20 Chapter 20

"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, panic swelling. She scrambled backwards, crawling rapidly away from Alonzo's dead body. Once she was a few feet away she started clawing at her own chest and face looking for bits of brain and skull.

She watched in horror as Diego crouched in front of her, his face visible now in the flickering candlelight. His lips stretched in a ghoulish grin as he watched in sadistic amusement while she frantically wiped at the blood on her face, whimpers erupting from her trembling lips. Finally, her head got the better of her and brains or not, blood or not, she turned on the spot and began heaving, her fingers digging into on the concrete. Her stomach was already empty so she could do nothing but vomit a little bit of saliva and stomach acid, burning her mouth and throat as it came up.

She scraped her knees on the ground, pulling them into her chest in an attempt to curl in on herself. After a moment, the godawful heaving stopped and she dropped her head onto her knees, the tangles of her hair falling around her. Then she felt Diego's hands slide up her back and curve over her shoulders. She curled harder into herself as shudders wracked her trembling body and stinging tears straggled down her cheeks. She pulled in choking gasps of breath, attempting to force her burning lungs to work.

She tried to shrug Diego's vile touch off, but he just leaned over her, his hot breath in her ear. "While I wish we had more time down here, the boss is waiting. Time to go, princess."

He stood up behind her, dragging her to her feet with a firm hand around her arm. Casey's legs refused to hold her weight and she immediately buckled, collapsing against Diego. He grunted in annoyance and looped an arm across her back, hauling her up against him. Though she hated the idea of needing his assistance she clutched his shirt with the last reserves of her meagre strength and leaned against him. She comforted herself with the thought that she had no other choice. He was taking her back to Ignacio and she'd much rather go to her husband alive than dead, which had clearly been Alonzo's crazy plan. And since it appeared Diego had no intention of killing her, she was happy to go with him for now.

"Okay, let's go," she whispered.

She shuffled alongside him as best she could, trying to match his longer strides as he strode down the chilly, damp corridor back toward the entrance to the pool house. Now that she felt safe the effects of the sleeping pill began to overwhelm her once more and waves of fatigue swept over her. She smothered a yawn with her other hand and then gagged when the taste of blood touched her lips. Alonzo's blood.

She fought back fresh tears and didn't see clearly when they reached the end of the tunnel and Diego stopped abruptly, she swayed against him and was forced to grab him with both hands to stop herself from falling. He looked at her sharply and snorted in disgust before reaching for her waist and shoving her unceremoniously through the trapdoor leading up into the pool house. She tried to help by gripping the floorboards and pulling herself through, but she was too weak from the pills and the trauma. Finally, he ended up gripping her by the legs and just shoving her the rest of the way through. She lay on the ground panting and waiting for him to pull himself up alongside her.

Casey groaned when he didn't even give her two seconds to gather herself, but just reached over and scooped her up like she was some kind of wet noodle. She tried to protest when he didn't bother to set her back on her feet, but strode through the open door of the pool house and into the pouring rain with her in his arms. Her words were stolen in the fury of the storm and she was forced to turn her face into the shelter of his chest.

They made it through the shattered back door of the house where Diego finally set her back on her feet. Before she knew what was happening he gripped her by the shoulders and pushed her into the wall, holding her upright. "You're gonna want to pull yourself together before you see him. Make a good impression, babe."

She frowned at Diego as he used the edge of his shirt to roughly scrub at her face and neck. She assumed he was trying to get some of the blood off of her skin. The rough fabric abraded her skin and she flinched back from his callous treatment. She could see streaks coming away on his striped shirt and knew his ministrations must be working.

"Good enough," he mumbled, shoving his shirt down and grabbing her roughly by the arm.

"Why do I need to make a good impression?" she asked, her voice hoarse.

He ignored her and tugged her down the hallway, yanking her hard when she would have stumbled and fallen. She started to go down, her fingertips touching the hard marble but he pulled her back up and swung her around the corner. Casey lurched and narrowly avoided stepping on the dead body of one of her husband's most trusted bodyguards.

"Oh!" she cried out shrinking back against Diego who didn't slow down to absorb her shock. That was the first inkling she had that her husband maybe hadn't won the takeover battle.