Chapter 4: 3 weeks later

Sotza was waging war in her city. And he was winning.

Vee paced the floor of her office, steel heels tapping impatiently against the marble as she waited for her second-in-command to make an appearance. The back of her white silk blouse fluttered when she turned sharply, making her way back across the pale hardness of the floor toward the opposite wall. The aura of subdued violence surrounding her was unmistakeable. Like a caged tiger, she was ready to hunt and dismember her prey. Only she had no idea where the fucker was hiding.

After their initial meeting when battle lines had been drawn, they had gone their separate ways and she hadn't seen hide nor hair of the Gentleman Butcher. Though his presence lingered throughout the city as her contacts fell one by one, whether through clever negotiation, or, when that hadn't worked, brutal persuasion. Sotza was making a very clear impression in the Miami underground. There was a new commander in town.

She wanted to gut the man, dance on his spilling entrails and laugh like a loon while she did it. She'd never felt this kind of all-consuming rage before. Not even during the years of humiliating abuse she'd suffered at Tony's hands. And that had really been something. She'd learned cool poise and the ability to conduct herself perfectly in all circumstances while under Tony Montana's regime. She became the ultimate ice queen, never allowing anything to touch her. And now Sotza walks into her city and takes over, makes the entire East Coast hub roll over, without so much as a by-your-leave.

She wanted the man dead more than she'd even wanted Tony dead. And that was saying something considering that by the end Tony had been her least favourite person on the planet.

Vee had even tried to enlist Casey's help, knowing the phone call would prove useless. But desperate time's… Sure enough, Casey apologized and told her that she'd already tried to get Reyes to call off the Venezuelan, but he was firm. Reyes wanted Miami under new leadership. Vee had been given her chance and she'd fucked it up by letting the Mexicans humiliate her.

Casey had ended the call echoing her previous advice. "Don't get dead."

No promises.

The Butcher had no mercy. He was certainly showing her city none as he cut a bloody swathe through it while staking his claim. The increased violence was noticed by everyone, not just the underworld. News channels reported on gang wars throughout the area. Soon Sotza would tire of the battles and come knocking on her door to finish the war. Though she was well-armed with a veritable army at her disposal, she knew the man well enough to know it likely wouldn't be enough. He was a ghost. If and when he wanted her dead, she would get dead.

The fingers she had crossed over her arms tightened until her long, coral-tinted nails nearly pierced skin, reminding her that, for the time being, she was still alive. She would make the most of her remaining time. She wouldn't go out like her husband, arrogant on his throne, a weak shadow of his former self. She would die the way she lived, cool and proud to the end, fighting for her place. No regrets.

A loud knock interrupted her grim thoughts. Expecting this particular company, she made her way behind the large, ornate desk and called clearly and sharply, "Come."

Danny Russo, her second-in-command, entered the room, his face expressionless. Stocky and muscular, loyal to the last bone in his body, Danny was the man behind much of her success in Miami. Accompanying him was another of her men and between them a somewhat roughed up, shaken half-Cuban who looked as though he would prefer to be anywhere but in the Montana mansion, facing the wrath of the Montana widow as she stood to confront him, a letter knife held delicately between her fingers.

She nodded toward a guest chair and then sighed a little. She really didn't want to have this demonstration in the house, but, as she was going to allow Luis to leave the mansion alive, she didn't want him seeing anything beyond her spacious office. Perhaps she should have gone down to her dockyards. No, not hers anymore. Sotza's now. But Danny had deemed the docks too much of a risk. She wanted to show Sotza that she still had power in this city, despite his seeming invincibility. Her people had picked up the head of shipping security himself. The man she'd been bribing for years to help bring her shipments in.

"You've disappointed me, Luis," she said, ice dripping from every word. The man shuddered and shook his head, opening his mouth to lie to her. Vee cut him off. "I'm not interested in listening to your snivelling bullshit. I'm having a bad few weeks and the last thing I wanted to hear today was that the dockyard fell without so much as a single spilled drop of blood."

"Please, Mrs. Montana!" Luis blubbered as she rounded the desk toward him. He would have stood, but Danny held him with a hand on his shoulder. "It ain't like that. H-he threatened us. The Butcher, you know? He told us our lives and the lives of our families were as good as dead unless we gave up the shipments and manifests. We didn't have a choice!"

"And you didn't think your lives would be just as dead if you did?" Vee asked sharply. Without waiting for an answer, she gripped the sharp letter opener in both hands and plunged it down into his leg, just above the knee.

Luis screamed and tried to clutch the knife, but Danny held his arms from behind. Vee pulled the knife out, ignoring the drops of blood that splattered across the hem of her shirt. She held the tip against his neck and snapped loudly, "Shut the fuck up so I can speak."

Luis brought himself under control, sweat streaking from his hairline, his wild eyes on hers. Finally, he nodded slightly, though it was clear he was trying not to pass out. She sighed and rolled her eyes. She despised weak men and this one could barely handle a little stabbing. She really should put him out of his misery and try the next dockyard security expert.

"I'm going to do you a favour, Luis," she told him a cool voice. "I'm going to give you another chance to prove your loyalty to me and mine. Only this time you aren't going to fuck it up or I'll be giving you a whole lot more than this little scratch. You understand?"

Luis nodded frantically. "Yes, thank you, Mrs. Montana. You won't regret it."

She was already regretting it. Her fingers twitched with the effort not the plunge the blade through his eyeball. But she needed him alive. He was the only one who knew exactly when and where her shipments were coming in. She needed that cargo to prove her value to the Bolivians if she was going to stand any chance at survival.

"You're going to redirect the ships holding my cargo containers to new pickup locations, yes?" She arched an eyebrow until it met her severely cut bangs. "And then you will only tell my man, Danny here, where those locations are. Are we quite clear?"

He nodded quickly until she was sure there were spots swimming in his vision from blood loss. She'd been careful not to nick an artery, but the letter opener wasn't small. He now had a quarter-sized hole in his leg. "Quite clear, quite clear!"

"Good," she snapped, straightening. She held the hand with the knife low at her side. "Because if we have to have this conversation again, Luis, I can assure you, it won't be under such pleasant circumstances."

Vee watched as his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. She knew what he saw, what he was thinking. The beautiful madam of Miami, standing in all her glory in front of him, wearing a white, now blood-splattered blouse, black pencil skirt and silver stilettos. The almost matronly pearls she wore at her throat oddly out of place, yet also very much a part of her look.

She crossed to the other side of her desk, set the knife down, then coldly dismissed him. "You may leave."

The look she shot Danny told him that their guest didn't need to get back to the dockyards comfortably. She turned her back on the trio and took a few steps to the window while they exited the office. Damn it, now she'd have to get a cleaner in for the floor and chair. She hated doing business indoors.