Though Sotza didn’t know all the details, he did know that Vee had an isolated childhood. She was born and raised in Miami and rarely strayed beyond the Florida borders. Her mother had been a high-class prostitute that became pregnant by a mobster. The man was already married but agreed to set his mistress and the child up in an apartment. Vee met her father a handful of times over the years before her parents split for good. The mother died of a speedball overdose when Vee was sixteen.
Following in her mother’s footsteps Vee’d seduced men in high positions within the underworld, keeping herself in the only lifestyle she knew. A lifestyle that probably made her miserable. Perhaps that was part of the reason she turned to cocaine. She used it, liked it and then couldn’t get off it because her life was so awful she had no will to try. After several years warming the bed of Frank Lopez, a close friend of Vee’s father, she met her future husband Tony.
Rumour had it that Vee wasn’t too impressed with the pushy Cuban when he first approached her. But eventually his persistence won out and she agreed to marry him. Sotza had no idea when the marriage turned sour, but he suspected she had never loved her husband. She had simply been swept up in the turning tide of Miami’s underworld when Tony took over Frank’s operation. Of course, Vee had taken Tony out, ending their turbulent marriage. The death causing ripples through underworld circles. Reyes had taken her under his wing after Montana’s death and guided her. A smart choice, Sotza admitted. Who knew the scene and all the players better than Elvira Montana?
This was the extent of Sotza’s knowledge of Vee before he’d landed in Miami. Before he set eyes on her. If this had been everything that made Vee, he wouldn’t have hesitated in pulling the trigger, ending her tenacious grip on one of the most lucrative markets. Instead she had shown him that she was so much more than an escort turned gold-digger. That she could hold her own in shark infested waters. And she did it with such grace… mesmerizing him. If he wasn’t so infatuated by her he would’ve talked Reyes into allowing her to keep her position with Sotza at her disposal to help her with the Mexico situation.
But Sotza wanted to keep all that icy fire to himself. Apply it to his own organization. Bring it to his bed and wear it on his arm. Vee was the woman he’d been waiting his whole life for. Now that he had her under his command he was determined to spend a lifetime getting to know her, holding her, grooming her and then setting her free to stand at his side. He would open the cage doors when she was ready to accept his rule.
She turned to him, blue eyes sparkling, lips stretched in a carefree grin. “Is this where you live, your home?” she asked, awe in her voice.
“One of them,” he replied, feeling pleasure in being with her, having her home with him. He leaned in and glanced past her shoulder. “The main base of my operations.”
“I see,” she said, studying the land carefully as the airplane headed toward a private runway a few kilometres from the main house. “It looks fairly isolated up here in the mountains. The dense foresting would help keep you hidden, make it hard for any kind of authority to get in.”
Sotza appreciated her critical eye. Despite her lack of travel she still managed to educate herself. “Indeed,” he agreed with her assessment. “Extremely difficult. Which is why I picked this location. We’re unlikely to be disturbed.”
“And are you bordering Columbia or Brazil?” she asked curiously.
“We are closer to the Columbian border, although not close enough to either country to make a significant difference. Which is good since there are so many people leaving the country right now. We’re high up and isolated enough that there are no refugee paths anywhere near my land.”
“Yes,” she said softly. “They’re starving.”
“That’s one of the reasons,” he said easily. “Though it isn’t lack of food so much as the exorbitant price of the food, lack of proper governance. I work with several of the local organizations to bring aid to some of the major centers, Caracas and surrounding area.”
“How very Robin Hood of you,” she said, though there was no bite to her words.
“These are my people, Vee. I was born here, grew up among the locals. And though my mother was English and I was educated in England, my heart has always remained in this country.”
“These poor people,” she murmured her eyes clouding a little. “I can’t imagine what real hunger must feel like.”
“And you never will,” his voice hardened. “I take care of the things that belong to me.”
