Page 43 of Queen's Move

When they arrived at the house Nico didn’t hesitate. He pulled Vee from the jeep and strode toward the frosted glass front door. She had a vision of him shooting out the door and walking them across the broken glass. He did neither. He banged on the door with the heel of his gun. A few seconds later the door swung open. Sotza stood in the entryway, tall, strong and coldly angry. Vee had seen him angry before, but that look, especially when his eyes raked Vee from head to foot, his gaze settling on her arm, it was something else. It was feral, it was vicious. It was a death promise. Vee had always been taught that emotions made a person weak, especially expressing them to the enemy. But in this case, as she and Nico faced Sotza, she decided she was wrong. Sotza took anger to a new level. As though he promised death. Could and would deliver death. No matter what happened today with the exchange.

Sotza motioned behind him, into the kitchen. Nico dropped Vee’s arm and pushed past Sotza into the other room. Vee was a little surprised he would turn his back on such a cold-hearted predator, but she supposed he’d believed her when she told him Sotza wouldn’t lie. His need to get to Desi outweighed any fear he had for his own safety.

Vee straightened, walked to Sotza and stood at his side. He acknowledged her coolly, nodding at her, his sharp gaze on Nico as he bent over Desi, checked her over and then scooped her off the chair she’d been sitting in. She was far more worse for wear than Vee. She’d clearly gotten knocked around in her fight with Sotza. One side of her face was puffy, the eye nearly swollen shut and a trickle of blood made its way from her hairline down to her jaw. Her hand had been wrapped up with a kitchen towel and was now resting limply in her lap as she was pulled into Nico’s chest.

Nico ignored them completely as he strode past Sotza and Vee toward the door, his head bent over his woman. Sotza’s voice made him pause. “You will make it safely off this island Garza, but you won’t get far. There is no place you can hide that I will not find you.”

Nico stared back, clearly seething, wanting to respond in kind with his own threats. But his eyes strayed to Desi, the damage done by his decision to attack Sotza. “This is between you and me, Sotza. She has nothing more to do with this anymore.”

“You attacked my wife,” Sotza replied, ice dripping from his words. He stepped in front of Vee, shielding her with his body, showing the other man that she was now protected. “You laid hands on her, you shot her. There will be no pardon… for either of you.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

The moment the door closed behind Nico and Desi, Vee collapsed, her legs folding beneath her. Sotza caught her before she hit the floor. He lifted her in his arms and carried her into the kitchen, placing her on the counter. When she tried to sit up he pushed her back down.

“Looks like you’ve lost a fair amount of blood,” he grunted examining her bandage. “I’m going to have to clean it, stitch and rewrap it. Then we need to get the fuck off this island, we have no protection. I’m certain Juan is dead. John probably killed him before taking you.” His accent was stronger than usual. From the stress of Nico’s attack and her injury, she guessed.

“Poor Juan… that sounds horrible,” Vee said faintly, referring to the stitches and rewrapping part of his statement. “Wait, how did you know it was John that grabbed me?”

“He admitted it.”

Vee could only imagine what Sotza did to the other man to induce a confession. “Still alive?” she asked as Sotza moved around the kitchen gathering what he needed to fix her arm.

“Of course,” he said coldly. “He betrayed me, betrayed my wife. He doesn’t get to die easily.”

His deep brown eyes lifted to hers, hard and uncompromising. She looked back at him steadily. “I want to be there when you teach him the price of betrayal,” she said.

“Of course.”He leaned over and kissed her lips gently. “I’ll be right back. I need some things from the other room.” She nodded while he pulled his gun from its holster and set it on the counter, next to her good hand. Smart move. Nico could come back, though she doubted he would.

He was back within seconds, holding a needle, some thread and a bottle of peroxide. He set everything on the counter and began rolling up his sleeves, his dark eyes on her face. Though his expression remained impassive she saw the concern in those velvety depths. He approached her, ran his fingers lightly down her injured arm. Then he lifted the arm, one hand on her wrist, the other on the elbow. He made her bend it and lay it across her stomach so he would have easy access to the wound.

“Do you want a drink, cariño?” he asked in a low voice. “It’s the only pain killer we have that will work quickly.”

She shook her head, eyes glued to his face. “I don’t drink.”

His face softened a little as he moved away to roll up his sleeves and wash his hands. “You are having a very bad day. I think you can be forgiven a shot of something to ease the pain.”

She held his gaze. “I don’t drink, Isaac. Ever.”

“Si, I hear you, cariño,” he agreed. “Then never again shall I offer.”

“Gracias,” she said, giving him a faint smile.

He pulled one of the tall kitchen stools up next to her. He gave her a pointed look, as though to say,This will hurt. I don’t want to do it, but we don’t have a choice.Then he bent over her. His head low, near her face. She respected him more for not actually uttering the words.

She took deep breaths as he cleansed the area, his movements quick and precise and he ran the cloth through the jagged flesh. She closed her eyes as pain hit her, followed close by dizziness. She breathed in his scent, concentrating on trying to identify the elements and why she liked them so much. He always smelled good to her and today was no different. He smelled like sweat, probably the exertion of hunting Nico’s men. He also smelled spicy, like cigar smoke and woods. He must’ve had a quick smoke after she wandered down to the beach. He didn’t like smoking around her. There was also just a hint of a cinnamon from the candies he liked to suck on while he was working.

“You smell good,” she whispered, opening her eyes. His head was so close to her face that she could see the grey scattered through the dark strands of his hair. The subtle sign of age only made him that much hotter.

“You smell good too, amor,” he said without looking up. “Taste good too.”

Vee blushed as the memory of him going down on her only a few feet away hit her. He’d touched things in her that no one else had bothered to try. Literally and figuratively.

He set the needle against the edge of her wound. She gritted her teeth as he began sewing the flesh together, his movements sure and steady. The breath whooshed out of her in a long hiss. She slapped the palm of her other hand against the opposite side of the counter as pain engulfed her. Tears leaked slowly from her eyelids, now squeezed tightly shut. Sotza didn’t pause, just continued to stab the needle through her flesh, pulling it back together, working fast and efficient.

“Talk to me, Vee,” he finally said, his voice cool but strained.

“Wh-what do you want me to say?” she gasped out.

---