Page 95 of Born a Queen

Mateo wasn't sure if he was reminding himself or telling Raina. Giovanni pulled himself out of the pool, kneeling next to Raina, his hand on her shoulder, his concerned gaze on Mateo.

"You're hurt."

Giovanni's observation woke Raina up and she craned her head around to stare at Mateo. Her eyes landed on his wound and she cried out as she reached for him.

Giovanni caught her wrist. "Don't touch it. We don't know if it's severed an artery. We have to leave it in there."

She made a pained whimpering sound but dropped her hand to Mateo’s arm. Mateo looked down, only now realizing that there was shrapnel in his wound. A jagged piece of metal stuck out of his chest about four inches.

Raina slid her arm under his right shoulder and looked up at him. "I'll help you. Stand slowly. We'll go to the bunker together."

Mateo thought about telling her to let go of him so she could protect herself but realized quickly he was too weak to continue without her help. He nodded sharply and looked at Giovanni. "My guns… should be over by the table."

Giovanni lurched toward the table, searching for Mateo's guns as Raina helped Mateo stand. He was losing blood too quickly. If he didn't get help, he would die, and he couldn't die before he made sure Raina was safe. They had to get to the bunker. He had to get her into the bolthole.

"Got it." Giovanni came back towards them holding one of Mateo's guns. "I'll lead the way, you two stay behind me."

"Behind the pool house… what used to be the pool house."

"I know where we’re going; I’ve wandered all over this property. I've seen your torture shed."

Of course he had. There was no chance a man of Giovanni’s position wouldn't at least suspect that Mateo had a building on the property for security and interrogation.

As they shuffled towards the back of the property, they could hear a cacophony of noise coming from the house. It seemed like the people who were targeting them outside the house, were now scouting around inside. Good news for Mateo, Raina and Giovanni if the enemy didn't realize that they were no longer in the mansion.

As they lurched toward the outbuilding, Giovanni asked, "Do you know who's targeting you?"

Mateo thought about it. "Could be any number of people."

"It's Desi." Raina's voice held both conviction and a terrible kind of anger that Mateo had never heard from her before. It was a killing anger.

"Desi?" Giovanni asked as they approached the back door of the building.

Mateo gave Giovanni the code and heaved a sigh of relief as the three of them shuffled into the building, slamming the door shut behind them. All was quiet within the bunker. This building hadn’t been penetrated yet. The walls were reinforced, built to withstand bomb blasts that were much bigger than the pipe bombs being blown up around the property.

Mateo knew exactly what his enemy was using as he had spent a few of his formative years under the tutorship of a hired bomber. Sotza had footed the bill for his education, believing that one day the knowledge would come in handy. Ironic that Mateo was now on the receiving end of that education. He didn't believe this had been Sotza’s intention at all.

"Desi hates all of us," Raina explained to Giovanni as they made their way into the bowels of the building. "She was second-in-command to a Mexican cartel. Her boss attacked my mom and stepdad, trying to kill them so they could take the Venezuelan business. But Mateo stopped them and killed Garza. We think it's his girlfriend who's targeting us. She attacked me a few weeks ago."

Mateo hadn’t realized that Raina knew he’d killed Garza. He certainly hadn’t spoken to her about it. Had to be her mother. Fucking woman didn’t know how to mind her own business. Mateo didn’t need Raina getting to know the killer in him; might spook her.

"Nicolás Garza," Giovanni said musingly. "I’ve heard of him. My son attempted to do business with him shortly before he disappeared. I take it that was your handiwork?"

Mateo nodded grimly, unable to concentrate on almost anything besides the pain radiating through him. His body had been through a lot. Gunshot wounds, stab wounds, head wounds. Nothing he’d experienced in the past had made him doubt his ability to pull through. Until now. He feared that this piece of shrapnel was too close to his heart, that he might not survive.

"Through… there." Mateo lifted a bloody finger, pointing down the corridor that led to the bolthole he built for Raina. He mumbled the code before they reached the door, fearful that he was about to pass out. He needed Raina inside that room. That room would protect her from everything, including a nuclear blast.

Giovanni punched the code into the panel and shoved the door open, looking back at Mateo and Raina as he did so. It was a mistake. A shot rang out, Giovanni's head burst into a spray of red, his body hit the doorframe and slid to the ground.

Raina's scream of terror was the last thing Mateo heard before he was shot. His body was flung backward and the world went black before he hit the floor.

He had failed.

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