“So you’ve said,” she snapped, and he almost regretted reminding Vee of her captivity. But he couldn’t regret acquiring her, bringing her to Venezuela. “What if I decide to go on hunger strike?”
“I would have you force fed. Not a pretty prospect,” he replied. “But you’re too intelligent to go on hunger strike. It would weaken you too much to fight back. You tend to think in the long term, attempting to stay two steps ahead of everyone else.”
She laughed, the sound brittle. “That kind of thinking doesn’t work when I’m being pursued by a man that thinks ten steps ahead.”
“You have it wrong, Vee. We think very much alike. The biggest difference between us is you have heart.”
“And you don’t?” she asked.
“I have what it takes to do what’s necessary,” he assured her. “I will always take that extra step to ensure success.”
“It doesn’t bode well for the future of our so-called marriage if you don’t have a heart,” she said, an edge to her voice. As though she cared about his words and was annoyed that she cared. It pleased him that she wanted to know these things, was willing to enter the conversation.
“I have a heart, Vee,” he assured her quietly. “It just hasn’t been touched in many years.”
“And you think I can touch that block of stone?” she asked incredulously.
He chuckled, unable to resist. She pulled so many emotions from him. While somewhat disturbing, he’d had a few months now to grow used to the feeling, to embrace it. “Imagine what kind of a position you’ll be in if my heart beat only for you. One day, when we’ve reached that point in our relationship, ask me for the world. See what happens.”
She stared at him, lost for words. The plane hit the runway, bouncing a little. Vee had been so involved in their conversation that she hadn’t noticed the landing. She jumped in her seat, twisting around to stare back out the window. He leaned toward her once more, curving his hand possessively over her shoulder, unable to resist that small touch as he watched the rainforest fly by.
Sotza was home once more, and he brought a queen who, once tamed, would share his throne.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sotza’s words echoed through her brain in a constant loop. Ask me for the world. What if she did? Then what. Would he give it to her? Was he implying that if he fell in love with her that he would give her anything she wanted? Would he grant her freedom if that’s what she asked for? Vee’s head spun with the possibilities. She never once thought to cultivate his attentions.
When Vee was younger, in her late teens and early twenties, she’d been forced to do things she wasn’t proud of. She had no skills, no education. The only thing she had was beauty, a sharp mind and extensive knowledge of the Miami criminal world. She’d done what she could to exploit that world, but it had slowly chipped away at the good things inside her until she was certain they no longer existed. Sotza said she had heart, but he was wrong. While his might be a block of frigid ice, her chest cavity was empty, a gaping hole. Nothing beat within. Her heart had died decades ago when she lost her mother, the broken, sad woman who had been Vee’s whole world.
But something in what Sotza said… and the way he looked at her, made her non-existent heart beat a little faster. As though it was interested. As though, maybe, possibly he could revive it. It was an exhilarating and terrifying thought.
They got in a waiting all-terrain vehicle, driven, presumably, by one of Sotza’s men. She had noticed they all wore a u
niform of black fatigue pants and green shirts. Another sign of his need for order and control. They drove a paved road, through a dense forest for about ten minutes then the car pulled into a massive garage. Sotza helped her from the vehicle.
As they left the garage and followed a neat stone path, Sotza took her elbow, leaned down and said, “I have acquired your daughter, Vee. I need your compliance in some important matters we’ll be discussing over the next few weeks and I believe her presence will help sway you to my way of thinking.”
Vee stopped walking, stumbling on her high heels when Sotza took another step, accidentally dragging her with him. She jerked her arm away and stared at him in horror. She could feel the blood draining from her face. She felt faint, should probably have allowed him to keep his hold on her arm. But in that moment she didn’t want the evil bastard’s touch anywhere near her. “You have Raina?” she asked, making sure she’d heard him right.
“Correct. My second-in-command collected her from her University campus almost two weeks ago. It’s my understanding that she’s settling in nicely, though she does take after you. She also toyed with the idea of a food strike.”
