The Guzzi Legacy: Vol 1

by Bethany-Kris

  Sure, he had a family unit of his own, in a way. The situation Dare and Cree gave him wasn’t the same as the Guzzis. Parenting hadn’t existed for him, and his most important lessons from Cree and Dare had been learning how to take care of himself.

  And still when he came here, Alessio found a sense of home. He forgot the rest of the world for a time and focused on what he needed to do the most. No one here would judge him with their no questions asked policy when he walked through the front door, unless he wanted to talk. He’d never told Corrado those things because he shouldn’t need to, but it was true. Here, he found comfort that didn’t exist elsewhere.

  That was why, when he had a hundred other places to hide away and stay under the radar, he came here.

  The voice coming out of the speaker of his phone dragged him from his thoughts at the same time he heard footsteps approaching him from behind. He didn’t bother to end the conversation because he wasn’t ready to.

  “And I suppose I owe you something, don’t I?”

  “What’s that?” Alessio asked.

  “A happy birthday,” Dare said.

  Alessio almost smiled, but pain was a fucking bitch. Twenty-three years old today, and he’d forgotten. Someone else had to remind him. Appropriate for it to be Dare. At the darkest points in his life, Dare always remembered his birthday for whatever reason.

  “Is it, though?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “A happy day.”

  Dare made a noise under his breath as Gian Guzzi came to sit next to Alessio in the wicker chair beside his. Corrado’s father said nothing, dressed in his night clothes with a black robe tightened at his middle, he stared over the back property, and rested his hand along his jaw as he waited for Alessio to finish his conversation. It was late for the man to still be awake.

  “Les.”

  “Ignore me,” he muttered. “Thinking out loud.”

  But also not a lie.

  This wasn’t a happy day.

  And tomorrow didn’t look good, either.

  Welcome to his life, lately.

  “Why don’t you take a break, come back here for a bit, and reset—”

  “That’s Alessio?”

  Cree.

  In the call's background, Dare confirmed what Cree asked. A shuffle of the phone sounded before more movement echoed through the speakers. Alessio heard the slam of a door before Cree came onto the phone.

  “Where are you?” Cree demanded.

  Alessio arched a brow over at Gian. The man didn’t even glance his way. “Away.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Thinking.”

  Cree let out a harsh sound. “You don’t call people?”

  “I’m a grown man, I can—”

  “Tell the people who give a fuck that you’re safe, Les.”

  His throat jumped as he swallowed back a biting retort that would have only saved his pride but hurt someone else. “I’m safe.”

  A second passed. Cree sighed. “Good.” Then, after a brief pause, he added, “Corrado called two days ago looking for you. You should at least tell him where you are, Les. You don’t have to go back—I understand things are going on that hurt you, but he’s worried.”

  Good for him.

  Because he hadn’t given a shit about Alessio before.

  As fast as the seed of doubt drifted through his mind, the pain following behind just as fast, Alessio tipped his head down, and shook it away. It wasn’t true, and a huge part of why this happened was because Corrado hadn’t wanted to hurt him.

  Yet, here they stood.

  The same result.

  Alessio didn’t do well with pain, and especially not if someone he loved caused it. He had a handle on this shit—this thing between them. He assumed they were comfortable, but this had taught him he had been lying to himself.

  Complacent.

  It took nothing to be ruined.

  Nothing but a woman.

  “I’m not calling him,” Alessio said, “there’s nothing for me to say.”

  Hadn’t he said enough when he showed up to the penthouse over a week ago? He believed so. His words had cut with each one said—landing like knives against the man he loved to the ends of the earth and back. Alessio didn’t need Corrado to tell him how much he hurt him with the things he said. He was aware.

  But that was good, too.

  Partly.

  Why should Alessio be the only one to hurt?

  He wouldn’t be alone.

  He needed to get his shit figured out before he went back for a second round. He didn’t want to keep cutting into Corrado. As much as he hurt, it wasn’t fair he continued hurting Corrado, too.

  Because he loved.

  He gave a shit.

  He would have never done this to Corrado.

  Ever.

  “You tell him you’re safe,” Cree said, “so he doesn’t do something fucking stupid, and make a scene.”

  “He knows, and he won’t do anything. Relax.”

  “No, he—”

  “He knows—shit he doesn’t understand is what bothers him. That’s Corrado, and it sounds like something he should deal with because I can’t fix it.”

  A lot about this thing between him and Corrado couldn’t be fixed by him. Too much shit had been left unsaid for years, and other things they shoved under a rug, ignoring while they pretended to be fine with the things between them.

  All lies.

  White lies didn’t stay white when they became dirty with time.

  “Les—”

  Typically, he had more patience, especially with Cree or Dare, and yet he only wanted to hang up the phone. So, he did, not even bothering to say goodbye before he reached over and hit the End Call button on the lit up screen, ending the conversation whether Cree wanted that or not. He would pay for the decision later, but ... worth it.

  With the phone call finished, and the conversation over, Gian turned in his chair to give Alessio his attention. Respectful, always. Never imposing or intruding unless they gave him no other choice.

