Divorcing Her Mafia Family
Chapter 12

Surfing always made her feel better. The crash of the surf surrounding her and the shouts of other surfers calling out to each other as waves rose and fell around them, was the sweetest music to her ears. Salt water coated her lips as she pushed her arms through the water before rising to her feet to ride the last wave, they had all agreed for the day. It was of course the third last wave of the day, none of them ready to deal with the things they needed to deal with.

While she was dealing with the impact Miklos’ intentions to seduce her into staying with him, Magda was dreading the dinner with Ares Winter. He had been intent to convince her she should be with him. They had arrived at their beach house to replace he’d had his personal assistant waiting on her with a handwritten letter for her. Evidently the PA had sat outside the house since the crack of dawn.

Magda had been furious. She hadn’t told him where they lived. Magda had unloaded on the poor woman until Dimi had dragged her backwards from her, kicking and screaming she was trying to not just shoot the messenger but kill her. Dimi had insisted the woman leave immediately before Dimi and Darya released Magda to finish what she was clearly intending to do.

Dimi was grinning as she rode the wave into the beach thinking of Magda’s raw fury. Their tempers had been one of the things which had drawn the three women together. When her feet touched the soft sand of the beach, she remembered the day she had met the women she had called her sisters from that day forward.

They had been in the cafeteria near Dimi’s residence, and she had heard the two women arguing furiously over, of all things, the last slice of pie they had both reached for. She had reached between them and took it off the plate they’d each had a hand on and shoved the entire slice in her mouth as they had watched in stunned surprise. Her words after had made them both erupt into laughter when she’d told them, with crumbs spilling down the front of her shirt, it was just a shitty piece of apple pie and not good c**k, thus certainly not worth fighting over. They’d been inseparable since.

Dimi believed strongly in fate. She knew everything happened for purpose and reason. She believed in her soul Magda and Darya fighting in front of her while she’d been sitting at the table with the extremely introverted Sienna, the quartet was meant to be.

Four years they’d been inseparable. Then she’d gotten the job offer in London. Sienna hadn’t wanted to go because her mother was worsening, and Dimi had known her parents would have demanded she return home rather than let her leave the country. She had declared her passport lost rather than ask her parents to send her hers, got a new one and Sienna settled even deeper into her role as Dimi’s doppelganger.

Dimi knew Sienna was soft on the guard. She gave him gifts all the time, had even taken him to dinner on his birthday. Sienna’s biggest fear had been how angry the guy would be once he learned she’d lied to him for almost eight years. Dimi figured he’d be thrilled to know he wasn’t going to get shot for wanting to f**k the boss’ wife.

“What are you smirking for?” Darya asked as she flopped onto the sand beside Dimi watching as Magda paddled out for one more wave. “She’s worked up worse than you were.”

“I didn’t have Miklos with access to a home address he shouldn’t have. Our real names are not on the lease and yet, Ares found her. He’s good.” She shrugged as she lifted a palmful of sand and watched it fall through her fingers like sand in an hourglass. “Thinking of Sienna. Do you think Jonas will be pissed or relieved? He’s bound to be irritated with her, but he’s been watching her for so long, coveting what he couldn’t have. I feel responsible.”

“You should,” Darya smirked when Dimi shoved her shoulder playfully. “Really though, she has known all along what she was getting into. Three and a half years ago, you gave her the option of coming clean and she declined. She volunteered to stay behind and keep the secret going. She likes him watching over her. He likes watching her. She could have come clean with him years ago when he accidentally walked in on her showering. Instead, she made him promise to never tell Miklos what he saw.”

“She had a vibrator in the shower. There was no way in hell Jonas is going to report back to Miklos he caught his wife m**********g in the shower. Poor Sienna.”

“She probably burned her toy.” Darya giggled at the memory.

“Nah, she just changed the name from whatever it was to Jonas.”

They both erupted into giggles as they stared at the water and watched as Magda rode the wave into the shallows. Confident and strong, she was the empress of the water, and she knew it. She had been the one to teach them to surf and had helped them to channel their emotions into the waves.

She collapsed on the beach in front of them after jamming her board into the sand. “Holy f**k, I’m exhausted. I need a ten-hour nap. Between all the booze last night, lack of sleep and then the insanity of today thus far, I am not prepared for this meeting.”

“You need to read the letter,” Dimi spoke up. “I don’t want to get to the restaurant to replace out he booked the whole thing out, has a string quartet and a menu of aphrodisiacs on standby to seduce you with.”

“You worry about your d**k, and I’ll worry about mine,” Magda grunted.

“It’s yours now, is it?” Darya teased.

“It will be once I rip it from his body, plate it in gold guild and mount it to a base as a trophy.”

“You sure you want to mount it to a base and not to your –” Dimi roared with laughter as her friend lunged across the sand and wrestled her in the sand. Dimi let her pin her and straddle her. She knew she could easily knock her off, but Magda needed this feeling of power right now and she was content to let her have it. “I was only going to say mount it to the shower.”

