Page 41 of Born a Queen

Chapter Twenty-Three

Raina called her mother the next day, to get Casey Reyes’ number. She was eager to get started on the renovations but didn’t want to move forward until she had Casey’s blessing.

Vee was concerned that Raina was in Miami with Mateo and took up most of their phone conversation talking about it. She grilled Raina on everything from the moment she was shot in Italy until she arrived in Miami.

In response to Vee’s question about Raina’s wound, Raina assured her, “I’m feeling better now, but getting shot hurts like a motherfucker.”

Vee chuckled her agreement. “Yes, it does.”

Vee had been shot in the arm during Nico Garza’s takeover attempt on the Venezuela mafia. Though the attempt had been unsuccessful, two men had died and Vee and another woman, Garza’s second-in-command and lover, had been hurt.

“How is Miami?” Vee asked tentatively.

“It’s good. I haven’t been here long and so far I’m on house arrest. Maybe Mateo anticipates trouble as he locks down Miami.”

Vee paused before answering, “So, you know about that.”

“That Mateo is being handed Miami on a silver platter, with a ready-order bride in the wings?” Raina tried and failed to keep the bitterness from her voice.

Vee’s reply was swift. “You wish to be removed from the situation?”

“Is that an option?” Raina asked hopefully.

Her mother sighed deeply. “To be honest, not really. Sotza has given his blessing to a merger between you two, and though my wishes do hold some weight, he’ll have the final say.”

“Do my wishes mean nothing to him?” Raina asked sharply, her eyes narrowing.

Life was so much simpler with Diane and Joe, her adoptive parents. They only wanted her to be happy. Things in this organized crime world were so complicated, she felt like a piece on a chessboard.

“Of course your wishes matter to Isaac,” Vee defended her husband. “Neither of us would allow you to be sacrificed if we thought you would be unhappy.”

“You think I’ll be happy with him?” Raina asked incredulously.

“Yes, I do,” Elvira countered, her voice sharp and pointed. “I’ve seen you two together; there’s definitely something there. Even though I’m not happy about your involvement in Miami’s mob scene I can’t object to the way Mateo feels about you.”

“We’ll end up killing each other,” Raina protested. “We’re both so stubborn.”

Vee chuckled. “Mateo wants to do a lot of things with you, my dear, but he most certainly doesn’t want to kill you.”

“It was a figure of speech,” Raina muttered.

“Do you think you can give him a chance?”

Raina thought about it, but every time her brain tried to settle on the idea of marrying Mateo, of sharing intimacy with him, she shied away from the thought. “What’s the alternative?”

“You move to Venezuela and live on the compound with us, where your options in men are seriously limited. You’ve become more of a target now than you ever were before, which means you now require a lifetime of protection.” Raina opened her mouth to defend her choices, but Vee interrupted her, “It doesn’t matter, Raina. The fact is, you’re mafia royalty whether you like it or not. Whether you’re living on a farm in the middle of nowhere with Diane and Joe or if you’re jet-setting across the world, forging documents and partying with K-pop bands in South Korea.”

Raina’s eyes widened in horror. “You heard about that?”

“So did Sotza and so did Mateo. If you hadn’t decided to leave South Korea on your own, I guarantee Mateo would’ve come after you. He wasn’t happy with some of the things you got up to. There are pictures, Raina.”

Raina giggled and buried her face in a pillow as she imagined what those pictures contained. “I wanted to have some fun.”

“I know, sweetie,” Vee said comfortingly. “And so you should have as much fun as you want. You’ve had far too many things go wrong in your short life. To be honest, I was happy to hear about your exploits when the reports filtered in to Sotza. I had to talk him down a few times, beg him to not go after you himself, but I think he also understood your need to explore the world and establish some semblance of independence.”

Raina was happy that her parents understood, but she was even more conflicted about her future. She was only twenty-one, not ready to settle down. Yet, that’s essentially what they were all asking of her. She felt like a child again, in desperate need of a hug and advice from her mom. Both of them.

After she got off the phone with Vee, Raina immediately dialed the number for Casey Reyes. She had a long and satisfying phone conversation with the mafia queen of Bolivia. Casey had at first been understandably leery about Raina staying in the mansion, and in Miami, for that matter.

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