"He's not a good person, mom. He's dangerous and you should keep your distance from him," she snapped, glaring out the window as they pulled into the farmyard.
Diane seem taken aback by Raina's vehemence. Raina was usually pretty even-tempered. She would always stand up for herself if she thought there was a need, but she rarely snapped at anyone. Mateo brought the worst out in her.
"We know he's dangerous, dear," Diane said dryly, as though Raina was speaking the obvious. Diane and Joe knew exactly who Mateo was and the organization that he was affiliated with. They’d been involved in a similar scene in Miami before adopting Raina and moving to Pennsylvania. "But I won't pretend that I'm not grateful to him for ensuring your safety and for keeping us updated. If it weren't for that we would've been out of our minds with worry."
Raina's annoyance melted away and she reached out to take Diane's hand. "I'm sorry, mom. I should've called. But I thought I was being watched; I didn't think I could be in contact with anyone without them picking me up. Now I know it wasn't necessary."
Diane waved her hand in front of them as if the waving away Raina's words. "You have nothing to be sorry for. From the moment you were taken and reunited with your mother, things were out of your hands. We've always loved you and that will never change. You were doing what you thought was best."
Raina's eyes misted over. Her parents were the definition of unconditional love. It didn't matter what she did, how badly she screwed up, they would never blame her. Which is why she felt so protective of them. People who could think, feel and act the way Joe and Diane did were rare in her opinion and she would do whatever it took to protect the love that the three of them had for each other.
They carried Raina’s things into the farmhouse, dumping the suitcases by the door. Joe would carry them to Raina's old bedroom later, after the three of them had a good visit and maybe watched some TV. Now that Raina realized the extent of Mateo’s relationship with her parents, she knew that he wouldn’t be far behind.
She didn't know what he intended to do with her after that; whether he'd allow her to have her visit or drag her straight back to Venezuela. So, she would have to make the most of her time with her family and friends. She was done running. This was it. Her standoff on her home ground.
"What's for supper?" she asked happily following her mom through the front entrance and into the kitchen.
Chapter Sixteen
Raina examined herself in the mirror in her childhood bedroom at her parent’s farm. She looked pretty damn hot, if she did say so herself. She had flat ironed her hair until it was straight as a stick and sitting about halfway down her back. It was normally a wavy curly, but sometimes she liked the look of another style. It made her feel chic and different. Like a woman about to have a night on the town, even if the town had a population of only 3000 people.
They were going to a country bar; the only real bar in the area.
Raina was wearing a pair of tight black skinny jeans with rips in the thighs and knees. The jeans were about three years old, left behind from when she went to college. They still fit perfectly and gave her some extra confidence. Raina was small boned, small featured, short, and well, pretty much small all over. Including her ass. But somehow, through magic unknown to her, the jeans gave her a real ass, lifted up, and stuck it right out there. She couldn't wait until some cowboy filled his hands with it.
She also wore an off-the-shoulder red peasant blouse and a pair of genuine cowboy boots. She never really needed them, and to be completely honest, she had bought them for the country bar scene a few years ago. But they were gorgeous and she wasn't going to let their lack of authenticity stop them from shining. She loved them for their brown leather, heels, and rhinestones.
"You make that look good," Cass said, breezing into Raina's room and flopping down on the bed.
It was like old times and it made Raina smile with gratitude. It was like she never left. Everyone was treating her as though she'd only been gone on a vacation, not left for two years without a word.
"I know, right? Don't you love the boots?" Raina stuck her foot out for Cass to see.
"You've never touched a cow in your life, unless it came in burger form," Cass pointed out.
"Shush!" Raina laughed. "The boots don't know that."
Cass and Raina talked about what they were wearing, where they were going and who they might see there. Raina sat at her desk with a small mirror propped up against her lamp and applied her makeup. Raina rarely wore very much make up, though she liked the effect of making her features look more sophisticated. She put a bit more effort in for their evening out.
"I think Evan, Darcy and Dwayne are going to be out tonight. Darcy had a thing for you, didn't he?" Cass asked with fake innocence.
Raina didn't say anything. Yes, Darcy had had a thing for Raina and had never kept it much of the secret. At one point in her life, she'd indulged in a few fantasies about him. Of throwing his cowboy ass onto a hay bale and climbing on top of him. But she was smart enough to know that the reality probably wouldn’t match the fantasy. That big cowboy was best left locked up in fantasyland.
Being involved in the underworld, the way she'd been dragged into it, changed her perspective on everything. Darcy, the town she grew up in, the farmhouse, it all seemed so innocent to her now. It was like all those things were now a part of her childhood, neatly packaged and set aside to examine when she felt nostalgic. This place was no longer her reality, and like Alice in Wonderland, she couldn’t stay.
When Raina finished putting on her lip gloss, she pressed her lips together and turned to face Cass. "Time to go?" She stood up and twirled. She was truly very excited for a night on the town with old friends.
"Time to go." Cass stood and straightened her skirt. She wore a short black skirt with a black tank top emblazoned with a broken heart and the word ‘heartbreaker’ across it. On her feet were a pair of hot pink stilettos.
