24. Cashlynn
CHAPTER 24
CASHLYNN
I winced as my fingers grazed my nipples. They were swollen and finally free of the crusted blood caked on along the sides. The letters N and T were on each side, shining in what I assumed were real diamonds.
I pushed out a heavy breath and sank my teeth into my bottom lip. I should be furious that Nazai had taken it upon himself to pierce my nipples without my permission, but even I could admit how hot they looked. And when he did it, I came harder than I had since we started having sex. A shiver shot up my spine, speaking of sex. Between my legs was sore from the pounding and my lower lips were swollen as well. I was hazy in a drunken slumber when he snuck into bed and the last thing I expected was for him to fuck me awake. While I tried to be pissed off, I couldn’t deny how good it felt too. A slight panic had flashed through me when I realized I was restrained and I felt his dick pushed at my entrance, but it didn’t last long. A twisted sense of passion quickly replaced it. That panic quickly became exhilarating.
A bra was out of the question today, so I pulled my shirt down, examining the impression of the rings through the shirt I wore. Using the ponytail holder on my wrist, I pulled my hair into a bun at the top of my head and grabbed my black baseball cap, secured it on my head and hooked it around the bun. Satisfied, I turned to leave the bathroom.
My blood hummed in anticipation. The guy who had a hand in shooting at us had been captured and now we were headed to the barn to question him. I had been itching to get my hands on him since the shooting.
When I stepped out of the bathroom Nazai was standing at the end of the bed. His dark eyes found mine and his tongue went across his lips. My stomach flipped and filled with heat.
“You look like you’re ready to kill.” He smirked.
Rolling my eyes, I scoffed and went to the wall where my book bag was, picking it up and threading my arms through the straps. Turning around I faced Nazai and took him in. He too was dressed in all black.
“I’m ready to show why you don’t fuck with Cashlynn Ca—Tavarez.” I corrected myself at the last minute. It was the first time I had acknowledged my change in last name out loud. I could have kept my name after we married, but shedding that name felt like I was starting fresh and releasing a weight that had been bearing down on me. My brother was next for the change. Nazai’s eyes flashed and his nostrils flared at my words. He stood straighter and rolled his shoulders back.
“Let’s head out then.” He held his hand out.
I stared at it for a second before making my way over to him and placing my hand in his.
____
“All you gotta do is tell us what we want to hear and this will be over faster,” Nazai said, sitting in the chair in front of the guy they had secured in the middle of the room. All of the brothers, including River, were present when we got to the barn. The man’s arms were chained above his head, while his feet were secured to the floor. His face was battered and bruised. Blood dripped from his nose and mouth. His exhaustion was clear.
“Fu-fu-fuck you,” he spat, lowering his head.
Nazai smirked and nodded at River who hit the button. A buzzing sounded and Victor’s body convulsed as electric currents went through his body from the attachments on his chest.
I brought my apple juice to my mouth, embracing the coolness invading my throat as my eyes settled on the guy. They had been working him over for the past twenty minutes but he was already roughed up before me and Nazai arrived.
“We can do this all day. Tell us who sent you after us,” Nazai demanded. The man kept quiet. This time Nazai nodded at Ezra who grinned as he walked toward the guy with Wilma in hand. He pulled back before sending the hammer into the man’s kneecaps. The sound of the impact filled my ears.
“Ah!” he bellowed. His body jerked and his legs attempted to buckle.
“Last chance.”
Ezra went to repeat the motion.
“Wa-wait,” he stammered. “Okay.” Sluggishly, he lifted his head and made eye contact with me. “She was the t-t-target.”
My blood ran cold and my eyes narrowed. I gripped the gun in my hand and lifted it, sending a shot, hitting him in the shoulder, causing him to yell out.
“What the fuck!” Ezra jumped back. “Your ass could’ve hit me!”
Ignoring him, I clenched my jaw and stalked toward him, ignoring the call of my husband, digging my glove-covered finger into the wound.
“Who sent you?” I gritted through clenched teeth.
The man screamed and attempted to move his body away. “Cashlynn!” Nazai called out, but again I ignored him. My ears were ringing and blood rushed through my body as my pulse raced. I dug my finger deeper.
“Rh-Rh-Rhodes!” he struggled out.
I snatched my finger from him just as my arm was yanked back.
“Don’t touch me!” I snatched out of his hold, seeing red. My body shook with fury. The grip on my gun tightened.
“You need to calm down!”
“You guys weren’t getting any damn were!”
“Why did they send you after Cashlynn?” This time it was Lucas talking.
I shifted my eyes over as he coughed. Blood poured from the wound I’d just inflicted. His eyes were barely able to stay open and his head sagged.
“Hey, did you hear him?” I stepped next to Lucas.
“Bro, your wife is a menace,” I heard Ezra utter.
