Eliana’s POV
Eliana’s POV
When Nico returned with even less men then he left with, I knew it didn’t go well.
I had been standing outside his office, a few feet away and watched as one of his men stitched up a gunshot wound in his arm.
He didn’t even flinch. He had blood everywhere.
He looked me straight in the eyes and looked like death. This was bad. Really bad.
I immediately went to my room, and started pacing. I heard a rapid knock on my door. I braced myself, but was incredibly relieved when Nico’s man, Lucas, was on the other side.
In a tight voice, “Yes, Lucas?”
In a terse voice he said, “Pack some shit. We need to get the fuck out of town. Now.”
I nodded as he turned away, and I quietly closed my door.
I immediately packed up two suitcases full of clothes, shoes, and basic necessities.
I had no idea where we were going, or what kind of place it would be.
I mean really, how do you hide from the biggest mafia Don in the world?
It’s easy. You can’t. Unless Nico had some super secret hideaway, we had a chance in hell in getting away from Maximo and his clan.
Word was Maximo was also pretty tight with Dominic and his clan as well.
Two of the largest clans out to get us? Yeah. Our odds were shit right now.
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Two hours later, we were pulling up into a walled-in estate.
It was fucking huge. It looked less like a house and more like a building.
Dark windows, dark gray structure, two stories high.
Nico had ridden in a separate car, and I was not arguing with that.
It wasn’t until we got to the new property that it dawned on me that Leo was missing.
But with things the way there were, I wasn’t about to ask anyone where he was. I knew he went with Nico on the ambush.
Was it possible he didn’t make it out alive?
I wasn’t friends with the man, but that was scary that someone I kind of knew died.
He was as awful as Nico and yet he might be dead?
Shit! This was turning into a real nightmare, and I had no idea how I was going to get out of this.
I needed to somehow distance myself from Nico.
I couldn’t stay and get further wrapped up into this fucking mess he created.
I asked one of the men whose place this was and he muttered, “His aunt.”
Shit! So the Black Widow had hidden properties. Interesting.
There were men already on the premises, some acknowledging Nico like they knew him. I had never seen some of them before.
One of them, an older looking brute, broad and stacked like a tank, said in a gravelly voice, “Nico, you can stay here as long as you like, but we will not get involved in the mess you’re in with Maximo Ruiz. Even Tania wouldn’t go near him.”
Nico grunted, “Fine. What fuckin’ ever.” He stormed into the place without looking back.
The man approached me and sneered. “Eliana Bianchi. Bet you’re regretting life right about now.” He laughed out loud, causing some of the other men to laugh too. “You’re fuckin’ stuck with the psycho now.” His eyes gleamed at me.
I didn’t flinch even though this man scared the shit out of me. I just looked away and walked past him, into the building. One of Nico’s men took me to a room, where I planned to hide away for the unforeseeable future, unless I could get the fuck out of this. Somehow.
Once behind closed doors, I pulled out my cell phone. I hesitated for a few moments, took a deep breath, then dialed my father’s number.
In a tense voice, “Eliana. Why are you calling me?”
I was shocked into silence. It took me a few moments to regain my composure.
“Papa, could you help get me out of this place? Nico has us hold up in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know what he did, but I’m guessing it was something stupid.”
I figured I was better off playing innocent, then maybe my father would give me the benefit of the doubt and help me get out of this.
“Don’t play dumb with me, Eliana. He’s your fucking husband. You knew what he was going to do.”
I raised my voice, “I didn’t know until yesterday what he was going to do. I didn’t know that crazy bitch killed his aunt.”
My father took in a breath. “The Black Widow was Nico’s aunt?”
Shit! He didn’t know that yet?
“I found out the day it happened. I swear I didn’t know, Papa.” My voice was rising more.
“You made this choice. You deal with it.”
I screeched at him, “If it had been Carina, you would have sent all the men!”
“Carina never would have been so stupid to align with that stronzo!”
I was so angry, I blurted out, “She wouldn’t do it because she’d rather lick pussy.”
I stopped when I realized what I had just done. I wasn’t in a position to degrade my sister, whose place I chose to take.
In a quiet, stern tone, my father said, “I can’t help you.”
Then click.
Did he just hang up on me? I pulled the phone back to look at it and I realized he had.
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Over the next few weeks, I kept as much to myself as I could.
I stayed away from Nico’s men because I felt a disconnect from them.
Leo had died in the ambush and apparently Nico was continuing to spiral.
He was often angry or raging somewhere in the building.
I heard about him coming and going at times.
I felt a shift in the air. He was acting more on edge, more angry as time went on.
Then suddenly, he seemed to settle. Just a little bit.
I had a bad feeling about this. I knew things would end badly, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted Nico taking out Maximo or if I wanted my husband dead.
Either option left me in a bad position.
If Nico killed Maximo, he would take over the whole mafia world.
And he had already proven he made terrible decisions.
Yes, I would be set as the top Don’s wife, but was that really a position I wanted now?
Only time would tell how this would all end, and where I stood at the end, if I was left standing at all.