Divorcing Her Mafia Family
Chapter 32

Dimitra sat on the little balcony overlooking the ocean and exhaled slowly. The ride from the airport to the little rental apartment she had taken had been uneventful. By the time she had gotten into the rooms, inspected everything and unpacked her suitcases for her long stay she had felt worn out and the emotions she had been able to push away were resurfacing slowly.

She wanted desperately to call the girls, but they had agreed to keep her calls back to them on a weekly basis only and other than a quick text to say she had arrived safely, she forced herself to not contact them again. She wasn’t sure how long she’d be able to hold off from calling them.

Her mother had called but since she’d had dinner with Nerida and Giorgio, she had been ducking the woman’s calls. The more she had contemplated her childhood and the love she’d always had from Miklos’ family, the more what they had revealed to her had rung true. Her mother had always been the suffocating smothering kind, but she had never minded. She had always loved her mother’s attention to her, especially in contrast to the way her father had treated her. One was soft. One was hard. She would never fault her mother for loving her too much, if there was even such a thing. She only needed time to process her information and reconcile the fact she likely wouldn’t see her again. She sent her mother a quick text message which said she wasn’t able to talk right now but she’d call her over the weekend.

Of course, her father had called a few times as well. The announcement of the three-billion-dollar acquisition of their app had made front page news while she’d been in the air. Her father had left a lengthy voice mail about hiding this kind of accomplishment from her and stated he was proud of her, but they needed to discuss the way she continued to keep secrets from her family. She had skipped most of the message and saved it with the intention of listening to it later when she didn’t want to punch him in the face so much.

The person she had expected to call and demand to know her whereabouts hadn’t made a single attempt to reach her. He was still pissed off, she supposed. With her gaining a billion dollars and leaving him divorce papers to sign, ones she’d already signed off, he was likely coming up with a new plan.

Whatever his plan was, she hoped Vasili cut him some slack. Vasili could be cold and ruthless and there was nothing to stop him once he had a plan in place. He had boldly told Miklos he’d put a bullet in his head if Dimitra left the family. She admitted she did feel a tidbit of worry he would make good on his threat.

Sitting on her little balcony she heard the sliding doors of the balcony of the unit immediately beside her and found herself mildly irritated by the intrusion into her thoughts. The landlord had said a man had rented the space beside her for an indefinite period as well, stating it was a gentleman looking for solitude and peace. The other tenant should not be a bother to her at all.

Yet, the man was whistling lowly under his breath as he sat down on what she presumed were identical rattan chairs to the ones she sat in. She watched her phone vibrate on the table in front of her and grimaced as she recognized the name on the text message. Miklos.

“Congratulations”

She took a breath and picked up the phone. “Thanks.”

“I’m proud of you.”

She didn’t know what to say to his words. She sat there staring at the phone wondering what to type. He beat her to the punch.

“I thought I’d see my entire operations shut down today. Are you waiting until midnight or just keeping me on my toes?”

She fought the smirk on her lips. “No. I’m going to deep dive your systems and then forward it all to Agent Frye. Let him unscramble your mind and your wallet.”

“Do it.”

His comment made her pause. Do it? Was he just calling her bluff or teasing her.

The noise of the guy on the other side of the wall whistling still under his breath and adjusting in his chair made her cringe. She wanted to scream at him to f**k off somewhere. Didn’t he know she was on vacation and going through a personal crisis and was dealing with said cause of personal crisis right in this moment?

“It’s what you accused me of doing, right? You believe I’m capable so maybe I should.”

“Do what you must. I forgive you already for anything you feel you need to do. I deserve your wrath. Do your worst. I will live with the repercussions.”

“What if the repercussions are my father and a bullet?”

“Then I guess I won’t live with the repercussions, lol.”

Lol? She questioned his macabre humor. Surely, he wasn’t truly at ease with the notion of her father giving everything to Tariq and killing Miklos because she left? His next question had her stunned and panicking.

“How was the flight?”

She stood up from her chair and leaned over the balcony breathing deeply. He knew already she’d gone. “f**k, f**k, f**k.” She gripped the balustrade, taking large gulps of the ocean air before tossing her phone onto the chair she’d just vacated. Did he know where she was? There was no way. They did everything so carefully. Her phone buzzed on the chair. She stared at it for several long seconds and then cautiously moved to read the message.

