Chapter 11

"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 excuses for a business partner that Reyes had ever had to work with – a situation that had only been allowed to go on this long because of the female. If she'd given her loyalty to such a man, because of a vow, most likely forcibly given when she was barely more than a child, then what would she give to Reyes when he finally had her wholly within his power? The thought took his breath away.

He would settle for nothing less than Casey Hernandez's utter and complete surrender; her loyalty. He would heal the damaged beauty and she would stand tall at his side as his scarred queen.

He reached for the bottle again, swearing viciously when he knocked it sideways, spilling the contents across the table. He snatched it up, took another long drink and then threw it away from him in an uncharacteristic moment of rage. The satisfying shatter of glass barely calmed him.

He wanted nothing more than to drag the woman out of that fucking mansion and away from the husband that should never have had her. Every time he saw her she managed to claw her way under his skin a little more and he feared for her safety in that damn gilded cage she lived in. If her husband didn't do something to her, she might manage to fucking hurt herself. Either with the pills or her own reckless disregard for her safety. She'd say something stupid to Ignacio or one of his men. Roll her pretty eyes at the wrong guy at the wrong time. She seemed incapable of perfect obedience, no matter how hard she tried.

He'd just have to go with his original plan. The one that would make her safe and ensure her freedom all in one stroke; Mrs. Hernandez would become a widow.