Heads turned when Cass and Raina entered the bar. It was so obvious that it was almost laughable. Raina looked at Cass and whispered, "Why are they staring at us?"
Raina had a healthy amount of self-confidence, something she’d built up over the years. She objectively knew she was a good-looking woman, but she’d never turned this many heads before by walking into a room.
Cass burst out laughing. "They're not looking at us, they're looking at you specifically. You disappeared straight off your university campus without a single word for two years, and suddenly you show back up again looking like a supermodel." Cass looked her up and down. "A really short supermodel."
Raina grinned and rolled her eyes. "Sure, thanks. Small town curiosity then."
They made their way to the back of the room, weaving around tables and heading past the bar to where Noah was waving at them from a table in the corner. Raina was grateful he thought to come out ahead of them and grab a table, because the room was crowded and she wasn't sure they'd have gotten a table otherwise. Noah already had a drink in front of him and next to his drink were two glasses of champagne.
Raina and Cass slid into their seats and thanked Noah for the drinks. They toasted and took a sip. Raina savoured the bubbles as they touched her tongue. This would be her only drink for the night. As always, she had to be very aware of everything she put in her body, but a glass of champagne with her two best friends was a necessity.
Cass picked up the conversation where they left off. "When you were taken away and no one knew where you were, we were frantic. Noah and I practically burned the university down searching for you. Your parents drove up and helped us. They were just as bewildered and frightened as we were, but for some reason they didn't want to go to the authorities."
Cass looked at Raina questioningly and Raina shifted in her chair. She knew why Joe and Diane wouldn't want to go to the police. They probably suspected the mafia connection was the reason for Raina's disappearance. They would have known that her life could've been even more in danger had they involved the police.
Curious, Raina asked, "And did they go to the police eventually?"
Noah gave her a strange look. "No, you contacted them two days after you went missing and told them where you were before they could make the decision to report you missing." At Raina’s blank look he continued, as if trying to prompt her. "You told them you needed time to yourself to figure things out. That you wanted to travel, that you felt bad for dropping out of University, which is why you took off without a word."
Raina sat with her mouth hanging open. It was quite a story and not a bit of it was true. But that wasn't what shocked her. Of course, her parents would have had to come up with something to appease her friends when Raina didn't come back. They would never understand why her parents wouldn't report her missing. What surprised Raina was the timeline. Two days after she’d gone missing. Who had contacted them and what had they said to her parents? Joe and Diane would've been frantic. Had someone taken that into consideration and attempted to reassure her parents?
Raina knew the answer to that. Mateo. He would have wanted to reassure her family; not only to keep them from going to the police, but because he would've known it would hurt Raina to know that her parents were upset. Raina knew this as well as she knew herself. Because she knew Mateo.
Unwilling to go down that path, Raina drained the rest of her champagne, giving herself a nice buzz. She grinned broadly at her two friends. "Who wants to dance?"
Chapter Seventeen
"So, you and Cass," Raina said casually while she was dancing with Noah.
Raina was having an awesome night. She and her two best friends spent hours talking and dancing, talking and drinking, Raina mostly drinking pop and flirting with the local cowboys. Though Noah didn’t join in, he was totally fine with the girls objectifying the boys. He knew it was all in good fun.
Raina’s gunshot wound gave her the occasional bolt of pain, but it seemed to be healing quickly. As long as she didn’t dance too energetically, she felt fine. Good enough for the occasional two-step.
Cass had gone to the bathroom. Before leaving Raina and Noah on the dance floor, she said she was going to order more drinks and have them waiting at the table. Raina decided to take this opportunity to grill Noah about his intentions toward her friend. Of course, he was equally Raina’s friend, all three of them having grown up together, gone to high school together and then off to college together. They had been inseparable until the day Raina was kidnapped.
Now, dancing to the beat of Old Town Road, Raina confronted Noah about this new development in their trio.
To his credit, Noah didn't miss a beat, and he didn't pretend he didn't know what Raina was talking about. "I love her," he said simply, his gaze straying toward the table.
When he didn't immediately see Cass, he swept the bar with a hawk-like gaze until he spotted her ordering their drinks. He visibly relaxed when he set eyes on his girlfriend. She was leaning over the bar, her ass stuck out. It was clear exactly where his gaze had zeroed in on.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Raina said, rolling her eyes at him. "You've been in love with Cass since kindergarten. I think the whole town knows that's why you’ve been hanging out with a couple of girls through your entire educational career. What I'm asking is, when did she sit up and finally notice?"
Noah grinned, his pride in their relationship clear. "A few months after you disappeared. I started dating this girl, kind of a goth punk chick. She was pretty cool, into literature and art, but way too intense for me."
Raina wasn't surprised at this assessment. It's why she had never considered him romantically, not even in her fantasies. Dude was so laid-back he was practically in a coma. "Cass took it hard, me dating other girls. She got mean all of a sudden, picked apart everything about them, and about me. I couldn't figure out why she suddenly did this about-face. She was always such a sweet person, never had a bad word to say about anyone. And then all of a sudden, BAM! She wouldn't stop talking smack."