It took Vee so long to process his words, to understand what he was saying that it took her a full minute to launch her attack. She threw her fist at his face, uncaring if she broke her fingers. She didn’t care about anything except destroying the man who allowed his people to lay hands on her daughter. It felt like her heart was breaking, though she didn’t know how that was possible, since she didn’t care about him.
Sotza moved swiftly to the side, grabbing her fist and swinging her around so her back was against his chest. She wasn’t done trying to kill him. Or scream for all the world to hear. “You motherfucking son-of-a-bitch!” she screeched. “You fucking dared to touch my child? MY CHILD!? I will fucking kill you for this, Sotza, I really will!”
She threw an elbow into his side, enjoying his grunt at the impact. When the arm he had around her waist loosened a little she reached between her thighs, tugging her skirt up, going for her gun. He slid a hand over her hip and grabbed her wrist tightly, yanking it up to her waist. “Calm down, Vee.”
“Fuck you!” she yelled. “I won’t calm the fuck down, you unbelievable asshole. You, you, evil Butcher.”
“If you don’t calm down right now I’ll be forced to haul you into the house, past all my staff and lock you in the bedroom until you stop screaming.”
“I will fucking calm down after I’ve done cartwheels on your grave, you sick child kidnapping monster!”
“Right,” he said grimly, his mouth against the side of her head so she couldn’t head butt him. “You are clearly not in the mood for rational thinking.”
He swung her around so fast her vision spun and she had no idea what was going on until he picked her up off the ground and tossed her over his shoulder, an arm wrapped firmly around her thighs. She gripped handfuls of his suit jacket and pushed herself up, trying to see as he strode toward what appeared from her limited vantage point to be a mansion.
“You kidnapped my daughter, you motherfucking bastard, of course I’m not in the mood,” she yelped.
“I had hoped that you would greet my staff, your daughter and my second with the respect your new position should command. Instead they’ll all get a surprising view of your ass as you enter your new home.”
“I’m going to stab you the first chance I get,” she replied.
“I believe you’ll try,” he agreed, striding up the stone staircase to a set of open double doors.
Vee saw a flash of people as he walked past all of them, ignoring hastily spoken greetings in both Spanish and English. She tried shoving her hair back with one hand and bracing herself against his back with the other. It didn’t work. As soon as he started ascending a set of interior stairs she was jostled and forced to lay flat against his back, bunches of his coat balled in her fists.
“Is that my mother?” a curious voice reached through the pandemonium following their arrival.
“Raina?” Vee yelled.
She wasn’t given a chance to confirm that it was indeed her daughter who spoke because Sotza didn’t slow. If anything he sped up when they reached the landing above the main floor, his long legs quickly taking them away from the people below.
“Put me down!” she yelled, now panicked that she wouldn’t get to see the daughter she hadn’t set eyes on since she was a baby. “Please, Sotza!” The last part came out in a sob.
He ignored her pleas, throwing a door open, going through and kicking it shut behind him. The carpet was a beautiful blur as he walked. Then she was flung through the air, shrieking until her breath was slammed from her lungs as her back met the mattress of a bed. She started to scramble back off the bed, but he dropped on top of her, pinning her down with his body.
She froze as she saw his face. He was furious, completely unhinged. Except for his eyes, those held the lust that he could never quite conceal when he looked at her. And though she felt the rapid beat of his heart against her breasts, his breathing was even though he’d just walked a long way with her over his shoulder. The man wasn’t human.
“Welcome home, Vee,” he said grimly.
“Fuck you.”
She threw her fist into his face, connecting with his chin. It hurt like a motherfucker even though he was so close to her she didn’t have a lot of leverage. Still, as his head swung to the side, she decided he got the point.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vee watched her daughter from the window of the bedroom Sotza locked her in. Two days had passed since she’d entered his home over his shoulder, screaming obscenities. Since she’d punched him in the face. Her rage was so great that during those first hours of isolation she would have happily burned the estate to the ground if it had been within her abilities. Since that exchange, her anger had dimmed to seething hatred.
