Divorcing Her Mafia Family
Chapter 44

“You really enjoy this?” Dimitra asked as the bobbed in the eight-foot boat in the middle of freaking nowhere. “Aren’t you worried a gust of wind will tip you and you’ll drown.”

“If I didn’t have our snacks in this backpack or the risk of losing devices ,” he motioned to the bag against the back of her chair near where his feet were resting, “I would tip you right here and show you how easy it is to get back in the kayak. Yesterday I swam for a good hour beside the boat.”

“Aren’t you afraid of being shark bait?”

“No. I am not shark food. I make other people into shark food.” His laugh was dark and menacing and it grew louder as she looked over her shoulder and scowled at him. “Remember the time your dad and I took you out to the marina?”

She gave a shake of her head, “I was fourteen.”

“You laughed like a maniac.”

“The man s**t himself. It’s no wonder I laughed.”

“You enjoyed it.”

“You know it’s not normal for two grown men to take a teenager to a marina and have her help tie a man to the back of a boat and drag him through the bay. I had a science fair project due the next day.”

“We helped you with it. You got an A+.”

She fought the smile as she remembered they had pulled an all-nighter. Her science fair project had been about destroying bacteria and while it had started with her using household cleansers on common stains such as tea and wine, Miklos and Vasili had started testing products on whether different household cleaners did a better job cleaning b***d. They had gotten very involved in trying to sort out the b***d and replaceing b***d to use. Then Giorgio had come and helped with the statistical analysis, and she had turned in a project on the efficacy of stain removers using common household products with the stains ranging from wine to b***d. She’d gotten an A+ using the b***d of the guy they had dragged through the marina. He’d lived and more importantly never skipped a payment to her father again.

She yelped when a spray of cold water hit her skin, “Miklos!” she half turned in her seat to glare at him. “What are you doing?”

“I asked you twice if you wanted a snack and you tuned me out.”

“I was thinking of the science project.”

“It was a fun night. Admit it.”

“Fine, I had fun. It still wasn’t normal. Normal kids don’t torture people.”

“We aren’t normal, Dimitra. We are exceptional. Remember this.”

“Good grief,” she jumped when he splashed her again with water from his oar. “Would you stop?”

“Would you get me a sandwich?” he blinked back at her with a big grin.

She pulled the bag forward and hated how tipsy the boat felt under her. “You know, I surf all the time. I love to surf. I don’t even think about the fact there are sharks in the shallows but out here, it’s different. It’s lonely out here. Surfing, you can do it and be completely alone but there are forty other people out there with you also completely alone. If anything happens, someone is bound to see you. Out here, nobody sees anything. You could lean forward, slit my throat, and dump me and nobody would ever guess.”

“Macabre, but sure,” he commented dryly as he took the sandwich, she held out over her shoulder from her. “I like the peace out here. When I’m in the water, ninety percent of the time I’m on my own. There is nobody asking me for something. No favors, no jobs, no duty. No constant pressure to be ready for a fight from one of our enemies or the feds or the family. There are not countless calls from one club or another with problems only I can handle. I don’t have your father in my ear out here.” He g*****d, “Your father second guesses every decision I make, and he has moles telling him my every move before I’ve made it. Out here though, there is no judgement from my parents or arguments from Vasili about the things he wants me to do different. It is quiet and one of the only times I feel peace.”

“Your parents judge?” she latched onto the comment.

“Hell yes. I’m thirty-two years old and I swear I will never measure up to either of their standards. If my mother gave me a recipe card to follow to be her perfect son and, I did it step by step without variance, she would tell me I lacked imagination.”

She giggled at his words.

“My father,” he continued over a mouthful of the sandwich he had taken a huge bite of, “is still pissed I only have my master’s in accounting and economics and didn’t feel compelled to continue my education. He thinks because he and Vasili got their doctorates I should as well. What the f**k do I need a doctorate in numbers for? I’m not a college professor. I’m running night clubs, restaurants, and resorts. He recently spent time reviewing the books and found an error,” he grunted, “and not even one I made. It was his f*****g error. I listened for two hours to a lecture about how, had I not given up on my education, I would have found it before he had.”

She was laughing now. “Could be worse.”

