Born a Queen (The Queens Book 3) Page 13

  After she got off the phone with Vee, Raina immediately dialed the number for Casey Reyes. She had a long and satisfying phone conversation with the mafia queen of Bolivia. Casey had at first been understandably leery about Raina staying in the mansion, and in Miami, for that matter.

  Casey was also mob royalty, having grown up the daughter of a man high up in the organization. After a terrible incident, where her entire family had been killed in a mob hit, she’d been married off to the man who had killed her family and forced to live in the home that Raina now inhabited.

  “Are you sure this is what you want?” Casey asked, concerned for her best friend’s only child. “Miami is a vicious place to live when you’re involved in the underworld scene.”

  “I don’t have much choice,” Raina told her. “My… fiancé is taking over and he wants me here with him.” Raina hesitated in calling Mateo her fiancé when he hadn’t actually proposed to her and she hadn’t actually agreed to marry him, but she didn’t know what else to call him. Boyfriend seemed like a weak word for what Mateo wanted.

  “Well, I suppose I can understand that. Love has a way of making us do stupid things.”

  Raina didn’t correct Casey about the love thing. She sure as shit wasn’t in love with Mateo, but she didn’t want to argue the matter, or make Casey even more concerned about her well-being. Instead, they discussed the people Raina needed to see and places she needed to visit in order to make connections in the East Coast hub city. Raina was impressed with the plethora of information Casey gave her.

  When Raina hesitantly brought up the house and her redecoration plans, Casey was enthusiastically on board, much to Raina’s relief. If Casey had objected, then Raina wouldn’t have touched the mansion.

  “Please tell me you’ll bulldoze the office. I fucking hated that place,” Casey said, a dark tone lacing her voice.

  Raina didn’t know what happened to Casey in the office, but she was more than ready to agree. “I haven’t been in there yet, but I promise to gut the place when I get my hands on it.”

  “Oh good!” Casey said happily, and Raina could hear her clap her hands. “Tell me everything you plan on doing. I always wanted to get my hands on the place, but Ignacio, my late husband, may he never rest in peace, wouldn’t let me touch anything.”

  They swapped decorating notes and tips and Raina promised to start a Pinterest board so she could update Casey on all her ideas and Casey could remotely take part in the renovation.

  By the time they hung up Raina was smiling and feeling more relaxed than she had in days. Maybe weeks, or even months. Though she didn’t want to live pinned under the heavy thumb of her family, she felt safer and more secure than she had in a while.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The following day Raina felt energetic and ready to get shit done in her new home. She researched designers in Miami and found one who came highly recommended, Daniela Velazquez. When Raina called, the woman was upbeat and intrigued by the project, asking a ton of questions, some that Raina had answers to and some she didn’t.

  They agreed to meet in person the next day, which left Raina to explore on her own for one more day.

  Raina was eager to do the one thing she’d been dying to do since her phone conversation with Casey; explore the underground bunker. Casey had told her of her traumatic time in the bunker and though Raina was saddened for the other woman, she was also wildly curious. What was it like down there? Would there still be a body?

  Casey’s bodyguard had been killed in the bunker and as far as Casey knew, he was still down there. After the mob war, the mansion had been largely abandoned except for a cursory clean-up, which explained some of the outdated furnishings.

  Raina wore a pair of sweatpants and a heavy sweatshirt. It was a bit much for the warm Florida day, but she was going underground. She wanted her skin protected from dust and sharp edges. She made her way down to the pool area, stopping to take inventory of the pool deck. She loved the pool itself and would enjoy it even more once she updated the furniture.

  She made her way into the pool house, looking around in awe. Though she’d had a taste of how the wealthy lived when she was in Venezuela, she’d grown up on a farm where luxury meant there was enough hot water for everyone to shower. These past two years, when she’d gone on the run, exploring the world, she’d decided to live on less rather than more, though she had a healthy bank account balance thanks to her lucrative forging contracts. She hadn’t wanted to draw attention to herself by throwing money around like it was water.