“Elektra Manos. You forget you are not the only one with a brain in the family. Did you think I wouldn’t recognize Darya’s middle name and your mother’s name?”

Now she was in full-blown panic mode. “s**t!” She kicked the chair. The continued presence of the man on the other side of the wall whistling to an unknown song made her want to kick him instead. The balconies were separated with a wall of thick concrete and stucco, but she could hear him humming and whistling like it was nobody’s business. She found herself listening to it and then placing the song. Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. The guy was a Lady Gaga fan? Her evening was growing weirder and weirder.

She picked up her phone and saw another message from Miklos.

“Don’t worry. I haven’t told your father you’ve left.”

“Should I say thank you?” she typed fighting the panic in her heart. She tried to appear far tougher than she was feeling in the moment. He’d known she left.

“Not if you don’t want to. Promise me you’ll be safe. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Such as?”

“Who knows with you? Your fire building skills are debatable. I’d hate to see you try to build a fire on a Mexican beach and burn down a resort.”

He knew she was in Mexico. “f**k!” she gave a shriek. The clearing of the man’s throat on the other side of the wall reminded her she wasn’t alone and for the first time she considered she was interrupting his vacation time.

Dimitra sat on the little balcony overlooking the ocean and exhaled slowly. The ride from the airport to the little rental apartment she had taken had been uneventful. By the time she had gotten into the rooms, inspected everything and unpacked her suitcases for her long stay she had felt worn out and the emotions she had been able to push away were resurfacing slowly.

“Sorry,” she said suddenly.

The low laugh made her b***d run still and she considered for a moment whether Miklos could have been on the other side of the wall.

“Where are you?” she messaged him desperately waiting for his response. The desire to lean and look around the wall of the balcony immense.

“Working a project.”

“Where?”

“You tell me where you are, and I’ll tell you where I am.”

His response frustrated her.

She typed furiously, “clearly you know where I am because you mentioned a resort.”

“Funny, I checked all the resorts in Mexico and not one of them have your name or your alias. Which means you’re not on a resort. Where are you?”

The whistling of Bad Romance was really getting on her nerves because it was getting louder.

He knew she was in Mexico and was actively looking for her. “f**k you Miklos. You’re screwing with me, and I don’t like it,” she whispered under her breath as she contemplated what she was going to text. She let her fingers hover over the keyboard and then finally typed.

“Fine, I’m in Mexico. Isn’t that enough. Leave me in peace.”

The high pitch of a woman’s voice next door made her pause. “Draco darling, are you here?”

Draco, not Miklos. She exhaled as the legs of the rattan chair pushing back and the man whistling Bad Romance disappeared into the house, closing his patio doors behind him, and drowning out whatever conversation the couple next door was having.

She sat back down on the chair and waited for Miklos to respond to her request to leave her in peace but there was none. She realized she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. A knock on the front door of her unit made her move through her rooms quickly and look out the peephole.

“Ms. Manos, my name is Theresa. I am the landlord here. I just want to check in and see if everything is to your satisfaction.”

She pulled the door open carefully, “Hi Theresa. You can call me Elektra. Nice to meet you in person.”

“I was just checking on your neighbor, Draco. Definitely European or something. Gorgeous,” the woman’s singsong of the word was complimented by wide, heavily made-up batted eyelids. “If you need a little summer romance, he might be fun to play with.”

Dimi shook her head at the woman’s playfulness.

“If I were ten years younger and my husband wasn’t the jealous type, I would take him,” she tilted her head in the direction of the wall she shared with the other unit, “on a long moonlit walk on the beach and get sandy.”

Dimi couldn’t help but giggle at her words. “I’m not looking for romance. Quite the opposite in fact.”

“He did mention,” Theresa looked a bit embarrassed, “you were cursing on the balcony. He wasn’t complaining perse but did mention where he comes from women don’t usually swear like sailors and wondered if you were an uncouth American and if I expected you to be having parties and what not.”

