Page 52 of Queen's Move

“Why did you have this garden built?” A bit of warmth infused her words. “It doesn’t serve a purpose. Unless you force your victims to try to get through the damn maze as a form of torture.”

He chuckled and shifted his hand from her arm to slide it across her back, resting his palm just above the curve of her ass. He reached for her with his other hand, holding her hand in a light grip. The move was almost romantic or would have been had she trusted him.

“I didn’t build the garden, my father did. But I maintained it and expanded. I had the maze added to the grounds about twenty years ago. It’s relaxing to come to such a place when my thoughts are chaotic. I feel more at peace here than most places.” He led them toward what she thought must be the center of the maze.

“It’s magnificent,” she admitted hesitantly.

“But?” he prodded.

She sighed and shrugged a shoulder. “I keep getting lost.”

He smiled down at her as they took the last turn. They were in the middle of the maze. There was a bench and the hedges had been allowed to grow as tall as trees. Vee thought it looked ominous and didn’t enjoy spending time in that section, even with Raina.

“I’ve been here before,” Vee pointed out.

Sotza didn’t respond and she began to wonder if he brought her to the middle of the maze so they might have a secluded moment for him to continue his campaign of dominance over her. She stopped walking, eyeing the bench with trepidation. There was no chance she wanted to fuck around out there, in the cool mountain air where anyone could stumble upon them. If that was his intention then he was about to be sorely disabused, via a heel stabbed into the centre of his foot.

“Sotza…” she said warningly. He didn’t say a word, just held her hand and led her toward the far corner of the section they were standing in. She shivered and squinted as shadows embraced them. “What are you doing? It looks like spiders might live back there. I don’t like spiders.”

His chuckle of amusement ran through her like warm spicy rum. It felt good, comforting and incredibly sexy. Though it’d been well over a year since she had a drink, the memory felt right. Sotza was an addiction. He was intoxicating. Even when she wanted to hate him she still craved him.

“No spiders,” he said in his deep soft voice. “I promise.”

He dropped her hand and took several steps forward, further into the shadows, then, even though she was looking right at the shady spot he’d been striding toward, he disappeared. “Sotza!” she gasped.

“Come to me, Vee,” he said. His voice clear and crisp. “Step toward my voice.”

She blinked several times and tried to figure out where he’d gone, why she could hear him as though he was standing next to her, but she couldn’t see any part of him. She held an arm out and walked forward. The darkness settled around her and she swore she was about to walk directly into a hedge filled with spiders.

She jumped when a hand came out of the shadows and landed on her arm. He wrapped his long fingers around her forearm and pulled her gently forward. Vee took small hesitant steps not wanting to trip over a paving stone. It was so dark she couldn’t even see her own feet. She could sort of see Sotza’s outline as he walked in front of her pulling her forward. Then he was taking steps to the side, pulling her along. She twisted to look behind her. Her mouth dropped open when she realized she was completely engulfed by the shadowy hedges.

“A hidden passage?” she murmured. She didn’t want to speak too loudly. It felt inappropriate in a space where the only sound was the tapping of her heels.

“An optical challenge,” he said. “The hedges have been allowed to grow taller here, reaching a certain length and particularly shadowing that back corner, creating the illusion of a wall. It’s impossible to see the true passage unless you walk right through it.”

Vee was both stunned and a little creeped out by the hidden passage Sotza was leading her down. If he wanted to kill her without witnesses, this would be the place to do it. Although, if Sotza really wanted to kill her, he could do it easily. And he wouldn’t give two fucks who saw.

Sotza stopped, his hand tightened a little on her arm before falling away. She heard rustling as he touched the brush. Then she heard a soft scrape. “This,” Sotza said, “is the true center of the maze.”

He pushed open a door, flooding the passage around them with light. Vee slid past him, her mouth open in awe as she walked through the door. It was an area the size of a large room. Somehow, the hedges had been trimmed in such a way that the area was brightly lit, the sun shining in every corner. In the middle was a sundial. Ivy wrapped up the marble base, twining through the dial. The entire area was filled with pink, red and white roses. In one corner, surrounded by roses, was a bench.

Vee walked to the sundial. Looking down at it she traced her fingers across the roman numerals. Warmth from the sun shining on it touched her fingertips. She turned to look at Sotza, studying him.

“This is yours?” she asked.

He nodded, staring at her, a small smile playing around his lips. “Yes, I built this. It’s where I come when I need an escape. No one knows about it, except the gardener who helped me design and install it. He still maintains it for me, though he’s well past retirement age.”

“It’s… beautiful,” she said softly.

She wandered to the bench and sat down. Again, the warmth that’d seeped into the wood was now caressing Vee. Sotza sat next to her, close enough that his knee brushed hers. But he didn’t touch her beyond that. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped together in front of him.

“You’re the first person I’ve brought here.”

Her breath caught and she watched him, watched his profile, the beauty of the garden in her peripheral, the sensual perfume of the roses wrapping her in a cocoon. The moment held significance. She thought she understood. Sotza was a killer. Out of necessity he killed. But just because he was cold and efficient at his job didn’t mean that he couldn’t perceive beauty. That the monster, The Butcher, wasn’t able to understand the personal cost of being an underworld boss. And he brought Vee to his private sanctuary. Was he trying to tell her that she gave him peace too? Or perhaps it was that she was the beauty that tamed his inner monster? It didn’t matter. She was happy to be here with him in this place.

“My father was a cold man,” Sotza said unexpectedly.

Vee smiled and lifted a brow, “I figured that you got it from somewhere. My best guess would’ve been your dad.”

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