  She touched a shelf piled high with fluffy grey towels, but when her fingers came away covered in dust, she realized the towels were supposed to be white. They hadn’t been cleaned in years. She’d have to ask the housekeeper to assess the pool viability situation. It was becoming clear through her explorations that many things on the estate were suffering disrepair.

  When she arrived where Casey had described the location for the entrance of the bunker, it took Raina a few minutes to find it. She had to shove one of the shelves out of the way and pull up a trap door. Her side twinged its unhappiness at the weight of the door, but she ignored it.

  Raina peered through the darkness of the hole, trying to see into the bunker below, but it was pitch black. She couldn't even see the bottom. She chewed on her lip for a moment, thinking, deliberating on what to do. The smart thing would be to leave, tell Mateo about the secret bunker and beg him to let her come back here with the ladder.

  Of course, Raina wasn't going to do that. There was almost no chance Mateo would let her go down into that hole until his men had secured it completely. But she wanted to be the one to explore it, to discover this facet of her new home. Casey had practically dared her by telling Raina about it.

  She pulled her phone out of her pocket, tapped the flashlight app and shone if into the dark hole. She was relieved when it illuminated the bottom of the bunker, though she wasn’t certain how far away it was.

  After another moment of deliberation, she decided to go ahead with her original plan. She couldn't see a ladder or stairs to get down into the bunker and realized she would have to let herself drop. Before she could overthink it, she took hold of the ledge, turned around and slowly lowered herself into the hole.

  Raina groaned as her stomach teetered on the edge with her legs in and her torso still on the outside. The pain from her gunshot wound flared and she grunted, pushing herself further back and allowing gravity to pull her body down.

  She gripped the rough edge digging her fingers into the dirty concrete as she dangled above the floor that was somewhere below her at an unknown distance. She was going to have to let go. Because there was no chance of her being able to pull herself back up. Even if she wasn't injured, she still didn't have the upper body strength for it.

  "This was a bad idea," she muttered to herself as she let go of the ledge and dropped into the dark hole with a yelp of fear.

  It was somewhat anti-climactic as the ground wasn't really that far down. She hit the floor, her legs buckled and she fell over, banging her elbow on a wall.

  "Ouch." She sat up and rubbed the offended area. She glared up at the hole above her, it was maybe six or seven feet high.

  Raina fished her phone back out and held it up. The room flooded with light and she realized she was in a corridor. She got to her feet and dusted off her pants then moved cautiously through the tunnel. The floor was on a slant and getting steeper the further underground she went.

  "This is the part where the serial killer, angry clown, Predator, alien stalks me into a dead end and murders me," she said, hoping that by saying it out loud she would be making the idea ironic thus negating the possibility of it actually happening.

  Raina decided that she thought she was a lot braver than she actually was. Obviously she was brave or she never would have gotten into the underground bunker, but that was the extent of her bravery. She didn’t want to go into the bowels of whatever it was she was following, but at this poin
t she felt invested. It was either continue forward or admit she failed.

  Luckily, the corridor ended shortly after that, leading into a big room with no other exits. Unluckily, there was indeed still a dead body in the room, as Casey predicted there might be.

  Raina moved hesitantly forward, toward the skeleton on the floor. She crouched next to it, hovering her light over top. It seemed well preserved, with the clothing still intact and the bones all in one spot. That meant scavengers hadn’t gotten into the underground bunker. There was no smell. She had been half expecting there to be the stench of death. She supposed that he probably did smell when he was decomposing, but now there were only bones.

  This person had been Casey's bodyguard before Reyes had taken her from the house. This man had tried to kill Casey, having gone insane with psychotic love. He had died in the attempt and Casey had lived.

