Fistful of Benjamins (12 page)

Vicente takes an extra few seconds to weigh whether to accept the drug lord's thin, unfelt apology before holstering his shit. “One day you'll be cursed with a daughter and you'll understand.” He turns to our crew. “Everything is under control now.”

Even they hesitate. We all trust the Vazquez's about as far as we can throw them. Once they see that Vicente is serious, one by one they lower their weapons.

However, Tomas's gaze is still burning a hole into the side of my head. I return my attention to him to let him know that we can finish this shit right here right now.

“Julian, take a walk,” Vicente orders.

“What?”

“You heard me. Take a walk. Go cool off.”

All eyes are on me as I take a step back.

Vicente crosses over to me. “It's all right. I can handle these guys—but I appreciate you defending my daughter's honor.”

He slaps me on the back and then nods me toward the door. I choke on my pride and own damn sense of honor as I turn and head out the door with my tail tucked between my fucking legs. I return to the party just in time as Cataleyna's seven-tier red velvet birthday cake is being rolled into the center of the party while her favorite singer croons
Tu Amor Me Hace Bien
from a stage.

At the end of the song, the guests erupt into thunderous applause and the birthday girl blows out her candles. Despite the festivities, the hours crawl by. Late in the night Vicente emerges from his meeting with the Vazquezes, smug and smiling, to present Cataleyna with a brand-new candy-apple-red Maybach convertible.

I'm left to wonder about what kind of deal with the devil my boss made.
It's not your problem. You and Cataleyna are out of here after tonight.
Still, it doesn't mean that I don't care about the old man. My emotions are a tangled web.

Near midnight, fireworks light up the sky.

I choose that moment to slink to Cataleyna's bedroom balcony where she stands watching the display. When the time is right, I grab her hand and pull her behind the velvet drapes.

“Julian,” she gasps. “You scared me. Is it time?”

“Shhh. Not yet. I just wanted to see you.” I draw her body flush against mine and then drink from her red lips. “It won't be long now,” I whisper, coming up for air. “The boat will be at the dock at four. Be prepared and ready to leave.”

“I will. I promise.”

Our lips meet each other again and we drown in our forbidden sin.

Stop. This isn't the time or the place.
But I can't stop kissing her and touching her. I'm addicted to everything about her. Before I know it, I'm lifting her heavy, beaded dress and rubbing my fingers against her dewy wet panties. “You're so fucking wet.”

“It's because I need you right now.” Cataleyna nibbles on my bottom lip and mewls sexily.

“We can't. Someone could—”

“You can't leave me like this, baby.” She reaches down and grabs my cock.

It's rock-hard and ready to override my common sense.

“We can make it quick,” she pants. “I promise.” Her soft nibbling moves from my lips to my right earlobe. She knows that's one of my spots. “Please, baby. It's my birthday.” With ease, she unzips me and frees the beast.

There's no fucking way I'm stopping now. I snatch her panties to the side and hike one of her long legs over my hip and then dive in. Her sweet pussy is so warm and tight that I nearly pop off right then and there. I take a second to compose myself, but my impatient nymph starts grinding on my shit and sending my ass to the moon.

“You feel
sooo
fucking good, baby,” Cat moans, dragging her nails down my back. “Sling it to me harder.”

My hips drill like a jackhammer, each stroke deeper and sweeter than the last. I've never had a woman who felt this good and made me feel like King Kong. Watching her orgasmic expressions bathed in exploding lights, I can't imagine life without her.

“Oh. Oh. I'm coming, baby,” she pants while her pussy tightens.

“We'll come together,” I say, knowing that I have less than a dozen strokes in me.

She's moaning and I'm groaning and at any minute we could be cold-busted, but all that matters is our coming together.

“Look at me, Cat,” I command her.

She does as she's told and we stare into each other's eyes as our orgasms rip through us at the same time.

“
Aaaaaaagh
!” I bury my head into her jasmine-scented hair while my body trembles with aftershocks. We cling to each other, hot and sweaty. “I fucking love you so much,” I confess.

“You better,” she laughs. “I'm going to have your baby.”

“What was that?” I ask.

We spring apart.

My eyes dart around the room, but I'm unable to make out anything. The fireworks explode outside while the band plays.

“You think that somebody saw us?” Cataleyna asks.

“I don't—”

Someone is in the closet.
I slip my dick back into my pants and then reach for my gun.

“Be careful,” Cat warns.

I press a finger to my lips and she nods in understanding.
Creak!

I reach for the doorknob.

