(The Scorpion)
“I want to know where the fuck she is,” he hissed in Spanish at the idioto standing before him. It was a good thing his desk was between them. Otherwise, he already would have slit the man’s throat. “If I don’t start getting my money’s worth, I’ll find someone who doesn’t disappoint so easily.”
The cocksucker swallowed nervously. The offensive stench of his fear reached across the room and assaulted the boss’s nostrils. “She’s staying off the grid, jefe,” the man murmured in a weak voice.
Too weak to be in the position that he was in within the organization, but that was exactly what the boss looked for in his underlings. Weakness. Vulnerability. Made them easier to control and manipulate. The more fear you could instill, the more malleable your servants were.
“She is not using any credit cards,” the man added. “Or her passport. Her name hasn’t popped up on any database that we can find. And there are no paper trails to follow.”
The boss snorted in outrage. “Nonsense. Catalina doesn’t have the resources to go that far off the grid. Use that fucking pea-sized brain of yours and think for a moment. She doesn’t have any other family in Mexico.” According to his sources. And the only family she did have had gone into hiding. It was only a matter of time before his men tracked them down and questioned them regarding Catalina’s whereabouts. If they didn’t fess up, the questions would stop and the torture would begin. “No family in the United States either. So, where the fuck would she go?”
The other man licked his lips. “Perhaps to look for the sister. We could dispatch men to New York to continue the search there.”
The boss held up a finger. “We already have men stationed in New York. But she wouldn’t even know her sister was sent there…unless there’s a leak in my organization.” He assessed the other man with a cold eye. “Is that what you’re telling me? That one of your men has been running his mouth?”
Because this man, dull as he might have been, knew full well the penalty for betrayal. Not only would the rat be dealt with in the most heinous of ways, but this man in front of him would also be held accountable. He was responsible for the soldiers under his command, and betraying the boss’s confidence was never tolerated.
The soldier shook his head. “No, jefe. They remain loyal to you. There are no traitors.”
“There had better not be. I will send word to New York to be on alert. But I want you focusing your efforts on the people in her village. Neighbors, friends. Someone there knows something.”
“And if no one will talk?”
El Escorpion’s expression turned hard, stoic. Evil. “Use any means necessary to loosen their tongues. Or I’ll cut them off myself.”
The other man nodded before swiftly exiting the room to go perform his goddamn job.
The boss spun around in his chair to face the large window overlooking his sprawling estate on the outskirts of Mexico City. One so vast it was the envy of drug lords worldwide. He had certainly underestimated Catalina’s capabilities. He didn’t even know where she would have acquired the money or means to disappear so effectively. He’d always thought her mousy, if not a little stubborn. An attitude had always lurked in her fiery eyes, but that was fixable. Insolence was a habit that could easily be broken.
They could all be broken.
And eventually, they all were.
But Catalina was different. He’d known it from the moment he first saw her. Right away, he’d sensed a rare spirit that presented a challenge to him. The idea of breaking a spirit like hers gave him a thrill like no other.
El Escorpion was a collector.
He liked surrounding himself with beautiful things, priceless items. After a lifetime of hard work, he deserved only the best and most precious of the world’s gems. He wanted his vast wealth on display at all times. After all, expensive toys equated to immeasurable power. He made sure that everyone, especially his enemies, knew just how much of both he’d acquired.
Every powerful man needed a beauty by his side. And Catalina Jacqueline Vasquez was by far the most beautiful possession he could ever own.
She would be his crowning jewel.
The ultimate piece of property every man in Mexico would lust after. They would all envy him.
He would find Catalina, he would break her, he would own her.
And then, he would never let her go.
Even the below freezing temperatures of Brooklyn weren’t fully effective in calming down my raging dick. After delivering my blunt words about shoving her full of ten inches, Cat’s eyes had sparked with unmistakable lust. That had been twenty minutes ago, and the bastard was still twitching. It would help if I could forget how her eyes had lowered to that bulge and gotten all heavy.
Right before she’d licked her fucking lips.
It was like the same fantasy had been playing out in both of our heads. Swear to Christ, I’d been so close to telling her, “Take your fill, baby girl. God knows I have.”
After following me back to the gym, I led Cat through the door in the back of the weight room where a set of stairs led up to the empty apartment. It was more of a utilitarian space than anything. There was one bedroom, a bathroom, and a living room that shared the same space with the small kitchen. I’d kept the same furniture I used whenever I lived there, including a queen-sized mattress, an aging, yet clean, couch, scratched up coffee table, a flat-screen television, and a narrow table with two chairs that were shoved against the far back wall, right next to the old refrigerator.
Pretty threadbare, but still fifty times better than the rat-infested shithole she’d been staying in. Even if her place hadn’t been broken into, I would have dragged her out of that slum the moment I laid eyes on it. Those were the kinds of places young women disappeared from, never to be seen again, and no one ever blinked an eye. Not even law enforcement.
Something told me that Cat didn’t have anyone to look out for her.
No one but herself.
