"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
"He has a sense of humour," Casey murmured with amusement, eyeing the array of gifts Reyes had sent her.Each one had significance and, if she were being honest, chipped away a little more at the armour around her heart. She hadn't seen him again since their erotic and stormy encounter in his penthouse suite almost a week ago. But each time a new gift arrived, it was a reminder that he hadn't forgotten her. Nor had he forgotten the things that she'd said to him in each of their conversations.None of the gifts were overly expensive, which told her that he'd listened when she told him that the luxuries surrounding her meant little to her. Her fingers drifted over a framed picture of herself. She had no idea when it was taken because it was a close up of her face. In the photo she was leaning forward, her hair covering most of her face, except for a carefree smile curving her lips as she stared off at nothing in particular. The expression on her face surprised her since she so rarely s
Casey tried to check out. She honestly did. She hated these women almost as much as she despised the men guarding her gilded cage. These were the birds that happily flew back into their cages and ate from the hands that fed them. But for some reason she couldn't zone out the way she usually did during these godawful lunches, possibly because she'd started flushing some of her daily pills instead of blindly swallowing them.She felt the burning hatred welling up inside her as they talked about the most useless things she could conceive of. She only dined with them because Elvira Montana was among the set. Beautiful, blond and coolly distant, Elvira barely took part in the conversation either. But Ignacio insisted that the two women meet and get to know each other. Probably because Elvira was an older version of what Casey was to become. A coked-out mob wife whose husband had bought her way into this elite company of women. And her husband could maybe get Ignacio some deals on oversea
"Where are they…?" Casey mumbled, rummaging through the drawer in her washroom. She could barely see through the terrible throbbing behind her eye socket. She'd crawled from her bed to the toilet several minutes earlier where she'd emptied her stomach. Now that the horrific nausea had passed she was searching for the migraine pills Ignacio's doctor had given her. Sometimes they worked and sometimes they didn't.Her hand closed over the box and she pulled it out with a relieved sigh. She collapsed sideways onto the bath mat and lay still for a few seconds, one hand clutching the small white box and the other pressed tight against the side of her head. Tears streamed unchecked down her cheeks. She bit back sobs of pain, knowing they would only echo in the small space around her and make the throbbing in her skull that much worse.She cringed when something thumped against the washroom window and a loud howling sound heralded an end-of-summer Florida storm. She hadn't realized one was c
Casey wasn't sure exactly what woke her up, but she was suddenly awake and in the middle of Armageddon. Her head was throbbing so viciously her first thought was that someone had embedded an axe in her skull while she was sleeping, which was both unrealistic and not a very nice thing for her imaginary attacker to do. Then she registered the dull sound of bullets and men shouting, though the sounds were coming from a distance. Next, it occurred to her that she was in someone's arms and that the someone holding her was running at top speed through the downstairs corridor of her home.Casey forced her eyes open, but piercing light penetrated her sensitive vision throwing a shard of imaginary glass straight through her already splitting brain. She let out a strangled scream and automatically clutched at whomever was carrying her and buried her face in his broad chest. His arms tightened around her as he ran. She heard his harsh breathing thundering above her head and felt his heart thump
"Well this is touching," a voice drawled out of the darkness.Alonzo jerked back from Casey bringing his gun arm up, exactly as the voice had been hoping. The moment his head was clear of hers and his gun away from her head a shot rang out. Casey screamed as blood sprayed across her chest and face, soaking her in in its sticky wetness. The noise of the gun echoed through her head and she nearly passed out from the agony it caused. She flung an arm across her face and moaned. Dead weight fell across her legs and she couldn't restrain another hoarse cry from escaping her lips."Alonzo?" she whispered tentatively, moving her arm away from her face and searching for movement in the shadowy lump across her legs."He's dead," Diego's cold voice reached out of the darkness, and she flinched as he drew nearer to her. Terror welled up, as a boot came out of the shadows and shoved Alonzo off of her. "Or didn't you feel his brain splatter all over you?""Oh god, oh my god!" Casey muttered, pa
Diego banged his fist against the door, waiting a few heartbeats for the cold, sharp summons that was most definitely not the voice of her husband. Casey's body felt hot and numb all at once as Diego pushed the door open and shoved her through, forcing her to stand face to face with the man that had promised he would come for her. Diego dropped his hand, removing the physical support she so desperately needed. She swayed on the spot, her eyes glued to the dark, foreboding figure standing next to Ignacio's desk, taller and more imposing in Ignacio's office than her husband had ever been. She took a few measured breaths, forcing her frozen lungs to work, sipping air properly so her head wouldn't explode in pain again and disgrace her during this vital moment. "Come here, Casey," Reyes said coldly.She approached him warily, her legs moving mechanically as she rounded the side of the desk before stopping a few feet from him. He didn't touch her, just watched her every stumbling move
"Fuck you, Diego," Casey hissed when Diego opened her bedroom door and threw her inside. She went flying through the door and luckily was able to catch herself against the bed post before she hit the floor.She turned toward him in time to see him stalking toward her. She tried to cringe back against the bed, but he was on top of her before she could roll away from him. He gripped her arms and swung her further into the mattress. "You're lucky we don't have much time and this place is crawling with the Bolivian's men or I would show you exactly how good I can fuck you, Casey," he snarled in her face. "Maybe when he gets sick of your scrawny ass I'll let you crawl back here to lick my boots and eat my table scraps like the bitch you are."She wanted to scream and rage at him, but she knew she couldn't. Knew she was in a precarious position. Diego was a sadist who thrived on the pain of lesser creatures. He would love to take her and break her down to nothing. She stared up at him, k