35. Cassius
thirty-five
I kill the engine and climb out of the car. The full moon illuminates the sky, providing barely enough light for me to see the beautiful redhead standing outside the guardrail at the edge of the cliff. I expect her to turn as I approach, but she doesn’t. She is a statue, a goddess of stone. A queen admiring her kingdom.
I hesitate to touch her, nervous that I’ll startle her and consequently lose her to the terrain below. Instead, I come to a stop next to her and wait for her to acknowledge my presence.
Minutes pass, the silence so thick that I clear my throat in an attempt to rid myself of the ominous feeling. She releases a heavy sigh in response before turning and stepping over to the safe side of the guardrail. She drinks me in, hollowing out her cheeks in a way that makes my cock twitch.
“Rawlings or Sophie, whichever you’d like to call her, is the one who ordered the hit. She paid the price for you to die,” she says, matter-of-factly.
“We knew that.”
Ruby raises her eyebrows at me, a silent scolding. “Like any other court, we have laws. While she did not go outside of them, she most definitely bent them.”
“So what happens now?”
“Reds do not retire, Cassius.”
She takes an intentional step toward me, but I don’t retreat.
“Reds do not retire,” she repeats. “They kill or get killed.”
“So who are we killing?”
Ruby sighs into me with her whole body. As if she can no longer stand on her own and she needs me to hold her upright. She turns her head to look up at me as she glides the tip of her dagger over my skin. It’s a feather like touch, soft and deadly. Sensual. It makes my nerves go haywire and she knows it. She applies a hint of pressure, drawing beads of blood from my forearm.
“Cassius,” she purrs. “Do you know what I love about you?”
I don’t answer her, instead pressing my hard cock against her body so she can feel what she does to me.
A wicked grin flashes over her face. “I love that the threat of harm turns you on.”
She presses the tip of her blade to the side of my throat, puncturing the skin. My dick pulses with need as I lift her from the ground. Her legs wrap around my torso as I pull her lips to mine. She bites me, and I pull away, the taste of iron filling my mouth.
A glint of silver flashes before my eyes, and for a second, I think the darkness is playing a trick on me. Her breath stills, and I know it’s too late. I realize my mistake.
Her legs unhook from my body, and she steps back. Out of instinct, I put one hand on my throat, feeling my pulse as it bleeds between my fingers, sticky and wet. I reach my other hand toward her, but she’s faster than I am. Betrayal kicks me in the gut. My body feels heavy and my brain swirls in a multitude of circles and grainy memories. She tilts her head in that peculiar way, the one that makes her look more feral and less human.
She takes a step forward, but it’s already too late. By the time I react, she’s sheathing the dagger she just used to stab me between the ribs.