The Skull Crusher

by Penelope Sky

  “Well, yes, that was a dig at you.” Heath looked at me. “So I shouldn’t be the one you need to worry about. I don’t have to chain up a woman to get sex.”

  I didn’t have to come to Balto’s aid, but I did anyway. “He doesn’t either.”

  Balto slowly turned to me, his eyes showing his approval.

  Heath turned his attention to the game. “If you guys are about to do something disgusting, you should head up to your place. Because I’ll probably watch and like it.”

  AFTER THE GAME WAS OVER, we headed back to the top floor. It was getting late, and I wanted to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Balto always kept me up late, so I woke up around noon. But we’d had a long day of running around, so I was ready to hit the sheets.

  I walked into the bedroom and opened his drawer to fish out a t-shirt. I grabbed a white one made of soft cotton. It smelled like his detergent with a hint of his cologne. I’d been wearing his clothes so much and sleeping in his bed that I constantly smelled like him—not that I minded.

  “Am I still not getting sex tonight?” He leaned against the doorframe, his hands in his pockets and his piercing blue eyes glued to me. His jeans fit his narrow hips perfectly, and he had the broadest shoulders.

  “Depends.” I pulled off my clothes and pulled his shirt over my naked body.

  “On?”

  I turned around and slowly made my way toward him, my panties the only article of clothing I had on underneath. “Your brother told me when we started seeing each other, you weren’t yourself. You’d go to the bars together, but you wouldn’t pick up anyone. Women would offer themselves to you at the Underground, but you never took the bait. He never saw you with anyone.”

  Balto held my expression, wearing that classic poker face that was impossible to read. Even an expert psychologist wouldn’t be able to crack his hard shell. He had the coldest look of the hardest criminals in the country. He could give nothing away better than anyone. “My brother isn’t with me all the time.”

  “So everything he said wasn’t true?” Balto claimed he never lied, so now was his chance to prove it.

  His eyes shifted back and forth slightly as he looked into mine.

  “Balto?”

  “Yes, it’s true. But we aren’t together all the time. No one knows where I am all the time besides me. Don’t put too much stock in what he says.”

  “If that’s true, why did you want me to forgive him so much? If he’s not credible, why do you want me to trust him?”

  Balto turned silent.

  I had him cornered, and he wasn’t going anywhere. Balto didn’t want to show his hand, but I already knew what cards he had. He kept them close to his chest, but I was yanking them down to the table.

  I walked back to the bed and peeled off my thong. It slid down my long legs until it hit the rug around his bed. Then I took off the soft t-shirt I’d just put on. Buck naked, I moved onto his bed and lay on my back. I opened my legs to him and rubbed my fingers against my clit.

  He stared right between my legs, his jaw tightening and the front of his jeans getting noticeably tight. When he couldn’t resist the temptation, he came toward the bed and pulled his shirt over his head. His jeans came next, along with his boxers. When his enormous cock was revealed, it was long, thick, and ready to blow.

  “Were you with anyone else before you took me?”

  He got onto the bed and moved to his knees. “What does it matter?”

  “It matters because I think it matters.” I pressed my foot against his chest to keep him in place. My fingers kept rubbing my clit, coating my entrance with slickness. My nipples were hard, and my breathing was deep and erratic. “Now, answer me.”

  He grabbed me by the ankle and lowered my foot before he moved farther over me.

  I pressed my foot against him again. “Answer me, or I’m going to make myself come and then go to sleep.”

  He watched my fingers work my clit as his wide chest expanded harder against my foot. He could probably see my slickness drip down toward my crack. We’d spent four nights apart, and he hadn’t caught up on the time we missed.

  His eyes flicked back to mine, his irritation obvious in the vein in his forehead. He was pissed I’d commandeered the power in the situation, and he was pissed he was falling right into my trap. The smart thing to do would be to walk away and leave me there, but he wanted this pussy too much. “No. There was no one else.”

