When Villains Rise (Anti-Heroes in Love 2)

His golden brows rose. “Then, consider this the same. Even when I thought I hated you, I never stopped loving you. Glad to see you found the best kind of woman to love you too.”

“Wow,” Cosima mock whispered to Elena. “This is the nicest they’ve ever been to each other.”

Elena and I laughed.

“I’ll see you soon,” Cosi promised us both, stepping forward to enfold us both in her arms.

She smelled of spice, of sweet autumn leaves and Indian summer nights. I held her close and felt my love for her move through me, placid and smooth.

It amused me to think I ever fancied myself in love with her when my feelings for Elena so easily eclipsed that tenderness I felt for her sister.

Our love was violent.

There was nothing soft or subtle about the way it caught my soul up in a whirlwind fury of intense longing and furious passion. I was fevered. Obsessed. So in love it felt like I was hit in the face with it every time I looked at the woman in possession in my heart.

Maybe it made me a masochist, but I fucking loved it.

We finished our goodbyes and I helped Elena into the black speed boat I’d captain back to Naples.

“You know how to drive a boat?” she asked as I started the boat then caught the ropes from Tore and cast off from the pier. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

I winked. “No.”

“You can’t be humble,” she said, but she did it laughing.

I watched her lean back in her seat, her hair catching in the wind as I revved the engine and took us cutting through the waves back to her hometown. She was languid, graceful as always, but heavy with contentment. Her lids were low over warm gray eyes that watched me as I steered the boat easily through the errant fishing vessels dotting the harbor.

“Sei bellissima,” I told her.

You look beautiful.

“You look like mine,” came her response with a slow, wicked smile. “I don’t suppose we have time to consummate the union?”

“Not yet. Later, I’ll fuck you until even your teeth aches. Now, we aren’t getting on a plane. We’re going to end Rocco Abruzzi’s reign over Napoli.”

She blinked at me, her mouth a little moue of shock.

For a second, I wondered if this was too much. If my ice queen lawyer had returned and her desire to be good would stop her from supporting my plan.

Before I could curb my words, she smiled like a fox in the face of a hound, clever and sly with bad intentions. “Can I help?”

The wind caught my laughter and sent it flying around us. “Si, Donna, you can help if you wish.”

So, I told her our plan.

We had men, some of them recruited from Rocco’s own community who were tired of the fear and his fury, and Damiano’s loyal crew. Thanks to Leonardo Esposito and our own investigations, we knew where some of Rocco’s loyal capos liked to hang out on a Sunday night and our men were waiting for them there.

Pietro Cavalli visited his long-term mistress in Ravello.

Paulie Gotti visited a local tanning salon to top off his color.

Tony Martinelli took a cigarette on his back patio after dinner to get away from his wife and seven children.

The rest would be at the reception for my fake wedding with Mirabella.

We’d known Rocco wouldn’t reveal the truth of our misdirection to the guests because he wouldn’t want people to know he’d been duped. I wasn’t sure how he was going to pull it off, but Leonardo had texted to say he told everyone we were shaken from the bomb and currently reaffirming our love physically.

If Italians believed anything, it was passion.

No one would blink an eye.

“Are you going after Rocco yourself?” Elena asked, standing to join me at the helm.

I steadied her when she almost lost her balance and put her between my body and the wheel, bracketing her with my arms so she was secured. My nose dipped into her hair to steal a drag of that sweet scent.

“Yes, he deserves to be ended by my hands.”

She was quiet for a long time after that. I fought the urge to question her, to ask if she thought I was a monster for orchestrating the killing of so many men.

Eventually, she turned her face into my suit jacket over my heart and pressed a kiss there. “I’m glad.”

“You are?”

Her sigh was lost in the wind, but I felt her shoulders move with it. “Yes. Italy is corrupted by the mafia. How can we expect him to go to prison for anything he’s ever done when he can just buy off the magistrates and police? I thought America was different and then Dennis turned out to be corrupted. I know it’s much worse here. Death is the only option for someone like Rocco. He tried to kill you and a totally innocent girl today in a car bombing just because he was threatened by your power and by her love of another woman? He sold my sister to Alexander. It might be wrong to want him dead, but not as wrong as his actions have been against the ones I love.”