Page 94 of Born a Queen

Chapter Fifty

Mateo came to first, his ears ringing fiercely, his body vibrating with tension. Adrenaline shot through his body and his fight or flight instinct kicked in. He rolled onto his hands and knees and swung his head around searching for Raina. Dust hung in the air, stinging his eyes, but after a few seconds he spotted her. She was laying on her side facing him, eyes closed, arms curled into her body and knees pulled up to her chest. She wasn't moving.

"Raina!" He bellowed, lunging for her. His legs were wobbly and he fell to his knees next to her body.

He brought a hand down on her hip and rolled her onto her back. She groaned and one of her arms jerked up protectively over her chest.

"Mateo?" The word was faint, and he feared she was injured. Her eyes fluttered open and after a few seconds focused on him, a deep frown etching her features. "Wh-what happened?"

"Bomb."

The word barely left his lips when another explosion rocked the mansion. Everything shook and a deafening cracking sound told Mateo that a loadbearing wall was probably going down. He grabbed Raina, cradled her against his chest and hurled them both underneath the big sturdy desk. He curled himself around her thanking god that she was small. His big body barely fit into the space. He was able to protect his back and head, but his legs were still outside the desk.

He counted seconds in his head, waiting to hear another explosion. When none came, he crawled out from under the desk and stood, pulling his guns from their holsters.

He reached under the desk and took hold of her arm, pulling Raina out. He dragged her to her feet and held a hand over her arm as she steadied herself.

"I'm okay, do what you have to do." Her voice came out in her croak.

He badly wanted to check her thoroughly for injuries, but they didn’t have time. He would have to get her to safety and for that he needed his hands free and Raina on her own two feet.

"Follow me, no more than a foot behind; keep your hand on my back so I know where you are. We’re heading straight for the bunker. If you see anything questionable you hit the ground facedown and cover your head with your hands. You listen to everything I say. Got it?"

She nodded. “Let’s go.”

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I love you.”

He unlatched the French doors that led out onto the pool patio and shoved them open. As though he was waiting for them to appear, a man came hurtling toward them, bullets spraying the side of the house. Mateo flung Raina back into the office and shot the man, one bullet to the head.

Whoever was targeting them weren’t professional killers. The man had wasted at least a dozen bullets and hadn’t hit anything important. Mateo felt marginally better once he realized this.

"Let's go." Mateo led Raina through the back doors. "Stay low."

Mateo spotted one of his men and shouted, "Cover us!"

"Got your back," he shouted back.

"Boss!" Angela's voice reached out to them as she rushed through a back door on the other side of the house.

"Meet us at the bunker," Mateo yelled at her.

As Mateo was glancing back to make sure Raina was following close behind him another explosion hit. He lifted his head in time to see the pool house go up in flames as it exploded out in all directions. A split second later the impact hit them.

A piercing pain stabbed Mateo in the chest, to the left of his heart, under his collarbone. He was flung back so hard that he took out the entire patio table set. The metal screeched and then crumpled under his weight as it collapsed into the concrete below. Mateo's head was ringing and his body didn't want to obey him as he shouted internally to get up and find Raina. All he could do was turn his head to the side, eyes narrowed against the smoke in the air and search for her body.

At first, he didn't see her, and panic began to set in. He forced himself to roll off the table, hitting a metal chair in the process and knocking it aside. He landed on his hands and knees on the concrete. The stabbing pain in his chest became nearly unbearable, but not as unbearable as not knowing what happened to Raina.

He swung his head to the side, searching for her as he struggled to regain his feet.

"I got her!" The shout came right before he heard a splash as a body hit the pool.

Mateo watched in agonized confusion as someone swam toward an object floating in the pool. Mateo realized it was Raina as the man flipped her over onto her back and swam her to the edge of the pool towards Mateo.

Mateo dropped to his knees and reached for her, his heart thudding in his chest, each beat causing more and more pain as blood pumped out of his wound. But through the pain, relief shone like a weak ray of light as Raina's pale arm reached out from the pool towards him. She was alive and she was conscious.

He gritted his teeth against the pain as he wrapped his hands underneath her armpits and pulled her up next to him on the edge of the pool. Water poured off her as reached up to swipe at her glasses.

"Got to get to the bunker." His voice came out in a harsh rasp.

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