Magda rolled off her and lay in the sand staring at the blue sky overhead. “I don’t know why he’s being so persistent. He met all three of us at the same time. He should have gone for one of you not me. I’m the least attractive.”

“Bullshit,” the two other women said in harmony and then laughed.

“Those green eyes captured him from the minute he made a smartass comment about women in the tech industry. You flashed your temper, and he was instantly hard.” Dimi reminded her of their first interaction. “He hasn’t seen us since. Truthfully, if he were asked to pick us out of a lineup, he’d be hard pressed to do it. His eyes are always on you.”

“Why can’t be one of those old dirty fat billionaires who wear Stetsons and reek of sweat?” Magda m****d.

“Who knows?” Dimi turned her head in the sand to look at her. “Maybe like my father who still looks good for his age, he’s made a deal with the devil too.”

“Maybe it’s some cult where they all drink the b***d of virgins and the innocence of children.” Darya tossed in after being strangely quiet.

“You’re probably right,” Dimi sighed. “Maybe the devil shows up the day you make a billion with an offer to exchange your soul for an eternity of looking hot.”

“Do you think Miklos made the deal?”

“Definitely,” she giggled. “Have you seen him? You saw him chasing me through the house this morning in his boxers. He’s built like a God.”

“I don’t know how you haven’t parted your knees like the Red Sea yet.” Magda grunted as she rolled over to her belly spreading herself into the sand. “He’s gorgeous. I would not have your resolve. I’m struggling with a man I’ve known three weeks. You’ve known him all of your life. He met you the day you were born.”

She sighed frustratedly, “My mother once told me, on the day I was born his parents brought me to the hospital and he looked at me in the basinet and swore to protect me with his life. He was seven. Tell me he wasn’t being groomed to be the leader of our family.”

“Ooh, ooh,” Darya piped up, “maybe he’s a werewolf. Don’t they have soul mates or something? Maybe he’s known deep down his entire life.”

Dimi threw a handful of sand at her face laughing, “you’re such an i***t. He doesn’t use claws to kill. He uses those eyes. Can you imagine having to face him if he was interrogating you? Those eyes are scary as hell sometimes.”

“You’re not afraid of him,” Magda laughed.

“No but it’s because he taught me almost everything I know. He was at every lesson my father ever gave me and he finished a lot of the lessons when Pop got called away.”

Magda shuffled in the sand, “your upbringing was really weird and very hard. It’s incredible to me you have the amazing heart you do after all you’ve seen.”

“My mother,” Dimi admitted. “I remember once Pop had made me go with him to a place where a man owed him money. Not a little either. Like hundreds of thousands of dollars and the guy tried to skip town. I was about fourteen. We did what we needed to do and then he brought me home. My mom took me into the house and got into the shower with me. Washed me clean from head to toe and told me all of my sins went down the drain with the rest of it. Then she fed me, and we went to visit my grandmother at the nursing home. We spent the rest of the day giving back at the nursing home, taking care of the elderly, and making them laugh.” She sighed, “for every ounce of darkness my dad brought into the house, she tried to counter it with light.”

“Why does she stay with him?”

“Because when she made her vows in front of God, she meant them. She won’t leave unless he’s dead.”

“It was within her grasp,” Darya chuckled.

“It really was.” Dimi said quietly, “you know the weird thing?” She didn’t wait for the girls to respond, “I love him. My Pop. I love him. He’s brutal and violent and he taught me to be one of his, but I also know, deep down in there, he loves me and as a little girl, I would have done anything for him. Anything. He would carry me on his shoulders and tell everyone I was his pride and his joy, and I was better than any son could ever have been. He would say it to anyone. When I got older and saw the pain he caused my mom, my love turned to anger. More than I love him, I hate him for what he’s done to her. She had three miscarriages after I was born, one of them a stillbirth in the seventh month. For every lost child, he grew colder to her, like it was her fault.”

“I was never a daddy’s girl,” Darya said. “My parents had kids only for show. I had the audacity to come out with a v****a instead of a p***s.”

“And refuse to marry a spineless t**t like Jurek.”

“Could have been worse,” Darya grunted, “his older brother Kosta could have suggested himself. He’s almost as scary as Miklos.”

“Why are our families so intent on arranged marriages,” Dimi rolled upward and sat with her arms around her knees staring at the water. “Are they consumed with money they forget what love and affection is?”

“Yup,” Magda grunted. “I will say at least my parents didn’t try to sell me off. They just paid off the boy I was all set to lose my virginity to on prom night.”

“You dodged a bullet,” Dimi threw out. “Twenty grand is peanuts. I can’t believe they paid him off with so little. It’s evident he didn’t know your worth. I bet Ares would pay billions for your virginity. You should sell it to him as a side offer.”

She shrieked and jumped up as Magda reached for her again. They raced around the beach chasing each other until they all agreed it was time to get cleaned up and prepare for their business meeting.

