Chapter Three
Swimming helped to clear her mind. At least, it used to help clear her mind, whereas now, it wasn’t exactly helping at all.
Liana had known the moment Diego had entered the room.
Besides the fact the door beeped when someone entered the room, she could also sense him.
Her father had installed the beep as a security measure.
Several years ago, a couple of his enemies had been able to sneak onto the property, kill a few of the soldiers, and get inside the house.
Every door beeped as you went in or out of the house.
It was great, until someone wanted to go outside to sneak a cigarette.
That was her brother, and it tended to wake her up when it happened.
Liana had actually been in the pool when the two men had broken into the house. It had been dark, and she had eased beneath the water so none of them could see her. She’d been the one to send the alert to her father and grab one of the guns from the secure case.
According to Enzo Jr., she did not have a kill, however, she believed she did. She had taken down one of the masked men, and her brother the other, but he had claimed both deaths. She refused to argue with him. They had killed bad men.
Not that death was easy to deal with. She acted all tough in front of her father and brother, but she had gone to the bathroom and vomited.
Afterward, she also had nightmares, and thinking back to that, she had a feeling that was why her brother had claimed both kills.
So, she didn’t have to deal with it. The truth was, she didn’t know if she had killed anyone or not.
She kept replaying the whole thing in her head, but she didn’t know if she had shot her gun, or if her brother had shot more than one bullet.
She was a good shot when the target wasn’t moving.
Either way, that had been a long time ago.
“It’s time for us to go home,” he said.
“I’m not going to your house.” She didn’t move from her position in the pool. Diego, however, took one step, then another, until he was close, and within touching distance. “I want a divorce.”
Her brother had asked her to consider her options.
He didn’t believe divorce was the answer.
Liana had no interest in staying married to such a horrible man.
She had tried to be married to him, and after six months, he was quite happy to laugh and joke about her.
Not happening. She was not going to keep playing a part.
“Not happening,” Diego said.
“What?”
“We’re not getting a divorce.”
“I don’t want to stay married to you,” she said.
“Tough.”
She glared at him, and then when he reached down as if to grab her and pull her out of the pool, she kicked back away from the edge so he would have no choice but to either climb into the pool to get her, or deal with not being able to.
“You’re not listening to me,” she said.
“And you’re not listening to me. There will be no divorce, and seeing as I’m the one in charge, what I say goes.”
She couldn’t even believe the audacity of the man. “Well, if you don’t want a divorce, I suggest you leave. This is my father’s house, and you are not welcome here!”
He stood staring at her, and she glared at him, refusing to budge. He might be used to being the one in charge, but he was about to find out what having her as an enemy was all about. What surprised her was that he unbuttoned his shirt.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
Diego didn’t answer, as he removed his shirt, revealing his very heavily muscled chest covered in ink. She was not distracted by the view, but she continued to glare at him, and then he removed his pants and as he climbed into the pool. Liana started to swim to the opposite side.
Just as she got to the other side, she put her hands up and started to lift herself out, only arms banded around her waist and pulled her right back into the water.
She let out a growl, because she felt the sheer strength of him and knew she was no match.
Liana tried to wriggle out of his arms, but he just swam with her further into the pool until they were in the center, and neither at the small end or the deep end. They didn’t even go under the water.
Diego held her tightly.
“Let me go!”
“No.”
She tried to become a dead weight in his arms, but that was no good, because he held her up and the water actually helped him. This was a nightmare.
After a few seconds, she slammed her hand on top of the water, sending up a splash of water. “What will it take to get you out of my damn life?”
“Liana, we’re married. Nothing is going to separate us. You could be pregnant with my child. There is no way I am going to accept a divorce.”
“I don’t want to be married to a man like you.” She hated how hot her throat felt, and she refused to cry in front of him.
A doormat! It was horrible. She thought she was being a good wife, a nice wife, a kind wife. The kind of wife a mafia man would want. Only, it was thrown in her face. No, it wasn’t even thrown in her face, she was talked about behind her back, to men she had to face.
She needed to call her friends and see how they were doing. None of their husbands had a nice thing to say about them. What sucked was moments before they overheard their husbands, they had all talked about how well they felt their marriages were going. It was such a joke. A painful and cruel joke.
“It does not matter what you want. We are married,” he said.
She was not interested. “What if I’m not pregnant?” she asked. “Will you consider a divorce then?”
“Liana, there are only two ways I would consider a divorce. The first, if you are a traitor to the Colombo Mafia, I will simply kill you. The second, if you make life so unbearable I cannot stand to come home, then regardless of whether you are pregnant, I will grant you a divorce.”
Liana knew she was never going to be a traitor. She was not after death, however, if he thought she was not willing to make his life hell to be granted a divorce, he was very much wrong.
“Fine,” Liana said.
“Are you done fighting me?” he asked.
“Absolutely.” Hell, no. I haven’t even started.
He let her go, and Liana swam to the edge of the pool and climbed out.
“We leave in an hour,” he said.
Liana did not argue. She didn’t look back to him but wrapped a towel around her body and left the pool, going straight to the main house. On the way to her bedroom, Enzo Jr. was reading on his cell phone. The moment he glanced up, he froze.
“What are you going to do?”
“Nothing.”
“Liana, I know you and I know when you’re up to something.”
“Diego has only two conditions he would grant divorce. The first is not going to happen, because I am no traitor.”
Enzo Jr. put away his cell phone. “Do I even want to know the second?”
“He will grant me a divorce if I make his life so unbearable he cannot stand the thought of coming home.”
He groaned. “Did he say that?”
“His words. Not mine.”
“Let me guess, he truly doesn’t know the wife he has, does he?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s up to him to find out. I guess we will see.”
Enzo Jr. sighed. “Divorce within the next six months?”
“Oh, I think he will struggle to last until Christmas.”
Her brother looked at her. “You’re not going to hold anything back, are you?”
“Hell, no. He started this, and now I am going to end it.”
****
One Week Later
Diego was not happy. Once again, his wife had managed to evade her two guards. This was not the first time, or even the second time in the past week that she had been able to sneak away from them, to do whatever the hell she wanted.
“Where is she?” he asked, putting his cell phone to his ear.
“She, uh, look, Boss, she found this café, and then ordered like a lot of food, and complained of stomachache, and went to the bathroom—”
“I don’t need your fucking excuses. I just need you to find her, and I need you to find her right the fuck now!” He hung up his cell phone.
He took a deep breath, because he was not going to take back his earlier assessment about his wife being a doormat.
However, in the past week, he had struggled to keep her in one place.
First, at their country home, he couldn’t locate her to sleep next to him at night.
She moved from room to room. Then, she fired all of his kitchen staff.
She gave them large severance packages and even told his main chef he had a job at his favorite restaurant.
That had caused a lot of trouble, seeing as chefs were very protective.
So, he had no choice but to handle both chefs and the restaurant.
Liana had gone from not shopping to spending every single day shopping.
The two guards she had were working overtime to keep up with her.
There had been multiple complaints, because she would spend several hours trying on clothes, then not buying anything.
However, she would leave a huge tip for the women that helped her.
This was not all. It would also appear she had somehow signed herself up to volunteer at a local animal shelter. This now happened three days a week, and she always made sure she left at six in the morning. Either he or one of the guards had to take her, because Liana had never learned to drive.
The only saving grace at the moment when it came to his wife—she was an amazing cook. She did leave food for him to eat, which was a surprise, although she never ate with him.
Because she had explored every area of his country home, he decided a change was necessary and took her to the penthouse apartment he owned in the city. He figured a change of scenery would calm her down. The opposite happened.