Inevitable (Colombian Cartel Book 3) Page 7

  “You are incorrigible, woman.”

  “It bothers me that he’s killing again, Tony. And we could have gotten caught disposing of the body. He made it look like we killed her! That bastard says he loves me, but he didn’t think twice about possibly sending me to prison for something he did.”

  Tony smiled and she couldn’t help but wonder how he could smile at a time like this. He answered as if he knew what she was thinking. “I’m smiling because my dad took a page out of Alexander Glazov’s book and had a crematory installed. You have to admit, it’s fucking genius. Fast. Clean. No fuss, no muss.”

  Caden crossed her arms in front of her, not happy with the way the conversation was going. “So. Are you going to give me my phone back or not?”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “I’m not a child!” she huffed and only just stopped herself from stomping her foot.

  “You look like one with that bottom lip of yours poking out. Damn sexy, I have to admit.”

  “Just give me my phone back.” She held her hand out for emphasis.

  “Well, you did give me an idea. At the very least, we need to check your voicemail.”

  She stepped back as he got down off the ladder. “I’m glad he didn’t hurt any of these beautiful horses,” she said, reaching over and petting a mare that had been watching her over the stall. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”

  “I would have killed the bastard.”

  “How can you guys be so cold blooded and yet be such animal lovers?”

  “Humans are the only creatures that deserve to be tortured and killed. The four-legged kind are always there with unconditional love. You can’t find any fault with that.”

  He grabbed her hand and led her back up to the cabin. She followed him as he moved through the house until they reached the wall safe in his bedroom.

  “You really didn’t want me getting my hands on it, I see,” she muttered as she admired his strong hands unlocking the safe.

  “Remember that,” he replied smugly. “When I want something, I get it. Always.”

  “Oh, just give it here already,” she snapped with one hand on her hip, the other extended toward him, palm up.

  He handed it to her and then jerked it away, holding it up high, just out of her reach and laughing when she tried to jump up and get it but failed.

  “You are so mean.”

  “Wanna go spider shopping with me?” he asked with a grin as he handed her the phone.

  “Where did that idea come from?”

  “You know where it came from. Santiago’s got a date with destiny and you’re going to be there to watch.”

  “I see there may be a streak of sadism in you too.”

  “In this line of work, it’s a necessary evil. Now, put it on speaker so I can listen.”

  She sat down on the bed and gasped. “Oh. My. God. I’ve got, like, twenty messages on here.”

  “Told you he was obsessed.”

  “Well, guess I’ll just start at the top. I don’t know this number, so maybe it’s him.”

  Caden, it’s Maria. I know we’re not really friends but I don’t know who else to call. I feel like I’m being followed. I know it sounds crazy. You don’t think Santiago would try to hurt me, do you? Call me when you get this, okay?

  “I thought you guys hated each other,” Tony commented.

  “I didn’t even know she had my number. But, yeah, it’s kind of an unwritten rule that the dancers stick together. Even if we can’t stand each other, we still have each other’s backs. An ‘us against the world’ kind of thing.”

  “Sounds like cartel to me,” he chuckled.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, like my uncle, for instance. He has no patience where Novak, Alexander Glazov’s cousin, is concerned, but he respects him. If there was trouble, Antonio Wayne would be the first one to put a bullet in someone for moving against Novak, and vice versa.”

  “Why doesn’t Antonio Wayne like him?”

  “Novak?!” he laughed caustically. “Because Novak’s a smart ass, he likes to stir shit up. Antonio Wayne can’t stand him and made the mistake of letting it show, so Novak goes out of his way to aggravate him because he knows it gets on his nerves.”

  “Shh, here’s the next one,” she said. Her eyes widened and she gulped as Santiago’s smooth, deep voice filled the room.