She gave a nod, “I apologize Theresa. I had a text message from my soon-to-be ex-husband, and I got a bit heated. I’ll be more mindful I am sharing a living space. You can reassure him I won’t be having parties.”

“Thank you. I’m sure it will be much appreciated. He might be a bit older than you are so perhaps it’s a generational thing.” She gave a cheerful smile, “you have my number. There is a little market up the street about a fifteen-minute walk. I wouldn’t recommend you wandering the streets alone at night because no matter where you go, anywhere in the world, a young woman alone is a target, but you are safe here, in the enclave. There is a pool you can use all hours of the day. If you swim through the night though, just try to be mindful of the other guests. If there is anything you need at all, you can call me or my husband Tomas anytime.”

“Thank you, Theresa, I appreciate it.”

The woman gave her a wave and then disappeared down the stairs towards the open area of the units.

Uncouth American? She wanted to punch a hole through the wall and pull his snotty head through it and slap his face. Draco. Wasn’t that the name of the slimy kid in the Harry Potter series? He probably has a cape and everything. Probably a vampire. Uncouth American. The words were echoing through her head angrily as she stomped back to the balcony and looked out over the ocean. There were no footsteps or whistling on the other side of the wall and she wanted to ask him what his problem was.

All she’d done was swear a bit. She remembered Theresa saying he was older, and it could be generational. Great. She had old Draco the evil wizard vampire living next door for the unforeseeable future censoring her language and looking down his aristocratic nose at her for being American. d**k.

As she sat there thinking of the annoying man next door, she heard the outer doors of his unit closing and realized he must be going out for the evening. Unlike her, a single woman, he was a man, and nobody was going to rape and murder him in the middle of the evening. She watched the sea birds skittering along the sand looking for things to eat and a horrible, wicked idea came to mind.

Draco wanted to tattle on her for using a few curse words, well he didn’t know who he was messing with, did he? Prude. Maybe the old man was a bird lover. He should definitely get to see his feathery friends up close. With luck, they would roost on his balcony and with even more luck, they would s**t everywhere. She quickly moved back into the little apartment and rifled through the fridge. She clapped excitedly when she found what she was looking for. In her grocery list she had requested prawns. Her intention was to have them for dinner with rice, but she could make do with a peanut butter sandwich if she must.

She leaned over the balcony and past the little wall to double check he wasn’t sitting there, praying she didn’t get caught. The last thing she wanted was to be evicted on her first day, but the man was a tattling wizard vampire named Draco and he needed to be punished for his behavior.

She looked over her railing and noted a few gulls on the ground. She dropped a prawn and watched with glee as they swarmed it. After dropping a few more, they seemed to sense their food source was falling from the sky and they started to circle.

Grabbing the entire remaining dozen or so of the fishy smelling items, she tossed them right onto the balcony beside her and raced into her apartment, slamming her patio doors closed and sitting on the floor holding her breath at the cacophony of gulls screaming and fighting for the food she had baited them with to his deck.

“Where?”

She waited until there were only a few squawks left and then went back to her fridge. There had to be something else in there to make them come back. She wanted them to think Draco was a food source and plague his balcony. She found a package of sliced ham and laughed delightedly. Next time he sat on his deck whistling Bad Romance and being all judgemental he could have seagulls hounding him.

She slipped her doors opened again and peeked around the wall. She came face to face with a pair of yellow beady eyes and gave a shriek and then a laugh as the bird cawed at her loudly. She threw the ham onto the floor of the balcony and again five or six of the large birds swarmed his deck area.

She laughed loudly at the squawks of the birds scouring his balcony for the food and then went back inside her place. She found her phone on her counter and noted there had been no further message from Miklos since she asked him to leave her in peace.

She noted her handbag sitting beside her phone and pulled out the phone number she’d gotten from Trip. She plugged it into her phone and then set her phone back down. She made herself a peanut butter sandwich and grabbed a bottle of water and grabbed her laptop and headphones and after locking the door to her unit, double-checking all the windows and patio doors, she entered the little bedroom. The bed was tucked into a corner of the room, the headboard near the window and the length of the bed pressed against the shared wall of the next unit. A small side table was under the window and next to the bed and though it was small, it was quaint and cheerful. She settled on the bed with her dinner, computer, and phone.

