Page 44 of Scarred Queen

Casey felt Reyes stiffen beneath her and reach for the gun he’d placed on the table within easy reach. She ran her fingers lightly down his arm soothing the rage that surfaced so easily on her behalf. Though she loved his protectiveness, this was herparty.

“You’re absolutely right!” she looked back at Reyes. “Let’s not be rude,mi rey. Let’s get this party started.” She gave him her best, most cock-hardening grin and leapt from hislap.

She sauntered around the table, white dress swishing around her long legs, blond hair moving with perfect movie star precision as though she were walking a red carpet. The only thing out of place was the silver gun, which fitted perfectly in the palm of her hand. Reyes had a skull etched into the handle with a rose in place of one of the eyes. Her bloodthirsty Bolivian had true romance in hisheart.

Every pair of male eyes in the room watched her with rapt attention as she walked behind Benito. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and bent to speak in his ear while he tensed under hertouch.

Before she could speak, Reyes sent her a warning look and growled from across the table, “No touching,nena. We talked about how this would godown.”

She rolled her eyes and straightened with a sigh backing away from the Mexican she’d marked for death, hands in the air. “No fun,” shemumbled.

“Casey,” Reyes warned, standing. “Roll your eyes at me again and your fun is overentirely.”

She smiled big and turned back to her prey, wandering around to where Benito could still see her, but sticking to the rules Reyes had discussed with her and staying out of arm’s reach. Reyes had come to stand behind her, arms crossed, to enforce his rule if need be. “Let’s make this quick, Benito, since I sense my man is getting impatient. He prefers cartel justice, long drawn out torture sessions as opposed to my American style of shoot em’ up and spit em’ out.” She glanced at the guy slumped in his chair opposite the shattered skull. “I jumped the gun on him a little, if you’ll excuse thepun.”

“What the fuck do you want with me,puta,” Benito snarled turning to look at her. “Just get it the fuck overwith.”

“Oh!” she laughed, her high airy laugh sounding somewhat off-balanced but still beautiful as it echoed through the room. “It won’t be that easy! You destroyed my world, took everything I love because of your disgusting tradition of killing the entire family. Now I take the things you love, Benito.” She tapped her gun against her cheek and pretended to think about it, then she started listing the names of his family, all the illegitimate children he’d fathered. “Let me see now… there’re the children tucked safely in their beds: Santiago, Matias, Rosario, Renata, Juan Paul, Juanita. That’s a lot of fun I’m going to be having avenging myfamiliaBenito,” she finished with agiggle.

Then her eyes turned glacial and all humour fled her face. “Of course, I’m forgetting a few, aren’t I, Benny? The ones that are old enough to sit at papa’s table and do business.” He stiffened in his chair, horror bleeding into his expression as she leaned in as close as she dared, and whispered, “BenitoJr.”

She straightened her arm and pointed it down the table, two spots to the right of Benito, straight at a man in his early thirties. Her arm shook a little; not in fear or doubt, but with emotion. Her time for vengeance had finally come and she was utterly and completely elated. Reyes stepped up behind her, his warmth filling her with strength. He wrapped a strong arm around her waist and simply held her as she turned her head, pinned the man to his chair, promised him death with a single look and then escorted him into hell with a single shot to thehead.

The men on either side of the now dead man flinched but didn’t move otherwise, knowing they would be dead before they leapt from their chairs. Reyes’ men surrounded the entire macabre party and though they kept their distance, ensured the politeness of allguests.

Benito howled in rage and fury as grief erupted from him and he slammed his fists down on the table. He jumped to his feet, toppling his chair over. Spittle flew from his lips as he turned toward Casey and lunged, snarling, “You fucking whore, do you know what you’vedone!”

Reyes dragged her back at the same time as Casey shot Benito in the stomach, sending the older man flying backwards off his feet. He landed on his back and then curled onto his side clutching his stomach with a groan of pain. Casey dropped to her knees beside him, indifferent to the blood that was soaking into the hem of her white skirt. She gripped his arm and spoke almost manically, “You see, Benito? You see, now! It hurts to lose family like this, doesn’t it?” She tapped her gun against the side of her head and flinched a little when the heated metal brushed her temple. “Bullets hurt,Benny!”

“You fucking lunatic cunt, get the fuck away from me!” Benito shoved her back, his bloody hands leaving prints on her paleskin.

Casey jumped to her feet, rocking back on her sky-high heels and glared down at him. “I don’t think you get it at all!” she snapped. “But you will, you have two more sons here. Renaldo and Santiago sit at this tabletoo.”

“No, no! Please!” Benito screamed and tried to grab her, clutching at herskirt.

Casey kicked him away and turned back to the table. A struggle was taking place as Renaldo desperately tried to leave the table while two of Reyes’ men held him down. Santiago sat stoically drinking wine next to his brother. Casey knew he was her age. She’d done her homework. She might have admired his bravery, might have even allowed him to live for his simple audacity, except he’d known of the hits on her family and she’d traced countless others to his name. Children. He was a childkiller.

She lifted her gun and shot him in the head. She watched dispassionately as he flew back, his chair toppling over, wine glass smashing as it hit the stone floor. Then she nodded at the men holding Renaldo down and turned away as they completed his execution. She smiled and looked down at Benito’s expression as the bullet thudded into the table as it exited his son’s skull. Benito screamed his anguish at the loss of hissons.

She dropped to her knees and before Reyes could stop her she dragged the suddenly frail looking man into her arms as he lay dying in a pool of his own blood. “Now do you get it, Benito?” she crooned. “It fuckinghurts.”

“F-fuck you,p-puta,” he managed to say through a face full of blood, snot andtears.

Then he lunged up at her and reached for her gun just as Reyes gripped her arm and dragged her away from the Mexican arms dealer. “Back the fuck up, Casey!” Reyes snapped sharply. “Don’t touch him again, he’s like a feral dog that needs to be putdown.”

Casey stood, blood dripping from her white dress. “I’m not done hurting,” she murmured and turned back to the table. “You have one secret here you thought no outsider could find out. The reason you’ve gone without a wife all these years. No woman to legitimize yourchildren.”

Her eyes glowed with vengeful fire, amber and green, as she stared at the man that had sat to the left of Benito without fail for the past thirty-five years. He stared coldly back, ice clashing with fire. He knew what wascoming.

“Please!” Benito screamed, blood and spit flying from his lips, when he realized who she was after. “I’ll do anything, give you anything! Do not take my Mano, I’m begging you! Jewels, money, all of my trade routes, they’re all yours… take them! Please, god, just don’t kill him. Please…” he sobbed, finally a broken man. “I’m sosorry.”

“Tell that to Sandra Palmieri when you see her,” Casey told him and then shot Benito’s lover through theheart.

Casey dropped to her knees on the hard stone floor next to Benito and growled, “Hurts, doesn’t it,puta?”

“Have you no mercy?” he appealed, holding his bloody hand out to her. “You have the face of an angel… but so littlemercy.”

She laughed bitterly. “Where was your mercy when you gave me to Ignacio Hernandez? Where was your mercy when you ordered the death of my infant son? You should have gone back to that hospital and finished me off, Benito. That would have beenmercy.”

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