“How?”

“At least it’s about education. My mom is on me about hygiene. Mama would send me care packages.”

“That’s sweet though.”

“With cotton panties with my name written in them. She printed my name in my underwear Miklos. I’m twenty-five. She also sent feminine hygiene supplies. This is the woman who told me when I was a teenager using a tampon would take my virginity. I don’t know where she gets her products from, but we donated them to a homeless shelter every time she sent them, and we were dirt broke for a long time.”

“How is it you were broke?” He asked curiously. “You didn’t keep any of the spousal payment at all?”

“We started school in September. In December during Christmas break, Sienna found out her mom had been evicted from her house. Turns out, she thought she’d been paying the rent, but her carer had taken all the checks and cashed them herself. She stole all the money out of Sienna’s mom’s accounts. Every single penny and in the first semester, her mom had slipped back from mildly confused to out of her mind half the time, and she hadn’t even noticed the care giver had been gone weeks. Sienna found her living in filth on a trip back home unsure when she’d last had a meal. She found the eviction notice on the fridge. Sienna is smart but not smart enough for a MIT full ride when the market was so competitive. She was going to drop out, go work a crappy job and get her mom into a nursing home. Instead, we piled our resources, got her into a nursing home up the street from the school where Sienna could visit her daily. We passed it off to Jonas as me doing the work mama does back here. He thought she was volunteering. To keep her mom in the facility was nearly three thousand dollars a month and Sienna still had expenses beyond her mother’s basic care plus tuition and everything else college costs. Sienna moved in with us for a while, but she was really scared Jonas would replace out we swapped places and she’d lose the income keeping her mom in a really good home. Many of the homes we looked at were bad Miklos. One place, a family member of a patient told us they had no choice for their parent being there, but they had to go every day and check on their dad because they left him in soiled adult diapers from sunup to sundown.”

Miklos grunt of disproval was echoed in her mind. “What is she doing now? Her cash flow is gone.”

“No, it’s not,” Dimi shook her head. “We each gave her ten million and made a sizable donation to the care home and paid for ten years of a stay for her mom. Her mom likely won’t last but she’s taken care of. Sienna has no need to worry. She can focus on her doctorate, taking care of her mom and repairing the damage with Jonas. She is family. We take care of our own.” She thought of the plan she, Darya and Magda had come up with and how much Sienna had sobbed. It made her smile

“Damage with Jonas?”

“She’s been in love with him for years. He’s quite pissed off she lied for so long about her identity.”

He snorted, “you think?”

“He’s in love with her Miklos. Do you know how much guilt he’s harbored for lusting after your wife only to replace out she wasn’t your wife? She’s been egging him on for years. She had missed a shift once for work during the week following exams because she’d been feeling under the weather. She was probably the only person left on campus because everyone bailed the minute the last exam was done. He went to the dorms to replace her and heard her screaming. Raced in and found her with a battery-operated device if you catch my drift. He wanted to call you and report himself for seeing your wife naked with a long vibrating device where it was meant to be. She begged him not to.”

He was quiet for a moment and then he started laughing. He was laughing hard, and the boat was lilting from side to side, and she cursed him to stop.

“It’s not so funny.”

“It’s hilarious Dimitra,” he croaked out.

She was twisted sideways and stared as he wiped tears off his cheeks, “why do you replace this so funny?”

“He probably thought I’d kill him. No wonder my reports have been microscopically detailed. He’s been following her closely because his d**k is hard and yet he never once acted on it. He’s likely got the worst case of blue balls in history.”

“Yeah, but you had the actual first case.” She smirked and mimicked a dive the way he had into the pool. She shrieked when he splashed her again. “Blue dye for the win.”

“How would you know? You kept your eyes closed.”

“Vivid imagination.” She laughed.

“Yes, I agree with your description of your imagination.” He was still laughing. “You do realize if we ever have children together Dimitra and they want to go away from school, they will probably hear of your exploits in hiring body doubles. They will be exceptionally prepared.”

“Our daughter will not be married at eighteen,” she tossed out with a grimace, “therefore she will be unlikely to want to run and hide across the country. Besides, I think I’d be a cool mom. They’ll tell me everything.”

