Born a Queen (The Queens Book 3)

by Nikita Slater

  The two women were in a standoff. Though wounded, Desi was bigger and far more skilled than Raina. But Raina had rage on her side. She wanted this woman to die and she wanted to do it herself. Every time Desi tried to hit out at her, Raina absorbed the hit and struck back. An elbow to Desi's chin, a fist to her chest and a knee to Desi's groin.

  There was no doubt, Desi was taking the brunt of their fight. Blood loss was making her weak and clumsy.

  "I'm going to enjoy slicing that pretty face off," Desi hissed, baring her teeth at Raina.

  Raina punched her in the mouth, bloodying her teeth and ending Desi's stream of vitriol. Raina leaned in close to Desi. "Right back at you, bitch."

  Another minute of struggling and Desi was finally forced to release her hold on the knife, allowing it to drop to the floor with a clatter. Desi tried to drop to her knees, groping frantically for it. Raina brought her own knee up, hitting Desi in the side of the head and knocking her to the ground. Raina scooped the knife up and jumped on top of Desi, first dropping to her knees on Desi's chest, then straddling her.

  Desi screamed in pain and flung her arms over her face, turning her head to the side as Raina lifted the knife, preparing it to plunge it into Desi's chest.

  A hand gripped her wrist, stopping her. Raina threw her head back glaring up at the person who dared to stop her. Mateo stood swaying next to her, then dropped to his knees, his hand sliding away from Raina's. She twisted, still on top of Desi and pressed her hands to his cheeks, uncaring of the bloody knife she held in her hand.

  "I thought you were dead!" she wailed, tears starting to flow.

  "I… I would never… leave you." His voice was weak, and Raina realized how much effort it must've taken to pull himself up off the floor and come to her aid. "Don't kill her."

  "But why?" Raina demanded swiping at her tears. “We need to finish this.”

  "Because you are not a killer and this woman deserves a slower death than what she’ll find from a knife to the heart." This had not come for Mateo. He was already slipping away from her, his eyes drifting shut as his body slumped back against the bed.

  It was Giovanni. He stood tall, proud and angry, blood pouring down his face and neck from his wound. This was the Italian Godfather. The man who ruled the underground of an entire nation. Not only was he alive, but he looked like the formidable kingpin he was, his cold gaze on the woman laid out on the floor.

  He had a point. Desi didn’t deserve an easy death. Not after everything she’d done to Raina's family.

  Raina nodded at him. "Can you help me secure her so we can get help for Mateo?"

  Giovanni dropped down beside Raina and set about making sure that the semi-conscious Desi would neither move or die anytime soon. When he finished, he helped Raina assess Mateo. They did their best to stanch the flow of blood from his wounds, pressing a towel that Raina found in the washroom around the shrapnel sticking out from his chest and another against a gunshot wound that went through the flesh in his side. They agreed that they didn't think any arteries had been severed, but he was still losing too much blood.

  Moments later, the room filled with their people. Danny and Angela were the first ones in. Angela was quick to assure Raina that the house had been secured and anyone involved in the attack neutralized. They laid Mateo out on the bed and set to work saving the life of their leader. The boss of the Miami underworld.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Everything that happened after Desi was captured was a blur. Raina and Giovanni did their best to stabilize Mateo until the paramedics could arrive. They’d debated making the call, since the usual procedure would be to call a doctor they kept on standby for emergencies, but both agreed Mateo could be critical. It was better to make sure he survived first; they could deal with the fallout and potential city payoffs later.

  Vee and Sotza arrived at the mansion at the same time as Mateo, Raina and Giovanni were being loaded into ambulances. Raina insisted on accompanying Mateo to the hospital, which the paramedic finally agreed to when she became nearly hysterical at the idea of leaving his side.

  Desi had mostly missed when she'd aimed to kill Giovanni, clipping him in the side of the head. The wound looked much worse than it actually was. And after the paramedics had a look at him, they were told that Giovanni would likely only need a few stitches.

  Mateo was another matter. Though the shrapnel in his shoulder had not hit a major artery, it had struck the bone and the paramedic who looked him over believed that there was damage to his collarbone. His gunshot wound was mostly superficial, though it would need stitching. He’d also lost a significant amount of blood and was covered in scrapes and bruises.

  Raina hadn't realized that she'd been hurt until Vee grabbed hold of her and started shouting for a paramedic. Raina looked blearily at her mother. "Who needs a paramedic? Mateo and Giovanni are already being looked after." Raina looked surreptitiously around and added, “And anyone else involved is probably dead."

  Vee grabbed hold of Raina's arm and held it up. There was a long gash on her upper arm. Blood was trickling slowly from her wound and down her hand, but she'd been so preoccupied with Mateo's injuries that she hadn’t noticed. Now that she saw the blood, she felt woozy.

  "Don't you dare!" Vee snapped, giving her a sharp two-fingered tap to the cheek. "We don't have time for fainters in this family. Pull yourself together, get in that ambulance and go for stitches."

  Vee said this as she wrapped Raina's wound with a cloth napkin she snatched from the dining room. She stood next to the ambulance as Raina climbed inside. Raina looked at her mother and said calmly, "Someone let Desi in the bunker room. Only three of us had the code."

  She didn’t want to tell her mother exactly who betrayed them as too many people were standing around listening. She hoped Vee and Sotza would figure out who she meant.

  "I'm on it." Vee answered, then she leaned up and kissed Raina on the cheek. "I love you."

  "I love you too, mom."