Screams erupt outside and throughout the house.

“What the fuck?” I turn from the door and race to the balcony. A sea of party guests race across the lawn in their glittering gowns and penguin suits only to be gunned down by an army dressed in black. “We're under attack!”

“What?” Cat steals a look for herself. “Where's Papa?” Alarmed, she wrenches herself from me to bolt toward the door.

“Cataleyna, wait!”

Before I can stop her, her closet and bedroom door burst open with a
BANG!

I'm rocked back, but then take aim at the intruders. Something hits my arm as I tap the trigger.

Cat screams and then collapses to the floor. “Cataleyna!” I make one move toward her and I'm whacked on the back of the head and the world disappears.

My heart sinks at the sound of each bullet fired. “What the fuck?” I can't wrap my head around it. One minute I'm throwing the party of the year and then the next thing I know my entire estate is under siege. Bullets and bodies are flying everywhere. My men counterattack and hustle me to the estate's panic room.
What's going on?
Whose fucking balls sag this low to try to pull this shit off tonight—of all nights?

Shit.
The very thought of them being the masterminds sets my blood on fire. Why did I go against my better judgment and bring those two snakes into my inner circle? I know fucking better—but the Sinaloa and the Zetas cartels have all but boxed me in; strong-arming connects, destroying my distribution and turning my own men against me. Bottom line: they have my dick in a vise and I had to start thinking outside of the box if I want to survive.

The drug game has changed over the years. There is no longer honor among thieves and killers. There is no respect for families and tradition with this new generation of degenerates. The wars are now fought with heavily armed militias that practice scorched-earth tactics and strike fear in the heart of everyone from clients to law enforcement and even politicians.

I'm not a fool. I know what's up. I can feel the walls closing in on me. One by one, my connects have dried up. However, I keep the illusion going and had devised a plan to combine forces with another cartel. Even that is difficult. The old guard is being slaughtered, jailed, or running scared.

Hell. I've even thought about cutting my losses and getting out.

Then they killed my Bella—the love of my life. I was a nobody and I had nothing before I met her. It was because of her I was able to build this empire. In the back of my mind I always knew that there would be a hell of a price to pay for the lives I've taken or ruined. And yet, I was still caught off guard when the devil took his due and mowed down my wife right in front of my daughter and me.

I've relived the moment where she lay in my arms, bloodied and struggling to breathe. I begged her not to leave me, but it did no good. A merciless God refused to answer my prayers.

But I still have a piece of her: Cataleyna. She is the sole reason I wake up every morning. The world that I fought to give Bella, I now aim to leave to my daughter. Impulsively, I reached out to the Vazquez cartel. The patriarch, Alejandro Vazquez, had been killed in a car bomb two years back, but his sons, Tomas and Carlos, have taken over and not only managed to hold their ground, but made some surprising gains in members and distribution against the Sinaloas. The history between us is a bit tricky. In the nineties there was a lot of bad blood spilled between the two families, which included Alejandro and I falling in love with the same woman.

I won and married Isabella Benitez. Bella. Alejandro never got over it.

But all of that was of a different time and I'd hoped that we could let that be water under the bridge and pursue a mutual interest.

I was wrong.

The gunfire continues.

“Where's my daughter? Somebody find her and bring her down here,” I order, rushing into the safe confines of the panic room hidden behind the walls of my study.

“Yes, sir. We're on it.”

I rush to the bank of security cameras to grasp the landscape, but the chaos on the screens makes it hard for me to decipher what the fuck is going on.

“Bella—Cataleyna, where are you?” I search for her red dress on the screen while my blood pressure spikes.
I can't find her. Maybe she's in her room
. It is the one place I don't have a camera. I turn to one screen where I can see my men race to my daughter's bedroom door.

I hold my breath.

One minute. Two minutes. A lifetime passes before my men rush back out, carrying a bleeding Julian.

“What the fuck?” Forgetting about my own safety, I bolt out of the panic room.

More gunfire.

I duck low and zigzag around dead bodies. “Where is she? Where is my daughter?” I grab Julian by the shirt and jerk him forward.

“I don't know. The bastards got the drop on me.”

“Who?”

A distraught Julian shakes his head. “I don't know that either. They wore masks.”

Bullets whiz by.

“They're headed toward the dock!” Salazar yells.

There's still time.
“After them!” I release Julian and he takes off. I try to follow, but my entire body seizes up.
What the fuck?

I drop to my knees, gasping.
I'm having a heart attack.

“M
ove it! Move it! Move it!” Men shout all around me.

