Scarred Queen (The Queens Book 1) Read online

  “Never,” she hissed pressing her hands back against the cold, unyielding glass of the balcony. “Fuck you and fuck your offer, Reyes. I already have all the material shit that I need in my life and I’d give it all up for a taste of freedom. If you had any idea what I’ve done to leave…” Abruptly she brought a hand up to cut off the flow of words and pressed shaking fingers against her lips, reminding herself not to let her tongue get away from itself.

  “What?” Reyes demanded, his too sharp brain catching on to her words. “What would you do to leave him? Apparently, you won’t accept offers from other, more powerful men. Tell me, nena, what exactly will you do to escape a lifetime with Ignacio Hernandez?”

  She tried to turn away from him, dismiss his words in the hope that he would drop it, but he grabbed her arm and swung her around. She moved quickly on her heels, reaching out to catch herself so she wouldn’t fall. He steadied her and she looked up at him, full in the face, the light falling across her. His eyes roved over her, lingering on her swollen lip and bruised cheek.

  “Shit,” she gasped turning her head, but it was too late. She could feel the instant stillness in his body as he absorbed the meaning behind her battered face. She felt the incoming storm as emotion swelled and seethed within him.

  “Who hit you?” Reyes demanded, his voice lashing her.

  Casey shivered but lifted her chin defiantly. “Who do you think?”

  “Don’t give me that shit, Casey,” he snarled, rage vibrating thickly in his voice. He took hold of her chin and impatiently brushed the hair back from her face so he could see the marks better. “Did Ignacio do this to you?”

  “Of course it was my husband. Do you really think he would allow anyone else to do this without permission?” she confirmed jerking her chin, but he refused to release his hold on her face. He smoothed a finger across the graze on her cheek, his touch gentle despite his seething anger.

  “Why the fuck would he hit you, especially knowing I would see you tonight?” Reyes asked incredulously. “Does he have a death wish?”

  She stared at him, at the threat of violence glittering fiercely in his eyes. All for her, all over the momentary pain Ignacio had caused her. She sighed and brought her hand up, closing it over his and forcing his hand away from her chin. Her bracelet slid along her arm as she moved, a reminder of the ownership another man had over her.

  “Why do you think he hit me? I told him I didn’t want to see you again,” she admitted.

  She could feel the heat of his fury rise further and flinched back, pressing against the railing of the balcony. She expected him to have the same reaction as Ignacio. To attack her for not wanting to see him. Instead he slowly reached out so she could see what he was doing and pulled her away from the railing. She shivered as the cool evening air washed over her bare arms and shoulders.

  He gently brushed her hair back from her face once more and touched the bruise with the back of his fingers. “He hit you because you were reluctant to see me again.”

  She nodded miserably and stood stiffly in his hold. He cupped the back of her head, holding her still and leaned forward to touch his lips against hers. Her lips parted in surprise at the feathery light touch of his mouth to hers. He took advantage by licking the cut on her bottom lip where she’d bitten herself. She jerked back, but he held her immobile with one hand at the back of her head and another around her waist. He brushed his lips back and forth across hers, with gentle purpose.

  Heat sizzled through her veins with the force of a lightening strike. She tried to concentrate on not passing out as every nerve ending in her body lit up with pleasure from the soothing touch of his lips against hers and the firm hand wrapped around her, forcing her to hold still while he overwhelmed her senses. Her legs wobbled on her heels and she probably would have collapsed if he hadn’t been holding her up.

  Finally, he pulled back from the most perfect kiss she’d ever had, his mouth only a few inches from hers when he spoke. “I was already planning to kill your husband, cariña. Now that I know he’s put hands on you, I will make it so much fucking worse. He’ll beg me for death long before I let that miserable fuck go to hell.”

  Casey’s eyes widened in shock and she opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, he interrupted her, his hands falling to her waist in a tight hold. “I know what you will say and I want you to think, Casey. Think hard about who your husband is, what he’s done to you and what you want.”