  Mateo tensed as consciousness rushed towards him. He expected a blast of pain to knock him on his ass but was instead greeted by a gentle fuzzy sensation. He'd been drugged. He hated that someone had administered what was likely morphine while he wasn’t awake to give his consent. He needed his wits about him, needed to be able to think, to talk to Raina.

  "I'm here." Her soft voice penetrated the mist that he was attempting to swim through to reach consciousness.

  Finally, Mateo managed to pry his eyes open. He tried to speak but only a croak emerged. He let out a frustrated growl and tried to push himself up on the bed.

  Alarm swept over Raina's features and she was quick to grab him, placing her hand carefully against his chest, away from his wound and giving him a gentle push back against the pillows. Mateo resisted for a few seconds, then gave in. Raina meant well, but he would have to get up and moving before long.

  Maybe one day he would explain to her the extent of some of the injuries he'd suffered in the past. Every time he'd been shot, stabbed, or punched, he had no choice but to bounce back quickly. To force his body to accept and overcome whatever injury he'd sustained. He was a firm believer in mind over body because he had no choice. In his line of work, a bed ridden mobster was a dead mobster.

  "Do you remember anything?" she asked him, reaching for a cup with a plastic lid and straw. She placed it against his lips.

  Mateo gratefully took several sips, wetting his parched throat. He closed his eyes and tried to think of the events that had landed him… where was he? He opened his eyes and looked around the room. Fuck. They brought him to a hospital. Once he was recovered, he would have to have a long conversation with Raina about proper protocol when it came to injuries. He did not ever want to be checked into a hospital, nor did he want drugs administered.

  "I remember the blast." His voice was stronger, though rough, as though he’d been coughing for days. "Going into the bunker. I remember Desi.”

  He could see her now, standing across the room fro
m them, her gun raised. She'd sprayed them with bullets. Mateo had taken one in the side and fallen back. He didn’t remember anything else.

  "Where’s Desi?"

  Raina squeezed his arm and set his glass of water back on the table. "She's being held in the bunker. I tried to kill her, but Giovanni stopped me."

  "He’s alive?" Mateo was surprised that the other man had survived a shot to the head.

  She nodded. "The bullet winged him, causing a gash on the side of his head. But that's the only injury he sustained during the entire standoff."

  "You?"

  She shook her head and played with the end of her sleeve. "I'm fine. Especially considering I survived a bomb blast, an impromptu dip in the pool and being shot at by a psychopath. All in the space of about ten minutes."

  Mateo smiled wryly. It was just like his girl to make fun of a serious attack. She used humour to lighten the mood when darkness could easily emerge the victor. He appreciated her ability to look on the lighter side of things. She balanced him, balanced his serious nature and the darkness within him.

  "My parents are at the mansion now, getting everything back in order. They’ve been texting with me while I waited for you to get out of surgery. It looks like there were three bombs. One in the lobby, another in the pool house and another in your bedroom." Raina filled him in on the details, giving him a thorough no-nonsense rundown. "Sotza is managing the contacts that’ve heard about the explosions and checked in. He's also organized all the house staff and security. We were lucky. We didn't lose anyone in the bombs. Desi attacked the mansion with two hired thugs, both are dead now. We think the bombs were planted while she still had access to the house and grounds and that she used a remote device to set them off. Sotza thinks she used the distraction of the bombs to get through our estate security and into the bunker."

  "Makes sense." Though he trusted Sotza to take care of his holdings, he was concerned about the ripple effect this attack would have through the Miami underworld. Now was the time to make a show of strength. To show all of his contacts, new and old, that he would not be defeated so easily. "How long was I out? Help me up."

  Mateo swung his legs over the side of the bed and reached for the IV in his arm. He suspected that he was getting a good dose of morphine along with his fluids. Before Raina could try and stop Mateo, he yanked the tubes from his arm. A trickle of blood welled up and ran down his hand from where he pulled the needle out.

  "No, I won't help you!" Raina said, her voice going high with concern. "You need to stay in bed. You literally just had surgery, Mateo."

  "Raina," Mateo took hold of her arms and gave her a shake. "How long was I out?"

  Her eyes narrowed and she glared at him. "About four hours. They took you into surgery as soon as we arrived and you’ve been in recovery for about two hours."

  Good. The sooner he got up and moving the less time his Miami contacts would have to wonder whether he was alive or dead, whether he had left a gaping opening for one of them to fill.

  "My clothes?"

  Raina's lips tightened and she continued to give him a death glare that made it clear how she felt about him being up so soon. Regardless, she pointed to a chair where there was a tidy stack of his clothes.

  It hurt to get dressed, but Raina finally relented in her anger and helped him pull his clothes on, very gently pulling the zipper on his pants and buckling his belt. Despite the seriousness of the situation, she tilted her head up and gave him a half grin.

  "Are you seriously getting hard right here, right now, after all we've been through?" she asked with an incredulous laugh.

  He wrapped an arm around her neck pulling her in tight against his good shoulder. He dropped his head to kiss her. "Woman, I'd have to be on my deathbed to withstand your touch. And even then, pretty sure I'm going to be going to my grave with a permanent boner."

  They laughed together, a much-needed moment. As they left the room, two bodyguards stood up from their positions outside Mateo’s room and flanked them. Reinforcements that Sotza sent. A doctor tried to argue Mateo out of leaving, but Mateo was insistent. Finally, he was given a form to sign saying that he was leaving the hospital against medical advice.

  Together, they stepped out into the balmy Miami night. Though Mateo badly wanted to go back to the mansion and put his house back in order, he had to make a few stops first. He had to go to those damned clubs he despised so much, sit down, have a drink with his woman and show the world that there was not a thing wrong with the new Miami boss.

  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 wo
uld 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.