“Who is it better for?” I yelled, losing control of my frustration. I took a step toward her, wanting to grab her and shake some sense into her, but the two guards who had accompanied me each grabbed one of my arms, locking me in place.
“For me,” she said and shuddered. “And for the babies.”
“My babies,” Bain cut in, pride and possession dripping from his voice. There was some other emotion mixed in, but I was too pissed off to give it a name. “Ciana and I will raise our children here. Where they will be safe.”
I tried to shrug off the guards, but they only tightened their holds. “How the fuck do you think any of them will be safe here? Sheena won’t allow anyone I care about to have a moment of peace. She won’t rest until she’s driven me just as crazy as she is.”
“I doubt she will bother you or my Ciana ever again,” Bain said with confidence. Tucking her closer, he gave a nod to someone off to his right, and a man came out of the house, a large box in his hands. It was a simple black hatbox with a red ribbon tied around it. “This is my gift to you, Vitucci. One I hope will give you some of the peace our great-grandmother stole from you. Consider it an olive branch, if you will.”
“I don’t want shit from you,” I snarled. “Let Ciana go. Allow her to come with me, and there won’t be a war.”
“Ryan, please,” Ciana begged. “Take the gift and go home.”
“Not without you.” I couldn’t go back without her. If I walked through that gate alone, blood would be shed.
“You have to.” I frowned at the way her voice broke, but she went on before I could question it. “I’m where I want to be. I-I love Bain. He’s the father of my babies, and we’re going to get married. I know my parents won’t understand, but I hoped you would. Even though Nova…is gone.” Fresh tears spilled down her beautiful face. “You still loved her more than anything or anyone else. Well, that’s how I feel about Bain.”
I tried not to flinch at the sound of Nova’s name, at the memories of loving her for the majority of my life, at the horrific way I’d lost her. I couldn’t think about any of that, not when Ciana was standing in front of me with my enemy at her side. “None of this makes sense, Ciana. For fuck’s sake, how did you even meet him?”
She grimaced. “It’s a long story. But we met while I was on vacation. We fell in love, but there was a huge misunderstanding, and I came home convinced I would never see him again. Then I found out I was pregnant…” She shrugged. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. If I could go back and do it over again, I would have told you everything. But I can’t. Now, all either of us can do is move forward.”
“You knew who he was?” I repeated, a feeling of betrayal hitting me dead center. “Ciana, if you knew who he was, then you knew who he was related to. I’ve told you how much Sheena hates me and our family. You knew what my mother did to me, but the old woman still blamed me for what happened. How could you trust anyone from that family? Fuck, how could you put not only yourself in danger, but Nova?” I’d tried so hard the last five days to hold on, to not give in to the pain of losing the other half of myself. And now to find out that someone I trusted with Nova’s life had been the one to put her in danger… It was too much to take in. “If you had told me they had gotten so close to you, I could have protected you both better. I never would have let Nova out of my sight!”
“I-I’m sorry.”
Her sobs only pissed me off more because it hurt to hear her pain. She wasn’t just my cousin. She was one of my closest friends, second only to Nova. I would have given my own life for hers without hesitation, and yet she hadn’t even warned me about the danger she’d lured right to our front door.
“You might as well have handed Nova over to Sheena yourself.”
“Stop,” she pleaded, sagging against Bain as if she had no strength left. “Ryan, I’m sorry. I know I messed up. I can never tell you how sorry I am. I didn’t know how to—”
“You helped them take her from me,” I seethed and saw her flinch as if I’d physically slapped her. “You have no right to cry for her when you’re just as responsible for her death as they are.”
“Enough!” Bain bellowed, holding a sobbing Ciana to him like she was the most precious thing in the world. The sight gave me pause, made me wonder if maybe this man everyone who had ever met him claimed was a heartless monster might actually possess a heart after all. “You will not speak to her like that. She knows she made a mistake. Do not torment her more.”
Seeing how destroyed my cousin was over her own guilt, I forced myself to dig deep, trying to find a way to turn off the hate and anger and bone-crushing agony of Ciana’s betrayal and the loss of Nova. One by one, I turned off my emotions, knowing if I didn’t, I would only end up hurting Ciana more. As much as I hated her for betraying me—betraying Nova—I still loved her. I was her honorary twin, her protector, her friend.
While she seemed to have no qualms about turning her back on me and our family, I couldn’t knowingly hurt her, even when my heart felt as if it had turned to dust in my chest.
“Come with me now, and I’ll forgive you,” I told her.
The sobbing abruptly stopped, and Ciana turned her tearstained face to me in surprise. “Wh-what did you say?”
“If you come with me now, I will forgive you,” I repeated, trying to entice her away from Bain. Anything to get her as far from that motherfucker as possible. He might genuinely feel some kind of affection for her now, but it wouldn’t last. No one with O’Brion blood running through their veins could. If it weren’t for Mom and Nova, I may never have felt it either. But I’d been lucky. I’d been given two people who had taught me how to love. Bain had been raised by people who knew nothing of that kind of emotion, and it would slowly wilt Ciana’s soul if she stayed with him. “We don’t even have to tell anyone about your relationship with Bain. You know Zia would lose her mind if she found out you hooked up with him.”
Hope filled her brown eyes for all of five seconds before she took a stumbling step back, and she lowered her lashes with a sad shake of her head. “I-I can’t go with you, Ryan. I belong h-here.”
“Ciana, if you don’t come with me, I’ll never forgive you,” I threatened, unsure if I meant it or not. I wasn’t sure if I could forgive her even if she did come with me, but I had to at least try. “Your deceit has cost me the one thing in the world I can’t live without. If you had been loyal to me, to Nova, she would still be here. That’s on you. All you had to do was speak up, damn it!”
Huge tears spilled over her lashes. “I know. And that makes what I have to do now even more important. You are the person in the world I love the most, Ryan.” A wounded, snarling sound came from behind her, but neither of us looked in Bain’s direction. Our gazes were locked, both of us willing the other to understand. “You’re my best friend, my twin by choice. I won’t have your death on my conscience too.”
Before I could make sense of her words, she jerked away from Bain and ran back into the house. Bain shot me a weird look, but I was still trying to figure out what my cousin had meant by that last part.