“All moms think they’re cool moms. My mom f****d my nannies. She thinks she is the coolest of them all. All moms are gross, Dimitra, and you will be too. Our kids will replace you terribly embarrassing.”

“Bite your tongue!” she scolded, “I’m on the FBI’s watch list. Come on. That’s cool.”

“Do you think it’s cool Vasili is hounded by the FBI?”

“No, but he’s a giant wanker.”

“Do you really think our son is going to think I’m anything other than a giant wanker?” He was mocking her openly now. “Dimitra, I’m a control freak who works eighteen-hour days and loses his s**t the minute anyone disrespects me, and I hate messes. Our kids will likely hate my guts.”

“No way.”

“You don’t think so?”

“Miklos, you have shown considerable restraint and patience with me when I was a child. You could have murdered me a million times for half of the s**t I pulled as a kid, and you tolerated me well. You’ll probably toss them into the pool or yell at them while they laugh in your face. And as far as messes go, you’re the guy who lost his mind over Jinx being in the house, yet you feed her bacon and treats, and she loves you to bits.”

“What age would you want our hypothetical children to learn of the family business?”

He shocked her with the question, “Fifteen.”

“You’ve thought of an actual number?”

“At fourteen you’re starting high school. The world is hard enough entering high school and trying to sort through it without having to worry about whether mom and dad are going to get offed or arrested.” She took a bite of the sandwich she’d unwrapped. “Sixteen is too late. Sixteen is angst ridden and you would get a lot of ‘why didn’t you tell me’ bullshit which makes you want to smack a kid senseless.” She sighed, “I will say though, education on privacy, keeping your mouth shut etcetera should start at birth.”

“It didn’t help you. You have three best friends who know things they shouldn’t.”

“Darya knew who I was.” She argued. “The minute I said my name, she knew who I was. She pulled me aside and asked if I was there at the behest of her father. She thought either her father or Kostas had sent me there to deal with her.”

He was stunned and she could see it on his face.

“Come on Miklos. Yannis has used Pop’s services in the past. He wasn’t quiet about it when he was home. I guess he told her the rumours about how tough I was.”

“He’s a waste of air.”

“Agreed.” She bounced in her seat, rocking the boat, grinning as he grabbed the sides in a panic, “oh my gosh. I forgot to tell you. Darya’s mother demanded she pay his hospital bills and support them because it is all Darya’s fault Kostas collected his debt.”

“Please tell me Darya told her to k**s her a*s.”

“She went right to his hospital room and told them right to their faces if they ever called her again, she was going to call Kostas and encourage him to finish collecting the remainder of his debt from their hides.”

“Ha!” he slapped his oar against the water excitedly. “Good for her.”

“Magda and Sienna,” she continued her story. “Magda’s parents paid off her boyfriend. They felt he wasn’t good enough and clearly he wasn’t, but then they told her she was not allowed to do anything without their express permission, or she was cut off. No dating anyone unless they vetted them. No attending a school of which they didn’t approve. No friends of whom they didn’t approve. If she even spoke to someone not on the approved list, they locked her in her room. Her mother makes my mother look easygoing. She’s very intense. Anyway, Magda had a meltdown on Halloween when her mother showed up at MIT and dragged her out of a party and threatened to pull her funding. She slept in the room with her and Sienna all night to make sure Mags didn’t go back to the party.”

“Aren’t they from LA?”

“Yes.” She nodded vigorously, “she flew to Boston because she suspected Magda would go to a party dressed like a slut.”

“Was she dressed like a slut?”

“She was dressed like a hobbit.” Dimitra grinned at the memory. “Anyway, we commiserated over parents, and I let her know I could help her be sneaky. She got sneaky one time too many and her mom did as she promised and cut her off financially unless she moved home. She refused to move home. As for Sienna, I’ve already told you, her story. I told her my story as a way to get her to agree to help me. She was on board as soon as I mentioned the cash. She would have pimped herself out for the cash I think and the only guy she’s spoken to in eight years is her bodyguard. As it was, before she met us, she worked at a job she hated to pay her mom’s rent. This kept her from having to go back.”

“Well, I have not met Sienna, but Darya and Magda impress me with their spunk. They’ll make great godmothers to our children.”

