Page 150 of Mafia Obsession

Her nightstand is bare of her personal effects. Chapstick. Lotion. The chair where her clothes should be draped is empty. The silence presses on my skull, thick and wrong.

I kick in her closet door and choke on the smell of her scent. Her old suitcase is gone, but all the clothes I bought her are still hanging there. Most are untouched, with the tags still on them. In the drawers, satin and lace thongs are still rolled up in the velvet slots.

“She took nothing with her,” I whisper. NothingI bought her. Like she couldn’t bear a thread of mine on her body.

Her jewelry box sparkles from the diamonds I lavished her with. Including her engagement ring and wedding band.

I get back on the phone with Daria. “What is she getting as a settlement?”

“I offered a sizable monthly maintenance and security. She said no. To all of it.”

“She doesn’t get to say no!” I shout. “How can you let her leave and without any financial or personal security? She ismywife.”

“She signed the divorce papers, Ares. She’s notyour wifeanymore.”

I would shoot that woman in the leg if she were here. She knows that, or she would have been at my side ten minutes ago.She knew I was on my way back, and she knew my wife left me, and that I would find an empty fucking penthouse.

“Ididn’t sign the papers. If you tell me you forged?—”

“Ares, calm down. I knew you’d never be so cold as to divorce her. I thought I was doing you a favor.”

“How can she just leave?” I look around.

“I did what was needed, Ares. I need the God of War in his right head. Things are heating up. Nico Scava of Las Vegas has wiped out the Miami Cosa Nostra.”

“I don’t give a fuck about the Borgias!”I holler.“I want to know where the fuck my wife is.”

“She told me she was taking Sandrine to Arizona.” Daria clicks something on her keyboard. “Flight manifests show they boarded a flight to Scottsdale this morning.”

I missed her by one day. The same day it all came together for me is the day my wife decided she was done waiting for me.

Chapter 63

Ares

Isit on the bed. The bed Lourdes slept in without me for a month. What the hell was I thinking?

I can’t leave this room when I smell the faintest ghost of her scent caught somewhere in the sheets. Maybe I imagined it because I need something to hold on to before I fall apart.

“I thought I’d find you still here.” Daria strides into the room.

She’s never stepped foot in my bedroom. She sounds calm. Kind. If she sounds kind, I must be a fucking mess.

I don’t look up right away.

“Will you just admit you were hiding from a wife you obviously love?” she says.

“That’s not what I was, am doing,” I snap.

Not the love. My hand tightens in the duvet, knuckles going white against the dark fabric.

“I’ve only met one woman who carried enough energy to rearrange your world,” she says, standing near the doorway watching me. “And that’s Lourdes.”

I release my duvet and smooth it out. “My father always said love is weakness.”

“Your father was an asshole.” She holds no punches for a man I had no love for. “Why do you think Alexander was so reckless fighting that war with the Irish?”

I look up at her now. “He rarely shared his strategies with me.”