by Bethany-Kris
Fucking asshole.
“I’ll go speak with Dare,” he muttered, pushing up from the mat to stand. “And see what he can tell me.”
“Wise choice,” Cree replied, “not that he will tell you anything, either.”
Right.
Well, Corrado would try.
Cree lounged at the edge of the ring, resting his arms over the ropes as he eyed Corrado while he gathered his things. All the while, he said nothing, but he didn’t wipe that amusement off his damn face.
Corrado headed out of the gym with his phone in one hand, and his discarded cross-body bag in the other. The bag wasn’t his style, but neither were the jeans and faded T-shirt he’d thrown on that day to go with his runners, either.
He didn’t come to The League to look like he walked out of his parents’ mansion, though. He came here because he needed to work out some of his frustration, and there was only one person who might help with that in a short amount of time.
Cree.
Or rather, he usually helped with that. Today, he only pissed Corrado off and left him with more questions than answers.
Speaking of which ...
Swiping his thumb over the screen of his phone, Corrado woke the device up, and typed his pin in. Pulling up the call icon, he selected the top contact highest on his list.
Alessio.
He hadn’t bothered to call the man for the last week and a half because he assumed it would be pointless. Being on a job meant Alessio needed to leave his phone behind, and when he was back, then he would call Corrado, or show up at home.
This time, Alessio did neither.
He was back.
But where?
Despite being back in Vegas for the last week, Corrado had a flight to catch tomorrow that would take him back to Toronto for the weekend. His parents annual Halloween party, something they threw every year for all the kids who lived in their gated community, was on Sunday evening, and if he didn’t show up ...
He’d never hear the fucking end.
Which meant if he didn’t get ahold of Alessio, and let him know where he would be, if the man wanted to see him, it was going to be several more days before they got together. Corrado didn’t like that at all.
The past while had been hell on him. He didn’t like being alone, and if he couldn’t have both people he loved, then he needed one.
Where the fuck was Les?
In his head, the phone rang and rang. By the fourth ring, Alessio’s voicemail would pick up because the man wasn’t answering his calls. Or maybe it was just Corrado’s number he didn’t want to pick up.
But why?
That heaviness came back in his chest.
Hard.
Thick.
And aching.
Actually, it hadn’t left him since he got the news Ginevra headed back to New York, but he got better at ignoring it. Now, it was back with a vengeance.
Fuck his whole life.
The call clicked, and Alessio’s standard message to leave a message came through the speaker. Corrado gritted his teeth, yet still left a simple message that said, “Les, call me.”
Stuffing the phone back into his pocket, Corrado navigated the halls of The League’s complex until he stood in the doorway of Dare’s office. He never understood why the man rarely closed his door, but he didn’t.
Not unless Cree was in there.
“What can I do for you, Corrado?”
Dare, with his back facing Corrado as he watched a screen on the wall showcasing a news reel, hadn’t even twitched a finger to let him know he was aware of his presence.
“Alessio arrived back from his assignment today?”
“Apparently.”
“What does that mean? Either he did, or he fucking didn’t.”
“It means yes, he was here, and no, I didn’t see him.”
“Well, where is he?”
“I’m not sure, but if he’s not picking up your calls, and he didn’t let you—”
“Try not being an asshole for five minutes.”
Dare shook his head. “Eh.”
Corrado clenched his teeth so hard his molars ached. “Dare—”
“I made a promise to Les—I would stay out of his business for you, and other personal issues. That’s what he asked, and that’s what I will do. But understand, Corrado, that if he’s taken off again because of something you did, I will cut your heart out and mail it to your father with blood still in the chambers. Do you hear me?”
He blinked.
Dare continued to watch the screen, unbothered.
Well ...
“I’m not even sure if it’s about me, or not,” he muttered.
“Yes, well, that happens when you choose selfishness over selflessness.”
Right.
Dare made a good point.
And Corrado hated it.
29.
Ginevra
“Thank you.”
Siena’s head popped above the island counter, so she could see Ginevra on the other side. Slowly, she stood, a casserole dish in her hands she planned on using to cook their dinner. “For what, Ginny?”
“Everything you did, I guess. For me, but also for the girls when I couldn’t.”
“But ...”
“Yeah?”
“That’s what a family should do,” Siena said quietly.
Ginevra nodded. “You’re right, they should. I think because me and the girls were so used to depending on each other, and our mom, that we got used to it. We learned not to expect kindness from others because if we ever needed something, we could just go to each other for it.”
Siena set the dish down to the counter and offered a smile. “You probably don’t see me as your real sister, even if we are, but I hope you can someday, and that you’ll come too. I didn’t have a close family unit growing up, either. Dad preferred the boys, too.”
“Well ...”
“What?”