She frowned at him. “We’re talking an awful lot about children we haven’t agreed to have yet.”

He gave her a cocky smile. “I know. You’re enjoying the talk too, I can tell.”

“Maybe. What are your thoughts, Miklos?”

“I think you make very rationale and reasonable arguments. I have terrible fears of a pre-teen kid being picked on at school because of his name and not knowing why. I worry of a kid in middle school who gets beat up because his father hates our name on principal. Concerns about a daughter who cannot defend herself against bullies the way her mother could because of her family. Do you remember getting into your first fight?”

“I was nine. Two of the girls cornered me in the bathroom and told me my father was a crook and one of them slapped me. I beat her and her scrawny necked little friend into the ground.” She looked away, “this is why I’m worried about having your children Miklos. There is no escape for them.”

“If you had children with Ben,” he brought up the man she’d told him about, “do you think nobody would ever know you’re a Lykiaos? Your name is known all over the world. Especially now that you’ve sold your program. Your face was on every news outlet. You’re not someone who can remain anonymous. Unless you’re homeschooling and then it defeats the whole purpose of protecting them, doesn’t it? Do you really believe you could hide your identity and keep them sheltered? Isn’t it better to face it head on? Prepare them for the world they are going to inherit?”

She looked away, “I don’t want them to get hurt or targeted.”

“My love,” he said gently, “it is not going to matter where you go. You can live the rest of your life as Elektra Manos, but you are still being hunted as Dimitra Lykiaos Laskaris. Even if we cut you loose and let you go be whoever you want to be,” he held her gaze, “you are still the daughter of Vasili Lykiaos. Any child you ever had, no matter where you hide, will be a target.” He watched the single tear slide down her cheek, “I am sorry my love for being so harsh, but I cannot sugar coat the truth for something this important. You can hide but we, me, my team, my father, your father, our families, can protect better than anyone. We protect and take care of our own. Do you think Ben could protect your children the way I could protect your children?”

She shook her head and exhaled, the tears now slipping freely down her cheek. “No. Nobody could protect them as you could.”

“I would tear the world apart for our family and you know it, Dimitra.”

“I’m scared Miklos.”

“I know.” He extended his hand out and took hers, careful not to tip them into the water. “I am scared too, Dimitra. Terrified. What I’m most afraid of,” he didn’t tear his eyes away from her, “is doing this with anyone other than you. You, more than anyone, will know when to reign me in. You will know when to make me react. You will keep me from killing anyone and everyone who looks at my family sideways. Your experiences will help guide us both.”

“Vasili will push,” she whispered.

“Vasili can k**s my a*s,” he retorted. “If we,” he waved his free hand between them, “if we see fit to decide to add children to our family, they are our children. Not his. He does not get a say in how we raise them Dimitra. He can spoil them like a grandfather but discipline, rules, training, and the day to day lives of our children are our decisions, not his. It is not a subject I will back down on. I will go toe to toe with him all day long on it.”

“You sound so confident.”

“I am not afraid of Vasili,” he said smugly. “I respect my elders, Dimitra. He is the head of our family and I owe him love and respect for the life he has given me. But and hear me well, I do not fear him. If I go home empty handed and he orders my death, I will not be fearful of my fate. I could drag you back against your will and force you to live with me, Dimitra and don’t think I don’t see the look on your face. We both know I could. You would run and I would drag you back every single time. It was my plan all last week, but I realized I don’t want this for you. I want you to be happy. If it means we are divorced and you are actively living your life where your friends and your family are a part of your world, then I support this for you. It is the very least I can do after what I have put you through. It is my greatest wish you let me be part of your future but no matter what your decision at the end of our time here, I go back to LA with no fear. None.”

“I don’t want you to die.”

“I don’t want to die. I am hopeful Vasili will come to his senses and at the very most just cut me off. If my father cuts me off of Laskaris, Dimitra, I will survive.” All of a sudden, he grinned broadly and pointed over her shoulder, “my friends from yesterday are back.”

As she turned to look at the pod of dolphins dipping and diving not ten feet from their kayak and causing it to rock, she had never felt as conflicted between joy and sorrow in her life.