The Skull Crusher Read online

  “I didn’t.”

  “Whatever you say, baby. All I have to do is look for your panties from yesterday in the hamper, and that’ll tell me everything I need to know.”

  I stopped the alarm from sinking into my features so he wouldn’t see my fluster—that was the last thing I needed.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t do it. It’s not like I need to…”

  “Fuck you.” I rolled my eyes and looked at my cereal again. “You may think your arrogance is charming, but it’s just repulsive.”

  “How about we look at your current panties and see if that’s true?”

  I grabbed my bowl and prepared to throw the milk and cereal bits in his face.

  With lightning speed, he grabbed my wrists and took the bowl without spilling a drop. He set it beside him at his end of the table. “I don’t mind back talk, but I’m not letting you throw milk on me in my own fucking home. Looks like you lost your breakfast.”

  I threw the spoon at him.

  He caught it with his perfect reflexes and tossed it into the bowl. “I understand why you’re trying to fight it, but just let it go. We both know what’s going to happen. And keep in mind that it’s in your best interest to be valuable to me. As long as you’re important, I’ll keep you around. Be the woman in my bed, be my fantasy, and you’ll be the most protected woman in the world. Get on my good side, and you’ll have the freedom you used to have. You can do whatever the hell you want, whenever you want. But if I lose interest, I’ll have no use for you. So I’ll either dump you on the street or kill you just to torture Lucian. You don’t want that, right?”

  “Did you just threaten me?”

  “No. I told you what would happen if you become useless. It’s a prediction, not a threat.”

  “You’d kill an innocent woman?” I asked incredulously.

  “I’m keeping you as a prisoner, aren’t I? There’s no line I won’t cross, baby. I suggest you don’t test me.”

  He called me baby but then threatened to kill me. He tried to convince me to be submissive in exchange for a better life. This guy was one arrogant son of a bitch. “You said if I didn’t cooperate, you would force me. So why don’t you just force me?”

  “Do you want me to force you?” His voice deepened with intrigue. The average person blinked several times a minute, but this man hardly blinked at all. At any time, he was still like a statue, an enigma. Like a sponge, he absorbed everything around him, but he dried up so quickly, you couldn’t squeeze anything back out. “I don’t need to force you because I know you want it. I want what we had, exactly as it was. So I will wait until your aching pussy drives you so crazy, you can’t resist any longer.”

  “You flatter yourself.”

  “How about I stick two fingers inside you and really flatter myself?”

  This man truly had no boundaries.

  “You told me that you wished your life could be different. That you could be your own woman and sleep with whomever you wanted. I’ve given you that life. You can have anything you want, and you can sleep with the only man you want. You can be the most protected woman in the world and have the power to do whatever you want. All you have to do is stop fighting me and embrace it.”

  “I told you I was a fighter—through and through.”

  “Then be prepared to accept the consequences of your actions.” He rose to his feet and carried the dishes into the kitchen.

  I stayed at the kitchen table and thought about the last threat he issued. I wanted to think he was bluffing, but he claimed he never lied. He wanted me to make Lucian suffer, and if Balto wasn’t fucking me, then he would have to get his revenge some other way. He’d killed Lucian’s brother…so would he kill me too?

  After he rinsed the dishes, he left the kitchen and walked past me without a second glance.

  My back was turned to him so I couldn’t see his expression. “What do you want from me?”

  His feet stopped on the hardwood floor.

  I stared out the floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the city. “What’s the point in all this?”

  He slowly walked back toward me, his footsteps getting louder as he approached me from behind. His scent entered my nose once he was directly behind my chair. His hand slid under the back of my hair, and he gripped my neck, a hint of possessiveness in his fingertips. “I like to torture my enemies, and there are several ways to do that. You can start cutting off fingers and toes, or you could do something more extreme, like psychological warfare. I want Lucian to suffer every single day as he wonders what I’m doing to you, if I’m fucking you in the mouth, pussy, or ass. I want him to be humiliated every time I step out in public with you, when the world knows what I took from him without fear. Eventually, he might try to get you back. When he does, I can let you go for a price. Or I can cross him the way he crossed me and shoot you in the back of the head once he fulfills his end of the bargain. I already enjoy fucking you, beat off to you, so I suggest you become so valuable, so irreplaceable that you’re worth more than that fucking diamond and his weapons. Otherwise, you’ll end up back where you started…or dead.”

  6

  BALTO

  I sat in the dimly lit room with my drink resting on the table in front of me. The strip joint was quiet tonight, probably because it was almost two in the morning on a Wednesday. The only men in the place were pathetic ones who had nowhere else to go—and criminals that never slept.

  Heath sat in the back, a gun tucked under his jacket. He had me in his line of sight in case this meeting went to shit.

  Finally, the man I was meeting made his move. He sat in the chair beside me, a cigar in his mouth and a drink in his hand. He blew out the smoke as he stared at the girls as they spun on their poles with their tits hanging out. A noticeable scar stretched from the top of his hand up his forearm. It was clearly a stab wound. Someone had pierced him with a knife and dragged the blade all the way to his elbow, skinning him like an animal after a hunt. “Hunter Reyes is undercutting you. He’s got a lot more money pouring in than he reports. He’s not just skimming off the top. We’re talking big money here.”

