by Bethany-Kris
Sure, they could buy their blow or whatever else they needed from any dealer on the streets, but that always carried a risk. Cat was known for her silence, her talent for never being seen, and her track record of keeping everybody happy.
Plus, she was pretty sure there was a bit of ego mixed in with her clients, as well. Like maybe her high-class standards mixed in with her no bullshit attitude, the intelligent wit, and the queen title that came along with it all made them feel like she wasn’t just a drug dealer.
Dio, the fools; they were so wrong. She was just as filthy as the man on the street corner selling to feed his own habit. Another thing Cat never did was touch her own product. There was no profit to be had if you were snorting all your cash.
Yeah, that little girl from the Sicilian village sure came a long fucking way from where she started.
Standing from the chair she rested in, Cat gave her whispering men a once-over as they spoke in hushed tones around the small kitchenette in the hotel room.
“What’s all the whispering for?” Cat asked.
Pao turned in his seat. “How do you think that went, regina?”
“You mean having a gun shoved in my face or leaving him stunned? Because it isn’t the first time that’s happened to me, on both accounts.”
Gaetano snorted. “Doesn’t faze you a bit, does it?”
“No, I expected him to react that way once he figured it all out.”
Cat was lying through her teeth, but she didn’t want her men to know. The fact was simple, Dante Marcello had surprised her. The last thing she expected him to do was threaten her like he had. Men were easily influenced by Cat’s seemingly innocent exterior and then blindsided by the darkness hidden under her beauty.
Sure, Dante had been caught by her at first, but that didn’t last long.
Cat took notice of Carlos’ silence. The man had voiced his displeasure about her choices repeatedly, and it was starting to get dull. More than anything, Cat hated to be questioned. Especially by a man.
“Carlos?” Cat asked at the same time she waved for Gaetano to come to her.
“Sì, regina?”
“You’re terribly quiet, and considering you’ve had the most opinions to share this week, I’m curious why you’re clamming up now.” Cat pointed at the back of her dress. “Gae, would you unzip me, please? I need to get out of this damn dress.”
“Turn around,” Gaetano replied.
“You won’t like what I have to say,” Carlos explained.
Cat let Gaetano help her reach the zipper on the back of her dress. He pulled the little metal tag down until the article could be slipped off. All the men averted their eyes as Cat stepped out of her dress and covered up again with a white silk robe Gaetano passed to her.
“Fine, be honest with me,” Cat said, nodding to Carlos. “Brutally so, even. I won’t be angry.”
It was a trap and any man who worked for Cat would realize it. Unfortunately, Carlos’ personal opinions were affecting the reasonable side of his brain lately, and he would take her bait.
He didn’t disappoint.
“Why involve this Marcello at all in this plan of yours, regina? All you’re about to do is give up everything we’ve worked for, anonymity included. Do you really think you’ll be the ghost queen if your last name becomes Marcello? It’s downright … stupido.”
“Watch it,” Gaetano barked, coming to Cat’s defense as he always did.
Cat patted her companion on the arm, quieting Gaetano. “It’s fine, he’s just doing what I asked.”
Fact was, Cat needed her men for her business to continue being the success it was. There were avenues of clientele where her men fit in better than she did, especially where women were concerned or even the high-end dealers supplying to several. They were also her protection and comrades.
But she never let them forget who was boss. Not for one goddamn minute.
Carlos was forgetting his place.
“Well, since it’s my choice to make and only my name going on a marriage license,” Cat drawled, crossing the floor to stand in front of Carlos and Pao at the table, “… you can safely assume your position bears no merit for me, yes?”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it, regina? Nothing we say matters.”
Cat clicked her tongue, gaze narrowing. “Funny, my buttons weren’t the only ones you pushed tonight, were they?”
Carlos’ brow fell. “Mi scusi?”
“You heard me.” Cat took another step forward, keeping her arms crossed over her chest. “Before the meeting tonight, I was clear in my instructions. You were to talk the Marcellos in circles and keep me out of it directly, but not agitate Dante specifically. And what did you do, Carlos?”
“Nothing different from what you told me to do, Cat.”
There was another mistake to add onto Carlos’ growing list. When Cat acted as their boss, and the queen was out to play, Cat was not.
“You know why I told you not to anger him, Carlos.”
Carlos sneered. “Worried how your men act might affect the way he sees you as a business woman and potential wife?”
Cat’s nerves were pulled taut. She suspected Carlos’ behavior was a direct shot at her and an attempt to screw up her plans, but he simply confirmed it.
Carlos jabbed a finger in Cat’s direction. It was the last straw for her in regards to his life, but his next words sealed the deal. “You’re putting us all in danger and in a spotlight for a stupid fucking—”
The knife at Cat’s thigh was pulled from the sheath before Carlos could say another word. She swung the blade with perfect precision, slicing several red ribbons across his knuckles and up his arm. His blood immediately pooled from the cuts and dripped to the hardwood floor. Cat stepped away and put her knife in place before Carlos even pulled his hand back.
“You fucking bitch!” Carlos shouted, standing from his chair so fast it toppled over.