“I wanted life to go back to normal for Greta and Giulia. Before all this happened, when the mafia hadn’t touched us, and we were just ... normal.”
Siena let out a soft laugh. “Doesn’t work that way, huh?”
Not at all.
Ginevra tried to put as much distance between their life, and the people affiliated to the mafia as she could, and yet they still kept drawing her in. And while she understood people like Siena—or the woman’s boyfriend, John—were safe, she knew that didn’t matter.
All it took was one connection to become a target, and she never wanted her sisters to be that for anyone ever again.
“I just want them to be safe,” Ginevra whispered.
“And they will be. We made sure.”
Right.
For now.
Ginevra didn’t say that out loud. “And you love them, don’t you?”
“The girls?”
She nodded.
Siena smiled. “I do. And I never had sisters growing up—just a pair of asshole brothers that only cared about me when I was doing something for them. I was always the one expected to look after everyone else, and I do that with the girls, too. Except now, I don’t mind it. They don’t demand that of me, they need someone who gives a shit.”
“Yeah, they do.”
“And now they have you home, too.”
Greta and Giulia flew into the kitchen, their laughter high and breathless as they watched whatever loud video was playing on the tablet they were using. They had been the first ones to jump at the chance to have dinner at Siena’s place when she called earlier to ask. The girls fell into the chairs at the table, unaware or uncaring about Siena and Ginevra’s conversation. Not that she minded all that much.
She preferred them close.
She needed her family.
It had more people now.
“I had been so settled on what I wanted to happen when I came back for them that change scares me,” Ginevra admitted. “And I might seem a little too protective, but after everything, how should I be? So, I a
pologize in advance if I come off strong.”
Siena shrugged. “I get it.”
“Do you?”
“Of course, but you should know it’s easier to be open to change than to live with an ache in your heart because you’d rather things stay the same, Ginevra. That’s all.”
Ginevra had to laugh at that.
Heartache.
“I can’t find more heartache and trouble than I already did in Toronto.”
The words slipped from her lips before she could stop them. Maybe it was because Ginevra didn’t have anyone to talk to about the craziness going on in her life—things she hadn’t shared with her younger sisters because for one, she didn’t think it was appropriate, and for two ... because she didn’t want to worry them. Without Corrado and Alessio, she became hollow.
Instead, she handled it alone.
Lonely.
Siena cleared her throat, and her gaze drifted to the girls at the table behind them, distracted with a tablet. “Andino had hinted to John that you found someone in Toronto that you became close to.”
Close.
Right, that was a good way to put falling in love.
And someone?
“More like two someones,” Ginevra replied.
She had to be mindful of those younger ears behind them. She wasn’t sure how to appropriately explain the relationship she found herself in with two men when in general, all society showed as respectable couples were a pair of two people. Not that society was right—love came in many forms, she had learned.
It wasn’t easy to explain.
“Huh,” Siena said. “Really?”
“They were together before I came into it with them, but I fit there ... with them, between them, and with each of them. It wasn’t easy, but it was right—somehow, it was right, and now everything seems wrong.”
Siena let out a slow breath, her gaze reflecting only sympathy. She opened her mouth to say something, but one of their sisters at the table spoke up first.
“What does that mean, that they were together before you?” Giulia asked.
Apparently, those young ears had been listening.
Great.
“What do you think?” Greta asked. “Guys can like other guys, Giuls.”
“Yeah, but—”
“No buts. It’s true.”
Greta wasn’t wrong.
“That’s kind of like cheating, isn’t it?” Giulia asked, not knowing Ginevra’s face was heating from their conversation as they pondered her private life. “If they were with someone else—even if it was Ginny, right?”
“Poly, Giulia,” Greta said, like it should have been obvious.
“What?”
“Poly. Polyamorous. There are lots of people in committed relationships who go outside to sleep with other people.”
Ginevra sighed. “Could we not talk about this right now?”
“Well,” Greta asked, “how is she ever going to know about that kind of stuff if no one takes the time to explain?”
She had forgotten that although Greta was younger than her, and she had helped to raise the girl, she was still almost eighteen. The world was not so rose-tinted to her anymore, and she had noticed boys and things like sex a while ago.
Siena giggled, but popped a hand over her mouth when Ginevra shot her a look. “Sorry,” she mumbled.
“So, it’s not cheat—”
“Look at it like a triple Venn diagram,” Ginevra said, not wanting to keep letting them assume what they wanted about her relationship with the men. It would be better if they understood what it was, and that was it. “We are all individual people, but there are parts of me that overlap with one, and then another part that overlaps with the other. And there are parts of them that only overlap with each other, too, but there is a piece of all of us that overlap together. That is how it works, for us. Not everyone is the same, and no, it is not about sleeping with anyone you want.”
Or she assumed she had made that clear to Corrado and Alessio.
Now, nothing was clear.
