Page 1 of Bad Husband

Prologue

Marco Volpi stared down at his sobbing wife. His men had been interrogating her for nearly three hours, and during that time, things hadn’t exactly gone well. They needed a confession out of her, an admittance of guilt, but she refused. She refused to say she had cheated and lied.

Instead, she glared at him, screamed at him, and then her father suddenly crashed into the room. Angelo Mariani adored his daughter. There was a time Marco adored Chiara. She was nothing like the other daughters of the Bove Mafia. There was no sense of entitlement or expectation. She was not greedy or nasty. They were traits he was accustomed to from the women and whores who surrounded the Bove Mafia syndicate.

Chiara was different. She had the sweetest smile, the most sensual laugh, and she was not putting on a show. She was not flirting for the sake of flirting. She was just being herself. That was all. Chiara was not acting.

He imagined that had something to do with losing her mother, and the truth was, Angelo was not like most fathers. He didn’t beat his wife, or his children. They were a family, and Marco recalled the first time he visited Angelo. It was a wonderful experience of family, love, and everyone was happy there. There was silence and tension in most mafia houses, but not in the Mariani family. There was love and laughter.

This was killing him. He hated this, because the truth was, even though his marriage to Chiara had been arranged and it hadn’t started as a love match, he’d fallen for her. They had been married for a single year, and in all his thirty-five years, he’d never been as happy as he had been during this first year.

“You’ve got to stop this,” Angelo said.

“You saw everything,” Marco said.

Chiara sat with the enemy. Drinking with the enemy. Making love with the enemy. It sickened him that they were all fooled by her behavior. He’d been fooled by her behavior, but now he understood it was all a front. Women were not to be trusted, he got it now, more than ever.

He believed Chiara to be different, and he pulled out his gun, removed the safety, and pressed the tip of the barrel against her temple. She let out a whimper.

“Please, I swear it wasn’t me. I don’t know what I’ve been accused of, but it wasn’t me. I swear. Daddy, please,” Chiara sobbed.

She had blood coming from her nose and lip, and he saw her eye had already started to darken. Even now, knowing her to be a traitorous bitch, he still wanted to protect her.

“Don’t,” Angelo said. “Don’t kill her.”

Angelo came close to him, Marco removed the gun from her temple, and she collapsed to the floor. It was all an act.

“If you kill her and discover she wasn’t lying, what will you do?” Angelo asked.

“I have evidence.”

“I know my daughter is not a liar, and you insinuating she is, is starting to piss me off,” Angelo said. “My daughter does not lie. Not like this.”

“She must die,” Marco said. In his mind, all he could see was the way she slept with the enemy, the happiness on her face.

Their wedding night had been a total disaster. She’d been a virgin, as he knew she was, and he wasn’t gentle. He didn’t know how to be gentle. She’d sobbed into her pillow, while he looked across the bed, watched, and hated himself for hurting her.

Chiara hadn’t become cold toward him, she’d eventually taught him how to be gentle, how to have the patience he needed with her, and it had been perfect.

Until this moment.

Did he want to kill her? Yes and no. Yes, because he felt like the biggest fucking fool in the entire Bove Mafia. And no, because the truth was, he was falling for her. It was rare within their world for men to fall in love with their wives. There is never a love match. Just power moving between hands.

Angelo Mariani was powerful and wealthy. It was why he hadn’t shot him for interfering, because there would be dire consequences if he did. Angelo was feared and respected. There would be a window of opportunity to prove Chiara’s innocence, but if she was guilty, she would face certain death.

“Banish her,” Angelo said. “Strip her of her title, remove her from your house, banish her with nothing. Take everything from her. That would be like certain death. That way, if it turns out she hasn’t lied, you don’t have to live with the guilt of killing your wife.”

And it also showed him to be cruel. Banishing one’s own wife to life outside the Bove Mafia was rarely done. However, he also knew Chiara was no threat, as he had eyes on the enemy, and had for several months. It was why her betrayal hit so damn hard. He didn’t want to give her up, but the truth was, if he didn’t, he would kill her.

“Get rid of her,” Marco said. “She’s out. Gone. No money. Nothing. Remove everything of value, dump her ass with no money and no way of defending herself.”

He looked into Chiara’s fearful eyes, starting right through her. “If we meet again, I will kill you.”

Chapter One

Six Months Later

“Dude, you look a little pale around the edges,” Paulie said.