Page 41 of Queen's Move

“You should’ve come to me,” she said accusingly. “When you found out what was going on, you should have come to meet with me yourself. Not hid behind your man. We could’ve avoided all this!” She shouldn’t have been so loose with her tongue, needed to remember who she was talking to. A cartel boss. But she was too angry to heed the stiffening in his shoulders and the shadow passing across his face.

“It was too late when I found out what was happening. Sotza had already arrived in Miami.”

“You could have come anyway,” she snapped, recklessly pushing on. “You could have partnered with me, pushed him back, taken what you thought should have been yours to begin with. Instead of hiding in Mexico and leaving me and Domingo to battle it out. Good job there, Nico! Your cousin lost his head while you stood back.”

He flinched. “It would have been suicide! No one goes head to head with The Butcher and survives.” He pushed her back against the wall and shoved a finger in her face. “Domingo was reckless, stupid. Don’t bother to deny it. He had a year to figure his shit out, losing his head was his payment for fucking up.”

“This is suicide!” she shot back. “What do you hope to gain by attacking Sotza in his home? You were better off fighting him on foreign soil.” He shoved a hand through his hair and glared at her. She continued, “You know I’m right. You’ve moved against Sotza. He won’t allow you to walk away. He has Desi and you know it. You better just cut and run, because this is your only chance to disappear. Once he finds us you’re dead.”

“If he so much as touches Desiree I will cut his fucking heart out.”

She saw the rage, his terrible fury over his missing second-in-command. But more importantly she saw his desperation. Desperation made people reckless. Coloured their decisions, fuelled them with emotion rather than the cold logic necessary for planning.

“She’s already dead and you know it,” Vee said coldly.

She was prepared for the hit. Loosened her body, watched his body language. He was right-handed, so when the hit came toward her she moved her head to the side, taking the clip in the ear and collapsing to her left to lessen the impact. But she needed him to think he’d gotten her hard so she dropped to the floor as though knocked unconscious.

He immediately bent over her. “Elvira…” he said, regret leaking into his voice.

She swung her knee up, catching him in the side. He lost balance, falling from his crouch onto his ass. Vee kicked out, aiming for his face. She got him hard on the cheek, knocking him back. The impact would’ve been worse if she’d been wearing shoes, but she had to work with what she had. He grabbed his face and swore. She had to scramble over top of him to reach the door. She was about to lunge out into the open when he grabbed hold of her wrap, tearing it as he dragged her back. She hit the floor hard, landing on her knees.

He was fast, faster than her. She fought, turning to aim a punch at his head. He knocked her arm aside and slapped her hard, knocking her into the wall. She collapsed onto the floor, her ears ringing and her vision fuzzy. He dragged her to the middle of the shed and straddled her. She tried to bring her hands up to defend herself, but he pinned them easily with one hand. She kicked at him, slamming her knees into his back as hard as she could. She curled her fingers and dug her nails into his hand until she felt the flesh tear and the wetness of his blood.

“Stop!” he roared and reached for his belt. He pulled a gun and pressed it against the side of her head. His eyes promised death if she kept fighting. She went limp underneath him.

“Smart chica,” he growled.

Vee fought to bring her breathing back under control, not an easy thing to do with a heavy asshole Mexican on top of her. His phone rang. He didn’t move the gun from her head. Instead he released her wrists and answered. Vee didn’t move, kept her hands above her head so he wouldn’t decide to shoot her.

“Si?” he snapped.

His entire demeanor changed as he listened. His body was rigid on top of her and fear lit his eyes. Deep, terrible fear. And not for himself. For someone else.

“I have your wife here with me. You hurt any of my people and I will – ”

Even Vee heard the woman’s scream that echoed through the phone, cut off by a gunshot. Vee knew her husband well enough to know that he didn’t bluff. If he pulled his weapon, shot it, then he had just killed someone.

Chapter Thirty-One

Shock radiated through Nico’s body knocking him back on his haunches. Vee still lay underneath him, but she was able to push herself up enough to watch him. Horror etched his features. He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed hard. When he opened them, Vee saw rage unlike anything she’d ever seen before. Nico put the phone on speaker and said in a surprisingly smooth voice that hinted at none of his anger, “You killed something that belongs to me, now you will hear your wife die.”

Vee scrambled backwards, clawing the floor until her back hit the opposite wall. Nico got to his feet and followed her, his gun trained on her head. She wanted to say something, to try reasoning with him, but she knew it was pointless. He was past the point of reason. He moved the safety back and began pulling the trigger. Vee kept her eyes open, watched as death sped toward her.

“You would risk your woman’s life like that?” Sotza said, his voice as dispassionate as Vee had ever heard it. He was not the loving husband she’d spent two days getting to know. He was the boss now. The Butcher at work.

Nico’s finger eased back, though he kept the gun on Vee. “Desi is alive?” he demanded.

“For now,” Sotza replied coolly.

“You will give her back… and any of my other people that you have?” Nico asked, no hint of the desperation that Vee could see in every line of his body.

“Once Vee is released into my care we will talk.”

“Not good enough,” Nico snarled. “You could kill them.”

“There is only your woman left. The others are dead,” Sotza said, his voice so disembodied, so cold, that Vee shivered, even though she knew they were on the same side.

“You killed four men?” Nico said incredulously.

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