Mafia Queen

Rose

Teela's POV

Jade, Donna and I walked into the meeting four months after Donna took over. The men in the room are visibly terrified. I smile a wicked smile and take my seat at the head of the table, Jade on my right and Donna on my left. Facing the room, I called the meeting to order. We had already quashed the underground black market that was selling guns to minors and now had a threat of gangs trying to show power. I was not amused.

"Maybe if we didn't have women on this council we would be able to show those stupid gangs we are strong. They see three women and they laugh at us. Our fathers were feared by everyone," a boy younger than I was said, before anyone could suggest a solution to the problem.

Donna stood to go off on him and I held my hand up, she sat. I laced my fingers together and leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table. "And yet when those three women walked into this room. The collective men sat up straighter and clenched their butts so hard nothing was getting past. Not even the s**t you spit out. So you tell me, who is being laughed at? It's certainly not me," I said, coolly.

Jade and Donna smiled and leaned back in their chairs. They enjoy it when I reprimand the men. I see one glare at me, I know this one very well. He was good friends with my brother. I didn't like him growing up, but I had no choice but to deal with him. Sitting next to him is Miguel, my ex-intended. I look at him with no expression on my face. I broke that marriage agreement and I had no intentions of putting myself back into it.

"Adam, is it? " I asked, looking at him. "What would you do?"

"I have no interest in anything outside my family's holdings. If these gangs want to try and take something from us, they will be met with resistance," he replied.

"Spoken like a true weak male. Let the real muscles handle it while I stick myself into whatever bimbo opens her legs."

Jade and Donna snicker behind their hands, trying to keep from full on laughing at him. "Teela, might I suggest we show our strength by demonstrating what we are capable of?" Donna suggested.

"Yes, a live feed that all gangs can have access to. For those more sadistic, they may get off on watching the feed, but it is priced wo could pay so they know we mean business," Jade chimed in.

"Now that is an idea. And it came from two of the women who are bringing the level of fear down for this group," I said, my voice dripping with all the venom I have for these men. "Let's set this up. If anyone catches someone causing problems, we will make an example of them."

"Do you really have to hurt people?" a quiet voice comes from the back of the room.

"Please speak up and repeat yourself," I call out.

A young woman my age stands and speaks again, this time her voice stronger. "Do you really have to hurt people? Could you not dismantle their operation without causing pain or death?"

I looked at her and saw myself at twelve when my father informed me that they had made a match for me and I would follow through with it when I turned eighteen.

"Shut your mouth, Rose. You are here to take notes, not suggest anything," Adam spat at her.

Jade, Donna and I looked at each other. We nodded our heads and then turned to the room. "Everyone but Rose leave," I shouted.

The men file out. Adam stops at the door and glares at Rose, then leaves. Rose is sitting in the same chair she had been in the entire meeting. "Please come closer, we will not hurt you," I encourage her.

She rises and comes to sit beside Jade, an interesting choice I think. Does she know how dangerous Donna is? I lace my fingers together again. "You make a patient plea," I say. "Can you tell me why?"

"I don't like to see people hurt. It's not right."

"But is it right for you to be treated like a secretary? Is it right for you to be talked down to? Let me guess, you have had a marriage arranged for you? You bowed your head and told your parents that, if it is the will of the family, you will do your duty," I say softly.

She doesn't look up or speak, she only nods her head.

"That is no way to live," Jade says, touching her shoulder.

"No one should be made to do anything they don't want to," Donna finished.

Rose looked at us with confused eyes. "Did all of you change your fates?"

"Yes," we said in unison.

"How do I change mine?"

"By joining us, by taking control from your brother," I say.

"How do you know he's my brother?"

"I know you, Rose. I was in a forced arrangement with your cousin Miguel. I ended that before I took over."

She looked at me and finally recognized me. "Teela, you look so different. Almost distant and cold."

"Because I am," I reply.

Rose lowers her head, I am beginning to think that maybe she needs this more than any of the other sisters I know about. She would do well to improve her strength. She is so timid. But our world is not for the timid. "If you do this, you must learn not to be timid," I say to her. "You must show your strength. But we do need members who have a softer side. The three of us are hard-edged and cold. I think you would be a nice addition to the court."

"The court?" Rose questions.

"The Royal Court," Jade replies.

"Jade and I are princesses and Teela is the Queen," Donna explained.

"So, I join and would I become a princess in this court as well?"

"Yes," we say in unison.

"Heaven help me, but I agree," Rose replies. "So now what?"

"Leave that to the three of us. Why don't you go and talk to your brother like nothing happened here? Give him the notes you took and wait for my call," I said.

Rose rises and leaves.

"We can't kill this one the way we killed the others," Donna says after Rose is gone.

"No, we can't," I agree. "Ideas?"

"I can handle it," Donna says.

"Good, arrange it so he ends up where we can still get our hands dirty," I tell her.

Donna leaves, while Jade and I clean up the files we have with us. Twenty minutes later, Donna texts us a location and we leave. When we arrive, it is a stretch of highway near a park and a known hang-out for a gang who is causing problems. Donna arrives and we look at her. I hear a car approaching fast, then see the sports car Adam drives coming around the bend too fast. He hits the breaks and doesn't stop. His car crashes into a tree.

Adam tumbles out, he looks drunk and there is a gash on the side of his head. His back is to us. We each plunged a knife into his back, mine severing his spinal colum. He crumples to the ground. Donna kicks him over so he is looking at us. She crouches down and runs the blade, through the gash on his face.

"Who's weak now?" she purrs into his ear. Taking a gun from her shoulder holster, she puts the barrel to his head and pulls the trigger.

Standing up, she looks around, then spots movement. We all turn, but Donna takes off running before anyone can react. She tackles the person to the ground and pins them. When Jade and I arrive, she has the person hog-tied. She gets them to their feet, and we see it's a man. The tattoo on his throat indicates that he is just what we need for a live feed.

"Let's take this prey back to your family's torture hall, Donna," I say, as I run my knife along the side of his face. "And we can play with him."