When Villains Rise (Anti-Heroes in Love 2)

She was my sister and I’d never truly let her be in my life enough to support me when I needed help.

“I’m sorry,” I cried softly, hysteria bubbling up through the chaos turning my stomach into a tempest. “I’m sorry I didn’t know what Seamus did, what you did to save us all.”

“Oh Lena,” she sighed, looking over her shoulder at Dante. “Why don’t you take Xan inside for a cold beer, D?”

He must have nodded, because a moment later, I felt a soft caress on the back of my head and then soft footsteps through the grass as Dante led his brother and Frankie back to the house.

Cosima led me over to a bench at the edge of the lemon grove and sat us both down, curving me into her chest under her arm.

“I’m sorry you had to find out,” she murmured.

I pulled away to glare at her. “I’m not. I’m only sorry I didn’t know.”

“What good would it have done?” she countered softly. “It was you who told me a few days before my eighteenth birthday that the happiness of the few is worth more than the happiness of one. I agreed with you. It was my pleasure to sacrifice for my family, Lena. If you had been in my place, you would have done the same.”

“I know I’m not as beautiful, but it should have been me.”

“Why? Because you’re the oldest?” she challenged. “That’s so arbitrary. Besides, you sacrificed for all of us our entire youth. You didn’t have friends or go off to uni or do anything a girl growing up should have because you were too busy raising us when our parents couldn’t. You’d done more than enough.”

I held her beautiful face in my hands and realized I hadn’t done such a thing since she was a girl and her cheeks were plump with lingering baby fat. My heart panged for those more innocent days, even though I couldn’t regret that they were behind us.

“Do you know what made me happy back then?” I asked her as I stared into those melted gold eyes. “Knowing that Seb, Giselle, and you were healthy and as happy as I could make you. It made me happy to know that you were getting to school on time, that I could help you with your homework and make dinner so you could study or hang out with friends. I didn’t need my own happiness because I could borrow yours. So, it kills me that I failed you and you have to live through what I can only imagine were unspeakable things.”

“You know, at first I was surprised by you and Dante,” she admitted, cupping my hands on her cheeks. “But it makes such sense to me now that I think about it. You both have the biggest hears of anyone I know and the courage to do anything to protect your loved ones.”

“That’s one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me,” I admitted.

“Now, that makes me sad,” she countered. “I’m not the only one whose been through unspeakable things, Lena. Don’t pity me. Just like you, I’ve come out the other side much better for the things I survived.”

“Alexander was the one who bought you,” I confirmed, trying to keep my voice neutral even though the idea of him buying my sister to use as a sex doll made my blood heat to a vicious boil.

“Yes,” she said simply, eyes wide and sincere. “He had his reasons. If you need me to explain the whole torrid thing, I can, but I’d rather let sleeping dogs lie. There is no one in this universe for me, but that cruel and beautiful Lord and no one else for him but me.”

“I feel the same way about Dante,” I admitted somewhat shyly.

It wasn’t in my nature to divulge personal details or express my emotions.

Dante was teaching me how to love again and one of the most important lessons I was learning was that verbal affirmation was an essential part of loving someone.

“That makes me happier than I can say,” Cosima said, beaming. “No one will love you better than he can and you deserve that. Who would have guessed we would end up with brothers! Our kids will be more like siblings genetically than cousins.”

My heart clenched painfully, the hurt reflected in my eyes for Cosi to see.

She winced, grabbing my hands. “I thought you said the procedure worked? Dr. Taylor told you that you’d be able to have kids naturally one day.”

“It’s still a bit of a long shot. I have one working ovary and scar tissue on my womb from the ectopic pregnancy.”

“But it’s possible,” she pressed.

“Yes, it is.”

Her grin was girlish and slightly indecent, a little sister reading some salacious from an American magazine. “I don’t think you’ll have any problems. The Davenport men are very…virile.”