  Caden. I need you. I miss you so much. I never should have let you go. I had no idea he would take you away from me. I am so sorry. I miss our talks. Please, you must help me, hermosa. I can’t stop killing and just the thought of him touching you--”

  Tony grabbed the phone and heaved it across the room, his face contorted with rage. It hit the wall and shattered into pieces on the floor. He lunged toward her and grabbed her by the upper arms, pulled her across the room, and pinned her down on the bed. Her dress was no match for him as he yanked it up and tore her panties off.

  He pulled his shirt over his head and unfastened his jeans, releasing his fully engorged cock. Impatient to feel her bare skin against his, he removed his shoes and socks and then pulled the jeans off too, tossing them aside. He studied Caden’s flushed face as he ran the bell end of his cock up and down her slit, teasing her.

  “I think somebody has a penchant for rough sex.” He lowered himself onto the bed beside her, then lifted her over him until she was straddling his hips. He traced his finger over the strap on her shoulder and lowered it, pulling her bra cups down until her breasts spilled over the lacey fabric. He cupped the lush flesh in his hands, sucking a nipple into his mouth and releasing it with a pop.

  “So, he misses you and can’t stand the thought of me touching you? Well, I’ll do him one better. Ride my cock, beautiful. Convince me you’re mine. I need to know you belong to me.”

  “I’m not going anywhere, Tony.” She lifted up on her knees, then slowly lowered herself onto his cock and began to move.

  “You feel so damn good, baby,” he rasped as he ran his hands over her thighs. “If I could stay connected to you like this forever, I would. Wish I could walk around all day with you latched onto my cock. I just can’t get enough of you, you’re everything that’s good in my life, sweetheart. I hate how much I need you but there’s no denying the truth of it.”

  “I need you too. It isn’t metal bars or surveillance that’s keeping me here--”

  “It’s my cock, isn’t it? I knew it.”

  She rolled her eyes and sighed, exasperated, before continuing, “I’m here because it’s where I want to be. I love you, Tony.”

  “I love you too, baby, so fucking much.”

  He ran his hands over her curves, kneading her breasts as she rode him hard and set the frantic pace they both needed. He wanted to beat on his chest like a caveman when she closed her eyes and moaned with pleasure at his touch. His touch. Nobody else’s. She was so beautiful. The look of pure bliss on her face as she climaxed sent him over the edge with her, his cock throbbing as he spilled his seed into the deepest recesses of her body.

  He held her against his chest as his hands continued to wander, touching and caressing her velvety skin. “Marry me, Caden. I want you to be my wife, I want you to have my babies. That asshole doesn’t need you, but I do. I’m crazy without you. It’s killing me, just going through the motions in my everyday life, when my mind is still flooded with the shit I saw and did when I was overseas. There’s evil in this world; I’ve seen it and I will devote my life to protecting you from it. But baby, my head’s so fucked up and you’re the only thing that keeps me thinking straight. Stay here and be mine.”

  “I’m here, Tony, and I’m yours.”

  He held her tight and chuckled, “You make the day-to-day, mundane moments in my life better. And don’t get me started on the nights. Hell, I’m even going spider shopping with you. What are you doing to me, woman?”

  “I would hardly call shopping for venomous spiders a day-to-day activity. Where are we going? To a mall somewhere?”


  “Oh, no. You won’t find King at any mall. He sells seriously poisonous shit for a living. He’s part of our cartel. You don’t want to leave a paper trail when you’re killing someone. If you went to a mall there would be cameras, receipts, and witnesses. Anything you can do to cover your tracks and stay in the safe confines of the cartel, then that’s what you do. When you go that route, it’s like it never happened.”

  “Well, I don’t plan on doing anything without being under your protection.”

  “Damn straight.” He kissed her forehead and led her to the shower to get cleaned up before they left to go to see the King. She had to admit she was curious about meeting a guy who specialized in killing people by turning Mother Nature against them.

  It was a smart way to kill someone. She couldn’t imagine the authorities ever tracing a spider bite back to the cartel. She was impressed with the way the cartel was self-sufficient, even having one of their own who dealt in nothing but venomous creatures to do their dirty work.