That’s what killed her.
“Okay, so I was kind of right,” Greta said.
Giulia made a noise under her breath. “Sounds complicated.”
“Funny,” Ginevra replied.
Siena gave her a look across the island. “What is?”
“It never seemed complicated at all. Easy, really.”
More like ... it was where she was meant to be.
And now, she wasn’t there at all.
Where were they?
Siena whistled. “Props to you, though, because I have a hard enough time keeping up with one man let alone two.”
Ginevra grinned at that, her cheeks heating all over again. “They ... made it worth it.”
Giggles echoed from the table behind her.
Damn.
Young ears, again.
Because even if she had been very careful to explain the relationship without making it seem tawdry with sexual innuendo and details, those girls were still fifteen, and seventeen. They were still teenage girls.
“What’s their names?” Greta asked.
“Are they cute?” Giulia put in right after.
To Siena, Ginevra mouthed, “Help me.”
Siena shook her head. “Nope—on your own here.”
Perfect.
“Thanks.”
“Well?” Greta demanded.
“I’m not sure it matters. I kind of left them high and dry, and—”
“That doesn’t tell me their names.”
“Or if they’re cute,” Giulia added.
Ginevra turned around to eye both her sisters with a curious eye. “Corrado and Alessio.”
“And,” Giulia said, eyes wide.
“They’re both ... very handsome.”
That was putting it mildly.
Giggles lit up the table again.
Ginevra figured, this would be a long night.
“Not that it matters,” Ginevra said, “because I am here, and they’re not.”
“But is that how you want it to be?” Siena asked behind her.
That question was easy to answer.
No.
She wanted both with her. That didn’t mean she would get what she wanted, though. As far as she understood, neither of the men had tried to contact her, and she didn’t have a way to get ahold of them, either.
It was what it was.
Even if she hated it.
• • •
“Okay, but like how does it work, does one get mad when you don’t spend enough time with them, or—”
“Could you save some of your questions for another day?” Ginevra grumbled as her sisters followed behind her in the hallway of their apartment building. “Because that would be great, Greta.”
“I’m just curious.”
“You have asked me a lot of questions in the last three hours.”
Too many questions.
Their dinner with Siena turned into a game of twenty-one questions with Ginevra. All focused around things she didn’t want to explain to her younger sisters, but also a topic that made her heart ache.
She couldn’t win.
“And,” Ginevra said, coming to a stop in front of their apartment door to pull the keys from her bag before sticking it in the lock, “while I get you want to understand how it works, it’s also none of your business. Some things are private unless I offer the information to you, Greta. Respect that.”
Greta leaned against the wall and rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
“Thank you.”
“Still think it’s complicated,” Giulia muttered next to Greta.
Well ...
“I guess that means it’s probably not for you, huh?”
Greta considered that for a second before she nodded. “That’s fair.”
Ginevra waited just long enough to decide that the girls had finished with their questions for the evening—thank God—before she twisted the key in the lock and opened their apartment
door. The first thing she noticed was the lights. They were on when she had shut them off before leaving.
The second thing she noticed? A leather jacket hanging over the arm of the couch just beyond the hallway.
The third?
His scent.
Leather, smoke, and man.
Distinct to Alessio, and Ginevra swore every nerve in her body lit up when she dragged in another lungful of the smell. There wasn’t enough, and she might never taste it on her tongue again.
The girls, seemingly unaware of their sister’s frozen stance, pushed past her to enter the apartment. They didn’t notice the familiar cologne Alessio preferred lingering in the air, or his jacket tossed over the back of the couch.
She might have spoken up ...
Might have told them to wait ...
Her words wouldn’t come.
The girls didn’t even reach the end of the hallway before Alessio stepped around the corner, directly in their path. Giulia, with her head down to watch whatever she found interesting on her phone, rammed into the back of her sister when Greta came to a full stop in front of Alessio.
He tipped his head to the side, amusement lighting up his gaze when the two teenagers lifted their heads to meet his stare. His lips quirked into a wicked grin, too, almost making Ginevra laugh at the sight.
“Hello,” he told them.
Giulia squeaked.
Greta said and did nothing.
“Do they not speak?” he asked, his gaze lifting to find Ginevra at the end of the hall. She found affection staring back.
Her heart beat again.
“They do, you shocked them, Les.”
“Les—Alessio?” Greta asked.
Giulia made another one of those squeaky sounds.
“That is my name,” Alessio told her sister.
“Oh, wow,” Greta mumbled.
Alessio cocked his head to the side again. “Uh, what?”
Ginevra pressed her lips together and decided the wall was a far more interesting thing to stare at because it would not make her laugh out loud.
“Greta, Giulia,” she said, still keeping her attention on the wall, “this is Alessio. Les, these are my little sisters.”
“They don’t talk well,” he noted.