She followed closely, forcing me to breathe through my mouth so I didn’t inhale her scent, as I showed her around the apartment. What was that fragrance? Passionfruit?
I pulled the only set of bedsheets from the hall closet and set them on top of the mattress. “These are clean. There’s a blanket on the couch you can use. I’ll go buy a comforter tomorrow—”
“No, this is great,” she insisted. “I won’t be here that long, so there’s no sense in wasting your money.”
I clenched my jaw so the words I’d spend any amount of money on sheets that stayed wrapped around your body all night long didn’t leave my mouth.
My gaze caught on her ass in those damnably tight leggings as she explored the tiny kitchen. Tension grew in my neck and shoulders as I forced myself to look away. Her tight clothing didn’t reveal anything, but her figure was nonetheless on display. The thin material still hugged her curves, reminding me of the fluidity in her limbs that night at the club. The sultry roll of her hips. The smooth grace of her legs as she’d glided around that darkened room. Her fingers had been hooked in the strings of her bikini top, a split second away from baring herself completely, when my bastard brothers had interrupted the hottest moment of my life.
“The water for the shower takes a few minutes to heat up,” I said, my voice oddly hoarse. “The refrigerator is empty, but you’re welcome to anything in the gym’s break room downstairs. It’s usually fully stocked. You can do laundry down there too, since there are no machines up here.”
She trailed her fingers along the back of the couch, calling to mind the way those slim fingers had drifted down her own stomach the night she danced for me. When they’d briefly dipped inside her tight little hot pants, I’d fisted the leather material of the couch I’d been sitting on in a death grip.
Maybe letting her stay here isn’t the best idea.
How the hell was I going to concentrate on work downstairs when I knew she was upstairs, showering, getting naked, sleeping on a bed that I once slept on? Occu
pying a space that was totally and completely mine?
Fuck.
I should have just put her up in a hotel somewhere.
“Do I need a key?” she asked, snapping me out of my self-berating.
I reached into my pocket for the extra key, my voice coming out gruff. “Only for this door. Remember to lock it anytime you leave, so no one can get in here from the gym side. The main door to the gym is on an alarm system, so you only need to enter the code when you’re accessing the building after the gym closes.”
Our fingers brushed as I handed over the key, our gazes briefly connecting before I yanked myself back. She smelled too damn good. Like a lush rainforest right after a tropical storm.
“You’re also welcome to use the gym anytime you want.”
She immediately waved that off. “That’s not going to happen.”
I figured as much. She didn’t seem like the type to accept anything for free. “Just wanted to throw it out there. It’s part of the amenity package of staying here.”
Her hazel eyes glittered, her head canting thoughtfully. “Free rent, free gym membership. Are you always this generous?”
I’d be so generous with you, baby girl, you don’t even know.
“Don’t think I’ve ever been called that before, no.”
“What about charitable?”
My nostrils flared. “We both know this isn’t fucking charity.”
She was wise not to take the bait. Because I had no qualms with telling her—in graphic detail—exactly what this was.
She flipped her thick mass of glossy black hair behind her shoulder. “Still, you didn’t have to do anything tonight and I appreciate it. Muchas gracias.”
My eyes nearly rolled back in my head.
Smooth, husky Spanish rolled off that tongue the same way I wanted her tongue to roll over my dick. The only reason I wasn’t shoving her against the wall right then was the surprise in her voice.
Surprise that someone actually had the decency to help her?
That had my rage boiling to the surface all over again.
“You’re welcome,” I rasped. “Hand me your phone.”
Her eyebrow reached her hairline.
“So I can put my number in it,” I reassured her. “In case there are any problems. Call me anytime.” And for anything.
She hesitantly pulled it from her pocket but didn’t hand it over. When I reached for it, she quickly yanked her hand back, her eyes widening in panic, her fingers white knuckling the device. It was clear she was not giving it up.
It was a telling reaction. My military training said so. What exactly it meant, I wasn’t yet sure.
But it only served to pique my curiosity about her.
Where had she come from? What had brought her to Brooklyn all on her own? The overwhelming desire to collect every piece of information on her I could gather was unfamiliar…and powerful as hell. I had a great appreciation for women, both inside and outside the bedroom, but I never pried into their personal lives. I had never connected with someone enough to care that deeply.
But with this woman?
I was ready to use any high-level military contact I had to pick apart every minute of her life until I knew every fucking detail, backward and forward. And that wasn’t a normal reaction for anyone, let alone a man like me who often rubbed elbows with the darker echelons of society. Anger and violence ruled my world. Everything in my life was sharp edges and high stakes. More often than not, I operated in extremes. Such an existence didn’t mesh with someone like Cat, who was all soft curves and liquid sensuality.
I had to tread lightly.
Holding my hands up in surrender, I took a careful step back.
At that action, she wiped the panic from her eyes. Despite her efforts to try and cover up her unease, it still came out in her voice. “I-I’ll put it in myself. Sorry, I’m just weird about other people using my phone.”
Yeah, I was sensing there was a hell of a lot more to it than that.