  She was finally seeing how the organization worked, up and close and personal. They were letting down their guard with her, and that meant she was locked in with this family now. There would be no getting out. If she ever went from being an asset to a liability, they would have no more use for her – regardless of Tony’s devotion to her. She had no intention of letting that happen. Like the other women in the Ramirez family, she was going all in. Her life was now all about the Colombian cartel and the Ramirez family.

  She was finally part of something much bigger than herself. Though their blood ran cold, the love of the Ramirez men ran deep. Finally, for the first time in her life she had a real family. It felt good.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Antonio Wayne ran his thumb over the blade of the knife. He slouched down in the driver’s seat of his SUV outside Kentucky Country Day, one of Louisville’s elite private schools. Roxanne had her Nikon D-3100 at the ready, excited to be able to put her photography hobby to good use. Her new long-range zoom lens was exactly what she needed for this. She lowered the camera to adjust a few settings.

  With a sidelong glance at her husband, she took advantage of the momentary lull to ask the question that had been on her mind all day. “You wouldn’t ever hurt a child, right?”

  “We’re just doing this to send Briggs a message. The man needs to understand my brother and I aren’t going to go away.”

  “I thought there was an unspoken rule about not hurting wives or kids.”

  “Look…if it will make you feel any better, I promise I’m not a child killer. But I don’t have time to fuck around with this morally superior son of a bitch, so I’m going for the jugular. Hopefully a few pictures will be all it takes.”

  His expression shifted, becoming pensive and maybe a little wistful as he looked at the children running around on the playground next to the school. “So, I have a question for you. Do you ever regret not having kids?”

  She closed her eyes for a moment before answering. “No. I have my hands full with you, my love. I have everything I could ever need or want.”

  “I know things were…difficult--” he began, only to have her cut him off by placing a finger over his lips.

  “Shhh. No. You know I don’t like talking about all that. It’s just too sad, baby,” she said gently, her eyes shining. She turned back to look out the car window, swallowing hard.

  He nodded slowly and she cleared her throat as she resumed her position with her camera. They rarely talked about it, and he understood. But with a few minutes to go until the school let out for the day, he gave himself rare permission to look back on that sad chapter in their life together.

  A few years into the marriage, they had decided to start a family. Ricardo and Juanita’s twins were adorable and they wanted that kind of contentment for themselves, liked the idea of Victor and Tony having cousins. Getting pregnant wasn’t the problem; getting the pregnancy to the finish line was where the trouble was.

  After three first-trimester miscarriages, Antonio Wayne had declared that they were done. Roxanne agreed and resumed birth control. Life went on. He was more than content with their life as a couple and if children weren’t in the cards for them, he was at peace with that. But more importantly, he couldn’t bear to put Roxanne through the heartbreak and grief again. He didn’t know if he could endure it again himself.

  As her husband and her Dom, he prided himself on attending to her emotional and physical needs. His protective, dominant nature had kicked into overdrive when she was pregnant. So it had been nothing short of maddening when each pregnancy and subsequent loss proved to be a vicious rollercoaster ride over which he had no influence. It wasn’t in his nature to be ruled by anyone or anything, much less a plus or minus sign on a plastic stick. In his world, blood was a source of pride, a sign of power, not a source of grief.

  So, enough.

  But Mother Nature was a bitch from hell and, despite resuming birth control, Roxanne became pregnant again within a year. He faced the unexpected blessing with more than a little trepidation. While she embraced the pregnancy wholeheartedly, he spent the nine months breathing into a paper bag when no one was looking. It felt that way, anyway.

  But this time around, the pregnancy held firm. Despite it being her fourth pregnancy, it had been the first time that she had sported an honest-to-goodness baby bump. There was something to be said for seeing your woman round with your child, knowing that you put a baby in her for all the world to see. It was chest-beating, victory roar material right there.

