Page 99 of Born a Queen

Chapter Fifty-Three

When they arrived back at the mansion, Mateo expected to be confronted with chaos. Instead, he found a well-organized household, busy putting everything back together. Even the front door, where a bomb had gone off inside the lobby, was almost completely fixed. New doors replaced the ones that had been blown off their hinges. Now, only some scarring on the paneling beside the doors indicated what had happened.

As they entered their home, they were confronted by Vee and Sotza. Raina broke away from Mateo and flung herself at her mother. Vee gripped her tightly and whispered something to her.

Sotza placed a hand on his stepdaughter’s shoulder and squeezed, but his concerned gaze remained on Mateo. "You okay, son?"

Mateo jerked his head in a nod. "Fine," he said shortly. "Tell me what's been happening here."

Sotza gave him a wry look. "While you two were out barhopping, we were busy setting things in order." Mateo chuckled at Sotza's description. Far from barhopping, he and Raina, along with their two bodyguards had spent time in two of Mateo’s clubs. The entire experience had been agonizing, having to get in and out of the vehicle, which hurt like a bitch. Sitting in a booth, drinking a glass of water and talking to his fiancé as though everything were normal.

They had done it for the sake of appearances. Mateo could not afford to look weak now. Of course, Sotza knew that. "You're going to need to re-renovate your office and a couple of the rooms upstairs. A wall came down in the master suite. We moved your captive into a secure cell where she's being watched by a guard."

Mateo grunted his acknowledgement. "Angela?"

Vee answered, her eyes narrowing in anger. "We’re holding her for you, though I’d dearly love to get my hands on that woman."

Mateo agreed. Angela's betrayal hurt the most. He could understand and even respect Desi’s vendetta, but he didn't understand Angela. He'd known her since she was a child, mentored and cared for her. She befriended and then betrayed Raina. Mateo was beyond furious. It would take some real self-restraint to stop himself from killing her long enough to hear an explanation. He decided to tour the mansion first, giving himself time to calm down.

Once again, he was surprised to see how little damage the bombs actually did. They tore apart furniture, threw shrapnel into walls and doors, but otherwise left the mansion unscathed. They had clearly been relatively weak bombs, either built by an amateur or meant to cause little to no harm.

Finally, he was ready to face his enemies. Two women. In a way he wasn't entirely surprised. The mafia could be hostile towards women, unforgiving. A century ago, when organized crime rose up in the Americas, there had been an unwritten code that women and children were not touched.

Now, things were different. Gangs didn’t always respect the code. Too often women and children were killed during takeovers as one opponent would try to wipe out the entire family of another. Women also worked more and more in security, acting as bodyguards, or in Desi’s case, second-in-command.

Still, Mateo was uncomfortable with the idea of killing women. So far, in his long and bloody career he'd managed to stay away from having to kill a woman. Though, after he finished Nicolás Garza, he had intended to hunt and kill the man’s partner, Desi. Perhaps, it was his leniency toward women that stopped him from going after her right away. He regretted that now. His reticence could have caused the death of the only woman in the world who meant anything to him.

Mateo learned his lesson. He would not be going easy on Desi, Angela or any other woman who threatened his family. He strode across the backyard, skirting the pool, toward the bunker. Sotza was on one side of him and Giovanni on the other. Giovanni had made his way back to the mansion while Mateo was out at the clubs. Having been once more caught up in their family drama, the Italian Godfather was now invested in the outcome.

Though Raina wanted to come with him, Mateo had refused her. She had agreed to stay at the mansion with her mother, helping to put the pieces of the household back together. Mateo suspected Raina knew she wouldn’t have the stomach for what was about to happen.

Mateo chose to see Desi first. He knew exactly what he wanted to do to her, and he wouldn't be nearly as heartbroken over it as he was with what was coming Angela's way. He entered the room, expecting to find a broken woman after the beating she’d taken at Raina's hands. Instead, he was confronted by a hissing, spitting, expletive screaming Desi.

Mateo, Sotza and Giovanni stopped in the doorway for a few seconds to admire the raging Latina beauty. Despite what Raina had done to Desi's face, she was still a stunning woman. Her long black hair fell in a shiny wave around her shoulders and her tall body was encased in tight leather pants and a black zipped jacket.

"Desiree." He said her name coldly, drawing her attention.

"You!" she hissed, lunging at him. She was pulled back by the cuffs binding her wrists to the wall. "Just my fucking luck, you pulled through." Her gaze flited behind him to land on Sotza, her eyes narrowing first in recognition, then in hatred.

Mateo had to fight not to show his amusement. Even while facing a grisly death, she would still go down fighting, cursing his name and wishing every bad thing she could think of upon him and his family. Despite his anger that she put Raina in danger over and over, he could appreciate and sympathize with her.

They lived in a dangerous world, one where people like Desi and Mateo willingly threw themselves into some of the most dangerous situations imaginable. People they loved would die. It was a fact. But the loyalty and friendships they developed among members of their alliances forced them to avenge each other in a never-ending cycle of vendetta.

"You nearly took the life of my woman." Mateo stepped up to her, entering her space, unafraid as she lunged toward him, throwing her fists. He caught her wrist and slammed it back against the wall, scraping her knuckles on the concrete. "For that, your life is forfeit."

"I gladly give my life,” she snarled. “You destroyed everything I had to live for."

She spat at him, intending to hit his face with the bloody saliva. But they were standing too close together, so it missed and hit his shirt collar. Mateo didn't flinch and he didn’t move.

“So you decided to destroy the thing that I had to live for,” Mateo drawled.

She stared at him, her dark eyes hot coals of hate. Her anger was so palatable that Mateo was surprised by her next words. "If I have any regrets in all this, it’s that I targeted Raina instead of you. She’s more innocent of this world then I originally thought."

Mateo raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected Desi to unbend enough to admit such a thing. He thought some of her mixed feelings when it came to Raina probably came from the amount of time she spent one-on-one with Raina during the renovations. Raina was a difficult woman to hate.

Mateo switched gears, asking a question that had haunted him for weeks. “Were you in any way responsible for the death of my Mexican liaison and his family?”

Her face betrayed her before her words, her gaze dropping to the floor and her skin paling. As rage flooded his system, he had to check the urge not to punch her in the face and take her out right there.

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