Using the butt of my gun, I tapped it against his face.
“Revenge.” He coughed blood. “Maddox stabbed.” He coughed again. “He didn’t forgive what you did.”
My tongue dragged over my top teeth.
I turned and faced Nazai who had a hardened look on his face. He stalked past me and grabbed the guy, yanking his head up.
“Who was with you when you were shooting?”
The man attempted to shake his head. Taking a move out of my book, he pressed on the wound, causing the man to yell out.
“My cousins! Please,” he cried.
“I got in his phone and have the names of the two guys he’s referring to.” Emmet spoke for the first time since I got here. I had been keeping my distance from him since I still wasn’t feeling him holding the knife to my neck.
“Perfect.” Before I could blink, Nazai went in the small of his back and put his gun to the guy’s head. He attempted to plead his case but the bullet silenced him.
I spoke, causing Nazai’s stoic glare to land on me. “I knew I should have killed both Neil and Maddox when I had the chance.”
He stepped to me until he was towering over me. “Let’s get one thing straight. I don’t give a damn how badass you are. In here I’m the boss and you will follow my lead if you want to be a part of this.”
My eyes narrowed. “I don’t need you. I was handling things on my own before you.”
Nazi lifted his clean hand and grabbed me by my bun, yanking my head, causing my knees to bend slightly. He stepped into me and my eyes widened feeling his semi bulge behind his slacks.
“You’ll do what the fuck I tell you to do or I’ll make you regret it. Don’t fuck with me, Cashlynn, because it’s a game you won’t win.” A low rumble sounded, causing my insides to scatter as if they had been electrocuted. He swiped his tongue across his lips. His eyes drooped. My breathing sped up as I swallowed hard.
“Bro, is this some kind of foreplay for you two?” Ezra questioned. “And sis, you could have warned me before you took that shot. What if you hit me?”
Blinking a couple times, I attempted to pull out of Nazai’s reach, but his grip was too tight. “I never miss.” I kept my eyes locked on Nazai. One corner of his mouth lifted and he lowered his face so his mouth was inches from mine. My hands balled into fists.
“Keep acting up and I’ma make you pay, Wildfire. My patience is running thin.” He held my stare a little longer before releasing me, causing me to stumble back.
“River, I want eyes on Neil Rhodes. Any type of money he had coming in I want to shut down.”
“What about Major?” River asked.
“I’ll take care of Major.”
“You know this all happened because you took on a debt that wasn’t yours right,” Lucas mentioned, causing me to cut my eyes at him.
“I never asked him to. I had the situation under control.”
He gave me a deadpan look. “A quarter million dollar bounty on your head isn’t under control.”
“Enough!” Nazai shut us down, standing in between us. His eyes bounced from me to his brother. “I don’t know what issue you have with my wife, but that shit ends now. I’ma make this clear to everyone in the room, disrespecting her is like disrespecting me.”
“All this shit is because of her.”
“Wrong. Maddox was a sick bitch who needed to be taken care of. He’s been handled and now his daddy is next. Regardless of how you feel, they came for all of us when they shot up Dad’s party. So know he’s gotta pay.”
He looked toward Ezra. “You and Emmet go handle the cousins. Make sure they know why they’re losing their lives before you take them out. Me and Lucas will handle the cleanup.”
“What about me? I?—”
“You’re gonna go sit over there and let us take care of this,” he said, cutting me off.
I bit down on my back molars and inhaled a deep breath. I didn’t like being dismissed. Part of me wanted to challenge him but instead I turned and stormed to where my bookbag was. Dropping my gun next to it, I snatched my gloves off and tossed them on the ground too. My muscles were tight and my body was wound tightly.
Pulling my ponytail out, I reached down, grabbed my things, and turned for the back of the barn to the steps that led to the shower room. No matter what, after a kill I always felt the need to shower. Today was no different. Nazai could throw his power around all he wanted, but at the end of the day, this was my fight to overcome.
____
The shower was nice, but it didn’t relax my taut muscles. The fact that Neil had put another hit out on me caused rage to fill my body. The worst part was that he had put the hit out before even receiving parts of his son’s body, meaning the threat Nazai gave fell on deaf ears.
When I got out of the shower, now dressed in a sweat suit, I noticed the barn was empty and Victor’s body was gone. I looked around with my brows crinkled, wondering where everyone went that fast.
“Nazai!” I called out, getting met with silence. My lips pinched together and I started for the entrance when the lights went out, leaving me in a shadow of darkness. “Nazai!” I called out again, this time gripping the handle of my bag. “I swear to—” Before I could finish my words, the sound of thunder sounded through the barn, echoing off the walls, causing me to jump.
My heart slammed against my ribcage and my eyes bounced around the room. “Nazai.” My voice was shaky. “This isn’t funny.” The sound of rain pouring sent an icy chill through my body just as the thunder rang out again. As far as I knew, it wasn’t supposed to rain today, so I was confused about what was going on.