  She shook her head, her hair swinging. She pushed against his chest, but he wouldn’t let her go. She dug her nails into his chest over his shirt, trying to hurt him, to force him to release her. His hold was unbreakable. “Stop it, Casey. Hold still and listen to me.”

  She whimpered and shook her head.

  He shook her until her head snapped up and they were staring at each other, her eyes wide and fearful, his snapping with fierce energy and anger. “He’s fucking handed you over to me to use however I want. He gave you to me bruised and…” he grabbed her hand and lifted it, her wedding rings glinting in the faint evening light, “wearing his fucking rings. Why? So I could fuck his wife, knowing I was taking a woman I want but can’t keep? He’s a disgusting, degenerate fuck and you know it. He deserves worse than the death I’m going to deal him.”

  A sob tore from her throat and she covered her mouth with one shaking hand. She moaned and tried to turn away from him, to deny his words. She didn’t want to hear this. It was too much, more than she could handle. She’d been sleepwalking through life for a decade. In the space of barely a week she was forced to deal with a whole barrage of emotions and now the man that woke her up was confessing plans of murder on his penthouse balcony.

  A laugh escaped her and she looked around wildly for escape. It was either a twelve-story fall or back through the penthouse into the cold presence of her bodyguard. Her life was a cage no matter where she turned. His grip on her waist tightened painfully as he forced her attention back to him.

  “Don’t you dare drift away from me, Casey. I know how you work, woman, and when we’re together I won’t let you have your little escapism tricks. When we’re together we’ll be together,” he growled.

  “Stop it,” she cried out, the words wrenched from her. She shoved harder against him, struggling in earnest now. “Just stop, Reyes. We’ll never be together!”

  “You think not?” he snarled, turning to the balcony door and dragging her through.

  She squirmed against him, dragging her heels against the floor as he hauled her against the table, shoving her until she was almost sitting on the marble top. Her skirt had twisted until it was nearly hiked up to her waist. He glanced down and groaned as he reached for her. She tried to dive away from him but his hands gripped the outside of her bare thighs and his chest pressed against hers. Capturing her, stilling her. He slid his hands up her thighs, his thumbs caressing the edge of her panties. Casey sucked air into her starved lungs and resisted the urge to tilt her hips to give him better access as scorching heat flooded through her belly and ran like a river through her pussy.

  “Ah god, cariña,” Reyes growled against her throat rocking his hips into the cradle of her thighs and forcing her to feel the thick hardness of his erection. He licked her exposed throat, running his tongue down the side and then gently nipping the place where her neck met her shoulder. His teeth turned more savage with each word until he bit down hard enough to leave a mark. “Let me have you… let me fucking have you and I promise I will make it so fucking good.”

  She slapped her hands down on the table behind her and dropped her head back, unwittingly giving him better access to the front of her body. He immediately moved his mouth across her collarbone, taking stinging bites until he reached the hollow between her breasts. He sucked and licked, touching and seducing her body. He flicked the top of her dress to the side, exposing her breast to the cool air before covering it with his hot, skillful mouth.

  Casey’s breath whooshed out of her and her arms gave ou
t. He caught her before she could hit the table without ever taking his attention from her breast. She whimpered and cried out underneath him, squirming against the hardness of the table. She clenched her hands into fists to keep from grabbing hold of him and demanding he devour her the way she desperately wanted, the way she needed. She couldn’t, she just couldn’t participate, no matter how bad she wanted it.

  He reached for her skirt, shoving it up her thighs and then slid his fingers into her panties, touching her. She felt the rumble in his chest before he spoke. “So fucking wet. Fuck, it was like you were made for me, Casey.”

  She felt pressure as he slid his fingers further into her, felt the explosive pleasure of him sliding across her clit and into her pussy. Her eyes flew open and she gasped, “Stop!”

  He froze, his body going from warmly fluid to completely rigid over top of hers. He pulled his hand from her panties and reached for her. She cried out in fear as he dragged her into his chest, her legs still spread and dangling on either side of his hips. She could still feel the insistent press of his cock straining between them and moaned, half in need and half in distress. She fucking hated this situation!

  “Your husband told you to fuck me?” he demanded, his dark eyes fierce on hers.