  Ignoring the corpse, Raina explored the room, running her fingers down the walls, looking for an alternate escape route. There was none. It was becoming clear that this room was meant to be some kind of bolthole, not an actual way off the estate. Still, it might come in useful in the future.

  Raina made her way back to the hole under the pool house, her shoulders slumping as she approached it. She'd really been hoping that there would be an alternate way out, because there was no chance she'd be able to reach the hole, let alone lift herself even if she was able to. She was going to have to call for help.

  Mateo’s phone rang twice before he picked up. "Raina?" he asked sharply. "Where are you? Are you safe?"

  She chewed her lip. “Have you read Alice in Wonderland?”

  “Yes,” he growled. “Answer my question, are you alright?”

  "I'm in the back yard," she said, stretching the truth. Technically she was under the back yard. "I could use some help getting back out of the rabbit hole."

  "Did you hurt yourself?" he demanded. She could hear him moving, probably toward the back of the house.

  "No," she was quick to assure him. "I'm just a little stuck."

  "Where are you? I don't see you anywhere."

  He must be looking for her on the estate lawns. "I'm in the pool house." Well, under the pool house.

  Seconds later the door to the pool house opened and she could hear Mateo's heavy footfalls. She called out to him, drawing him towards the hole. He looked over the edge and down at her upturned face. His features conveyed a myriad of emotions. Bewilderment, annoyance, anger, concern. He shuttered his expression almost immediately. She wondered which emotion he decided to settle on.

  "Did you fall in?" He knew better, though she supposed he was giving her the benefit of the doubt.

  She sighed and thought about lying, but decided truth was better. "No, I was out for a walk and thought I would explore."

  "Do you always move shelves and lift trapdoors when you're exploring?" He crossed his arms over his broad chest and leaned against the shelf.

  "Are you going to get me out of here, or what?" she demanded, frowning up at him.

  He actually seemed to think about it, the bastard. Finally, he said, "I should leave you down there. It'd be a hell of a lot easier to keep an eye on you."

  He moved away from the hole, his footfalls indicating that he was leaving the pool house.

  "Hey! Where’re you going?" she asked, worried he was actually abandoning her in the hole.

  A few minutes later he returned with a ladder and a few minutes after that Raina was free of the bunker. She felt much better stepping out from the pool house and into the warm Florida sunlight. She ran her hands down her goose pimpled arms. As they walked toward the house, Raina glanced at Mateo.

  "What are you going to do about the underground bunker?" she asked curiously.

  "Leave it. It was put there for a reason, a good one."

  Raina shivered. The hole was put there specifically for the inhabitants of the mansion to escape to if ever the need should arise. She felt uneasy at the thought that it had been used in the past and could still be used in the future. It was eye-opening to comprehend that now that she was firmly part of Mateo's life, she was also part of the mafia life, which could put her in danger. She kept having these moments of realization. Not like a gradual acclimatization to her new reality, but like these sledgehammer moments. It was disconcerting.

  "Sure, do whatever you want with the hole in the ground. But you want might want to clear the body out first."

  For a moment Mateo said nothing, then the import of her words sank in and he looked at her incredulously. "There's a dead person in there?"

  She grinned at him, opened the glass sliding doors and went inside.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The next day, Raina was pleased to see that, true to her word, Daniela Velazquez, interior designer, was making her way through the mansion with a tape measure and a notebook, Angela trailing after her with a bored expression. After she finished making notes, Daniela met with Raina in the dining room.

  Raina loved everything Daniela came up with, despite there being a strange coolness to the designer. Raina still couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something almost hostile about the other woman. It was weird because she’d been pleasant and enthusiastic on the phone the day before.

  Raina followed Daniela to the front door. Daniela shook Raina’s hand and assured her that she would start lining up contractors and searching for design pieces. Raina watched Daniela walk toward her vehicle, a flashy red convertible. Maybe Daniela didn’t like rich people? Or maybe she somehow knew her new clients were involved in organized crime and she didn’t approve.

