Page 32 of Queen's Move

Elvira laughed. “It’s somewhat complex, but basically, my boss sent him after me when I started having trouble keeping Miami under control. You see, I’d managed to climb my way up the ladder until I controlled my own little slice of the pie.”

Rather than being horrified that her mother was more firmly entrenched in the mafia than she could have imagined, she was curious. And a little bit proud. If what Raina was understanding was true, then her mother, a beautiful and relatively young woman, was the boss of a criminal organization.

“So your boss wanted you to get married to this Sotza guy?” Raina asked.

“No,” Elvira said darkly. “My boss wanted me dead. Sotza’s the one that decided he wanted something else from me. I think I intrigued him, the female mob boss that refused to give up her city.”

The emotions that whirled through Raina surfaced and clashed one at a time. She was shocked, she was horrified. But she was also impressed. Elvira sounded like a force to be reckoned with. Even if she’d ended up the captive of a powerful man, she’d fought valiantly. “That’s so medieval,” Raina said, both awe and disgust in her voice. “He’s forcing you into marriage and the alternate is… what? Death?”

Elvira’s lips twitched again, and she said, “That’s a little simplistic, but yes, I suppose you have the basics correct. Although, at this point, I suspect there is no alternative to Sotza.”

Raina frowned. “But you have to keep fighting him, you’ll find a way out. You can’t be forced into marriage.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time.” The words were spoken softly but seemed to hold a wealth of emotion.

Raina was beginning to see the depth of her mother’s life. And it hadn’t been an easy one. “Can you tell me about it?” she asked, standing. She moved shyly toward the bed. Vee moved over, making room for her. Raina sat, making sure to keep a little distance between them.

Vee sighed. “It’s really not a pretty story, but if you want to know, I’ll tell you. There are things you’ll learn about me that you might not want to know.”

“I’ll risk it,” Raina said with a small smile. “I’d like to know.”

“Alright,” Vee agreed and looked down at her lap, as though gathering the words. “I was well into my 20’s when I met Tony. You’d been gone for several years already. Up until that point I’d only experimented with drugs. I drank too much, but it was part of the life. We women went to the clubs, we drank, we danced, we became conquests for the tough guys. I was smarter than others, used my looks to get as much as I could out of the guys. Then I met Tony. He swept me off my feet, and not in a good way. He was an underling to Frank, the man I was living with at the time. He decided he wanted Frank’s empire and, after a while of working for him, Tony took over.”

“How did he do that?” Raina whispered, terribly afraid she already knew.

Vee looked over at her, a dullness to her eyes now. “Tony murdered Frank and some of his top guys. Then Tony moved in and set his own people up. A classic takeover. And, as in many takeovers, I was a commodity, passed on to the next guy. Maybe I could have disappeared, tried to leave in the confusion. But Tony had a bead on me, and I’d begun to use more. Become dependent on drugs and alcohol to dull all that shit.”

“Drugs?” Raina asked, trying to keep the accusation from her voice. She’d always considered drug addicts as weak, unable or unwilling to find the courage to quit. Now that she was listening to her mother’s story, Raina was beginning to question her assumptions.

“Cocaine,” Vee said succinctly. “Our main product. Tony became addicted too.”

The disdain Vee felt for her late husband was clear in her voice. “He was pretty awful?” Raina asked softly, feeling more than just curiosity now. She was seeing the incredible, painful life of this woman and it hurt.

“Yes,” Vee said, her voice low. “I was his property. His pretty ornament. Just something to decorate his arm and his mansion. He didn’t love me and he certainly never respected me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the type to fade into the background. I spoke back to him, often. Which resulted in a lot fighting.”

Raina’s stomach clenched. She took in her petite mother, saw her as she must have been, addicted to cocaine, fighting for her rights in a world that didn’t acknowledge the rights of women like her. “He hit you?”

Vee laughed bitterly and inclined her head in a semi-nod. She didn’t elaborate though.

Raina supposed she didn’t want to get into the worst of it. “What happened to him?” she asked, though she was beginning to suspect she knew. If Tony had killed Frank and taken over his organization, then Vee must’ve done something to earn her way to the top of Miami’s mafia.

“He’s dead.” Vee was matter-of-fact, though her shoulders were stiff with tension. No doubt, waiting for Raina’s judgment. Her tone of voice indicated the subject was closed, that Raina shouldn’t push the how of Tony’s death. She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know yet anyway.

“Good.” Raina hardened her voice. Maybe her mother was a murderer, had blood on her hands. Had fought her way to the top of a criminal food chain. But life had shaped her this way. She could have given up years ago, stayed on drugs and lived a shadowed life until she was no longer pretty enough to capture the attention of those tough guys. “You’re clean now, you don’t take drugs?”

Vee looked at her seriously. “I haven’t used in over a year. But that’s not long, Raina. Any addict will tell you, once an addict always an addict. And a year clean is only a drop in the bucket.”

Raina thought about it, turned her mother’s words over in her head. They made sense, but she was beginning to know this woman, beginning to see the extraordinary things Sotza saw in her. “You won’t go back on drugs,” Raina said confidently.

Vee smiled. A real smile that showed her teeth and she reached out to touch Raina, the first time the two women had touched since Raina was a baby. “Thank you.”

Raina nodded as Vee’s hand fell away from her arm. She missed the touch. She could feel the spot on her arm, almost like it burned, her awareness was so heightened. She turned on the bed, bringing her knee up and said, “You can’t do it again. You can’t marry another mobster who… who just takes you. As though you’re some kind of prize. It isn’t right, you earned more, you deserve more.”

Vee blinked rapidly and Raina thought she might cry. She took a couple of breaths and finally said, “I appreciate that you think that, Raina. You have no idea how much it means to me. But I don’t have a choice. In less than a week Sotza will marry me.”

Raina shook her head. “But why? There has to be a way out! We’ll find something.”

Vee smiled gently, her face smooth and happy as she looked Raina over. As though pride in her daughter was erasing all the sadness of her situation. And Raina knew, though her mother didn’t say a word, that as long as Sotza had her, then Vee would do anything he asked. Even though he insisted Raina wasn’t a bargaining chip, Vee would never risk it.

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