Pao moved out of his chair a great deal slower than his counterpart, moving away from the scene with a knowing expression.
“You’re bleeding all over this beautiful cherry hardwood. Go clean yourself up, now.”
Carlos glared. “I’ll—”
“What will you do, Carlos?” Cat taunted, knowing damn well she looked cruel. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”
“Cazzo!” the bleeding man hissed, moving away from her.
The moment the door connecting her suite to the men’s closed, Cat turned to Gaetano. Pao had come to stand by his side. “Things are going to be slow for the next year or so on the business side of things while I get everything safe and corrected that needs to be done. I know it’s going to put me in a spotlight to possibly marry into a family like the Marcellos, but I need this protection.”
“Do you think he’ll take the bait?” Pao asked.
“I think so,” Cat replied. “But I think I’ll need to push him into it. Let’s give him a week to look for me, see what he finds. In the meantime, lay low, stay off the Marcello territory, and everything should be fine.”
Gaetano tipped his chin in the direction Carlos had gone. “What about him?”
Cat waved over her shoulder dismissively. “Make him disappear. He’s tested my patience and challenged me. I can’t have him acting like that, so I won’t have him near me at all. I’d do it myself, but—”
Gaetano laughed. “We know, regina. You just had those nails of yours done again.”
“You know me so well.” Cat turned as Pao followed behind Gaetano. “And the next time we sit down with Dante Marcello, I expect you both to be on your best behavior. Carlos wasn’t the only one pushing the man’s buttons tonight.”
“Got it,” they echoed.
• • •
“Do you believe in love, Gae?” Cat asked.
Gaetano eyed her from the other end of the dining table, his wine swirling in his glass. “Why, regina?”
“Just Cat tonight, Gae.”
“All right, why, Cat?” he asked again, chuck
ling deeply.
She watched the couple three tables down behind Gaetano. The man and woman were young, mid-twenties likely, and sitting terribly close at such a large table with so much space. Their hands were constantly touching and their gazes, dazed with something Cat didn’t understand, never left one another.
Was that love? Real love?
Cat wondered what it felt like to be so adored and wanted. She supposed she was by the people in her life, in a way, but not like that.
“Curious minds,” she finally said, glancing back to Gaetano.
“I can honestly say I have loved every man who has been beneath me for a short period of time. It usually ended when they left my bed with a smile.”
Cat laughed. “Beautifully said, Gae.”
“I try.” Gaetano sighed heavily, looking over his shoulder at the couple Cat had been watching for some time before turning back to her. “Love doesn’t mix well in this business. It puts roots into the ground and keeps you there. That’s what you always told me, wasn’t it?”
“But do you believe that?” she pressed quietly.
“Where is this coming from?” Gaetano asked.
Cat sucked in a large breath, willing her furious thoughts to slow. “He did shock me the other evening. Dante Marcello, I mean. I assumed I had him figured out like most men before I put myself in his presence, but clearly I knew nothing. When he pulled the gun on me, I—”
“You didn’t respond any differently than I’ve ever seen you react before,” her comrade interjected.
“Maybe so, but it still stuck with me. It’s in here, now,” she said, twirling a finger by her temple. “I’m not sure where to take that or how to move from here.”
“He’s just a man.”
“A man who surprised me,” Cat muttered.
That was dangerous territory. Men were her pawns and she was Queen. She moved them as she saw fit, not the other way around.
“What does that have anything to do with love?”
“Nothing, but it’s got me to thinking.”
“About what?” Gaetano asked, clearly confused.
Gaetano had been her friend for longer than Cat cared to remember about her life. Shortly after she left home at fifteen, she met a younger Gaetano who was only three years older than herself. She thought him funny and charming, and he was one of the only men who was not affected by Cat’s games or guiles because he held no attraction for her.
She needed a man like him in her life. A friend, a very good one.
“I thought Vincenzo loved me once,” Cat confessed.
Gaetano cleared his throat, obviously shocked at where the conversation had turned. “You never talk about him anymore.”
“Well, I wonder why.”
Because that awful man had made Cat who she was to other men. After running away from the emotional and physical abuse her step-father leveled on her daily, Cat found the comfort of an older gentleman she could trust while working in a club. She had, of course, lied about her age to get the job.
Vincenzo Savino had seemed like a God to a young Catrina with his money, status, and seemingly cultured view of the world. His nice clothes simply hid the snake underneath. For years, nearly a decade, he held Cat in his suffocating grip, training her to be this unfeeling, uncaring and cold creature.
“I was so open to him,” Cat said.
“What do you mean?”
“To his ways,” she explained softly. “After being abandoned by my biological father and then hated by the man who raised me, not to mention dismissed by the woman who should have protected me, how could I have not wanted someone to be the hero?”
“Cat,” Gaetano said, scoffing darkly. “Vincenzo was no hero.”
“I thought he was at first. And I also thought he must have understood me, you know?”
“Not really,” Gaetano admitted.
“He gave me the perfect character to play, Gae. He turned me into this … persona of a woman who would never be the poor girl from the village, forgotten and uncared for, lonely and afraid. Doesn’t that make you think he knew what I needed, then?”
