Stand, Part One (Stronger #5)

Chapter 1

Let The Games Begin

“Tell me you’re mine.”

Pure ecstasy rushed through my veins, my heart pounding with adrenaline as my cock slid in and out of Jaden’s soaking-wet pussy, her cries of pain and pleasure spurring me on.

“I’m yours,” she moaned, her breath escaping in little pants of sweet desperation.

Her admission sent a dark wave of possession through me. My uncontrollable need to own every inch of her—mind, body, and soul—was an obsession that was never satisfied. It was never enough.

With my hands wrapped around her hips, her small but strong body beneath mine, I drove into her, forcing her to take every hard inch of me. Her breasts bounced beautifully as a thin sheen of sweat began to gather between them, glistening her skin to perfection.

“Oh God, do not fucking stop,” she gasped, arching her back and straining against the diamond-studded cuffs that kept her hands trapped above her head.

Lifting her legs to my shoulders, I reached down and slapped her ass hard enough to make her scream, the sound going straight to my cock.

“That fucking mouth of yours,” I warned.

Only moans replaced the objection hot on her lips.

Her wet, abused pussy clenched around me, gripping my cock in a vise of excruciating pleasure, making me fuck her even harder.

Jaden was a goddamn goddess, sent to me from the depths of hell to torment my soul with a spirit I couldn’t break, a heart I couldn’t own, and a body I could not touch without the complete annihilation of my carefully constructed self-control.

I was a slave to her power over me, a single glance capable of mass destruction, igniting a longing that ran so deep I would never be free from it.

And some days, I fucking hated her for it.

Pressing her knees together against my chest, I leaned over her, stretching that lithe body and striking out to pin her throat to the bed.

Her amber eyes widened with alarm, her pupils so dilated that her beautiful hazel irises had nearly disappeared.

And the more I squeezed, the harder her core pulsed with need around my cock.

Jaden struggled in my hold, the fear of my unyielding will and the uncertainty of its direction a constant shackle to every move she made.

I could kill her in this very moment if I wanted to, wipe out her existence along with the plague she’d wielded over my life.

And she knew this to her very core, the evidence of it all over her face as she waited for me to decide her fate. Her terror only made my dick harder.

And while it would be so easy for me to snuff the life right out of her, my will beckoned me to consider the exact opposite—creating life instead.

To plant the seed that would command her body to nurture, to initiate the final act that would bind her to me in ways that could never be broken or paralleled by any other force.

My heart swelled at the vision of her growing belly, carrying my child to create the strongest legacy only she could give me. The legacy that she would give me. The legacy that I would now strive to construct, and expand my dominion over this world.

Relaxing my hold, I allowed Jaden the precious oxygen that filled her lungs, granting her another breath of life I could so easily take away. Gripping the back of her neck, I pulled her to me, my voice firm with the conviction I was eager to impose on her, my decision made and final.

“I’m going to put my fucking child in you.”

And then she screamed my name as she came, the sound a blinding beacon of eternal victory as I drove myself home.

“Hey! We’re about to land!”

The voice pulled me from my dream, the remnants of the last moments I’d shared with my wife before I’d left for Honduras slowly fading away.

Sitting up from my seat, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and stretched my arms out, expanding my stiff muscles.

Visions of Jaden’s perfect body still held my attention captive, her moans echoing in the back of my head and distracting me from reality.

I swore she’d be the first order of business the second I returned home, an urgent ambition to be continued as soon as possible.

The sound of the helicopter blades above me brought me back to the present, my focus now shifting from the steel rod in my pants to the mission ahead of us. Seven of my best men, including myself, were packed inside the helicopter, armed to the teeth and thirsty for blood.

When I glanced out the window, the lush green jungle outside waited to greet us, the promise of unfettered carnage an absolute pleasure to men like me. It’d been two weeks since Dominic’s funeral, and I’d spent the past six days watching Javier Spade’s compound.

My team and I had stuck mostly to the shadows, monitoring the comings and goings, the guards employed, the people who visit, the imports and exports of the compound, the security measures—every bit of intel we could extract.

And now we finally had enough to execute and bring Javier’s world to a crashing halt.

After landing the helicopter, we made our way through the jungle to the top of the hill that oversaw Javier’s compound.

Sweat dripped down the side of my temple, threatening to breach the lids of my eyes as I peered through the scope of my rifle. The humidity of the jungle in Honduras was fucking brutal this time of year, and all the goddamn gear I’d strapped myself down with was not helping in the slightest.

While I focused on my targets, my blood pressure decreased with massive disappointment at the same small number of guards patrolling the compound.

I expected more would come over time—I had hoped for more, but Javier Spade was apparently more concerned with his money and financing his now struggling drug trades than the security of his own home and family.

“I only count ten on the grounds,” Scott confirmed as he peered through the scope of his own rifle next to me.

“Twelve,” I corrected. “There’s two shooting up behind the shed.”

He scoffed. “They hardly count.”

“Dan, do you still have eyes on Spade?” I asked through my earpiece. He’d been quiet for too long.

“He’s on to his third mistress,” Dan answered gruffly. “Asshole has some stamina, I’ll give him that.”

“As long as they keep him busy,” Scott added as he adjusted his scope.

