Chapter
20

“Clean this shit up and prepare for the blowback,” I told Sean.

He sucked in a breath and clenched his teeth. The fucker was pissed, and I couldn’t blame him. Gleeson helped control the eastern import and export for black market shit. He had his own men stationed in the building as his escort, and we’d have to clean them all out.

“Why?” he gritted out as I carried Ash back to the room upstairs. She trembled in my arms, the pinched way she held her mouth telling me she was in pain again. The medicine for her back had probably worn out.

But why? Very fucking simple.

“Because she wanted me to save her, so I did.”

“Caesar, this shit has to stop.”

I looked down at her. No, I didn’t think it could.

“She was afraid,” I told him, and walked away. End of fucking discussion.

Once inside the room, I stripped her of her shoes and laid her on the bed. The bodycon was magnificent on her, the color bringing out her eyes, but it would have to be thrown away. I wouldn’t be able to look at it again without seeing that look on her face. I scrubbed my hand over my mouth and spun away from her. Medicine. She needed medicine. I stalked to the dresser and got her a pill before taking the glass of water from the night stand and bringing it to her.

“Come on, Ash. Open up.”

She did what I asked without even opening her eyes. I didn’t like it. I fucking didn’t like the way she broke. She sucked the pill from my finger and swallowed it down with a swig of water without argument, and I laid her back down.

“The dress has to go,” I told her.

She didn’t respond as I gripped the collar of her dress and ripped. She reared off the bed, her eyes wide and unfocused.

“Caesar!”

Her scream swelled in the room, and she fought against my hands as I pulled the dress off her. She scrambled, naked, on the cover, fighting with everything she had. Her small, balled fist connected with my mouth and busted my lips. I tasted the iron of my blood.

“Caesar!”

“I’m here. Dammit, it’s me, Ash. Right here.”

She didn’t hear me as she flung her head from side to side, her hair covering her face. I glimpsed her plumped lips in between strands, and her frightened, blurry gaze.

“Don’t let them hurt me. Please, Caesar. Please.”

She begged me, but she couldn’t see me. I got up from the bed and stripped my jacket and holster off before I tore the shirt from my torso and kicked off my shoes. Barefoot, and only in my jeans, I got into bed and wrapped around her. She fought me as I forced her arms to her sides and pinned her legs between mine.

“I’m here. Fucking look at me!” I roared.

Nothing.

Finally, I took her mouth with mine. Her cold lips trembled, but I didn’t let her go. She called for me, and fuck me, but I couldn’t deny her. It broke something inside me to see her like that. There was a different light. So many pets. So many women I’d broken before her, and she was the first I didn’t want to shatter. I sucked her tongue into my mouth, afraid if I pushed mine into hers she’d fucking bite it off. We rolled on the bed until she was under me, and she bucked.

“You’re going to know it’s me,” I promised her.

My hair flicked down into my eyes, but I couldn’t release her to move it. Instead, I nipped my way over her neck and sucked on her pulse. I shifted her arms over her head so I could control her with one hand and use my other. I wasn’t soft; she couldn’t feel soft right now. I was Caesar. What she asked for. What she needed.

She needed me.

I pulled her nipple until she yelled, and then massaged the agony to a manageable ache. I forced her legs open to accommodate my hips and ground my cloth-covered cock against her pussy. She keened and arched away from me, but I didn’t stop. No, not me. I pushed my hand between us and undid my jeans so I could fight them off my legs until we were skin to skin.

So fucking hot.

Her pussy burned my cock.

“Come on, Ash. Milk my shit.”

I angled my cock to her dry pussy and claimed it. She’d know me. The pain I could give her. The pleasure that would send her to the sun. No one in her fucking pathetic existence ever fucked her like me. No one would kill for her like I had. And no one would be the monster she needed, worse than any nightmare she could have, so she didn’t have to fear them.

I screwed my hips to get another inch into her. Her pussy clamped down around me, pushing me out. But I was motherfucking Caesar, and she belonged to me. I hiked her leg up so the soft side of her knees were hooked into the crook of my arm, opening her up wide.

“Say my name, Ashlyn. Know it’s me. Tell me how fucking mine you are. Ain’t no Jason the Bitch gonna take you away.”