  I finally got the answer I wanted, so I widened my legs and gave him permission to move on top of me.

  His narrow hips fit right between my thighs, and he guided his shaft with his hand. He pressed his thick crown inside me and sank perfectly, sliding through my wetness until he was buried to the hilt. “Fuck.”

  My ankles locked around his waist, and I pulled him close to me, our lips almost touching. My hand glided up his strong chest, and I looked into those blue eyes that always bored into mine when I came. “I already knew the answer. I just wanted to hear you say it.”

  19

  BALTO

  She lay there half asleep, satisfied by my deep thrusts and the pile of come sitting inside her. Her hair was a mess from the way I’d fisted it like a rope, and she looked so beautiful with those plump lips that had been thoroughly kissed.

  I slipped out of bed and started to get dressed.

  When she heard the sound of my movements, she sat up in bed and looked at me, her eyes heavy because of her desire to sleep. She watched me pull on my jeans. “You aren’t leaving tonight, are you?”

  “I’ve got a lot of work to do, baby.”

  “But you were gone for four nights just days ago.”

  “That was all your doing.” I pulled on my t-shirt then ran my fingers through my short hair. My boots came on next.

  She slipped out of bed and pulled on one of my t-shirts, pouting in disappointment. “When will you be home?”

  “When I get home.”

  “Balto—”

  “I’m not being a smartass. I never know what the night holds. Maybe I’ll be back in a few hours. Maybe I won’t come back at all.” I didn’t want Cassini to get the wrong impression about the two of us. Heath threw me under the bus, and now this woman assumed my monogamy meant something. It didn’t mean a damn thing. Nothing had changed between us. She was the prisoner, and I was the captor. She was a key component in this war with Lucian, and I would use her in whatever way was necessary. These domestic conversations about when I’d be home were irritating.

  “Don’t say things like that,” she whispered.

  “Isn’t that exactly what you want? For me to die so you can be free?” I turned to her to see her reaction, to see the emotions dancing across her face.

  “I definitely want to be free. But no, I don’t want you to die.” She left the bedroom and walked to the living room.

  I followed behind her and slipped a pistol into the back of my jeans. My beat-up truck was packed with shotguns and weapons that were practically hidden in plain sight. If someone tried to fuck with me, they were dealing with an armory.

  With arms crossed over her chest and that same irritation in her eyes, she looked pissed that I was leaving. “Will Heath be downstairs?”

  “No. He’ll be at the Underground with me.”

  “Oh…”

  “But there are fifty highly trained men down there. I don’t know how many times I have to say it, but they’ll keep you safe.”

  “Balto, it doesn’t matter how strong they are. They aren’t you.” She hit the button on the wall so the elevator would rise to our floor. “I guess I’ll see you sometime in the morning.” She rose on her tiptoes so she could plant her hands on my chest and kiss me.

  Kiss me like she would actually miss me.

  Kiss me like I meant something to her.

  My hands moved around her waist, and I pulled the t-shirt tight against her body. I could feel the steep curve in her back, the prominent feminine features that made her so perfect. She had a tight back that led
to a gorgeous, nectarine ass. I pulled her against my chest as I kissed her, realizing I was kissing a woman goodbye, something I’d never done before. I hardly kissed women at all. When it came to sex with whores, it was right down to business. With one-night stands, sometimes there was lip-locking but not much.

  But I seemed to kiss this woman every single day.

  THE SECOND I walked into the Underground, Brutus came to my side. “Hunter’s replacement just delivered his fee. Not only did he pay his portion for the last distribution, but he made up for all the payments Hunter missed.”

  I moved past the other men and headed to the bar. “I like this guy.”

  “He’s a good replacement.”

  “Should have been him in the first place. Looks like we won’t have any problems from here on out.”

  “Not if he wants to keep his skull intact.”