For a second, I froze. My body shook violently as my eyes bounced around the dark room. Hurriedly, I moved across the room until I got to the opening of the barn. My hand skated around it, attempting to find the door.
“C’mon. C’mon,” I whined.
I couldn’t breathe. My chest was too tight with anxiety. My lungs were barely able to function properly. My heartbeat elevated along with my pulse.
When the thunder went off again and something like a flash of lighting filled the barn, I yelled out and dropped to the ground. Squeezing my eyes shut, I balled my body up and curled my head into my lap. Memories of when I was younger and when my parents would trap me in the shed alone during storms burned in my mind. The way they would mock me and leave me without food and water caused my stomach to plummet. Tears pooled in the back of my eyes. Moving my balled fists to my ears, I squeezed them tightly. I tried to tell myself it would be okay as my breathing sped up and I rocked back and forth.
My stomach was a ball of knots, growing larger with each second. The rain seemed to pick up. It grew harder to breathe.
I wasn’t sure how long I was stuck in that position, but when the door finally opened I was a mess. Tears ran down my face. My body was jerky.
The light from outside caused me to crack my eyes open and slowly lift them to find my husband standing in front of me. The clear sky hovered in the background.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost, wife,” he stated, crossing his arms over his chest.
Blinking rapidly I looked around, realizing the sounds had stopped as I slowly pulled my hands from my ears.
Heat flushed through my body. Slowly, on shaky legs, I lifted myself off the ground. My skin prickled and I grinded my teeth.
“Are you ready to respect me?”
With my breathing still heavy and my eyes cut into slits, I made my way to him. Squaring my shoulders, I pushed out a heavy breath and jolted my chin upward.
“Was that supposed to be your idea of a sick joke!” I bellowed, pushing him. “How could you? After I told you?” I babbled, unable to form a full sentence. My mind was a muddy mess and my body refused to stop shaking.
A hard unmoving expression was on Nazai’s face. His eyes were void of emotion. He reached up and cuffed my chin, forcing my head to tilt upward. It pissed me off that even though I was upset and wanted to scream at him, Nazai’s touch still caused my insides to melt and my body to relax. I welcomed his touch, no matter how I could get it. It was pathetic but I couldn’t make my body reject it no matter how much I wanted.
“You need to learn who’s in charge here. I’m the one with the dick in this marriage and I run things around here. If I have to break you until you figure that out, then so be it. You will learn to respect me one way or another.”
The urge to fight flared in me. The fight and flight mode I had been trained in was determined to take over.
I went to pull away but Nazai was faster, releasing my chin and gripping the metal heart on my collar.
“Regardless of how hard your rebellion makes my dick, you, my wife, will learn to listen to me.” He bent down and pressed his mouth against mine. My muscles quivered and my heart pounded. Opening my mouth, I took his bottom lip into my mouth and bit down roughly, causing Nazai to grunt. The taste of copper filled my mouth. His mouth curved into a smile.
When I released him, Nazai pulled back and flashed me a crooked grin after flickering his tongue over the blood on his lip.
“You making me bleed only makes my dick harder.” He cocked his head to the side. “That fire inside you is hotter than ever, but you need to learn when to put it out.”
For a second my eyes dropped to his center. My stomach did a somersault.
“Remember Cashlynn, I’m not your enemy unless you make me one.” With that he turned to leave. I stood there frozen. I hadn’t heard my real name fall from Nazai’s lips in months, so I knew he was serious. My body was still rigid, and my breathing remained shaky as my tongue dragged over my now dry lips.
I closed my eyes and took a couple of deep breaths as I reminded myself that my parents were gone and storms couldn’t hurt me, real or fake ones.
My eyes scanned the barn. It felt like the walls were closing in suddenly. I turned and hurried to grab my bag before rushing outside and inhaling the fresh air.
“You good, sis?” I jumped when Ezra grabbed my shoulder.
He lifted his hands in surrender. “You good?”
Instead of responding, I searched the yard, scanning the distance between the barn and house until I located Nazai who looked to be in a heated debate with Lucas while Emmet stood off to the side looking bored, fondling with his Rubik Cube.
When I approached them, both grew quiet and all faced me. “I’m ready to go home,” I told him, ignoring the way both brothers were watching me. It was clear they weren’t fans and the feeling was mutual.
“We’ll finish this later,” Nazai told Lucas and looked at Emmet. “I want whoever runs that page’s information. Everything else takes second until we find out who it is.” He narrowed his eyes. Lucas clenched his jaw.
I didn’t know what that was all about and at the moment I didn’t care. My head was in a bad place. Between learning the Rhodes were still after me and Nazai’s twisted “punishment”, I needed some time to regather myself before I snapped.