. “Take everything for you.”
With a growl Reyes lifted her slightly and shoved her backwards into the shadows, slamming her against something hard, but he softened the blow with a hand at her back. He wrapped that hand around her neck and forced her head into the perfect angle for the harsh, brutal kiss he took. He ground his hips into hers lifting her body slightly until she was riding his erection. Casey moaned into his mouth as he fucked her with his tongue, stealing her breath until she began to feel faint. She could only clutch his shoulders and take quick breaths when he allowed her to surface.
The moment he released her lips, he attacked her neck with sharp stinging bites. He didn’t even pretend he was kissing her flesh, he marked as much of her as he could, fisting her blood-soaked hair in one hand and wrenching it to the side so he could have better access.
“Love you so fucking much, Casey, mi amor, mi reina. So fucking much
more than I ever thought possible,” he snarled against her throat. “I will take everything for myself and I will give you the world in return. I am el rey.”
Casey cried out, her entire body quaking with the fierce emotion ricocheting through both of them. Reyes wrenched her skirt up her body and tore her panties away in one swift move. She screamed at the sting left behind across her thigh and then moaned into his mouth as he shoved his fingers deep into her pussy. She widened her legs, giving him better access. She had no idea how long she’d been wet for, but she was betting it was the moment she walked in on that cozy little dinner scene and set eyes on her man sprawled in his chair like the king he was, owning the dangerous men that sat all around him.
She screamed into his mouth as he pumped his fingers in and out of her, driving her higher and higher, brushing his thumb across her clit with each stroke. Before she could peak he pulled his fingers out and pushed them into her mouth, forcing her to taste herself. He enjoyed doing that, showing her how much he turned her on. She sucked his fingers deep into her mouth, wrapping her tongue around each one, licking the taste of her pussy off his strong fingers while he unzipped his pants and freed his cock.
He shoved her skirt back up around her waist, lifted her right up off the ground and growled, “Legs around my waist, nena.”
Casey clung to his shoulders and did as he ordered, lifting and wrapping her legs around his waist with his help, then he brought her down on his thick cock, filling her inch by inch. She flung her head back, pressing it against the wall behind her and opened her mouth in a silent scream of joy and pain. Fuck, it was the best thing she ever felt in her life and she wanted it to go on forever.
He wanted her hard and he wanted it rough. He wrapped his arm around her waist, snaked one hand up her back, took a fistful of her hair, forced her head back so he could bite down on her neck and began fucking her hard. He slammed her back against the wall repeatedly, forcing his cock in and out of her. It was like being repeatedly impaled with thick, warm steel. Reyes took her to the edge of her endurance and then pushed her over.
Casey screamed, her voice echoing through the veranda beyond. Her body had no choice but to tighten around his as the friction against her clit and the hard fucking drove her higher and higher toward a ferocious orgasm. Her pussy began to ripple, tighten in anticipation, as he slammed harder against her.
She gripped his hair and held him hard, a scream of pure ecstasy ripping through her as she was flung over the edge into oblivion. She went limp against him as he continued his hard thrusts, holding her up against the wall. Reyes shouted her name against the skin of her throat as he came and slammed his hand into the wall next to her head. She smiled happily as she felt the hot rush of him inside her and squeezed him tight against her body.
They both lay against the wall, Reyes leaning against Casey while protecting her back from the hard stone with his hands. He whispered words of love and praise to her while she snuggled against him. She smiled and held in a giggle. His words were mostly approval of her deadly accuracy with her gun and the way she played with her prey before disposing of it.
She sighed and squeezed him tight. She would have to teach him how to speak of nicer, less blood-thirsty things before their child was born. Which reminded her, she should probably tell him soon, give him a chance to get over being pissed that she’d gone into Mexico pregnant before the baby came.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Casey chewed her lip nervously and touched a finger to her still flat belly, soothingly caressing her unborn child as she leaned against Ignacio’s old desk and stared unseeing into what used to be her back yard. It still looked the same, perhaps a little less manicured. Ignacio had always been about appearances while Diego was more about security and the bottom line. He would prefer fewer maintenance workers and gardeners on his estate.
She barely listened to the men as they conducted business, which probably surprised Reyes since she’d taken part in almost every facet of his business since Venezuela. And though she’d convinced him to bring her to Miami to reconnect with her former associates and establish herself as his partner, she hadn’t been telling him the entire truth.
