Page 73 of Born a Queen

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Vee shifted uncomfortably, rolling over and trying to find a new position. Then she rolled back, shoved her pillow underneath her head and closed her eyes, trying to sleep again. The bright light pouring through the pointless filmy purple curtains penetrated her eyelids like tiny burning needles.

It was impossible, she couldn't get comfortable.

Vee rolled to the side of the bed and sat up, swinging her feet to the floor and sliding them into the slippers provided. She pushed her hair off her face and stretched, yawning. Then she stood, reached for her bathrobe, also provided by her generous host, and headed out to the kitchen for her cup of morning tea.

"Morning," Danny said, entirely too chipper.

Vee mumbled something incoherent, took the herbal tea he handed her and plunked herself down at the table. She stared blearily at nothing until the hot liquid started to take wake her up.

"Where’re Christine and Sadie?" she asked after a few minutes.

Danny turned from the counter where he was making himself a sandwich. "Christine took Sadie to her daycare and then she's going to work. She works in accounting at UPS."

Danny's wife's job was so mundane the Vee almost couldn't wrap her head around it. Especially considering the dark and exciting world the Danny inhabited. "She's not mafia?"

It wasn't exactly a polite question to ask, but she was curious. How had Danny managed to meet a normal girl-next-door type, and then convince her to date him long enough for him to put a ring on it? Danny was as rough-and-tumble as they came, had fought his way up the food chain to become second-in-command to Vee and now Mateo.

"She's connected, but distantly. Has a cousin working for the Alvarez family." Danny named a local mob family that engaged in gunrunning. Technically they would be Mateo's competition.

"She seems sweet," Vee said noncommittally.

Christine did seem like a sweet woman. She had welcomed Vee into her home, knowing that Vee had a dark past and an even darker husband. She allowed Vee to spend the night under her roof without complaint. She’d offered up their daughter’s room since they only had the two bedrooms and an office in the lovely seaside cottage. This was more than Vee would have done.

"Yes," Danny said firmly. "She's about as nice as they come. I don't deserve her, but I'll do anything to keep her."

Vee nodded. "Good man."

Danny sank onto a chair at the table taking a huge bite out of his sandwich before dropping it on a plate and opening his laptop. He turned it so that both of them could see the screen. He pulled up a file entitled Daniela Velasquez. Together, Vee and Danny went through each item in an attempt to track down the now deceased Daniela's connection with the mystery woman who took her identity.

So far, the only connection they could find was Mateo’s and Raina's desire for an interior designer and the fact that the designer they chose came highly recommended and was Latina.

Vee rubbed her forehead and growled, "I don't know how to keep my daughter safe if I don't know what the danger is or where it's coming from."

Danny gave her a long look. "The danger is going to come from your husband once he realizes that you didn't board that plane to Venezuela. Which, at my estimation, was around midnight last night. Am I correct?"

"Are you lecturing me?" Vee demanded, glaring at him. “My daughter’s safety is more important than Isaac’s commands.”

He grinned and held his hand up. "You're not my boss anymore, lady. I'm doing you a favour by letting you stay here, but you're not doing me one by setting the Butcher on my ass."

Vee felt a bolt of guilt. She hadn't thought about the fallout to the people who were sheltering her when Sotza discovered that instead of going home she decided to stay in Miami to hunt down any leads on the woman who deceived her daughter.

"I'm sorry, Danny. I didn't think about that. And you have a wife and daughter now. I should leave." Vee started to stand, but Danny reached out and grabbed her wrist.

"You're not going anywhere." He held her arm until she was forced to sit. "For one thing, I'm the only ally you have in this town who’s capable of helping you with this. Your husband is going to come banging down my door anytime now and I'd rather you be under my roof than anywhere else. I figure I have more of a chance of survival if I can hand you right over than if he has to wait to get his hands on you."

Vee let out a laugh. "You're not wrong about that."

They continued to research their prey until they came up with a lead. They were going to question the carpenters that had been working on the house alongside Daniela Velasquez. Mateo had tried talking to them but had gotten nowhere. The head contractor had seemed clueless about their employer. They knew she belonged to an interior design company, but they hadn't set eyes on her prior to construction at the mansion. This in itself was unusual, since most interior decorators had teams that they preferred to work with.

Danny and Vee found them at their new job, building offices in a warehouse near the docks. Vee felt a rush of nostalgia as she passed the dockyard. This had been part of her territory when she'd reigned over Miami. She had fought valiantly for it when she’d gone to war with Sotza. Now, it belonged to Mateo.

Vee’s heels tapped against the concrete floor as she made her way through the warehouse, searching for any sign of a carpenter. She found them at the back of the building, joking with each other and discussing which bar they wanted to hit up after their workday finished. It was Friday afternoon so they were probably going to knock off early and head out for drinks.

"Can I help you?" A bearded man looked up from his position where he was crouched on the ground next to a wall.

"I'm looking for the foreman," she said coolly.

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