  “Proof?” I couldn’t torture and kill a man without being certain. The world respected me because I was fair and just. Only if you were truly guilty would you be put to death. If I killed an innocent man, it would make me seem stupid and careless. Men believed in my verdicts, so they had to always be accurate. Besides, I didn’t want to kill a man who made me money.

  “I don’t have any. It’s just what I’ve seen.”

  It was hard to get proof without sticking out your neck too far. When my spies reported information to me, I knew they were legitimate. They couldn’t always provide me paperwork, photos, or recordings, but that didn’t make it untrue. “I’ll look into it.” All I had to do was stop by unexpectedly and take a look myself. If I found something, I’d finish the job then and there. If I didn’t find something, it would scare them so much they would take advantage of their second chance to do the right thing. “How much is he skimming?”

  “I know he bagged ten during his last deal. But he only reported five.”

  Hunter did only report five, so that made my spy more credible. I pulled out the wad of cash and set it on the table. “Leave.”

  He stuffed the money into his jacket then left the strip club.

  I stared straight ahead and looked at the girls without paying attention to them. My thoughts were focused entirely on Hunter Reyes, head of one of my biggest drug cartels. He pulled in money from the eastern countries. He had the most connections and the most men, so he was able to produce his product very quickly. The Cardello brothers were becoming the next biggest competitors with their amazing product. Case Cardello appeared fearless, but he didn’t seem stupid enough to cross me.

  A woman emerged from the rear then took the seat beside me. In a dress that was so short it barely covered her thong, she was dressed for attention. Her hand snaked up my arm and rubbed my bicep as she leaned close to me.
“Balto seems tense.”

  I recognized her voice along with her deep brown hair. “It’s been a long night.”

  She leaned in closer to me and pressed a kiss to my neck. “Let’s make it even longer.”

  Yvonne was one of my regular whores. She knew exactly what I liked and charged a fortune for it. I kept my hands to myself and my dick in my pants even though it’d been almost two weeks since I’d been buried in pussy. I knew Cassini would open her legs eventually, either out of desire or obligation. “Not tonight, Yvonne.” I gently slid her hand off my bicep.

  She pouted her lips. “You definitely seem stressed. Nothing a blow job can’t fix.”

  I used to be attracted to Yvonne, but now my dick didn’t come out to play. My sex drive was fueled toward a single woman, the wife of one of my biggest enemies. I wanted to be buried balls deep inside her and pumping her with my come. Sex with someone else would feel stale and unsatisfying. “Not tonight.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “I’ve never heard you say no before.”

  I turned to her, my anger starting to rise. “I’m saying it now. Goodnight, Yvonne.”

  “Alright…asshole.” She left my side and disappeared into the darkness of the club.

  I drank from my glass and kept watching the girls.

  Heath fell into the chair beside me moments later. “How’d it go?”

  “Hunter Reyes is lying about his profits.”

  “By how much?”

  “Half.”

  Heath shook his head. “That fucker is gonna die.”

  “Along with a few other people.”

  Heath stared at the girls before he glanced over his shoulder and looked into the darkness. “Who was that fine woman in the black dress?”

  “One of my whores.”

  “Really? Is she off-limits too?”

  “No.” I couldn’t complain about double-dipping with a whore. It was how she made her living. Heath and I had fucked the same woman before, so it wasn’t surprising. Cassini was different on infinite levels.

  “Good. What’s her price range?”

  “She’s expensive—but worth it.”

  “It looked like you turned her down.”

  “Because I did.”

  Heath drank from his glass then looked at me. “Because your little prisoner is more than you can handle?”

  “No. She’s not sleeping with me.”

  “Really? Why not?”

  “Because she’s pissed at me.” The sex we used to have was so earth-shattering that the ground shook beneath my feet. She was so enthusiastic, releasing all her sexual frustrations with my body on top of hers. She fucked me like it was all she needed to live. I was the one thing she looked forward to in life, the one guilty pleasure that brought her joy. But all of that disappeared once I took her prisoner. I knew she still wanted me, but she was just too stubborn to act on it.

  “Who gives a damn if she’s pissed? She’s your prisoner—and she has a job to do.”

  The idea of forcing her got my dick hard, but I preferred the affectionate and obsessive woman I used to bed. She grabbed my ass and pulled me deeper inside her even though she could barely take all of me. I wanted that woman, that passion and heat. “She’ll come around.”

  “But you shouldn’t have to wait. And in the meantime…there’s a fine piece of ass that wants you right over there.”

  She only wanted me because I paid her a fortune in cash. “Take her, Heath.”

  “You’re the one not getting laid. I’m doing you a favor.”

  “Don’t worry about my dick. Worry about your own.”

  “Whatever, man.” He finished off his drink. “Just trying to help.”

  “Don’t.”

  “So when are we going to move against Hunter?”

  “Sometime this week. We’ll ambush him. If I give him any kind of warning, he can prepare for the conversation. The best time to read someone is during that first interaction, and I can’t read him over the phone.”

  “You want me to tag along?”