I slammed into her, and her body gave. I sank in until my groin rubbed against her clit, and she screamed. Screamed bloody fucking pain, but it was real. It was us. I shafted her, fucking her rough enough to scoot us up on the bed. Her head thumped the headboard with each stroke, but I didn’t let her go. She stilled, a tremor racing down her body and her face twitching. Then she sighed.

“Caesar.”

Fuuuuck.

Wet. So fucking wet. I released her legs as she wrapped them around my waist. Pinching her throat with my fingers, she lifted her chin to give me better access. When she opened her eyes, she was with me. My Ash. My girl. Tears pooled in her eyes, and she bit her lip until it bled, but she was with me. I let go of her wrists above her head and wrapped my free arm around her waist.

“Hold on, baby,” I told her.

Fuck me, but she did. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and let me take her. I ground against her pussy, forcing my dick deep with each stroke. She wailed, but the sound was cut off as I choked her harder.

“I want to feel you come on me, Ash. You like this, don’t you? Like how I make it hurt?”

It shifted, somewhere, from something. I felt it. A click, and we fit together. When I moved again, her cunt rippled around me. Again. And she fucking gushed. Once more, and she moaned. I lost my shit. Pure and simple. I released her throat and pressed my hand between us until I could get to her fat little clit. Mine. So fucking mine. Her cheeks were flushed, her throat red and marred with my handprint. She was wild, and bits of her dress were trapped underneath us. For the second time, I slayed her demons, and she clung to me in the aftermath.

I rocked into her, forcing my fingers hard against her clit as she moaned. The sound was pain and pleasure. Sweetness and bitterness. Us. What we did. I shut off the part of me that wanted to beat her until she was black and blue. To punish her for letting that fucker touch what belonged to me. I let that shit slide into the heat of fucking her. The scent of musk, sex, and blood bloomed between us. Her nails bit into the flesh of my back as she scored me, raking her fingers down to my hips.

“Knees higher,” I demanded.

So perfect. She lifted them higher and let herself fall. I fucked her, my balls slapping the curve of her ass with each thrust. She took it all. The pain. The pleasure. The blood. Me. She took it all. Swallowed it down and spewed it back at me in screams and claws. My balls tightened as her muscles bore down around me.

“Come for me.”

I pinched her clit, and the world stopped. She froze, eyes wide, mouth slack, and her muscles clenched. She didn’t even breathe. Then she broke. Her body shook and clawed deeper into my sides. In that moment, my pleasure spiraled. It twisted up through me, my cock thickening inside of her. Until I came, bellowing my fucking victory, bathing her in my cum.

“How did they get in?” I asked as I paced. Back and forth. Back and forth. Too fast. They shouldn’t have gotten word this fucking fast.

Dahlia.

“Get that cunt on the fucking fastest thing here,” I said.

“Already been handled. Gleeson’s crew got in through a service entrance Dahlia used when she brought the girls here. I told you bringing your pet here would cause shit,” Sean argued.

“I don’t have time for that. I brought her here, she is mine, and that’s the end of the fucking story. We’ve got bigger shit on our hands.”

“His team met up with the men he had here, and they’ve cleared through a floor. We’ve got more than enough men, but we’ll have the cops banging down our fucking door soon.”

“I want those fuckers dead. Every fucking one of them. Get the cops we have on payroll on the scene now, they can take the arrests. And prepare for transport to a safehouse.”

“I’m not fucking leaving your side. You’ll die trying to protect that woman,” Sean argued.

I glared at him. “Do what I told you, Sean.”

He clenched his fists but raced out of my office to do as I’d commanded. I checked the clip on my guns and then tucked two more into the holsters under my arms. Dahlia had betrayed me. For whatever reason, she’d told Gleeson’s people what happened, and she’d get to see how unkind I was to someone who didn’t keep their word. For now, I had to make sure we survived this shit and got out alive. I raced up the stairs to the bedroom and slammed through the door. Ash jolted awake and wrapped the cover around her.

“Up and into your clothes we came here in. We’ve got an emergency,” I told her.

Her gaze dropped to my guns as she scrambled out of bed and did as I’d instructed. In a few minutes, she was dressed in her black yoga pants, red racerback shirt, socks, and tennis shoes. Once I knew she was geared, I motioned for her to come to my side. She side-stepped my gun and tucked herself under my arm.