I wake with an explosive headache as I'm being jostled around. For a few seconds, the world doesn't make any sense until I realize that I'm hanging upside down—or rather over someone's shoulder.

“Get her into the boat. Hurry! Hurry!”

Panicked, I scream for help, but my mouth is stuffed and bound tight. I kick and punch, but that doesn't work either because my hands and feet are tied with rope that's digging into my skin.

Julian. What happened to him? Dear God. Is he hurt? Did they kill him?
I can't even process the possibility. He's the love of my life.
Papa! What about him? Where is he?

Blood drips down my head and blends with my angry tears. I know the kind of thugs my father deals with. There is no doubt in my mind this shit has something to do with him. It always does.

My heart races at the sound of gunfire whizzing by my head.

My kidnappers return fire as they hop into a speedboat and I'm tossed into a corner.

Carlos Vazquez snatches off his mask. “Be careful with her.”

“We don't have time for your shit right now.” Tomas snatched off his mask as well. “Get us the fuck out of here!”

I flatten myself against the floor of the boat while my heart gallops inside my chest.

The boat's engine roars to life. A second later, the horsepower kicks in and we rocket across the Caribbean Sea. I pray for a miracle.

Another boat roars onto the scene, sluicing through the turbulent waves as the inky-black sky cracks open with a luminous bolt of lightning. The sky rips open and unleashes a torrent of rain, drenching me on the spot. There's no end to this nightmare.

“Cataleyna!”

Julian!
My heart leaps as I lift my head.

A bullet whizzes past my head and I dive back down. One of the kidnappers, inches from me, is hit. His body jerks around from a barrage of bullets while his finger remains on his AK-47, spraying even more lead around the deck.

It's a toss-up as to whether my rescue squad or the kidnappers will kill me first.

“Can't this muthafucka go any faster?” Tomas yells. “They're gaining on us!”

“Ooof!”

Men hurl themselves onto the Vazquez's' speedboat. I have no trouble making out the black knight riding to my rescue.

“You muthafuckas!” Julian delivers a hard punch across Tomas's jaw.
Crack!

It sounds like he broke that shit.

Tomas doesn't even have time to recover before another punch rocks his head in the opposite direction.
Crack!

Bullets dance around the two men as they engage in hand-to-hand combat and more of my father's men fling themselves onto the boat.

Carlos abandons the wheel and rushes to his brother's aid. When he gets close, he raises his gun but hesitates for a clean shot at Julian.

Without thinking, I swing my legs around like a two-by-four at Carlos's knees, surprising his ass and knocking him to the deck.

The shot goes wild and takes out another member of his crew.

Carlos turns his dark, evil gaze toward me. “You shouldn't have done that.”

I scramble away, ignoring my rope burns.

Julian finishes whaling his bloodied fist on Tomas's face and then looks around and spots Carlos.

Neither man pays attention to the ongoing battle around them, but jump to their feet and charge each other like raging bulls. At the moment of impact, another thunderbolt booms. However, nothing distracts Carlos and Julian from their epic battle.

My desperate battle against my restraints intensifies. I cry, pray, and beg until I feel the rope give one centimeter at a time. At long last, I snatch one hand out and then rip the thick duct tape from my mouth.

“Julian! Help!”

I attack the ropes around my legs. Tomas is stirring from being knocked out and the gun is inches away from his fingertips. Dread sinks into the pit of my gut. I know exactly what's about to go down and it doesn't seem like I can get my hands to go fast enough.

The rain falls faster, the punches land harder, and Tomas's hand is wrapped around the gun.

Hurry, Cat. Hurry.
My fingers are numb and cold, but, at last the rope unravels around my ankles. I jump to my feet and race toward the two fighting men as Tomas raises the gun.

“
Noooooo
!” I leap in front of the bullet. Pain explodes in my chest and I'm propelled backwards against Carlos and Julian, knocking us all over the side of the speeding boat and slamming into the dark, infinite sea. “Help! Julian, Help!”

My nose and mouth fill with water as it feels like I've plunged a mile below the surface. I force myself to hold my breath and proceed to kick my way back up—but the pain in my chest and the burning in my lungs cause me to panic.

I can't see anything and I have no idea how much farther I have to go.

Julian, where are you?
Why isn't he here to save me?

Kick. Kick.
In the back of my mind I know that I'm not going to make it. I can't hold my breath or fight off the pain any longer.

I can't.
I argue with myself, but then the decision is taken from me as I draw in a watery breath and watch as the world fades to black.