by Bethany-Kris
Chris was enjoying this too much.
Heat flooded Corrado’s face. He didn’t even know it was possible for him to blush, but he was pretty sure his face was red. It wasn’t what he had been doing that embarrassed him, but rather, that someone was there to see it. His twin, for that matter.
Not that Chris ever cared.
A part of Corrado knew his family didn’t give a shit because his twin was a good indicator of how the rest of them would react if he outed the fact he was bi. It wasn’t so much them as it was the people around them that concerned him at the end of the day.
Being the son of a criminal boss meant Corrado had to factor other people into their lives, as well. People who didn’t share their blood or live in their home but would still think they had some right to speak about his sexuality either way. And it was those people who he didn’t care to let in on his business.
Because they wouldn’t shut the fuck up about it. Or, they wouldn’t leave his father alone, or worse, blame him for something that no one could help. Which just pissed Corrado off more because he didn’t need help. He wasn’t sick, and something wasn’t wired differently inside his head.
To them, he would be wrong.
To them, he would be broken.
That’s what they had taught him.
Except he couldn’t be any of those things when he was just born this way. And so, he adopted his simple strategy about it all. If nobody thought to ask, then he didn’t have fuck all to tell them. His family included. They could assume, and he was fine with that, but he wasn’t offering the information up willingly.
“Round two another day, Guzzi?”
Corrado couldn’t even hide the way Alessio’s voice from across the ring affected him as it reached his spot. His back tensed, and all over again, he could feel the man’s mouth coming down on his, and the way his fingers had dug into his chest as those fingerless leather gloves came down against his body. His jaw clenched, and outside the ring, Chris raised an eyebrow again, clearly not missing Corrado’s odd behavior.
“Don’t,” he warned his twin.
His brother just laughed, hit the ropes of the ring with his hand, and stepped back like he was done with the conversation.
“Round two another day,” came a new, deep voice.
Corrado spun around fast to find where the voice had come from. Parts of the gym were shrouded in darkness, the different lines of machines barely visible in the shadows as Alessio had only flicked on two light switches instead of the other fifteen. At the very far right end of the gym, a man leaning against the side of a treadmill watched Corrado.
His hair, a sleek black and braided, fell over broad shoulders. He’d hooked one leg over the other lazily as he used the machine to keep him upright, arms folded over his chest. Corrado couldn’t see the man’s eye color until he moved closer—a dark russet brown. It complimented the golden brown of his skin, too.
“Fuck, Cree,” Alessio said, giving the man a look as he neared the ring. “You could have let me know you were in here when I first came in.”
Cree didn’t bother to give Alessio his attention. “But why, so I could miss the show?”
That time, it was Alessio’s turn to flush with a reddish color. Corrado would have laughed except he realized while he had also been on the mat, in a very compromising position. So, that show included him.
He chose to shut his mouth.
Cree pointed at Corrado. “You.”
He stiffened. “What about me?”
“You have a lot of anger, no?”
“What?”
The man used a closed fist to hit the middle of his chest, coming to a stop right outside the ropes of the ring. “Here, you have a lot of anger. And no place to do anything with it.”
Corrado quieted.
Cree wasn’t wrong.
Chris cleared his throat on the other side of the ring, but Corrado wasn’t paying any attention to his brother because now, something else had his attention.
“How do you know that just by watching me?” Corrado asked.
Cree grinned a bit. “A talent.”
“That’s a non-answer.”
“Smart, too,” he said, finally directing a comment at Alessio. “And someone willing to put up with your shit. Congratulations on finding that, Les. I never thought you would.”
Alessio opened his mouth, but Cree was quick to put up a hand to shut the other man up before he could start. He snapped his jaw shut with an audible click, which made Cree smirk before he turned back to Corrado.
What just happened?
He felt like he missed something.
“Do you know, Corrado,” he said, tipping his head in Alessio’s direction, “that this one has a tendency to ... pick fights when he wants attention? Oh, he won’t say that. He doesn’t admit that’s what he does.” Cree pointed at his temple and narrowed his eyes with a suspicious smile as he added, “But I know because I watch him a lot. I watch everyone a lot. It’s how I know what someone needs to break and make them.”
“Would you fuck off some—”
“Quite enough from you,” Cree told Alessio without even looking away from Corrado. “And you, Corrado, you have a lot of anger and nowhere to do something with it. I think you would learn a lot here.”
Corrado blinked. “What?”
“I thought what I said was quite clear.”
“Cree, you can’t be fucking serious.”
