Page 8 of Scarred Queen

Reyes tightened his grip on her thigh, forcing her attention back to him. Her eyes jumped to his. He didn’t look angry as she thought he might. As Ignacio would be if he had to teach her how to behave. Instead, Reyes looked as though he truly wanted her to understand. “If I ask you a question, you answer me. When I tell you to do something, you do it. This will keep you safe in my world, understand? Repeat the words,Casey.”

She frowned at him, her brow wrinkling, but she nodded slowly. “You tell me to do something, I do it… for safety. T-to keep me safe,” she whispered her eyes widening and meeting his as the full impact hit her. She felt herself slip past the usual bullshit as she spoke, as he absorbed her words and slowly nodded as if to praise her. What did he mean by that exactly? Was he trying to keep her safe from him or safe in their terrifying mafia world of false friends and sinister businessassociates.

He moved his hand from her thigh up to her arm, wrapped it around her and then pulled her toward him. She brought her hand up to brace herself against his chest, but she was practically sitting in his lap now, his face almost touching hers when he spoke. She hardly dared to breath, though a tiny whimper escaped her throat when she felt the impossible steel of muscle threading his body. The promise of a human cage if she was ever unlucky enough to be captured by this man so intent on treating her as his prey. He brought his other hand up between them and took hold of her chin, tilting her face until her eyes met his oncemore.

“And Casey?” he said huskily against herlips.

“Yes?” shewhispered.

“Never call me ‘boy’ again. In any language. I don’t care when or where we are, I will bare that beautiful bottom and beat it until you can’t sit down. Understand?” His deep, accented voice vibrated through her entire body, taking her breath away. The dark promise of erotic violence did something to her it shouldn’t have, something she never would haveexpected.

“I understand,” she whispered. Then she sighed, her breath rushing across his lips in an unconscious invitation. His hands tightened on her arm and chin until she flinched in his hold and he was forced to set her back along the seat in thebooth.

He nodded slightly and kept his arm around the top, near her head, as though ready to reach for her if she tried to bolt. Which wasn’t far from the truth. She was exhausted and ready to go home. The anxiety and intensity of her emotions were becoming overwhelming. She didn’t know how much more she could take. She really didn’t understand why Ignacio was allowing this to happen to her. He’d never allowed other men this close before. She understood the need to keep Bolivia happy, but when had keeping a business contact happy meant allowing them to take his wife out to aclub?

“Now tell me about the accident,” hedemanded.

She shrugged and reached for her orange juice, desperately wishing it was something stronger. She wondered what he would do if she lunged for his drink and downed it before he could stop her. He probably wouldn’t be too impressed and chances were pretty good, he could stop her before she got very far into that course ofaction.

“I was eighteen,” she told him, tracing the edge of her glass with one light-pink tinted nail. “I don’t remember anything about it at all actually. I was told it happened on the highway when we were driving back from out of state. My entire family died in the accident; two sisters, a brother, my mom and mydad.”

He lifted his hand and touched the tiny scar on her face again before running his hand over the top of her head in a soothing motion. He dropped his arm back behind her. Oddly, she felt relaxed with his arm behind her. As though nothing could happen with him in the booth next to her. She turned her body so she could face him a little better as she spoke about one of the most painful things in herlife.

“I… I had to miss the funerals,” she told him quietly. “I was in a medically induced coma for nearly five weeks while I recovered. Th-there was a lot of swelling in my brain so I had to have time to heal. But… waking up to find out that my entire family was gone and that I’d missed the funerals… it wasdevastating.”

He nodded, not saying anything. Just watching her as she spoke. She so rarely talked to anyone, let alone discussed her family and the car accident, and yet it felt strangely okay to do it here, with Reyes. Like he was safe somehow. Which was utterly ridiculous. He was as far from safe as she could get. She didn’t know what kind of business he had with her husband and she didn’t want to know, but it wouldn’t be anything good. Nothing she wanted to be involvedin.

“They shaved a bunch of my hair off and I had staples in my head from here to here,” she pointed at the side of her head, indicating a line across the left side. “There were also a couple of holes in my skull… I guess to relieve the pressure. It was terrifying and very painful whenever the medication started to wearoff.”

He nodded again, his jaw tightening a little as he listened to her. “What other injuries did you have?” heasked.

“Except for the cut on my face, none really,” she murmured. “I was very luckyactually.”

He growled incredulously, “You call having your skull cracked openluck?”

“I just mean that my entire family died in that accident and I got away with a few scratches except for the crack on my head. I guess it could have been so much worse for me.” She was startled to find tears stabbing her eyes and she blinked them rapidly away. “I’m grateful for my life. Ignacio was there for me too. He was one of my father’s close friends and he took care of me as soon as I was released from the hospital. He made sure I didn’t have to worry aboutanything.”

He leaned back and watched her with a brooding expression. She got the feeling he didn’t really know what to do with her. That there was something about her that bothered him and that he was bothered by his reaction to her. It was almost exhilarating for her to sit here with him and to have a realconversation.

“What about the headaches?” he asked, his voice issuing another demand. “They part of theaccident?”

She shivered under the dark scrutiny of his penetrating gaze. The way he pinned her to the seat and forced her to talk to him about some of the most personal things in her life. She played with the edge of her wrap, stretching it and running her nail along the fabric before answering him. He wasn’t going to like the answeranyway.

She lifted her shoulder a little in a careless shrug. “Iguess.”

“What does that mean?” he asked, his voice taking on an annoyed edge. He picked up his glass and finally took a drink of the amberliquid.

“Well the headaches started right after the car accident so, of course, they must be linked,” she answered quickly. “But I guess it’s impossible to prove. Doctors don’t know enough about migraines to be able to find out if mine are caused by the accident. And there’s no way to stop themanyway.”

His frown turned even darker until she was truly squirming against the seat. “What do you mean ‘doctors don’t know enough’?” he repeated her words in a tight voice. “You see a bunch of head doctors for this problem? They send you to specialists, right? Get it taken careof.”

She didn’t know what to say to him. How much should she tell him? She couldn’t say anything that would make her sound disloyal toward Ignacio, but the truth was, she’d never been allowed to see more than his personal physician since the accident. She had done a lot of reading on the internet about her condition though. “Uh… it’s fine, really,” she said quickly. “There’s not much anyone can do. I take medication to control the symptoms and that seems to help most of the time. Sometimes I still get really bad ones… and I just deal with those as best Ican.”

He made an angry sound and slashed his hand through the air. “Yeah, I saw how you dealt with thatyourself.”

She looked away from him and said softly, “I told you I’d try not to do thatagain.”

“And you never lie?” he asked, skepticism clear in hisvoice.

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