Page 4 of Born a Queen

They all wanted to treat her like a precious pampered princess. In reality, she was raised a farm girl, became a college drop-out thanks to Mateo and Sotza, and was now a career criminal, making some of the world's best forged documents. It was almost laughable that these tough guys wanted to lock her up in a tower and surround her with guards and bubble wrap.

He grunted. "You haven't seen what your stepdaddy is capable of. Yes, little girl, your safety is the most important thing here."

That comment sobered her. As much as she loved her family, she couldn't forget for a single minute that they were involved in organized crime. And that some of them, Mateo and Sotza most of all, were determined to push her into the life too.

Her mother was equally as determined to keep her out. Raina was on her mother's side. She couldn't imagine spending her life that way. She had too much to live for, too much she hadn't seen or done yet. The mafia felt like a cage, she just couldn't do it.

"So we drive out," she echoed his words. "Sounds good."

She tried to sound listless and pathetic as she thought of ways to escape. She didn't think Mateo would be overly vigilant with her right now. He'd come to her rescue; he wouldn't expect her to run away. Not in her current shape.

It took another half hour before Mateo finished with her. He cleaned the wound, stitched it shut, taped gauze over it, then wrapped more gauze around her middle, holding everything in place. She sucked in a breath as his knuckles brushed the bare skin of her belly, burning a path of sensation where he touched. Mateo didn’t seem to notice. He was quick, calm and professional.

He helped her put her shirt back on, rolling it over her head and then one at a time pushing her arms through the arm holes. Raina wrinkled her nose at the dried blood all over the shirt, but she didn’t have an alternative.

Mateo gently slid her closer and helped her stand, taking her hand in his and easing her off the table. He didn’t back away immediately, just held her loosely in his arms. Raina leaned in closer, enjoying the human contact. It felt good being held by him, feeling his strength against her body. She felt safe.

For a brief moment she considered staying with him. Allowing him to take her home. She’d come to know him well enough, from their time in Venezuela and some of the things her mother had told her about him, to understand that he was a man with integrity. Though he was a mob enforcer, he held himself to a standard of ethics. It was a twisted kind of ethics, where murder was okay, but lying was wrong.

If he took her home, if she allowed the seemingly inevitable progression of their relationship to continue, she knew he would take good care of her. Forever. It was a thought that was almost irresistible.

But so was the lure of the whole wide world at her feet. And she wasn’t willing to give it all up to become a young bride. Not yet.

Taking advantage of the moment and the fact that Raina wasn’t pushing him away, Mateo touched her lightly, running his fingers from her waist up her arms. Tingles ran up and down her sides even though he was touching her through her shirt. She ignored the blatant chemistry, stepping to the side and breaking his hold. She didn't have time for that right now.

Mateo picked up her leather coat and held it open for her. She turned around giving him her back and put her arms out while he carefully slid the sleeves on and tugged it over her shoulders. She groaned as she twisted and her back twinged.

He put a hand on her shoulder and said in her ear, "I'm sorry, it's going to hurt for a while."

"You know what it feels like to get shot?" At first the question was said with sarcasm, but then she realized given his profession he might actually know what it felt like.

Mateo confirmed her suspicion. “Si, I do."

Raina forgot her dilemma for a moment. “When were you shot? Where were you shot?"

He gave her a long look. "Now you're interested in me?"

If only he knew. Raina was always interested in him. Not a day had gone by in the past two years that she hadn’t thought of him. Especially when she was alone in her bedroom, late at night, remembering each and every encounter with him. The way he’d looked, smelled, sounded. Those memories had kept her close company.

She shrugged. "I guess we finally have something in common."

He pinched her chin between his fingers and tilted her face up to his. He towered over her. She wished she wasn't so short. She hated looking up to virtually everyone she spoke to. "We got plenty in common, little girl. And once we’re back home you're going to have all the time in the world to get to know me better."

That last comment jarred her back to reality. No, she wasn't, because she was getting the hell out of there.

She scooped up her purse and pretended to walk with him to the door, but before they reached it, she grabbed his arm and stopped him. "I have to go to the bathroom."

He glanced around the room and then shook his head. "You can wait until we get to the hotel."

"I have to pee right now, Mateo. I've had to go for a while, but, well, the hole in my back sort of took precedence."

His face hardened but he glanced around the room again then opened the clinic door and growled to one of his men, “We’ll be right out, get the car started."

Taking her arm in a firm grip he walked through the clinic, mindful not to jostle her too much. He found the bathroom door, pushed it open and looked inside.

"You expecting to find shooters in the toilet?" she asked sarcastically.

"I haven't stayed alive this long by getting lazy." He opened the door wider for her to go in and then closed the door behind her.

Raina turned the water on so he wouldn't be able to hear through the door. She surreptitiously locked the door, careful to slide the bolt as slowly as possible so it wouldn't click and alert him to what she was doing. She breathed a sigh of relief. There was a decent sized window in the bathroom, most likely because no one expected a person to crawl through it in an animal clinic. She was about to test that theory.

But first, she really did have to pee. She did her business quickly, washed her hands in the running water and grabbed her purse. She slid the window open as delicately and quietly as possible while still trying to be speedy.

It was a bitch crawling through that window with a gunshot wound. She tried to do it without pulling any stitches, but a sharp pain went through her ribcage when she was forced to drop a few feet from the window to the ground. She hit hard and almost lost her balance but managed to catch hold of the side of the building. She gasped in pain and reached around to touch her back. She brought her fingers up in front of her face, but it was too dark to see if there was any fresh blood. Hopefully she hadn't torn the stitches.

She glanced around and didn't see anyone nearby. All of Mateo’s men were at the front of the building waiting for them. No one expected her to try to escape.

She melted into the shadows, running as quickly as possible while trying to be invisible to anyone who looked. As she left the scene, her quick brain came up with a few possibilities of what she could do next. Staying in Italy wasn't an option. But leaving Italy was going to be really difficult on her own with the Italian mafia after her.

One very stupid plan kept popping into her head as she mulled over the possibilities. Perhaps it was time to finally use her stepfather's name, show the Italians why it was a colossal mistake to fuck with a Sotza.

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