Chapter 12 Victoria Blanca #2
“You were hard on them today La Reina,” she said, setting the papers on the table.
“They were stupid today.” I huffed rolling my eyes.
She giggled. “That too.” She looked at me in the mirror while I took a pin out of my hair and let the straight strands fall down my back. “You’ve been different lately,” she said.
I kept my eyes on my own reflection. “Different how?”
“Happier mamacita.” She was standing right behind me reading me. That made me glance over at her and she caught it. “Don’t look at me like that,” she said with the small smile. “I have eyes.”
I turned away from the mirror and walked to the seating area by the window, lifting the tea and taking a slow sip. It had honey in it, and a little too much of it. I set the cup back down and looked out toward the gardens.
“You imagine things.” I told her.
“I don’t.” I could feel her watching me. That was the thing about Luciana. She didn’t waste words, and she didn’t let things go once she thought she was on to something.
“You’ve been dressing differently,” she said.
“I always dress well.”
“You’ve been checking your phone every ten minutes.”
“I have business.” I shot back trying not to sound to defensive.
She furrowed her brows. “Your business calls the other phone.”
That made me get silent because I hated that she caught that. Luciana stepped farther into the room, not close enough to crowd me, but just enough to let me know this wasn’t casual anymore.
“Who is it?” she insisted on knowing.
I let out deep breath and looked away. “Nobody.”
“Victoria.”
I looked back at her and held up my hand. “Don’t.”
“Then don’t lie to me.”
For a second I thought about telling her and it wasn’t that I wanted to share it.
It was because a part of me wanted somebody else to say it was possible.
To tell me I wasn’t stupid for thinking the calls meant more than they should.
To say maybe Dom was changing. Maybe men like him did circle back once life forced them to see things differently.
However, that thought died as quickly as it came because if anyone knew he was coming, then he wasn’t mine or at least mine for that moment or mine in the only way he had ever been.
That was what made it feel real. So, I smiled and lied directly to Luciana’s face.
“You’re imagining things,” I told her. “Maybe I’m just not miserable every second of the day anymore.”
She studied me for a little too long, then nodded like she didn’t believe me but understood that pressing harder wouldn’t get her much. “Fine,” she said. “Be mysterious.”
“I’m always mysterious.” I smiled.
That made her laugh. “No, you’re obvious when you want something.”
She left after that, and I sat there by the window waiting until her footsteps fully disappeared before I reached for the private phone again and there was still nothing.
I opened our last message thread and stared at it way too long.
‘When you come, fly private. No security, no entourage, nobody can know. I’ll have somebody waiting once you land to bring you to the house.
He hadn’t answered that yet, but he would.
He always answered eventually even if it was to tell me he wasn’t following my orders which he probably would because he didn’t take orders from anyone.
I set the phone down and got up, pacing the room slowly while my mind got ahead of me.
I could already see how it would go. He’d come in quiet and no one would know.
I’d keep him away from the main estate and take him to the smaller property near the edge of the coffee fields instead.
It was private, hidden by trees, and beautiful at night.
There was a courtyard there with a fountain and candles always ready if I wanted them.
The bedrooms faced the hills, and the back terrace looked out over the water.
He would like that place, and it was far enough away from the main compound that no one would disturb us, and close enough that if I had to slip back before morning, no one would question where I’d been.
There were cameras, but I planned to turn them off ahead of time.
I walked to the closet and opened it looking at rows of dresses, shoes, perfume, and bags.
My eyes roamed over everything with a different kind of focus now.
I touched a black silk dress first, then put it back because it was too obvious.
Then I looked at a cream one and decided it was too bridal looking.
Then finally my hand landed on a deep wine-colored dress that clung in the right places without looking desperate.
I pulled it off the rack and held it up against myself in the mirror and it was beautiful.
My heart was beating too fast now, and all I had done was choose a dress for a man who hadn’t even given me a date yet, but he would come and I knew he would.
Maybe not because he loved me. Maybe not because he was mine, but because something in him still cared enough to call and continuously check on me and in my head, that meant there was still something to build on.
Something to pull toward me if I just gave it the right setting, the right mood, the right distance from Miami, from Carmen and that baby.
Then I thought about it, ‘the baby’ and the thought alone made me feel dark for a second.
No matter how hard I tried not to, I kept circling back to the same bitter little conclusion.
Carmen had his attention because she was carrying what he wanted.
She had access because she had given him a future.
Without that baby, maybe things would already be different.
Without that baby, maybe he would have had room to feel something else.
I hated myself a little for thinking it but not enough to stop.
I took the dress with me to the bed and laid it carefully across the blanket.
Then I picked the phone back up again and typed another message: Use the west landing strip.
No one there will know your name. I’ll have one driver only with no guards. No one has to know you were ever here.
I stared at the message and then hit send and this time, as I sat on the edge of that bed in a room too beautiful to feel so lonely, I let myself imagine him coming to me.
I imagined him stepping out in some half disguise that wouldn’t fool me for a second with his eyes on me.
There wouldn’t be no Carmen, no Miami, no family, and no baby if only for the moment.
It would be just him finally in a place where I could pretend, if only for one night, that he had chosen to come to me because he wanted me.
I knew how foolish that sounded but for the first time in weeks, the fantasy felt close enough to touch.
The next few days felt longer than they should have.
Every morning I woke up and checked my phone before my feet even touched the floor.
Every meeting felt slower. Every conversation felt like something I had to sit through until I got back to my room and could check my messages again.
It was pathetic and I knew it was pathetic.
Still, I couldn’t stop. The second he finally answered, my whole body reacted before I could control it.
All he said was: Late tomorrow night. I’ll let you know when I land.
I stared at the message for almost a full minute.
Then I read it again and then again. By the time I finally sat the phone down, I could feel my heart beating too fast knowing he was coming.
I spent the rest of that day pretending I was normal like I wasn’t distracted and pretending I wasn’t thinking about him every five seconds.
I had another meeting that afternoon at one of the smaller warehouses outside the city.
One of the men who handled money had been skimming from one of the routes and thought nobody would notice because I was too distracted with taking over everything else.
I noticed and I always would because I had a point to prove.
He was sitting across from me in the back office when I slid the paperwork across the desk.
The room smelled like cigarettes, and stale cologne.
One of the guards stood near the door with his hands folded in front of him while the man kept shaking his head like maybe if he did it long enough, the numbers would change.
“You stole from me hombre,” I said calmly.
“No.”
“Lo hiciste.”
“It was only temporary La Reina.”
That made me smile a little because he was still lying.
Men always had funny words for their betrayal when they were the ones doing it.
I slowly leaned back in the chair and crossed one leg over the other.
“You know what I think is interesting?” I asked.
“I think it’s interesting that men always assume women won’t notice things.
They think because I wear dresses and perfume and sit pretty at the head of the table, I’m not paying attention. ”
His face had become pale by then. “I can pay it back.”
“It’s not about the money.”
“I swear it won’t happen again.” He begged.
I looked over at the guard by the door. “Take him.” I ordered.
The man stood up so fast the chair scraped loudly across the floor.
“Please!”
I looked away from him before he even finished speaking. Because once I was done with somebody, I was done. I didn’t need to see the rest. By the time I got back to the house, it was almost dark outside, and my phone was still burning a hole through my purse.
Luciana was in the kitchen when I walked in, standing barefoot near the island with a glass of wine in one hand while she talked to one of the cooks. She looked up the second she saw me. “You look pretty.”
I stopped for a second. “What?”
“You heard me.”