  “I’m trying to keep our resemblance a secret.”

  “Why is that?” Heath watched the naked women dance around, their cleavage pressed against the poles and their asses barely covered in their thongs.

  “It might be useful down the road.”

  “Does Cassini know?”

  I shook my head. She knew I had a brother, but she didn’t know I was a twin.

  “Lucian contacted you?”

  “Nope.” He was too much of a pussy to move against me. If he didn’t agree to meet my demands, he would never get his wife back. So unless he was prepared to go to war with me, there was nothing he could do. He might have the explosives to destroy an entire city, but I had an army that could destroy the entire world. He might be a stupid man, but he wasn’t that stupid. He’d have to methodically plan his advance before he did a damn thing.

  “You think he will?”

  “Eventually. He’ll negotiate to get Cassini back.”

  “And will you give her back?”

  “Depends.”

  “On what, exactly?” he asked.

  “What he’s offering. And how valuable she becomes.”

  I STEPPED off the elevator at four in the morning. My pockets were emptied, and my valuables were placed on the entryway table. My eyes turned to the couch, wondering if Cassini would be there like last time.

  She was.

  She’d been asleep just a minute ago, but the sound of the elevator stirred her. She’d been waiting for that beep to tell her I was home, and now that I was in the building, she could relax.

  I walked over to the couch, a gloating smile on my face. This woman had only been here for a short time, but she was already dependent on me in many ways. Clearly, I made her feel safe because the second I was gone, she was uncomfortable. Knowing she needed me for something was a turn-on, especially when she tried to pretend that wasn’t true.

  She sat up and tucked her hair behind her ear, her eyes heavy from exhaustion as well as the rest she’d just had. She looked at me before she looked away, clearly ashamed by my arrogant smile. “I fell asleep watching TV. I wasn’t—”

  “Liar.” I looked at her baggy t-shirt and boxers and wished I could rip them both off. My dick seemed to always be hard around her because I’d been unsatisfied for so long. Jerking off wasn’t cutting it. I’d never been a fan of masturbation in the first place. I’d always preferred real pussy to the imaginary pussy I could replicate with my hand.

  I scooped my arms underneath her body and lifted her from the couch. Light as a feather and with the softest skin, she was a perfect fit in my arms. I cradled her against my chest then carried her down the hallway, feeling her body heat against mine.

  Her arm immediately circled my neck as a flash of surprise crossed her face. But she allowed me to carry her down the hallway and into her bedroom. Her eyes moved to my neck before they narrowed.

  I set her on the bed then straightened, hoping she would invite me between her legs. But when I saw the pissed-off look on her face, I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

  “Out with one of your whores tonight?” She scooted away from me until she was in the center of the bed.

  My head cocked slightly at the accusation.

  “Don’t give me that bullshit speech about your integrity. I can see the damn lipstick all over your neck.” She scooted back against the headboard, trying to get as far away from me as possible. “If you think I’m going to fuck you without a condom when you’re screwing whores, then forget it.”

  I recalled the moment Yvonne kissed me on the neck. Her bright-red lipstick probably smeared against my neck, and now it marked me like a tattoo. My fingers reached up and brushed the area. When I stared at my hand, I could see the paint on my skin.

  She rolled her eyes. “Say what you want about Lucian, but at least he didn’t pretend to be something he wasn’t.”

  I didn’t want to be compared to that man, especially when h
e was painted in a better light. “I didn’t sleep with anyone tonight.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t believe you.”

  I was annoyed she didn’t believe me like everyone else, but her jealousy was entertaining. She didn’t like the idea of me being buried between another woman’s legs—at all. “I was at a strip club tonight.”

  She slowly turned back to me, her arms crossed over her chest.

  “I met with one of my spies. He informed me that one of my drug dealers isn’t fairly distributing his profits. When he left, one of my regular whores came over. She snuggled into my side, kissed me on the neck, and offered to suck me off. I turned her down.”

  Cassini kept staring at me, the rage burning like a bonfire.

  “Then I came home.”

  “You expect me to believe that—”

  “I don’t give a damn if you do. In fact, watching the jealousy torment you is very entertaining. If you want me all to yourself, then take me. You want my fidelity? Then ask for it. We both know you want it.”

  She looked away, her arms tightening over her chest.

  “If you don’t want another woman to fuck me, then you better start riding my dick. A man can’t be tempted when he’s satisfied. That’s my best advice to you.”

  “Get out.” Her voice came out weak, like she lost her fire.

  I wanted to confess that she was the only woman I’d been with since the night we met. My cock hadn’t been tempted by anyone else because she was all I wanted. But that information would give her too much power. I would much rather hear her demand my monogamy than freely give it to her. Much sexier that way. “Whatever you say, baby.” I moved to the door.

  “I’m not your baby. Don’t call me that.”

  “If you weren’t my baby, you wouldn’t get pissed off by another woman’s lipstick. So yes, you are my baby—whether you like it or not.”

  7

  CASSINI

  When I saw that lipstick on his neck, I flipped a switch.

  Imagining some woman dragging her tongue up and down his body pissed me off. I was sleeping on the couch waiting for him to come home while some other woman was sinking her claws into him.