  Roxanne was magnificent in pregnancy, as he had known she would be. She was luminous in her happiness. Her body was soft and luscious, her sex drive was insatiable, and the fucking was off the charts. With her safely through the second trimester and easing into the third, he finally relaxed and just enjoyed the ride. They prepared a nursery, bought the usual furniture, diapers, and tiny clothes. It was a happy time of infinite possibility. Smooth sailing. When she went into labor, even the drive to the hospital was almost too easy, nothing but green lights.

  No labor is easy, of course, but as labors go, Roxanne’s progressed normally. She fought hard to meet their baby, and he marveled at his woman’s tenacity. She was unstoppable, relentless even as the baby’s progress through the birth canal during the final phase of labor seemed to take forever. When the baby’s head finally crowned, he was there at Roxanne’s shoulder, lips pressed to her temple, whispering encouragement in his native language as she squeezed his hand until it went numb, and then pushed a final time.

  Eager for a father’s first look, he straightened in anticipation of finding out whether they were welcoming Antonio Jr. or Sofia. But there was no happy announcement, only an ominous stillness that seeped into his pores and settled over the room like a shroud. The roaring in his ears was broken only by Roxanne’s fatigued sigh of sweet relief, quickly followed by a new mother’s easy, light laughter as she held out her arms, eager to hold her baby for the first time, oblivious to the horror unfolding around her.

  One look around the room at the grim, pitying faces staring back at him, and Antonio Wayne knew. It was over. There were no heroic efforts to stem the tide of whatever had gone wrong. No frantic calls for assistance. Just…nothing.

  “Stillborn,” the doctor whispered as the room tilted and spun. The grandfatherly man pulled him into an awkward huddle, speaking quietly to him even as Roxanne began raising her voice, demanding to see her baby. The cord had been wrapped around the baby’s neck. If the baby had survived the journey through the birth canal, the situation might have been recoverable but…no.

  It happened sometimes, the doctor had said. Yeah, no shit. It had happened to them, and their little Sofia had not survived. There was nothing to be done, except somehow tell his wife.

  Antonio Wayne had spent his life wielding absolute power without mercy, deciding who would live and who would die. But in that moment, his power turned to dust. There was nothing he could do to save their daughter or change the fact t
hat her father had let her die all alone. Nothing he could do to save his wife from the horror that awaited her. And nothing he could do to save himself.

  So, Antonio Wayne did what had to be done, as he always did. And to the end of his life, it would remain the single hardest thing he was ever called upon to do. After ensuring that his wife’s immediate physical needs had been met, he cleared the room, took their daughter’s swaddled body in his arms…and broke his wife’s heart.

  Roxanne’s reassuring voice brought his aggrieved mind tumbling back into the present, even as her steady gaze told him that she had noticed the faraway look in his eyes and knew what it meant. “I’m happily married to you and the cartel. And, anyway, I don’t think the cartel could have endured another chapter in its history like the one that followed our tragedy.”

  “I wasn’t that bad,” he said with a scowl.

  “It was a bloodbath and you know it. Ricardo had to sideline you, for God’s sake. He couldn’t get intel out of anyone because you were tearing them apart, quite literally. Everyone understood, of course; you’d been through hell. But something had to be done.”

  “I may have gotten carried away.”

  “Like I said, I’m happy now. I have my hands full. Nothing makes me happier than spoiling you rotten and driving you crazy while I do it.”

  “That, you do.”

  “I wouldn’t want it any other way. I mean it. Anyway, Ricardo has already taken care of ensuring the Ramirez name will carry on. Those boys are like my own children—our children. Oh, look, there they are--” She quickly raised her camera to her face as her two targets scampered down the front steps of the school.

  She didn’t know if she believed her husband or not when he said he wouldn’t hurt a child. She had no doubt that he would have been a wonderful father, but he was crazy and he would do whatever it took to get what he wanted, and he wanted that television station. Antonio Wayne wasn’t a man who was used to hearing the word no, or tolerated it when he did.