Page 53 of Queen's Move

Sotza turned his head to look at her, his expression serious. “You think I’m a cold man?”

She considered him. “I think you can be cold, yes,” she said softly. “But you have those moments where I know you’re anything but cold.”

The corner of his lip lifted in a smile and his dark eyes lingered over her curves, stopping on her bare knees where her legs were crossed. “I can assure you, Vee, when it comes to you, I am an inferno of heat.”

Her face warmed. She was actually blushing, and from an almost poetic statement. He hadn’t even said anything crude. But the erotic undertone to his words charged the atmosphere around them and she was unprepared for his next words. “I was nine the first time I killed someone.”

Vee’s heart lurched. She tried picturing him as a child. “What happened?” she asked.

“My father wanted me to learn the family business, to understand my duty. He forced me to participate in something…” His voice trailed off. Vee felt devastated for him. For the child forced to do something so awful. He looked over at her, pinning her with that dark gaze. “Don’t pity the child, Vee. Even at that young age I was not innocent. I’d done things that would shock you. Murder was just the next step in an evolution.”

“An unnatural one,” she said. “You were only a child. And you’d been forced to live a life without choices. Even if you’d done terrible things, it wasn’t your fault. What happened to your parents?”

He paused for a moment, then, “My father died of pancreatic cancer fifteen years ago. My mother lives in Bogotá, Columbia. She spends her days travelling, shopping and visiting friends. I’m sure you’ll meet eventually, though she doesn’t often make her way up here.”

The explanation of his family was so normal it was unexpected. Vee had expected something more dramatic, like an enemy taking them out or something, Sotza becoming The Gentleman Butcher in bloody revenge. Despite the normal, something had shaped him, changed him to the man he’d become. “You should never have been forced into the family business. Your father was wrong to do that to you.”

He studied her, his face impassive. “Are you defending me, Vee?” he asked.

She frowned and thought about it. “Yes, I suppose I am.”

“Good,” he said, satisfaction leaking into his tone. “This is the woman I saw when we were in Miami. This is the woman I want by my side. I want your loyalty. The loyalty you so easily give to others.”

Vee jumped to her feet and would’ve moved away from him except he grabbed her wrist.

“The people who have my loyalty earned it,” she snapped twisting her wrist.

“And I demand your loyalty,” Sotza said standing. When he stood that close to her, he towered over her.

She tipped her head back and glared at him. “You tricked me into this garden… to prey on my sympathies!”

He held her locked against him. “I brought you here so you could experience my sanctuary.”

“You played me,” she accused.

“I spoke the truth, Elvira.” He hunched his shoulders and lowered his head to press his face into the curve of her neck. His breath tickled just below her ear as he breathed her in. “You are my peace. You belong in this place with me.”

“I belong where I choose…” Her voice came out more breathless than she intended as he kissed her behind the ear, right next to her hairline, his nose nuzzled against her.

“You belong to me,” he said gruffly, his arms tightening. “Say it, tell me who you belong to.”

“Isaac…” she said warningly.

“Yes,” he agreed. “You belong to Isaac Sotza. Now say it again.”

A smile quirked her lips and she tilted her head back, closing her eyes and soaking up the sun. She wouldn’t win against his brand of persuasion and his touch was too heavenly to resist. “Why don’t you make me…”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

It was pouring rain as they ran behind the garden hedges, ducking the security that Vee knew had passed less than thirty seconds before. It hadn’t rained since her arrival in Venezuela, but it sure as hell was raining like some kind of vengeance water apocalypse now. Vee wasn’t sure if it was a good thing because the rain would provide cover, or if they were likely to drown before she accomplished her mission. She also worried about the helicopter being able to land.

“I don’t think I could possibly be any wetter,” Raina complained from beside her, swiping at her glasses in an attempt to clear the water.

Vee agreed. They were both dressed in dark clothes, hats pulled low over pale faces. They weren’t wearing any kind of rain gear. Vee’s shoes sent up a shower of water from the grass with every footfall.

“We don’t have a choice,” Vee said to her daughter as she hustled them around the backside of the garden. She had intended to use the shadows cast by the bushes to hide from the moonlight, but the rain eliminated the need.

“I thought you said we were going to brazen this out,” Raina yelled as loud as she dared so Vee would hear her over the pounding rain. “This feels a lot like covert sneakiness.”

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