  I stopped when I noticed Heath sitting at one of the tables with the topless bartender in his lap. His glass of scotch was beside him, and he was feeling her up underneath her skirt. She had men to serve and tables to wait on, but my brother’s mind immediately went to pussy. “We’ll talk later.” I left Brutus and interrupted my brother’s playtime. “Let the woman do her job, Heath.”

  “Come on, she deserves a break.” He gripped her thigh and kissed her neck.

  I didn’t want to sit there and watch soft porn. “Denise, get me a scotch on the rocks—now.”

  She was a sassy woman, but she didn’t question my tone. She left Heath’s lap immediately and headed back to the bar.

  Wise decision. I would have fired her ass if she disobeyed me.

  “What the hell, man?” Heath rounded on me. “Don’t cockblock me.”

  “Bartenders are off-limits. You know that.”

  “Why the fuck are they off-limits?” He glanced at her before he turned back to me. “She’s wearing a tight little skirt while her tits hang out. You expect a bunch of Skull Kings to behave ourselves around tits and booze?”

  “You can fuck her after her shift but not during. If she’s grinding against your dick, then our mouths are going dry. Consider this to be your one and only warning.” My brother’s personality was really blossoming now that he’d been out of jail for over a month. He’d shed his hard, outer layer and finally returned to the pain in the ass he used to be. I was happy for him, but he had to obey me. This was my joint, and I couldn’t give him special treatment. The respect of my men was worth everything to me. Once you lost it, it was gone forever.

  Denise returned and set the glass of booze beside me. “Anything else, Balto?”

  With my elbows resting on the table, I looked up to meet her gaze. “Yes. Stop fucking around, or find a new job.”

  She didn’t talk back to me or give me attitude. I was so used to Cassini always giving me hell for everything that I expected Denise to do the same thing. Instead, she held her tongue and walked away.

  Heath gave me a cold look but didn’t say anything.

  “There’s plenty of pussy out there, Heath. You’ll be fine.”

  He grabbed his glass and took a long drink. “We’ve got some big players coming to the auction tonight. But I guess they’re expecting younger meat.”

  Some of our clients preferred the women to be under eighteen, but I’d banned that months ago. That shit didn’t sit right with me, and I didn’t care how our clients felt about it. “Not gonna happen.” I was a man with no morals and there wasn’t a line I was afraid to cross, but auctioning off underage women was simply disgusting. I dealt with the cruelest men in this world, but I didn’t want to make deals with those particular kinds of men.

  “They’ll be disappointed.”

  “You think I give a damn?” I wasn’t even sure why we still had the auction. We made money in many other ways, and in my eyes, more respectable ways. Money was made by selling products, whether that was drugs or weapons. Sometimes we killed for a paycheck. But selling a human being into slavery seemed pathetic. Though, the auction had been around for so long that it was part of our brand. If I tried to get rid of it, the men would be angry.

  “Just letting you know.” He raised both his hands in the air.

  I felt a pair of eyes settle on my face from across the room. It was a sixth sense, detecting someone’s focus on you. I lifted my gaze and met the stare of a Skull King I could hardly tolerate. Vox, a large man who had a muscularity that could rival my own. With a black beard and matching eyes, he had the look of the devil. He was quiet, choosing to have his conversations with just his eyes. He was a strong man and one of my best fighters, but it was obvious he despised me. If he had it his way, he would be the new Skull King. He had his own supporters—but I had far more.

  “What?” Heath asked, recognizing my distraction.

  “Nothing.” I broke eye contact with Vox, not because I backed down, but because I had more important things to worry about. “Why did you tell Cassini all that bullshit?” My fingers wrapped around my glass as I stared at my brother.

  “What bullshit?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me. You’re too dumb to pull it off.”

  “What?” he asked. “About you keeping your dick in your pants?”

  “Exactly that, asshole.”

  “Well, it’s true.”

  “But why did she need to know that?”

  “Because she didn’t understand why I cared so much about us having a clean slate. So I told her she obviously meant something to you.”