“Lots of embarrassing pictures of you and your cat on there, huh?” I joked.
She snorted. “Cats and I have a love-hate relationship that usually leans more toward hate.”
More intel. Whether her dislike of cats was a useless fact or not, it was something. In the military, we were trained to—
Learn everything.
Prepare for anything.
I rattled off my number through gritted teeth. She may have been in possession of the first smart phone ever made, it was so old. Fucking duct tape was holding the damn thing together. Already I’d learned that she was used to not having the best of anything.
Which fucking pissed me off.
Because I’d also learned that she was the type of person who deserved only the best of everything.
And I wasn’t the man to give her that.
I need to get the hell out of here.
My self-control had already been tested too far tonight. Feeling like an idiot teenager at the end of prom night, nervous over whether or not he should steal a kiss, I headed for the door.
“My employees open the gym at five-thirty every morning,” I told her. “It’ll be locked up until then. You and I have the only keys to the apartment, so no one else can get up here.”
She nodded, releasing a shaky breath. “Okay.”
It offered a marginal sense of comfort that the entire building was locked up tighter than Fort Knox every night, thanks to my younger brother Ace and his tech genius know-how. He was a security systems expert and had installed military grade cameras and alarms around the entire property.
My Cat was safe for tonight.
Your Cat? What the fuck?
That possessiveness leaked from my brain and escaped through my mouth before I could contain it. “I hope all of this hasn’t ruined your plans for the evening.”
When I’d asked her out for a drink earlier, she’d mentioned having plans. Something viciously ugly and unthinkably horrific had occurred to me at that point. Having plans likely meant one of two things. Either Cat was working at Rumors later, where countless horny men would eyefuck her mostly naked body as it swerved inches away from their drooling mouths. Or—
Cat had a boyfriend.
I’d foolishly never even considered it. But it was entirely possible that this woman who had consumed all my waking—and sleeping—thoughts for the last two months was involved with someone else. While I’d been fucking my fist to the memory of her body undulating over mine, coming to the sound of her stage name as it fell from my lips, she could have been sleeping in another man’s bed.
People could easily disappear and never be found. Happened all the time. Especially in New York.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
“Perdón?”
“The plans you mentioned having earlier?”
Cat ducked her head as pink infused her cheeks. “Oh, right. I’ll just cancel them.”
My back molars grinded together because I still didn’t have an explanation. Which meant I was still going to stew once I got home while a million despicable thoughts ran through my head.
Turning away from her blushing face before I decided to give her something to really blush about, I walked out the apartment door and down the steps. Once I stood in front of the door that led to the gym, I looked back to find her standing at the stop of the stairs, watching me.
“Like I said, call me if you need anything.”
Her sensual mouth curved upward. “I’ll try not to.”
My eyelids drooped as my gaze lowered to her thighs. Did she even realize she was rubbing them together?
Twisting the doorknob, I spun around and called over my shoulder, “Don’t try too hard.”
I didn’t allow myself to look back at her expression. Didn’t want to see something I wouldn’t like cross her features.
And if I saw something I did like, I would never have left that stairwell.
Someone is in here with me.
I was lying in bed alon
e, but I was not the only person in the room. Someone was moving in the shadows. The floorboards creaked under heavy footsteps. The room was dark, but the form slinking along the wall was darker than the space around it. Wide shoulders, menacing posture. Moving in a crouch-like fashion. Almost like an animal.
As if it wasn’t entirely human.
My breathing quickened as I broke out in a cold sweat. Every intuitive bone in my body told me I was in imminent danger, but I couldn’t get my body to move. My muscles were locked in fear as I watched the dark shadow move closer and closer to my bed.
“You’ve disappointed me, Catalina,” the shadow snarled.
I know that voice.
No. No, it couldn’t be…
“I told you that you’re mine.” His voice sounded more like a hiss than a whisper. “You belong to me. Yet you run from me?” He tsked in admonishment, causing goosebumps to sprout on my flesh. “Silly, silly girl. Don’t you know there is no place I cannot find you?”
When a dark arm slithered across the bed, I jerked away from the serpent-like shape. The bony fingers that gripped the sheets had long claws. I felt him coming closer, his fowl breath brushing across my cheek.
“And now you’ve sentenced them all to death,” he sneered.
My heart stopped. Lungs seized.
“I’ll make them all pay. Every single person you care about. Every day you run, they suffer for it.”
Tears leaked from my eyes. My family. He was going to hurt my family.
A hand wrapped around my throat and squeezed. I gasped for an air supply that wasn’t there, writhing and thrashing to break free of the grip. The harder I fought, the more of his weight he used to pin me down.
“You cannot escape me, Catalina,” he said right against my ear. “No one escapes from me!”
When he leaned up over me, all I saw were glowing red eyes, sharp, fang-like teeth, and thin lips twisted in the most terrifying, demonic—
I screamed.
When I sprang upright in bed, I was still screaming.
And holding my hand to my throat.
Glitter and Greed (Brooklyn Brothers #4) Page 5