Whenever Sotza came to check on her she simply stood silently staring out the window at the grounds below, always searching for a glimpse of her girl. He would talk to her, in his quiet voice. He didn’t say anything particularly important, spoke about his home, what life was like there, spoke a little about Miami. He didn’t say a word about Raina. He knew she was starving for information on her daughter. Vee thought maybe he knew that and refused to give up the goods until she started speaking to him again.
Now that they were in his home country he tended to speak Spanish. She had to admit he was smooth. His delivery of both languages flawless. Better than hers. She’d started learning Spanish from some of the men who visited her mother when Vee was a child. Later, she’d finished her education in the language formally, through online classes. Despite her fluent knowledge of Spanish, she still spoke in stilted sentences, never quite comfortable with her second language.
No one entered the bedroom except Sotza, and he only came in during meal times. They spent time together in mostly silence because Vee refused to speak and Sotza wasn’t a man to fill silence needlessly. He would sit quietly while she ate, watching her, his face blank, and then taking her tray when she finished. Though she stayed silent throughout these exchanges she longed to scream at him, hurl insults, hit him. The rational part of her brain told her none of these tactics would work. Sotza had proven himself both patient and intelligent. If she wanted to outsmart him then she needed to hold in the tantrum that threatened to erupt whenever she looked at him.
Sotza changed the game when he brought Raina here. Before, maybe she could have accepted her fate, but now, there was more at stake than her life. Not only did she need to escape, she had to take her daughter with her. Raina didn’t belong here. Didn’t belong anywhere near cartel. She’d been raised by a nice, loving family on an isolated farm. Vee’d made sure of it. It pierced her soul that despite everything she did to hide Raina from the world, the sacrifice she made to ensure the child’s safety, the girl had been dragged into Vee’s mafia world anyway.
Vee mostly blamed herself, not Sotza. The man was born and
raised cartel. He was a ruthless weapon. It was in his DNA to find and exploit any and every weakness when he was hunting. And she’d given him the ultimate weapon to use against her, a child. No, she laid most of the blame at her own feet. She should’ve done a better job of hiding the girl. She shouldn’t have checked up on her so often throughout the years. Maybe she should’ve sent Raina farther, even overseas, where she might have been out of reach.
No matter what Vee thought, she knew that Sotza would’ve ferreted out her daughter no matter what Vee did, no matter how hard she tried to bury the secret. It was her own fault for bringing the child into a world where Vee’s mobbed up life might one day touch Raina. But when she’d found out she was pregnant at eighteen, the father one of a string of ruthless mobsters, she hadn’t been as horrified or upset as she thought she would be if she was ever faced with that situation. She hadn’t been happy either. Of course not. At the time, she’d been living in a beautiful rental condo, the prize of her latest mafia conquest. She’d been his petted princess, given jewels, clothes, anything her heart desired.
Vee couldn’t quite explain how she felt when she found out she was pregnant but terminating the fetus hadn’t been an option for her. She’d thought long and hard about it, had even gone to a clinic to gather information. But in the end, as her baby grew, she knew she wanted to set eyes on it. Just once. Then she’d send it off to a better life.
Her pregnancy had been one of the best and loneliest times of her life. The father abandoned her almost as soon as he found out. Vee anticipated his reaction. She sold a bunch of her jewelry and moved into a smaller, cheaper place. She spent the next several months getting to know her child. Talking to it, reassuring it, singing and reading to it. She almost never went out, ordering her groceries from a supermarket that delivered. The last thing she needed was for the Miami mafia scene to catch wind of her pregnancy, to know about the child she produced. So she went through the entire thing alone, no friends, no family, no boyfriends.
Queen’s Move: Book Two of The Queens Page 12