Page 26 of Queen's Move

Chapter Twenty

The flight from Mexico to Venezuela took about five hours. Sotza was happy to be back. Watching Vee’s face as they descended over the mountainous jungle region of his home made this landing special. Her professional mask slipped away as she clutched the window frame and leaned in her seat to better see the breathtaking beauty of Venezuela. He could see a combination of excitement, exhilaration and trepidation in her lovely features. He suspected she’d never travelled this far.

Though Sotza didn’t know all the details, he did know that Vee had an isolated childhood. She was born and raised in Miami and rarely strayed beyond the Florida borders. Her mother had been a high-class prostitute that became pregnant by a mobster. The man was already married but agreed to set his mistress and the child up in an apartment. Vee met her father a handful of times over the years before her parents split for good. The mother died of a speedball overdose when Vee was sixteen.

Following in her mother’s footsteps Vee’d seduced men in high positions within the underworld, keeping herself in the only lifestyle she knew. A lifestyle that probably made her miserable. Perhaps that was part of the reason she turned to cocaine. She used it, liked it and then couldn’t get off it because her life was so awful she had no will to try. After several years warming the bed of Frank Lopez, a close friend of Vee’s father, she met her future husband Tony.

Rumour had it that Vee wasn’t too impressed with the pushy Cuban when he first approached her. But eventually his persistence won out and she agreed to marry him. Sotza had no idea when the marriage turned sour, but he suspected she had never loved her husband. She had simply been swept up in the turning tide of Miami’s underworld when Tony took over Frank’s operation. Of course, Vee had taken Tony out, ending their turbulent marriage. The death causing ripples through underworld circles. Reyes had taken her under his wing after Montana’s death and guided her. A smart choice, Sotza admitted. Who knew the scene and all the players better than Elvira Montana?

This was the extent of Sotza’s knowledge of Vee before he’d landed in Miami. Before he set eyes on her. If this had been everything that made Vee, he wouldn’t have hesitated in pulling the trigger, ending her tenacious grip on one of the most lucrative markets. Instead she had shown him that she was so much more than an escort turned gold-digger. That she could hold her own in shark infested waters. And she did it with such grace… mesmerizing him. If he wasn’t so infatuated by her he would’ve talked Reyes into allowing her to keep her position with Sotza at her disposal to help her with the Mexico situation.

But Sotza wanted to keep all that icy fire to himself. Apply it to his own organization. Bring it to his bed and wear it on his arm. Vee was the woman he’d been waiting his whole life for. Now that he had her under his command he was determined to spend a lifetime getting to know her, holding her, grooming her and then setting her free to stand at his side. He would open the cage doors when she was ready to accept his rule.

She turned to him, blue eyes sparkling, lips stretched in a carefree grin. “Is this where you live, your home?” she asked, awe in her voice.

“One of them,” he replied, feeling pleasure in being with her, having her home with him. He leaned in and glanced past her shoulder. “The main base of my operations.”

“I see,” she said, studying the land carefully as the airplane headed toward a private runway a few kilometres from the main house. “It looks fairly isolated up here in the mountains. The dense foresting would help keep you hidden, make it hard for any kind of authority to get in.”

Sotza appreciated her critical eye. Despite her lack of travel she still managed to educate herself. “Indeed,” he agreed with her assessment. “Extremely difficult. Which is why I picked this location. We’re unlikely to be disturbed.”

“And are you bordering Columbia or Brazil?” she asked curiously.

“We are closer to the Columbian border, although not close enough to either country to make a significant difference. Which is good since there are so many people leaving the country right now. We’re high up and isolated enough that there are no refugee paths anywhere near my land.”

“Yes,” she said softly. “They’re starving.”

“That’s one of the reasons,” he said easily. “Though it isn’t lack of food so much as the exorbitant price of the food, lack of proper governance. I work with several of the local organizations to bring aid to some of the major centers, Caracas and surrounding area.”

“How very Robin Hood of you,” she said, though there was no bite to her words.

“These are my people, Vee. I was born here, grew up among the locals. And though my mother was English and I was educated in England, my heart has always remained in this country.”

“These poor people,” she murmured her eyes clouding a little. “I can’t imagine what real hunger must feel like.”

“And you never will,” his voice hardened. “I take care of the things that belong to me.”

“So you’ve said,” she snapped, and he almost regretted reminding Vee of her captivity. But he couldn’t regret acquiring her, bringing her to Venezuela. “What if I decide to go on hunger strike?”

“I would have you force fed. Not a pretty prospect,” he replied. “But you’re too intelligent to go on hunger strike. It would weaken you too much to fight back. You tend to think in the long term, attempting to stay two steps ahead of everyone else.”

She laughed, the sound brittle. “That kind of thinking doesn’t work when I’m being pursued by a man that thinks ten steps ahead.”

“You have it wrong, Vee. We think very much alike. The biggest difference between us is you have heart.”

“And you don’t?” she asked.

“I have what it takes to do what’s necessary,” he assured her. “I will always take that extra step to ensure success.”

“It doesn’t bode well for the future of our so-called marriage if you don’t have a heart,” she said, an edge to her voice. As though she cared about his words and was annoyed that she cared. It pleased him that she wanted to know these things, was willing to enter the conversation.

“I have a heart, Vee,” he assured her quietly. “It just hasn’t been touched in many years.”

“And you think I can touch that block of stone?” she asked incredulously.

He chuckled, unable to resist. She pulled so many emotions from him. While somewhat disturbing, he’d had a few months now to grow used to the feeling, to embrace it. “Imagine what kind of a position you’ll be in if my heart beat only for you. One day, when we’ve reached that point in our relationship, ask me for the world. See what happens.”

She stared at him, lost for words. The plane hit the runway, bouncing a little. Vee had been so involved in their conversation that she hadn’t noticed the landing. She jumped in her seat, twisting around to stare back out the window. He leaned toward her once more, curving his hand possessively over her shoulder, unable to resist that small touch as he watched the rainforest fly by.

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