He never does.
This is my bedroom with Massimo, another man shouldn’t ever enter this space. The only time he has come in was to lay me down in bed from a crying jag.
“Yeah?” I ask.
“Your sister is here. Least that’s who she says she is. Little slip of a thing, your hair and eyes?”
My eyes widen. “Rosana?” I breathe. “How?”
He chuckles, shaking his head. “No clue. She’s in the living room, a little shaken.”
“My fucking aunt,” I growl as my feet speed toward him. He wraps his hands around my shoulders, stopping me from sprinting down the stairs.
“Calm, girl,” he rasps.
Tilting my head back, I look into his eyes. “Fuck, calm,” I snap.
His lips turn up and I see a peek of his straight white teeth beneath his beard. “I’ll miss you, Pippa.”
“Fuck that, too.”
He throws back his head in laughter, the sound booming through the room. When he straightens, he looks into my eyes, and my breath hitches at the sight. His eyes are smiling. For the first time in almost two months, his eyes are smiling.
Lifting my hand, I cup his cheek with my palm, feeling his soft beard beneath my touch. “You’re smiling,” I breathe.
He licks his lips, his eyes searching mine. “It’s easy to do around you, girl.”
“I wish that Massimo thought the same.”
He hums, shaking his head, then lifts his hand and curls his fingers around my wrist. “Don’t do that, Pippa. You didn’t have time to break down his walls, not like with me. Plus, he’s got them built up with you for other reasons too.”
“Like, what?”
Renzo releases my wrist and takes a step back, then stands to the side. He chuckles, his eyes searching my confused face.
“Like the fact that he probably fell in love with you instantly and men like us don’t fall in love. We’re told to never have vulnerabilities. If he shows any of his feelings, if he makes it known that you mean something to him, it makes you a target.”
“That’s stupid,” I exhale.
Renzo shrugs one shoulder, his eyes searching mine. “Yeah, it is. But that’s the way it goes, Pippa. This is the famiglia. This is not the regular world with the regular rules.”
“Yeah.” I nod. “It’s pretty fucking stupid and I know it’s bullshit because Arlo, Gavino, and Luca clearly adore their wives.”
He snorts. “Yeah, now. Before…” His words trail off. “Goddamn replicas to Massimo. Give it time, girl.”
I shake my head, letting out a small laugh. “Seems I have five years,” I whisper.
He nods his head once. “Your little sister is still down there.”
Without another word, I spin around and run downstairs to see just what the fuck my aunt did to Rosana to make her come here this way.
Chapter Twenty-Four
PIPPA
Rosana looks up at me through wet lashes. Her face is tear-stained, the mascara she once had on her lashes is now all beneath her eyes like dark bruises. She’s thinner than she was the last time that I saw her too.
“Rosana?” I ask. “Sana? What is going on?” I hurry toward her, sliding into the seat next to hers and immediately wrapping my arms around her.
Without a word, she buries her face in my neck and whimpers. “Aunt Irene, she told me that I was a burden,” she cries. She lifts her face from my neck, her lips trembling as she looks me in the eye. “She just started ranting that the money was gone. I didn’t know what she was talking about. Then she told me to get out of her sight, that I was nothing but a burden.”
I hear Renzo’s grunt somewhere behind me, but I can’t look back at him, I’m too focused on Rosana. She’s heartbroken, completely and totally. I don’t blame her, I felt the same way when my aunt started treating me worse than normal, when she forced me out of her house.
“You’re staying here now. I won’t allow you to go back. I have a guest room and I’m all alone.”
Her gaze flicks behind me, her face turning pink. “You’re not alone,” she whispers.
Looking back over my shoulder I see Renzo is smirking and then he winks. Rolling my eyes, I turn back to Rosana. “Renzo is leaving in a couple of days. I’ll be alone, and this is where you belong anyway.”
“No. I don’t belong anywhere.”
Shaking my head, I wrap my hands around her neck and keep her face forward. “Never say that, not ever again. You belong with your family. I am your family. Irene is a bitch.”
“What about Massimo?”
“What about him?”
“Won’t he be upset when he comes back and I’m here?”
I let out a small laugh. “Never. He always said you could stay here if you ever needed to. Besides, by the time he’s back, you’ll be off to college. He would probably like you here with me anyway. It’ll be fun, Sana. You and me? Together.”
“It would, wouldn’t it?” she breathes.
Nodding my head, I touch my forehead against her own. “This is where you belong,” I whisper. “This is where you’ll stay. She’s going to have to fight me for you and I’m not going to let her win. I have a hell of a lot more money than she does and a whole lot of badass at my back.”
Renzo chuckles behind me at the same time Rosana giggles. “How about I order you girls some pizzas, yeah?”
Sana looks up, at the same time I turn my head to look back over my shoulder at Renzo. “No cheese, extra pepperoni and olives?” we both ask at the same time.
“Fuck, you both like that shit?” he barks.
“They always put too much cheese,” we say in unison.
Renzo lifts his hand, giving us a wave as he takes his phone out of his pocket and heads toward the kitchen. I hear his voice in a low rumbled
