When Villains Rise (Anti-Heroes in Love 2)

“Cosima!” I admonished through my laughter, but then stilled, eyes widening.

In response, her hand went to the non-existent swell of her belly. “It’s really too early to announce anything, but this is why Alexander didn’t let me go to you when you had your surgery. He’s over the top protective normally, but now…” She trailed off because the force of her smile wouldn’t allow her to talk.

“I’m so happy for you.” I leaned forward to hug her, stroking her hair, in awe that my baby sister was having a baby.

“I hope it doesn’t trigger bad things for you.” Another reason she was so lovable, she was always thinking about others, always in tune with their emotional climate.

“I’m only happy,” I assured her. “Mama is going to be ecstatic to have two grandbabies to play with.”

She didn’t laugh. “One day, she’ll play with yours too, Lena.”

I shrugged, but my heart burned with yearning. “I hope so.”

“I know so.”

“Are you two finished?” Dante called from the patio behind the villa holding a bottle of wine in each hand. “I’ve got news.”

Cosima looked to me eagerly, but I laughed. “No, we aren’t engaged or anything like that. We just started seeing each other.”

She cocked a dark brow. “Dante might call himself Salvatore now, but he’s still a Davenport. When they see something they want, they don’t only take it, they make it their irrevocably in every way they know how.”

That sounded like Dante.

My sister got up, waiting for me when I hesitated.

But something had caught in my mind, jostling loose a collection of fragments I’d been collecting since my time in Italy.

“Why did you say Villa Rosa was named after Mama?” I asked slowly, because the truth was I didn’t really need an answer.

Everything was falling into place like a tumbling row of dominos.

Cosima wrung her hands then caught herself when I stared at the tell.

“I shouldn’t have said that.” When I only leveled her with a cool stare, she sighed. “You should really ask Salvatore.”

“I think I should ask my sister,” I said slowly, each word deliberate. “You know, Sebastian came to visit me after my surgery. We had a good talk and we decided that secret keeping was corrode this family. I think that stops now, Cosima.”

She winced. “You know I can’t disobey when you use that voice.”

I didn’t even blink when she looked at me beseechingly.

“Okay, come on, walk and talk.”

I got up, but didn’t take the hand she offered me. Old wounds, scars of betrayal, flared up, making my skin hot and cold all over.

I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until she started to speak in low, fast, but fluid tones. “Amadeo Salvatore and Mama had an affair decades ago, twenty-three years ago to be exact. Sebastian and I are a result of that.”

If she expected me to freak out and throw something like a child with a tantrum, she was sorely mistaken. I only blinked at her behind my icy mask and waited for her to go on.

“It was brief and passionate affair. Apparently, they wanted to run away together, but one day, Tore’s enemies got hold of Mama when she was pregnant with Seb and me. It scared her out of being with him. She stayed with Seamus and never told Tore about the pregnancy. Tore left town and didn’t find out about us until years later when he came back to Naples and became capo dei capi.”

“That’s why he interfered with Seamus,” I said flatly, everything locked into its rightful place. “You have his eyes, those tiger yellow eyes I’ve never seen on anyone else. I should have connected the dots sooner.”

“It’s not exactly something you’d look for.”

We had crossed the lawn, but stood at the edge of the stone terrace, speaking in hushed voices while Frankie, Tore, Dante, and Xan set the table for lunch with patters of charcuterie and baskets of fresh bread, red bowls of gazpacho like blood at each setting.

“So, you aren’t my sister,” I said as I digested the news, my stomach growling then cramping around the weight of the truth.

“I am. Of course, I am,” she snapped, stepping forward with anger tightening her pretty face. “Do not ever say that to me again.”

“I’m not saying it because we have different fathers,” I said, watching each word cut into her flesh. “I’m saying it because you’ve been keeping so many secrets from me, I feel like I don’t even know you right now.”

“And you?” she countered, fisting her hands on her hips. “I show up in Naples because I’ve read in the paper my best friend has fled the country and only when I called Tore did he tell me that you were here with him. I may have been keeping secrets longer, Lena, but don’t be a hypocrite. You’re just as culpable here.”