  “How much longer do you want to stay here?” Gian asked.

  Alessio shrugged. “Not sure.”

  The answer didn’t seem to bother Gian when he only nodded. “All right, you’re more than welcome.”

  “Thanks. Shouldn’t you be sleeping? Doesn’t your wife get prickly when you walk the halls at night.”

  Gian grinned. “I have things on my mind.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Probably similar things.”

  Alessio scoffed and looked away from the man. “Doubtful.”

  “Don’t. I have always worried about the two of you. I wouldn’t be a good father otherwise.”

  “You’re not my father.”

  Gian cleared his throat, but Alessio refused to take his gaze off the line of trees in the distance. “And yet, that never made a difference, Les.”

  Yeah, he knew.

  “I’m mad.”

  “Mmhmm,” Gian murmured.

  “I really want to just do something.”

  Something horrible and bad.

  Something that would make Corrado get it.

  “Strike out, act out ... hurt.”

  Alessio grunted under his breath. “But I can’t ... so, I’m here instead.”

  Gian let out a sigh, and the wicker creaked before the man came to stand in front of Alessio. He stared up at Corrado’s father, but Gian looked off into the distance where the moon shone high and bright against the black backdrop of the sky.

  “You are always welcome here, even if what you’re here for is to hide, Alessio. But if he calls and asks me where you are—”

  “You’ll tell him the truth.”

  But that was the thing.

  Corrado wouldn’t call here.

  He’d never think this was a haven for Les because he never told him. There was a lot of that between them. Secrets, and things left unsaid. And usually, when they were saying things, it was the wrong shit.
>
  “Take the time you need,” Gian said, “and go back better, Les.”

  “This doesn’t get better from here.”

  “But it might. Go back better, and ready.”

  Yeah.

  Right.

  Ready for what?

  And how should he do that when he only wanted to hurt Corrado? He could think of a million different ways to do it—ones to make the man feel the same cold ache in his chest that Alessio now had. Pain was always better when shared, right?

  Did that make him a monster?

  Alessio wasn’t sure he cared.

  And right there ... that’s why he hadn’t gone back yet.

  Not ready.

  He wasn’t better.

  The phone buzzed on the table between the wicker chairs as Gian turned to walk away. Alessio let him go, and leaned over to check the phone, thinking it would be Cree or Dare trying to get him back on the phone.

  A text from Corrado lit up the screen, reading, Happy birthday, Les.

  Apparently, he wasn’t the only one up way too late. He might have appreciated the text, and that Corrado remembered.

  He still didn’t.

  Not when right above it rested a text, one the man had sent only two days earlier. One Alessio had been waiting for—I slept with her, Corrado had said.

  This had never been about the sex.

  The physical shit meant nothing to Les. Sex was sex to him—another urge or need to fulfill, like eating or sleeping or whatever else he needed to live. The idea of men sleeping with Corrado fucked with Alessio’s head, and they drew the line. Women, though? He didn’t care, he got off on it, really.

  Rarely did he attach emotions to having sex with females, and neither did Corrado. Together was different, of course. Emotions had always been attached to their fucking when it was just them in bed together.

  So, no, he didn’t have a single fuck to give about Corrado sleeping with Ginevra.

  It was everything else.

  Everything Corrado didn’t say.

  All the things he hadn’t done.

  That was the problem.

  • • •

  Alessio blinked, and a week passed him like nothing at all. He didn’t know how it happened, but he blamed the haze of his mind.

  The war.

  To his left, he watched the quiet, dark city street and the people passing by the bar’s large bay windows as he tipped his whiskey up for another drink. Two glasses in, working on his third, and he still didn’t feel shit.

  The fucking numbness had come.

  Now, he wasn’t sure if he wanted it.

  On the bar, his phone buzzed. Alessio ignored the device altogether. The chime of a bell somewhere behind him said someone new had come inside, and five seconds later, a presence sat next to him at the bar.

  “Since when do you drink whiskey?”

  Alessio made a thick noise, tipping his glass up for another sip. “Since now.”

  He preferred rum.

  Tequila.

  Vodka.

  Bourbon.

  Beer.

  Fucking wine.

  Anything but whiskey. The spirit was Corrado’s drink, and Alessio didn’t see the appeal. Something about the liquor made him cringe, which was amusing when he could take shots of tequila like nobody’s business. The only time he liked the taste of whiskey was when he licked it off Corrado’s—

  Nope.

  Not going there.

  Not tonight.

  “What do you want?” Alessio asked.

  “Are you going to keep staring out the window, or look at me?”

  Well ...

  Alessio turned on the stool to face his guest, coming face to face with Christopher. Before then, Alessio never looked at Corrado’s twin and first recognized all the similarities between them. He always found the differences first because that’s what he liked about Corrado.

  All the things which made him different.

  Today, the first thing he saw in Christopher’s features were all the things that made him and Corrado identical. Right down to the way his lips quirked up at the corner when he smirked, and the gold flakes in the browns of his irises.

  All it did was hurt.

  Just like that, the numbness left, and the pain was back. Alessio didn’t know which one he wanted more.

  To feel everything.