There had been some blow back to her taking their unborn child into Mexico and putting both of their lives at risk. He’d raged for days, locking her in their bedroom and alternating between terrible fury and attempting to make her see reason. Oh, she’d seen reason. She’d always seen the truth, just not the truth Reyes wanted her to see. Reyes was beyond terrified of losing the only family he now had. He seemed to understand the importance of allowing her to rise up, become the powerful force that would ignite his heart and entrench his cartel in the underworlds of many regions, but he couldn’t allow her to do it while pregnant. Something about pregnancy and the added vulnerability to her health seemed to push him over the edge. She’d known he would be that way. These mafia guys were funny about familia.
Only after she’d promised to treat herself more like the queen of England than the queen of murder and mayhem did he let her out of the bedroom; though she’d enjoyed some perks in having her favourite man to herself for days on end. They’d outlined the terms of her pregnancy. She was still allowed to stand at his side and negotiate if he deemed the partner safe. And for some reason, he believed Miami was safe. She was about to disabuse him of that notion and likely send herself back into bedroom lockup for the next six months.
She side-eyed Diego, the snake. Worth it.
“Mexico will not be available to you until further notice,” Reyes was telling Diego. “You will have to make do with your other connections. I can put you in touch with Sotza in Venezuela; he’ll be reluctant to work with an Ignacio associate but he may be willing with a word from me.”
Casey snorted lightly, tuned them out and continued to stroke her belly. She wondered if her little jellybean would have black hair or powdery white blond hair. She ignored the look that Reyes shot her. She didn’t care if he thought she was being immature. Diego was a piece of shit and there was no chance the regal, deadly Sotza was going to work with him. In fact, she was entirely certain that it would take Reyes a matter of days, if not hours, to learn the truth about Diego. Reyes was only using the man because he was easy and convenient. She knew, realistically, that most of these guys were their own level of disgusting, the majority without integrity. If Reyes refused to work with all of them, then he wouldn’t have anyone left to work with.
Still, Casey wasn’t quite done avenging herself and her family. She was biding her time, like any good black widow. Waiting for her chance to lure the fly into her trap. She glanced sideways, wondering if they were going to wrap things up soon so she could murder the crap out of her nemesis, when her gaze drifted to Ignacio’s statue, the one she’d always hated so much. Her eyes lit up and she wandered toward it.
She stood studying the naked cherub with new eyes. It had always caused her to wonder if Ignacio wasn’t so much impotent as into children. He did seem to prefer her looks when she was younger, more child-like. She shuddered.
She was so absorbed in the horrible statue she didn’t hear the men’s conversation wrap up or Diego approach her from behind. He slid an arm around her waist, digging his fingers brutally into her hip, causing her to jump in shock. He brought her body back into his, slamming her ass into his cock. She gasped and cried out, but he covered her mouth with his hand. She glanced back over his shoulder and saw Reyes outside the patio doors with his back to her, standing with Alejandro deep in discussion.
“Can’t wait to get you alone, Casey. Just you and me, baby,” Diego breathed in her ear. “Ah, the things I’m gonna finally get to do to this body. Fuck, it makes me so fucking hard.”
Diego, the motherfucker, had done exactly as she’d hoped by biding his time, waiting to catch her alone. Only she hadn’t been paying attention. But she had a secret weapon, one he would never guess she could possibly have developed in the past few months. She’d become strong, risen up. Despite
the strength in his arms, the black, ugly thoughts in his head and the sadism in his heart, he was no match for Casey. She had her own strength. She was a queen.
She knew he was expecting her to allow his grope, allow him to touch her so he might release her faster. She wasn’t sure what his plan was after that though. Did he truly think she wouldn’t tell Reyes? Did he think Reyes would believe Diego over the woman Reyes had flown all the way to Miami just to stand at his side. She rolled her eyes. Please son, take a number, this bitch is his everything. This is why she needed to show Reyes that Diego should be replaced, the man was just stupid. He probably couldn’t negotiate his way out of a paper bag.
She grabbed one of the fingers that Diego had placed conveniently at her waist and snapped it back so hard it broke instantly. He howled in pain, let her go and bent over double clutching his finger. Casey whirled around, intent on kneeing him in the face, but then the statue caught her eye again. Oh, even better! She grabbed it with both hands and hauled the heavy piece of gaudy art work off the pedestal. She lifted it as high as she could and viciously brought it down on the back of Diego’s head just as Reyes and Alejandro came rushing in the back door.
Casey let the statue fall from her hands, wincing a little as it smashed Diego’s hand where he lay dazed on the floor, whimpering and bleeding. Well that was a happy accident. She’d been having a lot of those lately.
She turned to the desk and reached for her purse where she’d left it earlier, dragged it toward her and began rummaging through it. Reyes took the scene in at a glance and seemed to assess what had gone down. He apparently came to the conclusion that his woman had things well under control, crossed his arms over his broad chest and merely raised an eyebrow.
Scarred Queen (The Queens Book 1) Page 23