  Tears flooded her eyes and she nodded. “Y-yes, that’s pretty much what he said.”

  “And you’re saying no to me?” he asked, his voice a quiet snarl.

  The breath shuddered in and out of her and real fear of his retaliation began to replace her arousal. But she held her ground. She nodded and said in a shaking voice, “I’m saying n-no.”

  “Because you’re loyal to that sick fuck?” he demanded, his fingers tightening on her arms.

  “Because I made a vow to be loyal to that sick fuck,” she cried out, hardening her voice and forcing the tears in her eyes back. Yes, this situation was fucked, but she was a mafia wife and she had her principles.

  He smiled, his face hard and strained, but his eyes gleaming triumph. “Good girl, Casey,” he said, his voice thick with passion. “You are my good fucking girl.”

  “I… I don’t understand,” she whispered, frowning, trying to figure out what was happening. Was she about to be raped? Coerced into sex? Or kicked out of the penthouse for being a good girl?

  He chuckled and pulled her further into his chest, embracing her lightly, running his hands down her back soothingly. She lay stiffly against his chest and listened to the beat of his heart against her ear and the rumble of his voice as he talked. “Your loyalty is stunning, cariña. You give it to a man that doesn’t deserve it because you must. Because you promised and you know no other way. Now I am going to crush that man and turn your loyalty to me. You will become my queen. Mi Reina.”

  Her heart sped up, pounding with each word. He was going to take her away from Ignacio, give her another cage, turn her into another version of her current self. Mafia wife. And she would hate him for it. She pushed back, shoving away from his chest to look him in the eyes.

  “No,” she told him. “I won’t be your queen.”

  His face hardened into granite lines and he pulled her off the table, standing her in front of him. He straightened her clothes with quick efficiency. “You won’t have a choice,” he said, his voice holding a cold ruthlessness she was familiar with from Ignacio and his men but hadn’t heard from Reyes yet.

  “I’ll tell Ignacio what you’re planning, he’ll stop you,” she said, edging back in case he got angry at her threat.

  He merely took her by the arm and led her to the door of the condo, retrieved her wrap and folded it around her shoulders, careful to cover every inch of her exposed cleavage. He leaned closer, murmuring in her ear, “I’m counting on it, Mrs. Hernandez.”

  Casey’s mouth fell open and she looked over her shoulder at the man who was proposing insanity. At the man who was planning on murdering her husband, taking over his business and stealing his wife… all while his enemy knew his plan. He was either incredibly confident, insane or he knew something she didn’t. He dropped a stinging kiss on her lips and opened the door to usher her out.

  Chapter Ten

  “I want to speak with Ignacio right now!” Casey argued with Diego as she’d been arguing with him for the past few days without results.

  Ignacio refused to see her.

  Diego’s dark, sadistic eyes swept over her body, taking in every inch with a look that suggested she shouldn’t have bothered with the terry cloth robe over top of her bikini because he was picturing her without it. Probably without the bathing suit too. She crossed her arms over her breasts and gave him the coldest glare she could come up with.

  “You need a reminder what happens when you get demanding of the boss’s time, little girl,” Diego sneered, his eyes lingering on the top swell of her breasts. “You probably like being smacked around like that though, don’t you? Bitches like you’ll take whatever attention you can get.”

  Casey flared her nostrils as she tried to bring her temper under control while Diego postured in front of her and did his best to make her feel small and insignificant. He came within a hairsbreadth of touching her, lifting his hand toward her bruised cheek and running his knuckles down her face without actually making physical contact. She whipped her head away from him and backed up a few steps, her sandaled feet slapping against the floor.

  Alonzo shifted at her back and snarled, “No touching.”

  Diego laughed, the slimy sound drawing a shudder from her. He shrugged and nodded absently. “Yeah,” he drawled, his dead eyes piercing her, marking her. “For now.”