  Raina shrugged and stepped back into the house, closing the door and locking it. When she turned around, she nearly ran straight into Angela, who jumped back a step.

  “I don’t like her,” Angela said bluntly.

  Raina didn’t think it would be particularly professional to agree. Instead she said, “She’s a professional. It’s not her job to make friends here.”

  Angela narrowed her eyes. “I don’t trust her.”

  “Do you trust anyone?” Raina genuinely wanted to know. Angela’s hard exterior seemed to cover a hard interior.

  “No,” Angela said with no inflection in her voice. “Except maybe Mateo.”

  Raina wondered why Angela was so untrusting. Oddly, Raina felt comfortable around Angela. She felt instinctually that Angela would make a solid ally if Raina could earn her trust.

  “You’ve been with Mateo for a long time?”

  “Since I was a teen,” Angela said tersely. “If you’ll excuse me. I need to get back to work.”

  Raina nodded and speculatively watched her walk away. There was a story there and Raina wanted to know what it was. She sensed that there was zero attraction between Mateo and Angela, yet they’d been together a long time. Had they ever considered hooking up? They would have made a good team. Deadly and beautiful.

  Raina checked the time and realized she only had twenty minutes before she was expected at the dining table and she needed to shower. Mateo was a stickler for both punctuality and eating dinner together every evening.

  Exactly twenty minutes later, Raina put the finishing touches on her makeup and admired herself in the mirror. When she took off her glasses, she could barely see herself in the mirror and had to lean in really close. She’d tried contact lenses when she was sixteen but had hated everything about them. It felt like putting sand in her eyes. The whole experience had made her appreciate her glasses even more.

  Despite the annoyance of makeup application, she enjoyed the process of dressing up once in a while.

  She chose a pair of black leggings with a soft shell-pink cashmere sweater. She wore a pair of cream-coloured spike heeled pumps on her feet. When she stood she wobbled, but after a few laps of her bedroom she got the hang of them. She’d found a limited supply of abandoned clothing in the closet and suspected that they belonged to Casey. After her conversation with the other woman she came to the conclusion that Mateo had put
her in Casey's old bedroom.

  There was only a handful of items. It was all good quality, but slightly large for Raina's petite frame. It became obvious that Casey was much taller than her and had longer feet. But Raina was able to make do. At least until she could get her own wardrobe.

  Raina left the bedroom and made her way down to the dining room where she was five minutes late for the evening meal. As always, Mateo was waiting for her. He was a very punctual man and the sharp look that he gave her made it clear that he was taking note of her tardiness.

  Raina smiled blithely and took her usual seat. She’d been at the mansion for four days now and was starting to settle into a routine. The only problem was that it was a routine she didn't particularly enjoy. She'd explored the mansion, taking notes and meeting with the interior decorator. Beyond that, she had nothing much to do and she was bored. She knew Mateo didn't want her leaving the mansion, but she had to convince him to lift the house arrest or she would go crazy.

  The housekeeper, Lydia, came breezing into the dining room, her hands laden with dishes. Raina smiled up at her and helped take them out of Lydia’s hands, placing them on the table. Raina liked Lydia. The older woman was cheerful, efficient, and always had a ready ear for Raina. Raina had spent more time in the kitchen since arriving than she'd spent in all of her kitchens combined when she was travelling.

  Once Lydia left the dining room, Raina and Mateo began eating. The meal consisted of a roast chicken with rosemary seasoning, potatoes, vegetables, and dessert.

  "Do we have any plans for tomorrow?" Raina hoped she sounded nonchalant.

  Mateo glanced up from his meal with a raised eyebrow. "What do you want, Raina?" he asked, cutting through her small talk.

  "I want to go out shopping for the day."

  She expected an argument from him, the man who had to have eyes on her at all times, especially since the bunker debacle. Instead, he surprised her by saying, "Done. Let Danny know what time you want to leave and he'll put together a team for you."