Page 101 of Born a Queen

She moved her head to stare down at him. Mateo put the blade against the pointer finger of her right hand; the most likely to be her trigger finger.

“Your life has been spared,” he told her, then sliced the finger off in one clean cut.

To her credit, Desi didn’t even whimper. Her face paled and her lips quivered. Involuntary tears shone in her eyes.

Mateo stood, tossed her finger on the table and strode to the door.

“Take care of your slave,” he said to Giovanni, slipping past the other man and heading down the hall toward Angela’s cell.

Sotza walked with Mateo, but waited outside the room, tacitly giving Mateo space to deal with a woman who had been his friend.

Mateo's conversation with Angela was surprisingly brief. She turned as he entered the door. Angela hadn't been secured. She was allowed loose in her cell. Her face was puffy from crying and her lip was bloody. Someone had punched her. If Mateo had to guess, he would say Vee.

"You betrayed me." The chill in his voice frosted the air in the room.

"It's not what you think." Tears filled her eyes.

Mateo grabbed her by the neck and shoved her into the nearest wall squeezing hard enough that she gasped for air. She didn't fight him though, her arms hung loose her sides. Her gaze was on his shoulder where a bandage was visible through the collar of his shirt. A throb of pain hit him reminding him that the bone had sustained a fracture.

"Then tell me exactly what happened. Speak quickly and don't leave out any details."

For good measure Mateo pulled his switchblade, still shiny with Desi’s blood and set it against her throat over top of her pulse point. One wrong word and he was going to drain her.

She swallowed, closed her eyes and nodded as though gathering herself. Then, she opened her eyes and began speaking, swiftly and purposefully. "I didn't betray you. At least, not on purpose. You asked me to supervise the installation of the bolthole door and input the correct code once the panel was in. I did exactly as you asked, only there was a problem. Something electronic. I couldn't input the code. I had to call in a tech guy to help. And there's only one that I trusted."

"Thomas." Mateo's voice came out in a growl.

Angela's words rang true. He had requested that she input the code, making her, him and Raina the only three people on the grounds that had access to the bunker. But Angela had a weakness. Though she was a security expert, she was not a technology expert. Thomas had always been Mateo's man for IT stuff. He was a trusted member of their team, having worked with both of them for several years in Venezuela before moving with them to Miami. Hell, he'd even had Mateo's back in Italy. It was a shock to learn that he'd been the one to betray them.

"I tried to keep the code away from him, even knowing that you trusted him implicitly." Her voice rose with upset. "But he insisted that he had to enter the code himself. Something to do with whatever glitch the panel was experiencing. I don't know if he caused the tech problem on purpose in order to get his hands on the code, or if he took advantage of an opportunity."

Mateo didn't know either, but he would find out as soon as he got his hands on Thomas. It was a relief knowing Angela hadn't actually betrayed him. He dropped his hand from her throat and allowed her to move away from the wall.

"You should've told me he knew the code. This was a major fuck up that could've ended in both mine and Raina's deaths."

Angela nodded, tears spilling over and trailing down her cheeks. She sniffled and used the back of her hand to swipe at them. She didn't look like the badass mafioso woman he had become used to. Then again, Mateo probably didn't look all that fierce either after the beating his body had taken.

"I willingly accept your punishment, whether you take my life, my finger or whatever else will make this right. You’ve been so generous to me that I'm devastated I was part of this. I deserve whatever comes my way.” She shuffled her feet and stared at the floor, her tears dripping onto the cement.

Mateo thought about it and then collapsed into one of the metal chairs behind him, elbow on his knee, his head in his hand. "Between you and me I haven’t the desire or energy to hurt you. And I suspect Raina will set the mansion on fire if I try to send you away. When she finds out that you’re innocent of betrayal, she’ll advocate for you until I have no choice but to allow you to stay. There will be some changes though. I can no longer allow you to remain as head of security."

"I understand." Her voice was soft but hopeful. "I'll do anything you ask."

Mateo rubbed the back of his neck, thinking for a few minutes. "I'll have to check with Raina, but how does personal bodyguard to my wife sound? You’ll have to take a step down in terms of security, but I think you'll both be happy with the solution."

Angela threw herself on her knees in front of Mateo and clasped his hand, not bothering to check the tears that were streaming down her face. "Thank you, thank you. I’ll never again give you reason to doubt me."

Mateo placed a hand on her head, patting her gently. "I know."

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