  Casey tightened her arms around her middle and took a steadying breath. Diego made her sick. He’d done things to her over the years, hurt her, at Ignacio’s behest. Usually small things, like hit her with a belt or locked her in a closet. But the look in his eyes when he’d punished her told her just how much he enjoyed every moment of her pain, wished he could inflict worse. He’d been one of the three men in the room with her when Ignacio had burned her hand. Watching her face as Alonzo had pinned her down. She’d known that he’d been desperately turned on by her excruciating pain, seen the terrible lust in his eyes as she’d screamed while her flesh had burned.

  That day had convinced her that she was better off going dead inside, sleeping through life, rather than attempting to resist the marriage that had been forced on her. So, she had essentially tucked Casey safely away from these ruthless men until such a time came that she could emerge. The look in Diego’s eyes as she begged to see Ignacio frightened her. Not only was he refusing her, controlling her ability to see her husband, but he was silently telling her something with those terrible dark eyes. Telling her that their time would come and that it was coming soon.

  “Fine,” she snapped, looking away from him. “Since you refuse to allow me to see him, or he refuses to see me, whichever it is, then I’ll tell you what I need to tell him.”

  Diego waved his hand in front of her. “By all means, chica. Speak to me.”

  She gritted her teeth, but forced herself to voice the warning that she’d been trying to get to Ignacio since her meeting with Reyes. She turned icy eyes up to Diego and said as coldly as she could, “The Bolivian’s are planning some kind of takeover. Reyes intends to kill Ignacio.”

  The mockery fell from Diego’s face for a moment and shock replaced his expression. “Reyes told you this himself?” he asked incredulously, his voice sceptical.

  “Yes,” Casey replied.

  Why wasn’t Diego freaking out and dragging her in to see Ignacio? Shouldn’t he be more concerned? Unless they already knew of Reyes plans. Suddenly the look on Diego’s face became speculative as he looked her over. “Now, why the fuck would the Bolivian tell you of his plans?” He stalked closer to her. Casey moved swiftly backwards until she bumped into Alonzo who jumped quickly out of the way so he wouldn’t accidentally touch her again. “You got a pussy made of gold?” Diego demanded crudely, lunging toward her.

  Casey cried
out and fell backwards as her sandal slid on the marble floor. Unable to catch herself she hit the side table and fell, crashing hard on the unyielding marble. She heard Alonzo swear viciously, but there wasn’t much he could do. Diego hadn’t actually done anything except frighten her. She was the idiot for letting a thug get to her. She shoved herself up onto her knees and shook her hair back, glaring at Diego for all she was worth. She might be down, but she was still going to let the guy know exactly how much she fucking hated him.

  She felt his eyes crawl all over her exposed flesh where her robe had come open during her fall. Her hands moved automatically to pull the two halves closed while she kept her eyes on him as he crouched down in front of her. He flexed his biceps, making sure she saw how massive they were next to her insignificant strength. She breathed hard through her nose, forcing herself to hold his gaze.

  “Stupid woman,” he drawled. “You think we don’t know what the Bolivians are planning? You are just a distraction for that lowlife savage while we move our people into place and call in some favours.”

  She frowned in surprise. She’d been used to distract Reyes? Somehow, she thought he was too smart to fall for that. But he had definitely been interested in her. Had pursued her. Was still pursuing her, sending gifts to the mansion for her. “I don’t understand any of this,” she whispered.

  “Poor, baby,” Diego mocked her, his cold eyes raking over her breasts while he talked. “You don’t need to understand, you had your chance to be useful. And it seems you were more useful than we thought. I’ll tell Ignacio that Reyes revealed his plans to you. Only a man in love does something stupid like that.”

  Her eyes widened in horror as the impact of his words hit her. Had she been utterly wrong in telling Diego of Reyes’ plan? Had she taken her loyalty to Ignacio too far? She’d lived by her own personal code for so long that maybe she didn’t see the right path any more when it was directly in front of her. But… no. Reyes seemed to understand her, seemed to understand how she worked. He knew she was unfailingly loyal to Ignacio. He knew she would rat him out to her husband, had been counting on it. She had to believe that the man who made her body sing and was starting to look toward her scarred heart knew what he was doing. Because she sure as fuck didn’t.