She put a movie on her computer and settled in to watch it but the new phone number she had entered into her phone was taunting her. “Screw it,” she thought and reached for her phone and sent a text to the number.

“Hi. This is EM. Hope you have a good vacation.”

Within seconds her phone rang, and she blinked at his identification coming up. Did she answer it? She didn’t think he’d call her. She expected a text message at best. “Hello?”

“Hi Elektra. I’m glad you texted. You got into your place, okay?”

“I did, Trip. Thanks for asking. How is your all-inclusive resort?”

“I’m on drink number six or seven so I am no longer in the mood to complain about the dry white fish we had for dinner.”

She chuckled at his words, “I’m having peanut butter.”

“You have peanut butter?” he m****d in her ear. “I considered packing a jar in my suitcase and didn’t. Did you bring your own?”

“I did. Brought my own peanut butter and my own ketchup. I’m strange I know but it’s a thing for me.”

He laughed, “I like you Elektra Manos. I have to ask though, why not have food better than peanut butter your first night in? I thought you could cook. You said you had a kitchenette.”

“I do and I can. I was going to do prawns and rice, but I sacrificed my prawns.”

“Did you make a kind of pagan offering?” he was laughing at her.

“No. My old man neighbor tattled on me for swearing on my balcony. He complained to the landlord who stopped by to remind me of the shared areas and to be mindful. I simply fed my prawns to the hoards of seagulls on his deck when he went out. I would bet my last dollar it’s full of bird poop now.”

Trip was quiet for several seconds and she wondered if her words had scared him off and then he let out a loud howl of laughter. She couldn’t help it and chuckled along with him.

“Oh Elektra, you are too much.” He laughed in her ear.

“I try,” she said suddenly wishing she could hear her real name on his lips. She reminded herself it was her name now. No matter what, she had to get used to it. The bellow of his friends calling his name made her laugh, “sounds like you are in demand. Go have fun.”

“Can I call you tomorrow?”

“You can. I might be really busy laying on the beach or reading a book, but you can try,” she teased him.

“I will keep trying until I get you,” he said, and she didn’t miss his innuendo.

“Good night, Trip.”

“Good night, Elektra.”

She sat back happily and began watching her movie again. She eventually dozed off watching her show, but she sat up with a jump when scraping along her walls scared her. As she sat there for a minute trying to sort out what the noise was, she came to the realization the wall she shared with the other unit was likely the bedroom and he was rearranging the furniture in it.

He was scraping the walls and grunting as he moved things around.

“Are you f*****g kidding me?” she wondered aloud. She looked at her phone and noted it was barely ten o’clock so not quite the middle of the night, but it was late enough at night he shouldn’t be doing such s**t.

She slammed her hand against where he shoved furniture on the other side. She rested her forehead against the wall in frustration and cursed when it reverberated against her head. “Hey, sleeping over here!” she yelled at the wall.

Suddenly the furniture stopped moving and all was quiet for about a minute before he started up again. She punched the wall again, “hey! Quit it. I’m trying to sleep.”

He gave no indication he heard her, and he continued his redecorating for another twenty-five minutes before finally the noise ceased.

Dimi shut the computer down and moved everything to the side table and crawled into the sheets. She lay there listening to the surf crashing on the shore and the rhythmic pounding began lulling her back to sleep.

Then the unmistakable roar of the old man snoring directly opposite her head made her sit up. No. He had moved his bed directly beside hers. The only thing separating them was the thin wall and it felt eerily like she was sleeping next to him. Snoring. He was snoring as if he hadn’t just woken her up, redecorated his space and interrupted her evening. She reached for her noise cancelling headphones and noted the blinking red light.

She m****d in frustration. She hadn’t charged them since her flight and then she’d used them for the movie. Damn it. She pulled the pillow over her head and kicked the wall in irritation, but the echo of the man’s deviated septum mocked her. “Well played, Draco, well played.” She mumbled as exhaustion and sleep deprivation made her loopy and had her considering he had done all of it on purpose to try to drive the uncouth American girl away.

“You want to play with Dimitra Lykiaos-Laskaris? Game on, old man. Game on.”