Page 19 of Villainous
I nod.
Devious trusts him; I don’t. Everyone who has a pulse is my enemy unless you prove otherwise.
If I find out he told anyone about this or Maya, I will slit his throat and burn his body in my fire pit. And I’ll give zero fucks if it starts a war with his famiglia.
Even though I can’t stand the sight of Maya at this moment, I want to keep her safe until I get rid of her.
“I trust you won’t rat me out. Or turn Maya into the cops.”
“Of course I won’t. You have my word and loyalty. Your famiglia has been too good to my famiglia for me to betray you.” He smooths out his tie.
“It’s getting late. I have to go.” Luciano stands up, stretching his legs before he shakes Devious’s hand and leaves.
I remove a cigarette from behind my ear, sticking it between my lips and lighting it. “You believe he will keep his mouth shut?”
“Don’t smoke in here. Roselyn is pregnant,” Devious snaps.
I had forgotten she had a baby in her stomach, and I can’t believe Devious is going to be a father for real this time. His ex-fiancée, Shelby, had him believing he was going to be a father, and it turned out the baby was Cashel’s, his ex-best friend. They were fucking each other for some time. Devious caught them in bed together, and he killed Shelby by accident. He lives with the heartache. If it were me, I would have killed her on purpose. There is no way I’ll allow Maya to walk this earth thinking she can touch another man. Draco did it with Polina, but not me.
I stroll outside to the patio overlooking the grass covered in light patches of snow. Several soldiers patrol the lawn, and gray clouds hover over the full moon. I love the nighttime. It’s soothing and calming. That means the world is the most peaceful.
The thick glass door slides open, and Devious stands next to me, resting his arms against the rails. “Do you believe Maya killed her brother?”
I take a drag of my cigarette and blow smoke from the side of my mouth. “No.”
“How do you know?”
When you’re in love with someone, you become so in tune with their habits. It’s like a deep link to their soul. You’ll even notice a shift in their demeanor. It’s like your souls entwine with each other, like when you hold someone’s hands. That’s how it is with Maya and me. We always had the connection.
“Because I know when she’s lying to me. When she lies, she says ‘you see’ at the end of her sentence. When I questioned her about where he was earlier this year, she said she didn’t know.”
I scoot closer to my brother, and the tip of his nose turns a light pink. His eyes are curious.
“Luciano will deal with this shit,” Devious murmurs.
“You must like him?” My words come out as a question.
“No. I need him to teach me how to move all our dealings online instead of like the old ways. It’ll help lower the chances of us getting caught by the feds. We do all our business online, and the way Draco taught us is ancient. That’s probably why our grandfathers were always getting caught. They leave paper trails. We go completely online, we could be invincible, otherwise, I wouldn’t care. I purposely gave him personal information about us—he can think I trust him. People feel like they are close to you if you tell them something personal.”
That’s why my brother is the don of the famiglia. He’s always been the smart one. Growing up, I was considered the black sheep. The outcast. The one that wasn’t smart. Draco and Polina reminded me every day how bright I wasn’t, and Draco said I wouldn’t live past twenty-five. What’s ironic is I ended up killing Draco a couple of days after Devious and I turned twenty-five. He was the one who ended up rotting away in a grave. And it felt so good to slit his throat. After I killed him, I fucked a prostitute for a whole week. But to be honest, there was a time I thought about dying, ending it all, but I didn’t because of Devious, Piero, and Maya. Those are the only three people I actually gave a fuck about. I didn’t find real peace until I fell in love with Maya, and she took it all away.
“What about Seamus?” I ask.
“You handle it. Either you kill him, or you give Maya up to him,” he shrugs. “The fact that he attacked us, he’s declaring war.”
We’re quiet for a while, listening to the tree branches shaking from the wind until I say, “How is Roselyn?”
He exhales. “Happy. I was worried she was going to regret getting pregnant, but now she’s excited and shit. She’s at high risk, though—little Enzo is due in July. Make sure you have your ass here next week for the party.”
We provide a ceremony for the firstborn boys of the famiglia from the don, and if they never have any boys, it would be the next of kin’s offspring who would be don. Little Enzo is named after our consigliere, who passed away six months ago. Cashel had him killed.
I don’t know anything about a high-risk pregnancy. “What does high risk mean?”
The lines on his forehead deepen. “Her pregnancy is complicated. She has problems where she had a hard time getting pregnant, and it fucks with her monthly cycle. Which why I had a problem knocking her up.”
My brother is always trying to put on a brave face, but from the look on his face right now, it’s fucking with him.
“How is Maya?”