Two hours later Dimi and Darya were waiting on Magda as she finally gave in and went to her bedroom to read the letter, he had sent his PA to hand deliver. She came out of the bedroom her face a blistering shade of red.

“Snap, you look pissed,” Dimi stood up.

“He wanted me to know he’s bringing his girlfriend to our meeting and wanted to ensure we were aware we could bring our own dates.” Her fingers held the document in trembling fingertips for Dimi to rip away from her. “He has a girlfriend. He’s been making s****l comments to me for over a month, hitting on me, sending me croissants and lattes and he has a girlfriend.”

“He didn’t like you refused to meet him alone,” Darya suggested as she read the letter over Dimi’s shoulder.

“Obviously,” Dimi commented as she read aloud, “in the spirit of remembering this is purely a business transaction, I would be happy to dine with you and your dates. My romantic partner will be in attendance. In the event it was not clear, the dinner will be a formal setting,” Dimi trailed off as she looked back at Magda. “A formal setting?” She looked down to her pencil skirt and blouse. “He’s trying to throw us off our game, especially you Mags.”

“It’s worked. I want to walk from the deal. I want to call one of the others and take a lower amount just to make sure he doesn’t get his mitts on our program.”

“No.” Dimi shook her head, “use your anger. Focus it. If he wants to play the game, we can play the game. I wasn’t raised to head my family to run and cower when faced with a difficult situation. If he needs to hide behind a skirt to do his business this evening, then it is his prerogative. We on the other hand are going in ready for battle and we will not be taking his first, second or even his offer he made to you yesterday morning.” She paused, “he sent you those croissants while you were coming out of the gym, right?”

“Yes, the PA met me right there at the gym as I was exiting.”

“He had her follow you home to get your address.” Dimi shook her head, “it’s how she knew you lived here.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“Two can play his game. Let’s get changed into something more formal and let’s do it quick. Let’s not give him the satisfaction of thinking you delayed reading his note. I want his money. All of it.” Dimi was rageful at the games this man was playing with her friend. “He’s going to offer three or we walk.”

“Three?” Darya’s hand shook as she pushed her hand into her hair in shock. “You want to make him offer us three billion dollars?”

“A billion each? Let’s replace out if when a billionaire gets their first billion how long it takes for the devil to show up.” She alluded to her earlier comment with a dark grin.

“What if he refuses?”

“Then we walk. We don’t have to have a billion dollars each Magda but this,” she waved the letter, “tells me he’s been toying with your emotions to get under your skin. It’s working. Let’s remove the thorn of s*x he’s been stinging you with. I need you to channel Darya tonight, Mags. Think of the rage she felt when Kostas insulted her during dinner telling her she was not good enough for him but if she married his brother and her father paid a dowry, he would consider the family’s obligations paid.” Dimi put her hands atop Magda’s shoulders, “remember when she told us how she looked him straight in the face and said there wasn’t enough money in the world to sell her dignity on behalf of her family name and walked out of the dinner, the house and never looked back? You do this tonight. You look at him and remind yourself every single second your dignity is worth far more than his billion-dollar d**k.”

Dimi watched her friend nod and swallow deeply, “I can do this.”

“Yes, you can.” Dimi looked to Darya. “We are solid.”

“We got this and,” she put her hand on Magda’s shoulder, “we got your back. Nobody can stop us. Let’s take this fucker’s money.”

“Let’s go get it.” Magda said straightening her spine.

An hour later they were pulling up in a limousine Dimi had managed to get sent to get them and Dimi caught their reflection in the glass of the windows of the high-end restaurant. “We are fine as f**k,” she whispered as she wrapped her arm through Magda’s, Darya taking the woman’s other arm.

“Let’s topple the world.” Darya added

Magda was silent and staring at the restaurant as if terrified to enter.

“Your boobs look great by the way,” Dimi looked down Magda’s dress.

Magda gave a loud giggle and Dimi knew her words had brought her friend back. “Tape. Can’t wear a bra with this dress,” she looked down to the black shimmering evening gown with the deep v and backless low-cut hem almost to her a*s.

“Good. Keep those tatas as proud as you are,” Dimi smiled as they walked to the door of the restaurant.

Magda looked to the host, “we’re here to meet with Mr. Ares Winter.”

“We’ve been expecting you,” the man nodded in their direction and escorted them through the restaurant.

Magda’s hand shook in hers and Dimi flicked her a glance. The woman sitting with Ares was a famous supermodel and was exquisite perfection. Dimi laughed a low dirty and flicked a sinister glance to Magda. “This is going to be fantastic.”

“Why?” Magda whispered.

“She was last Christmas’ tabloid trash,” Dimi grinned at Magda. As Magda’s mouth opened in surprise and Darya gave a low chuckle, Dimi felt they were back on even playing field. If Ares Winter wanted to have her husband’s sloppy seconds sit at the table with them, she was going to relish in making them squirm. Let the festivities being.