  Or nothing at all.

  “How did you know I was here?” he asked.

  Chris shrugged. “Dad.”

  “What, worried I might do something rash because I left the mansion?”

  “Who knows? You might want someone else to talk to.”

  Alessio nodded. “Well, I don’t.”

  “And I’m still here.”

  Perfect.

  The phone vibrated on the bar. Alessio’s gaze cut to the device at the same time Chris’s did, both seeing a familiar name flashing on the screen to say a text had come through.

  Corrado.

  “What’s that about?” Chris asked.

  Alessio sucked air between his teeth, hating the taste of whiskey on his breath but needing the annoyance to help keep the numbness at bay for the moment. “I told him I’m fine ... around, or whatever.”

  “Ah.”

  “And to leave me the fuck alone,” he added quieter, turning to stare out the window again. “Apparently, he didn’t get the memo.”

  Chris sighed. “Or he’s ignoring it because he’s worried, and he cares.”

  “Right.”

  Cares.

  A funny way to describe what Corrado had done.

  “Do you want to talk about them—him and her, I mean?”

  Alessio made a disgusted noise under his breath. “I don’t give a fuck about them, Chris.”

  It was a lie.

  He did.

  He concerned himself with too much about them, what they were doing, and why. More than anything, he wanted to know why.

  What was it about the woman that did it for Alessio and Corrado? Why her? Why was it her who finally broke them? After all these years, all this time, and every female the two of them had gone through over the years in their bed ... why the fuck was it her?

  “Yeah, you get like that, huh?” Chris asked.

  Alessio shot him a look. “Excuse you?”

  “Indifferent. You act indifferent. You get in a mood whenever you don’t want to deal. Corrado knows how to handle it, but the rest of us think you’re being an asshole, Les.”

  Huh.

  He stared at Chris and quirked a brow. “How is that my problem?”

  Chris rolled his eyes. “You give a shit about them ... or at least, him. Otherwise, you would have left by now, Les. You don’t have to be here. Nobody is keeping you in this city. If you wanted to go, or tell my brother to go fuck himself, you would have done so. It’s who you are. So, cut the shit, drop the attitude and the pretense, and then we can find what the real issue is here.”

  Alessio already understood.

  Corrado lied.

  They had a thing, and he fucked up.

  Alessio didn’t want to deal—he didn’t know how to handle the person he loved, the only one in the world who he trusted more than himself, doing something to purposely ruin the delicate balance they had.

  “And you know ...” Chris dragged in a heavy breath before clearing his throat as his fingers drummed to the top of the bar. “I think he likes her.”

  Really?

  That wasn’t news.

  If Corrado didn’t like the fucking woman, and he had done this, it would stun Alessio. Why would he even bother?

  “Obviously, he likes her,” Alessio muttered before taking another drink. There was not enough alcohol in this world to deal with the darkness in his heart, he would swear on it. “Give me something I don’t know, Chris.”

  “I meant,” Chris replied, giving him a look from the side, “it’s more, Les. Different. Like ... him with you.”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “But—�
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  “Don’t fucking say that.”

  The level of his tone drew the attention of other patrons in the bar, but Alessio didn’t give a shit about anyone but himself right now. Hell, he’d been selfless for far too long. Time to be selfish for once.

  Right?

  Chris straightened on the stool but continued staring at the bar top. “Is it the fact he might care for someone else like he does for you, or that it’s you and him?”

  Alessio clenched his teeth. “Leave it alone.”

  Because it was both.

  Except it wasn’t at the same fucking time.

  He didn’t need this shit right now.

  Chris nodded, adding, “I don’t think he saw it until recently ... why she made him—”

  “Lie?”

  Hide things from him?

  Break their agreement?

  Ruin them?

  “I know you don’t want to hear this, but she brings out the same thing in him as you,” Chris said, turning to step off the stool at the same time. “And ... because no one else will tell you ... you should be aware. He’s a happier version of him when he’s with her, even if he doesn’t see. It’s the same thing I see when he’s with you.”

  Alessio’s jaw clicked from how hard he clenched. “Except that’s not how it is for us. That’s not how we work. It’s us, not us and someone else. Not me and him, and him and someone else. This isn’t how it goes.”

  “Les—”

  “Just fuck off, Chris.”

  Leave me alone.

  He’d rather be back with his pain or numbness instead of this.

  It was easier.

  “You will never understand why if you don’t let him explain. And yeah, it’s fucked up ... yeah, it hurts, I bet,” Chris added quieter, “but that doesn’t mean you can’t find something right somewhere in the mess. You can’t do that here, though, not alone. Let him explain, or—”

  “What is there to explain?”

  It was clear to him.

  “Why her?” he asked around the rim of his glass.

  Chris chuckled. “You could always try to find out.”

  Right.

  Not a bad idea.

  He didn’t think Chris meant so in the same way Alessio took it.

  Yeah, he would find out.

  All of it.

  Whether or not Corrado liked it.

  2.

  Ginevra

  You’re a Calabrese woman—act like you know what that means and keep your eyes on the only man who’ll ever be able to touch you.