Getting through the test drive is hard enough but I still have to make it through the paperwork. It is like a bad dream—one where everyone is avoiding the elephant in the room and I am the elephant. Thank God I wasn’t stupid enough to try and do this on my own. If I had come here without Cash, I think I’d be having a panic attack by now. I fill out the paperwork, closing the deal in a mindless fog. I need to talk to Cash. I need for him to reassure me that this is just my imagination in overdrive. I need him to tell me that he will kill Steven Taggart before he ever allows him to kill me like he did my sister. I need to get the fuck out of this car dealership before I lose it.
Chapter Eighteen
Cash
I push her long, lean body and pin her against the wall as soon as we enter my house. Though it looks like a mansion, it is more like a compound in the way it’s designed. It’s a veritable fortress to keep the ugly out.
“He knows who you are,” I growl in her ear as I chew up and down her neck.
“Tell me you’ll protect me,” she moans as if she’s more interested in the heat of the moment than the fear of knowing a killer has her identity.
“Get that fucking wig off!” I jerk it off, not giving her a chance to obey me. “Do you think I’m going to allow you to believe I want to fuck someone other than you? It is never going to happen.”
I bend down and wiggle her pencil skirt up, burying my face in her core. My fingers rip at her tiny G-string and she spreads her legs as it falls to the side under my assault. Her fingers weave through my hair. “Don’t fucking touch me until I tell you to,” I growl as I look up at her like I’ll wear her ass out if she disobeys.
Her palms slam against the wall in instant obedience to my mandate. I slip my tongue through her silky folds.
“Fuck, it’s so hard not to touch you.”
“That’s precisely why I instructed you not to.”
My lips pull at her clit, coaxing it from its hiding place.
“I want you to come, baby girl.”
My tongue swirls around the pearl at her core as my lips suck and I add just the right amount of pressure to send her over the edge.
I jerk her from the wall and bend her over the end of the couch, fisting her hair in my hand. My cock is so hard it hurts as I tug at my zipper with my free hand, finally allowing it to spring free.
“Fucking mine!” I growl as I drive my cock balls deep into her. I know I’m hurting her. I want to hurt her. I want to dominate her. I want to fuck her like I hate her and I am. She cries out and comes all over my cock. The pulsing of her core sends me right over the edge with her.
I walk around the couch with her and pull her down on my chest, stroking her hair as I comfort her. “I’ll kill him before I ever let him get his hands on you. I spent too long getting you so there is no way I’m going to lose you now. You’re mine and I’ll kill to keep you.”
I know this line of work is new to her. She’s seen all of the ugly that the streets and strip clubs have to offer, but looking death in the face as you pull the trigger is something she’s never had to do. The threats in my line of work have to be eliminated by either killing them, or having them put in prison. Situations in the streets are different because, once you escape from the threat, you’re safe. In my line of work, the threat is imminent and constant and until that threat is dealt with, your life remains in danger. She now has a target on her back and if she thought I was keeping a close eye on her before, she hasn’t seen anything yet. Now that Steven has her in his sights, I’ll be watching her like a hawk.
Johnnie
I don’t know how long I lie in his arms, trying to hide the fact that I’m trembling. The man who killed my sister knows who I am and now he’s going to kill me too. I shudder as I try to push the thought away.
“Are you cold?” Cash asks me, rubbing his large hand over my arm.
“No,” I lie about the icy fear now rippling up my spine at the thought of my sister’s killer and what she must have endured by his hand. Was it a quick death or had it been agonizingly slow and painful? I don’t realize a tear is flowing down my cheek until he starts speaking again.
“Hey, hey, hey, do you think I’m going to let that bastard get near you?”
“I don’t know. It isn’t just that. Seeing him just stirs up a lot of emotions I thought were buried.”
“Baby, that stuff doesn’t go away. Pain like that is too deep. It scars over but it never goes away.”
“Cash, if you could have seen the way he was looking at me, you’d understand. It was cold, calculating, and heartless.”