I regret it, though. I regret any woman I touched that wasn’t my Rosa.
“So I played with her. Got her to tell me everything. And she told me Leo’s mistress was making bank covering his ass and that he’d been in touch with the Regazza family through Anna Regazza.”
Anna Regazza, Tavi’s mother-in-law, planned to prevent Elise’s marriage to our family so she’d inherit the money due her that went to Elise in the event of her marriage. Leo wanted a piece of that as well.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Tavi asks the most obvious question, and I have to be careful with how I answer. I did go behind their backs. I did choose instead to find out what I could on my own before I involved anyone.
What they don’t know is that the truth implicates Rosa, and she doesn’t even know it.
“Santo, you told me that everything would come to light. You told me it would all become evident. Were you talking about Leo?”
“Yeah, brother,” I say, my voice husky. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know if you’d believe me.”
Tavi shakes his head, disbelieving. “Since when did we treat you as anything less than a brother to us, Santo?”
Since I was exiled to Tuscany. Since I was cut out of their late grandfather’s will. Since I was taken under Narciso’s tutelage and taught vicious, barbaric methods the other boys were never taught.
Not that any of that is their fault.
I shake my head and lie. “Wanted to prove I could, Tavi.”
It’s… a half truth. I blow out a breath.
“Remember when your cousin Jenoah was killed? Leo knew about his death and helped make that happen, didn’t he?”
Tavi nods slowly, mulling this over. I decide to attempt an evasive revelation instead of telling all.
“Jenoah wasn’t the only one who was on the Regazza hit list. They knew one of your sisters overheard their plans as well.”
“Which sister?”
I shake my head. “Don’t know.”
Lie.
“How do you know this?”
I frown. “I overheard a conversation between the heads of the Regazzas. I was in Tuscany when I heard that Leo was betraying us. And yeah, I was sleeping around. Wanted to save my own neck, so I didn’t tell Romeo how I got the information.”
Tavi frowns. “Romeo doesn’t give a shit who you do or do not sleep with.”
Only to an extent. We all know there’s a “do not touch” list, and the only woman I have any interest in sits at the very top.
I shake my head. “He cares if I did it when I was supposed to be doing a job, and I felt like an asshole for failing at my job.”
I’m not that guy. I’m not a wimp like that. But I need to take the hit.
They don’t know that it was when Rosa spent time in Tuscany with Jenoah, her cousin, that she’d made friends with Elise. They didn’t know she was at the springs in Tuscany with Jenoah and overheard the Regazzas’ plans. I don’t even know if she was aware of them, but the Regazzas were confident she was.
The plan to kill Jenoah was supposed to involve her as well.
Orlando was released from prison and the boys and I had spent the night partying with him. He was married to Angelina, only then he believed she was someone else. Shortly after his marriage, he exiled one of the guards to Tuscany for trying to touch her. It was a harmless touch—helping her out of a vehicle—but Orlando’s a possessive motherfucker.
Rosa was in Tuscany, as she’d made friends there when she lived there during her time with her then-husband.
I knew she was in Tuscany. I knew she was no longer married. I fabricated an easy lie, asking Romeo to send me to Tuscany to oversee operations at the vineyard, but the truth was, I wanted to keep an eye on Rosa.
My Rosa.
I wanted to be near her, without the prying eyes of the brothers in The Family.
I told myself I wanted to keep her safe, but a part of me wondered if she had someone in Tuscany. If she’d fallen for someone while married to Mercadio. But I should’ve known better. Rosa never fell for anyone.
I watched her from afar, pretending to be busy with work, and if my presence affected her in any way, she never showed it. I could’ve been a newspaper delivery boy for all the attention she gave me.
It was just as well. I didn’t need prying eyes on me, either.
It was in Tuscany I learned of Leo’s betrayal and became a self-appointed watchdog for the Rossis.
It was there I heard everything.
Ricky Regazza, smoking a cigar on the balcony overlooking the Regazza family’s estate. Smaller than the Rossis by a lot, the Regazzas still thought they were hot shit. Booze, weed, and women flowed freely, as if they could afford any of it, but at least when I got them drunk and high, they’d spill everything.