  My fingers squeezed the glass, and I almost shattered it. The only reason I didn’t was because I restrained myself, stopping my hard fingers from exerting the pressure that would make all the individual shards break apart. “Why the fuck would you tell her that?”

  “Because it’s the truth.”

  “It’s not the goddamn truth. That woman is a damn poker chip. She’s my ticket to taking down Lucian. Don’t put false bullshit in her head to make her think she’s actually got a chance of survival. She’s just livestock. I’ll either sell her, keep her, or butcher her. Those are her only three options.”

  “Balto, I could tell her all kinds of bullshit, and she would never believe it. The reason why she believes this is because she’s seen it with her own eyes. If I told her you were a father of three and had a wife somewhere, you think she’d believe me? No. If I told her you were actually a woman, you think she’d believe me? No. She believes this because she already suspected it. So get angry at me all you want, but this is entirely your fault.” He poked his finger into my arm. “And what’s so bad about actually caring about this woman? She’s beautiful, smart, has an attitude full of venom.”

  “I don’t want to mislead her.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t want her to think I won’t betray her. Because I will.” I grabbed my glass and took a drink. “Even if I do care about her, if Lucian gives me what I want, I’ll give her up. She needs to understand I’m still her enemy. She needs to understand she’s not safe. I don’t lie to my victims and let them believe they’ve been rescued when they’ve actually been kidnapped. Not my style. So don’t poison her mind with this bullshit.”

  “If all that is true, then I’m not the one poisoning her. You are.” He took a drink. “You’re the one sweeping her off her feet. If you want her to understand how evil you are, then you need to start acting like it. Because all I see is a man so deep inside one pussy that he’ll never get out…because he doesn’t want to get out.”

  I SAT on my throne and stared at the men sitting at the tables in the dark. Most of them were in suits, sitting alone with their paddles on the table beside them. All from different places with different backgrounds, they were men with one thing in common.

  They were pigs.

  The auction hosted by the Skull Kings kept our contacts fresh. It usually opened new lines of business with powerful players. They were there to buy a woman, but they also might commission us for another line of work.

  I drank from my glass and watched the fr
ightened women line up on the stage, all naked and in chains.

  Call me old-fashioned, but a real man shouldn’t have to force a woman to get laid. He could land pussy on his own, or he had a wallet fat enough to pay for it. Buying a slave to rape and torture was reprehensible.

  It would be easy to call me hypocritical, but I certainly didn’t force Cassini to do anything. It seemed like she wanted me more than I wanted her sometimes, even though that was hard to believe.

  Vox came from my right, heading toward me with that scowl he always wore. That was the expression he constantly held, but it seemed more pronounced when he looked at me. He approached my throne and addressed me with his silence.

  “Yes?” I asked, annoyed that I had to interact with this asshole at all. Sometimes I considered killing him because I knew what kind of ambitions he had, but that would be unfair. I would be killing him just to get him out of the way, and that wasn’t justice, especially when he was a good soldier and excellent torturer.

  “Our clients are complaining.”

  “About?” The stage was lined with beautiful women, and their glasses were full. What the hell was there to complain about?

  He stood at the foot of my throne, his eyes blacker than the sky on a moonless night. “They say we don’t have young women anymore.”

  “These women are young.” They were all in their twenties. And younger wasn’t necessarily better, in my opinion.

  “Not young enough. We’re going to lose our best clients if we—”

  “The answer is no. They can deal with it or go elsewhere.”

  His arms stayed by his sides, but his annoyance was obvious in the tightness of his limbs. There was noticeable distance between us, but the proximity was enough to be hostile. “If the Skull Kings fail to do the cruel things we’re known for, people will lose respect—”

  “We do plenty of cruel things. But we don’t do that.” Criminals prided themselves on the horrors they committed. But at a certain point, some crimes were too horrific to be proud of. Selling underage women was repulsive. That didn’t make us more admirable. It made us more pathetic. “That’s final. Ask me again and see what happens.” I held his gaze with my drink in my hand, prepared to crush his skull with the tumbler if I had to.