"Fuck that woman," Reyes growled, downing a generous drink straight from the bottle before slamming it on the table.Casey Hernandez was dangerous. She was testing his calm. She was driving him to drink.He strode to the window and glared into the night. His meeting with her had not gone as he'd planned. Instead of clarifying things, he'd found himself more confused, more entangled. She was an infuriating mixture of world-weary siren and stunted half-child that never grew up. When she'd flat out told him that her husband hadn't touched her in over a year, he'd damn near torn her clothes off and fucked her right there in the booth, despite the few hundred witnesses swarming around them and her bodyguard a few feet away.Then she'd given him the one gift he couldn't refuse, the one thing that was guaranteed to save her life in all this. She'd promised him loyalty. Well, not him. But as good as. She'd given her loyalty to Ignacio Hernandez, a disgusting pig of a man. One of the poorest

Casey stared at her reflection with a mixture of resigned despair and anger. No amount of makeup could disguise the mark high on her cheek or the swollen bite mark on her lip that were clearly visible through her careful efforts. Absently she wondered if it was part of Ignacio's plan. To present his wife, damaged goods, to another man who clearly wanted her. Only she wasn't sure what the other man ultimately wanted with her. A quick fuck? A way to mess with his business rival? Ignacio had sent an entire outfit for her to wear, including a dress, heels and jewelry. As the day had progressed and she'd prepared for her meeting with Reyes she began to feel more and more like a pawn in some deadly game. She wore a beautiful white dress that clung lovingly to every curve. It was curved along her legs to give the illusion of length along one thigh, but if she moved wrong it would also give a tantalizing glimpse high on her other thigh. It was sleeveless with a neckline that plunged halfway

"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

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

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