Raina giggled. Noah had a way with words. He always had; he was the clown in school.
"So she finally came around to your way of thinking. And now? Is it all rainbows and happily ever after?"
Noah shook his head. "It wasn’t that easy. We sort of stopped being friends while we were figuring ourselves out, but because you were missing, we still had to see each other. We had to organize searches and everything. It was this weird time in our lives, where we couldn't stop arguing, but we still wanted to be together."
Raina grinned and bounced an extra bounce to the beat of the music. "And then fighting turned into kissing… and kissing turned into fuck—"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's pretty much exactly what happened. We’re predictable."
"No." Raina poked him in the chest. "It's a classic relationship starter. You need to read a romance novel or watch a romcom. You'll see what I mean. Boy meets girl in some kind of meet-cute, boy and girl fight, fight, fight, then they kiss, kiss, kiss, then…"
"You're finding this way too amusing," Noah said dryly.
Raina laughed out loud, throwing her head back and enjoying the carefree moment. Yeah, she was amused. This was the most fun she'd had in years. She’d gone globetrotting, she'd gone to incredible places in the world, explored new cultures, new people, new countries. But it really came down to this. The people that she knew and that knew her. Their love for each other transcended all that. Places were cool, but they couldn't care about a person's well-being. Raina loved Noah and Cass and hoped the best for them. She knew that they felt the same about her.
"So, have you proposed to her?" Raina was dying of curiosity.
The song ended and they stopped dancing, though they continued to stand on the dance floor.
"No, I haven't asked her yet," he said quietly, his eyes on the woman now sitting across the room one leg crossed over the other, a dreamy expression on her face as she waited for her companions to come back. "I have the ring though. I'm just waiting for the right moment."
A lump formed in Raina's throat and she had to swallow it before she could speak. Thinking about her relationship, or non-relationship with Mateo, she put her hand on Noah's sleeve. "Every moment is the perfect moment. If you wait too long or try too hard to capture a certain moment, you'll waste time waiting for something intangible. My advice if you want it, is don’t miss out on one minute of the joy in knowing you're going to spend the rest of your life with the person you love."
Noah nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe you're right. Every time I try to settle on a day and time, I change my mind. Nothing seems right. People keep telling me the right moment will present itself, but it hasn't and I'm starting to think it never will."
Raina smiled at him. "It's not about the perfect moment, it's about the perfect person. If you think you found her, then don't waste a single second, create the moment."
The way Mateo kept creating moments for them. He was patient, he was relentless, he never gave up. Raina didn't know if Mateo loved her, though she suspected he might. What she did know is that she could rely on him. He would come for her. He would always come for her. He was the master of making his moments.
Noah and Raina weaved through the tables making their way back to where Cass was sitting. Before they made it to the table though, they were intercepted by a couple of cowboys.
"Well aren’t you looking fine tonight, little Miss Raina." One of them stepped up to Raina his arms outstretched.
"Darcy! I heard you might be out tonight." Raina opened her arms to him and allowed him to envelop her in a bear hug.
He stood close to her his arm slung over her shoulders, a section of her hair between his fingers where he played with it. Darcy was a good guy, but he loved to get into a woman’s space. Raina didn't mind tonight though. Some light flirtation was good for her.
"Dance?" Darcy asked her.
Raina looked at Noah and then toward Cass who was watching them with curiosity, her lips tilted up in a grin because she knew that her friend was getting hit on.
Noah nodded toward Darcy and his boys and then said to Raina, "Whatever you want to do, I'll be at the table with Cass."
After Raina agreed to dance, Noah left her in Darcy's care. A fast-paced country beat dictated their first dance. They two-stepped energetically, laughing and talking about nothing. It was noisy and Raina was starting to feel out of breath from dancing half the night. She relaxed and allowed Darcy to swing her around in his strong embrace.
When they finished the dance, she attempted to go back to her table, but Darcy grabbed her hand to stop her. "Hey, don't go leaving me yet. I don't want to lose you for another two years. Dance with me again."
He didn't really ask her, but assumed he had her consent. Raina didn't want to make a fuss since she was having a good time, so she melted into his arms for the next dance, a love ballad. They swayed together to Taylor Swift's Lover.
Mateo would have a fit if he saw another man touching her. Every time they saw each other, the atmosphere was fraught with emotion and he made it clear that he didn't want her near his men unless it was purely business. He'd been that way right from the start, right from the moment he took her from her University campus to Venezuela.
"So, where'd you go for those two years?" Darcy asked, demand in his tone.
Raina didn't like the way he asked the question, as though he was entitled to an answer. It was really none of his business; they'd never been an item. He'd been too much of a playboy and Raina was two years behind him in school. Though he'd noticed her, neither had ever acted on any kind of romance. Story of Raina's life, all fun and fantasies, no action.
"Travelling." She didn't give him more. She didn't want him thinking that she owed him something.
He didn't take the hint. "Travelling where?"
Raina sighed. She would either have to potentially offend him and tell him to back off or find a way to answer his question that didn't include talking about her bullet wound, her family connections, or any other assorted information that might come up that he shouldn't know.
Born a Queen (The Queens Book 3) Page 9
