Page 40 of Queen's Move

“You fucking find her, Diego,” he snarled. “I want to know where Sotza is too, why he wasn’t up at the house.”

Vee’s head spun with all the possibilities. Sotza wasn’t at the house? That was where she’d left him, sitting on the comfy sofa, his laptop open in front of him, a mere 20 minutes before she’d been attacked. Had he found out about the intruders and gotten out of the house in time? Did he abandon Vee to the Mexicans? As soon as she had the thought she discarded it. No, Sotza wouldn’t do that. He would do whatever it took to get her back and then take out the kidnappers. Knowing that he was loose on the island and not up at the house, injured or dead, was a huge relief. Once Vee extracted herself from Nico she would join her husband.

Nico clipped his phone back on his belt and turned to look at her, his cool gaze slipping over her. She regretted her outfit choice. It wasn’t good for fighting and she felt nearly naked in just a bathing suit and sheer wrap. Though, thankfully, she didn’t feel any lust from him.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice steady.

His fingers flexed threateningly around her neck before he dropped his hand away. He remained standing too close though, his big body blocking her from moving.

“I would think it’s obvious.”

He would be there for one of two reasons, to take out Sotza or to take out Vee. Maybe both. She didn’t particularly like either option and wondered why she wasn’t dead yet. Even if he was just after Sotza she should be collateral damage. It would be stupid to leave her alive as a witness and a potential enemy. She decided to play dumb. “You came all the way to Venezuela to lock me in a shed?”

He gave her a withering look. “Let’s not pretend you’re Sotza’s bimbo blond wife. I know exactly who you are, Elvira Montana.”

“Sotza,” she correctly coldly. When he lifted an eyebrow she said, “My name is Elvira Sotza, but you may call me Señora Sotza.” She tried for haughty, so he would understand that she thought him an annoying worm.

He laughed, despite his obvious tension. “We were on a first name basis in Mexico, Vee.” His eyes travelled over her body. “I enjoyed our time together in my home.”

Vee badly wanted to cross her arms over her chest, hide her cleavage from view. But she forced herself to keep her arms loose at her side in case she needed to defend herself. “You weren’t such a prick in Mexico, Mr. Garza,” she said tartly. “I don’t think I want to be so familiar with the man trying to take over my husband’s organization.”

She was fishing. Trying to draw him into divulging his reason for attacking them. He continued to look at her, assessing her. Not critically, like his compatriots had when they kept going after her in Miami, trying to take her down. No, he looked at her with respect, though he tried to hide it under the guise of lust. Though he was top of the food chain himself, dominating a large swath of Mexico, she thought perhaps he liked strong, powerful women. And though his gaze was purposefully heated, she still didn’t get any sense that he actually wanted her. Something was worrying him, getting in the way of his ability to play with her properly.

“What do you want?” she finally demanded. Why beat around the bush? He was clearly on the island for a reason. And she wasn’t dead, so he didn’t have what he needed yet.

He continued to stare at her, his dark eyes cold. “I want what should be rightfully mine.”

“And that is?” she prompted, raising an eyebrow.

“United States, East coast. Miami. I want my cut back. It belonged to me for ten years, then it fell to the Bolivians. I have spent the past year trying to get it back. But the idiotas I sent in kept failing,” he said, his voice dropping a little as he searched her face.

Vee frowned as her mind whirled, trying to unravel what he was saying. “You were in partnership with Ignacio Hernandez?” Hernandez had been Casey’s husband before Reyes went in and cleaned out the organization.

He nodded and moved away from her, leaning against the opposite wall, his arms crossed loosely over his broad chest. “Hernandez and Montana. I was involved in everything crossing borders.” He watched for her reaction. Vee knew better than to give him one. But she was reeling with the information he was giving her.

“I don’t remember ever seeing you at the house,” she said of her time with Tony. “I knew who my late husband was doing business with.”

His lips curled a little. “But I saw you, chica,” he said. “Once only. And you made an impression. You were at your husband’s side, pretending not to hear the conversation as a new drug trail into the US was negotiated. You were very high from the cocaine back then, but still sharp. I was impressed with both your beauty and the thoughts that passed across your face. You thought Montana was an idiot and you thought Juan Domingo was just as stupid. You were correct on both points. I believe if you hadn’t been married I would have stolen you away.”

And then she remembered. She hadn’t met him, but she’d seen him. “Four years ago,” she said, nodding slowly. “We were in Stage’s nightclub. You asked me to dance, but I refused.”

“You did,” he agreed.

“But that was the only time you spoke that whole evening, to ask me for a dance,” she pointed out incredulously. “Domingo did all the talking.”

“He usually did. My cousin was the better businessman. I have a tendency to take what I need by force.” He waved his hand between them. “Although he spent the past year fucking things up in Miami. Alienating our contact. Couldn’t stand the idea of a woman in charge.”

“Me,” she breathed. Things began to click into place. Nico’s reasons for coming to Venezuela, the vastness of his organization. “You pretended to be rivals, but you weren’t. Most of us never met the leader of the Garza organization so you were able to attend meetings as one of his hired guns instead of the boss.”

He was about to reply when his phone beeped. He pulled it off his belt and answered. Vee eyed the door, but she didn’t think she would get far. And she wanted to find out what he had planned. He barked angrily into the phone, making her cringe inwardly. He was speaking so fast she had trouble picking out all the words, but she was fairly certain his second-in-command, Desi, the woman from their evening in Mexico, was missing. Along with another of Nico’s men. And they couldn’t seem to find Sotza either. Which meant Sotza probably had Nico’s missing people. Whatever his plan had been, it was backfiring.

“Find them!” he snarled into the phone before hanging up.

Vee gave him a moment to compose himself before speaking. “I think I understand Miami. You laid low, let your people do the dirty work. Collected the rent, so to speak. Then things started going south when Reyes took out Hernandez and Casey took out the next guy. Everything fell to me. The Hernandez cutandthe Montana piece of the pie. I had no idea you even existed so I kept trying to work with Domingo. But nothing I said or did could sway him to do business with a woman. When Domingo failed I turned to other sources and you lost out.”

“Significantly,” he said with a growl. “Do you have any idea how much money access to the East Coast is worth?”

Vee let out a small, humourless laugh. She knew exactly what it’d been worth. What she’d lost by her fight with the Mexicans. If she’d only known that Nicolás Garza was the man at the top, she would have gone straight to him and made the necessary arrangements between their organizations. None of this would have ever happened. Not her battle with the Mexicans, not her tarnished reputation, her loss of Miami. Her meeting with Sotza. Her marriage.

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