“He could have picked a better hotel, though. Guess he likes fucking around cockroaches.”

Dan didn’t bother hiding the disgust in his tone. He was anxious to engage with Javier at the hotel he currently resided in, but my team and I needed to take the compound first. Then the real fun would begin.

The only person I hadn’t been able to locate yet was his brother. And that was going to change tonight.

“Are you guys ready yet? We’re baking on this fucking roof,” Dan complained.

“Don’t worry, cupcake, you’ll get your chance in a minute,” Scott answered as he continued his focus on the compound. Waiting for the visual confirmation from the rest of the team was annoying the fuck out of me as well.

“Alright, we’re in position. Visual confirmation on the targets,” Conway said from the other end.

“Good. Let’s make this quick and clean. I have a wife to get home to,” I said, descending from my post. As much as I wanted to avenge the death of my youngest, dumb-fuck of a brother, my little spitfire of a wife would never be dethroned from my list of priorities.

Scott and I made our way through the thick brush and trees, stopping just outside the gates to observe through our scopes.

“Hit the signals,” I ordered as I focused on the guards while the area's cell phone and internet signals were disrupted.

“Fire on the count of three … two … one.”

Bullets sprayed across the compound as each guard dropped simultaneously, the yard now littered with their bodies. Only the guards in the house were left protecting our three targets. It was so easy it was hardly enjoyable.

“Dan, your team is free to engage,” I told him through my earpiece.

“Finally,” he replied, his tone full of anticipation.

Scott tossed a grenade under the gate surrounding the property, those ten seconds of anticipation building in my blood before the gate burst open in a loud, fiery eruption of chaos.

Our two armored trucks on standby burst through what was left of the gate, mowing down the black metal and creating a clear path for our entrance.

The sound of a few more gunshots quickly silenced the men shouting from inside the house as we made our way across the lawn, joining the rest of the team inside.

Organized chaos screeched through my earpiece as Dan finally engaged with his target, the amusing whirlwind of cursing, gunshots, and screams giving me all the playback that I needed.

I continued to listen, smirking to myself as I waited patiently in the sunroom of the home.

Scott and two more of our men held steady as the rest of the team hunted down the targets hiding in the upstairs bedrooms. I casually strolled around the room, observing family photos as more gunshots rang throughout the house, followed by terrified screams, shouting, and crying.

I sighed as a woman and two teenage boys were dragged down the stairs and forced to their knees in the middle of the sunroom.

Javier’s wife clutched their two sons to her body as she stared up at me with hateful tears in her eyes. I instantly recognized that kind of hate, the familiar heat of that emotion coming off her in vicious shock waves.

That strategy had never saved Jaden. And it certainly wouldn’t save this bitch or her family either.

“Dan, do you have him?” I asked.

The continued scuffling and shouting on the other end of the audio feed was my only immediate confirmation until Dan’s exacerbated voice came through.

“Fucker tried to jump out the damn window,” he finally growled as he huffed into the speaker. “But we got him.”

“You sound winded,” I commented.

“Well, he is a massive piece of shit.”

“Not for much longer.” I pulled out my phone to video chat with Dan so Javier could witness the show I had planned for him.

When the video finally connected, Dan turned the camera in Javier’s direction, his sweaty face swollen and beaten to shit as blood dripped down his nose and mouth.

I made sure he could see the look of victory in my eyes as I stared him down for a few moments, relishing the fear that began to manifest. A smirk formed on my mouth before I silently turned the camera back to his family, who were huddled together as they crouched on the floor. With a simple nod, the show began.

Drawing the machetes from their backs, my men wasted no time as they hacked away at Javier’s family, their guttural screams filling the room, mixing with Javier’s as their blood sprayed in all directions, splashing against the camera lens.

It was only a few seconds, but they had been some of the most satisfying seconds I’d experienced in the past few weeks.

I didn’t even want to kill Javier yet. His suffering was far too enjoyable to end so soon.

But at some point, all good things had to come to an end.

When it was over, and Javier’s family was nothing but bludgeoned bloody pieces on the floor, I turned the camera back to my smiling blood-smattered face so he could remember it as vividly as possible.

The rage on his face as his chest heaved up and down would be a favorite in my memory book.

I ended the video chat without a needless word, my actions speaking plenty loud enough for me.

“He’s all yours, Dan,” I said into my headset before turning back to my men. “Raid the house, then burn it down.”

Turning away, I headed back out to our convoy, the day's success making each step lighter than the last. Of course, we weren’t quite out of the woods yet.

There was still the matter of Javier’s brother who I would eventually have to deal with.

Hopefully, Dan would be able to get his location out of Javier before he finished with him.

Taking out my phone, I dialed Clive for an update on my wife and the little training exercise I had planned for her today. Suspicion was immediate when he answered on the third ring.

“So?” I asked, my impatience evident. “How’d she do?”

I was met with a second of silence before Clive cleared his throat and exhaled. “Unfortunately, sir, we’ve encountered a slight problem.”

Rage punched straight through my chest as I wondered what the fuck kind of trouble Jaden had started now. She always loved to start shit when I wasn’t there to immediately tan her ass with my belt.

“What. Problem.”

More silence. “Someone…used live rounds.”