“What, to feed your hatred for men?”
“I don’t hate men,” Cat snapped, her stare cutting to Gaetano sharply.
“Not now, but you did. And really, you’re not all that different, Catrina. You’re still a goddamn maneater.”
Maybe she was. It was becoming hard to tell the difference between who she was then, who she was now, and who she wanted to be. Hell, even Cat didn’t know.
“Anyway,” she continued, waving flippantly. “I did think he loved me once.”
“But you were never involved with him, not sexually.”
Cat shrugged. “No, but I needed a father figure and he gave me that.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“I think he used your weakness against you and molded you into exactly what he needed.”
Gaetano was absolutely correct. Cat knew it.
“This Marcello …” her friend said, trailing off with a raised brow.
“Give me your advice, Gae. I’m dying to hear it.”
“Don’t forget, he’s just a man, Cat.”
Yes. But again, one that had surprised her.
“I don’t know if I believe in love that is untainted and free of manipulation and filth,” Cat said, dropping the conversation altogether and going back to the beginning all over again.
“Oh?”
“But I would like to.”
• • •
“Ciao, buona sera, Dante,” Cat murmured the moment the condo door closed. “It’s a beautiful evening outside, yes?”
Dante’s gun was out and pointing instantly, straight at Gaetano. “Fucking hell! How did you get inside my goddamn condo?”
“I’m good with men,” Cat explained, dismissing his concerns with a wave of her hand. “For what the cost of this place probably was, the building should get security guards who can’t be manipulated by a pretty woman.”
Dante’s gaze narrowed but his gun didn’t lower. “Noted.”
“Your kitchen is magnificent,” Cat said, glancing over her shoulder at the black marble and stainless steel.
“It would shame my mother if it was anything less.”
Cat smirked. “You Italian boys and your mammas …”
Dante arched a brow. “What do you want, Cat?”
Satisfaction swept through Cat. She didn’t outwardly show it. Part of her battle was already won if he was calling her Cat as she’d told him to and not Catrina.
“I would appreciate it if you lowered your weapon from Gaetano’s direction,” Cat said again. “As I said, he’s a good friend.”
Dante’s gaze cut to a quiet, stoic Gaetano.
“How good of a friend?” Dante asked.
Cat laughed. “Oh, what do you say, Gae?”
Gaetano didn’t blink. “Quite good, regina.”
“Yes, he has even seen me naked a time or two. Worry not, Dante. There are three things about Gaetano that pleases me. One, he’s extremely protective of me. Two, he’s got an awful attitude. And three, I don’t have the right bits to turn him on.”
Dante cleared his throat, eyeing Gaetano again. He dropped his gun to his side. “I see.”
“We’re careful about keeping his homosexuality quiet, and I’m sure you understand why.” Cat surveyed her manicured nails as she said, “I suppose his sexual preferences make you uncomfortable being Cosa Nostra and a devout Catholic.”
“I don’t give a flying shit who he fucks,” Dante said sharply. “It’s also a sin to eat shellfish, but my mother loves it, and you won’t meet anyone more faithful to God than her. It’s a sin to be left-handed, but every man in my family is. As far as Cosa Nostra, I didn’t make the goddamn rules. Besides, he’s not in with la famiglia, so again, he can fuck whoever he wants as long as it isn’t me.”
“You’re not my type,” Gaetano replied.
“Thanks. Now, get out of
my condo.”
Cat sighed. “Now, Dante—”
“Not you, him. I suspected you were going to approach me again after your men did a little disappearing act this past week on the streets. It’s like this: if you want to talk, we do so one on one. He leaves. I won’t have your minions breathing down my neck, Queen. I’m not some fucking sociopath who might hurt a female if I get her alone. Even if that female is you.”
Cat took note of his use of Queen and not her name. “You’ve done some digging, I assume.”
“Sì,” Dante confirmed.
“Did you like what you found?”
“Depends on how you look at it.”
Cat nodded to Gaetano. “Go to the car.”
“Regina—”
“Go, Gae. I am fine. You know this.”
Gaetano did as she asked, but he didn’t look pleased about it. Dante stood aside to let the man pass. Once the door was closed, Cat stepped away from the wall.
“If you break into my condo again, I won’t be so nice the second time,” Dante warned.
“I was surprised you were nice this time, frankly.”
“I’m still deciding what to do with you.”
Cat grinned but kept quiet.
“I have an office,” Dante informed as he kicked off his shoes. “I would prefer to have you in there.”
The way Dante said the words were innocent enough, but something inside Cat reacted to the thought of him having her. It was impossible to deny Dante Marcello was a handsome man with strong lines shaping his features and body, the confident posture he sported, and the power he wielded in his family. That didn’t mean she had to give in to those urges whispering in the back of her mind.
Besides, Cat hadn’t let a man get under her skin in a long damn time. Dante Marcello would not be the first to dig his heels in and set her off.
“Let’s go,” Dante said, loosening the knot in his tie.
Cat followed behind her new companion in silence as he walked through his condo.
“Did you go through my place?”
“No,” Cat answered.