“This is going to be rough. When I tell you to do something, you do it. Don’t ask, don’t think. Just do. You understand me?”

She nodded.

“Let me hear your voice, baby.”

“Yes, Caesar.”

“Good girl. If I go down, you are to take this gun and pop yourself. You won’t survive them.”

She startled at my words, but I didn’t give her a chance to argue. I pulled her down the stairs with me and met Sean at the front of my penthouse.

“They’ve taken out the elevators. We have to go down the stairs. They’ll be waiting,” Sean said. He checked his M-4, then shouldered the machine gun.

I nodded. “Let’s do this. And when it’s over, I’m taking everything he owns.”

Sean gave me a rare smile. “You fucking better.”

We swept into the stairwell, Sean to the front, then me, and Ash behind us. We scanned the open space for intruders. My men would be taking care of Gleeson’s squad from the bottom up, but there was always a way to get to the boss if you were proficient enough. Sean and I both knew this. We’d done it before.

“He’s at the top,” someone yelled.

Gleeson’s men. We slowed as we neared a door just three floors down from my penthouse. They’d gotten up as far as the service entrance would take them before they’d have to use the stairwell or the second elevator to get to the penthouse. Fuckers. The door to the right of us slammed open, and Sean went to work. Holding his weapon at zero-axis, close to the chest and at an angle, he used his body to turn with each shot. In a three-round burst, he took out the first few men through the door.

“Let’s move,” he said.

As we went through, bullets sprayed and pelted the walls around our heads. I shot back, sending a bullet between one man’s eyes before I pushed Ash down and forward. She fell against the wall but stayed on her feet.

“Down the flight, Ash. We’re right behind you,” I told her.

She stayed in a crouch and raced down the stairs while Sean and I picked off the men on the floor.

“That’s all of them,” Sean said

We got back to the stairs and ran behind Ash. At the next flight, she waited next to a door, her hands pressed over her mouth. As we got closer, I heard shouting on the other side.

“Ash,” I said as I met her.

Her wild eyes met mine and she reached for me. Pounding feet from below us cut off what I was about to say.

“Fuck, we’ll be trapped. We’ll have to clear the hall and call for reinforcements up here,” Sean said.

“So be it. We didn’t think we’d make it all the way down anyway.”

Sean and I flanked the flight door, and I pushed Ash to the side. “Stay there,” I ordered. She nodded.

“Let’s go,” I told Sean.

He swung open the door and we fired at the same time. Two bodies fell to the floor with a thud. But the men coming up the stairs were closer. I couldn’t bring Ash forward, and she’d be hurt if she stayed behind. Fuck. I fired faster, and when my gun clicked, the bullets gone, I dropped it and took another weapon from my holster. Five more bodies. More blood. The bullets danced in the air; we could fucking die.

“Ash, come here, baby.”

She raced forward, but a man stopped her, gripping her hair in a meaty fist. He pulled her to his chest, but I was already firing. One shot and his head fucking exploded. Another shot and I struggled to breathe. Fuck. Blood trickled from a hole in my shoulder. Bastard took out my gun arm. I dropped the gun into my other hand. Not as steady, but I wasn’t going to go down. I squeezed the trigger twice, and the one who shot me dropped. I got to Ashlyn and ripped her from her fallen captor.

“Get the fuck in there!” Sean hollered.

He used a master key to open one of the condos. We stumbled inside, the door slamming behind us, and Sean already had his phone to his ear, barking fucking orders.

I only had eyes for Ash. Pale and shaken, she crawled toward me on the floor.

“You got shot,” she said, sucking in a deep breath.

“Not the first time. Probably won’t be the last.”

“Oh my god. You got shot. And he almost … he almost …”

I gripped her wrists with my good hand and pulled her against me. It fucking hurt like a bitch, but I didn’t give a shit. She felt good against me.

“I told you I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you again,” I said.

She nodded her head but wasn’t listening. Shock.

“They’ll be here in fifteen, and then we’re going straight down. They’ve cleared the bottom floors, and the cops we own are here,” Sean told me.

“See, pretty girl? I always win.”

Probably shouldn’t have passed out, though, after saying that.