“I am,” he returned to Alessio, “but it’s not about you, so shut up.”
“Cree.”
The native man didn’t turn away from Corrado even as Alessio fumed at the other side of the ring. Corrado felt stupid—shocked, really.
“You mean here, at The League?”
Cree shrugged. “Why not?”
Alessio made a harsh noise under his breath, taking Cree’s attention away from Corrado for a second. “If you think some privileged fuck from—”
The man waved a hand at Alessio like he was dismissing him as he said, “Yes, I can see you have some issues you need to handle, too, Les. I’ll come back to you.”
That shut Alessio up fast.
It almost made Corrado want to ask what it was about Cree that clearly put Alessio on edge, but really, he figured he already knew. The man just seemed to know what everyone’s bullshit was before they could even open their mouth and try to lie about it.
Cree came back to Corrado. “Well, what do you think?”
“Corrado,” Chris said from behind him.
He stayed silent.
Considering ...
“And what’s happening in here?”
Corrado didn’t need to turn around to know his father had stepped into the gym. He continued staring at Cree, all the while, thinking about the man’s offer. Cree answered for him.
“Actually,” Cree said, looking to the side of Corrado’s legs from his position on the floor below the ring to speak to Gian from across the room, “I was making an offer to your son.”
Gian didn’t miss a beat. “What kind of offer?”
“To join The League.”
“Cree,” came another voice.
Dare.
The guy his father had been talking to earlier.
Dare’s simple statement of Cree’s name sounded like a warning, but clearly not one Cree intended to heed as he only stared between Gian and Corrado.
“Corrado?”
At his father’s call of his name, he glanced over his shoulder. For some reason, he was worried then that he might find disappointment in his father’s eyes. Even though Gian never outright told Corrado what he had to do—be a made man like him, or anything else he wanted to be—a part of him still wondered what his father really felt about it all.
“Yeah, Papa?”
Gian smiled, though it was faint and barely there at all. “It’s your choice. It’s always been, fils.”
Cree clapped his hands loudly. “Great. And what do you say, Corrado?”
It was only his
twin speaking up from behind Corrado that broke his stretch of silence after the question
“If he does this, I do it,” Chris said.
“Chris,” Corrado muttered, not bothering to turn around to face his twin, “you don’t have—”
“I said what I said.”
He sighed.
Stubborn.
That’s what Chris was.
Yes, they were different.
They were still the same, too.
Chris would never let his twin go into something without being there to do it, too. Even if the idea of that thing wasn’t something that interested him at all.
Cree leaned to the side, just enough to get Chris in his sights before he straightened again to stare up at Corrado in the ring. The man nodded once. “All right, I’ve never trained twins before. This could be ... interesting.”
“Cree,” Dare said again.
“Yeah, yeah.” Cree didn’t move, still waiting. “Corrado?”
“All right,” Corrado said quietly.
Cree smiled widely and wagged a finger at him. “Remember this was what you wanted, okay?”
What did that mean?
5.
Alessio
“Gian, I don’t think you understand—”
“I understand very well what it means for them, Dare.”
Silence echoed from within the office. Alessio, standing where the two men inside couldn’t see him, used the wall as a prop for his shoulder to rest against as he waited for the conversation to continue on.
Dare sighed heavily, and hands smacked on something solid. “The training is intensive, and—”
“We’ve gone over the training. I know what happens.”
“If you would stop interrupting me, that would be great.”
“By all means ...”
Dare grumbled under his breath. “The training—it’s going to break them at every level, Gian. Mentally, physically ... that’s the purpose of it, for us to find their limits, shatter them, and then teach them there is no limit. They’re seventeen.”
“Nearly eighteen, but all right. And how old is the one Corrado followed around today?”
“That is not the point.”
“How old?”
“Alessio will be eighteen soon, but—”
“Mmm, I know you’re going to say he’s been with you and Cree from the time he was ten, but you’re not going to lie right to my face and say you’ve been training him since then, will you? I didn’t take you to be an ignorant man, Dare.”
“He started the intensive training at fifteen, but he watched others and participated in different things from the time he was about twelve, yes.”
“And is he out on assignments yet?”
“No,” Dare replied.
“Why?”
“My choice. Cree thinks he’s ready either way.”
“But again, why?” Gian asked again, his tone sharpening the word. “Because I am sure the fifty percent that I fronted on this venture of yours allows me the right to ask a question and promises you will give me a truthful answer. Unless I missed something in that paperwork, and if so, by all means ... correct me, Dare.”
“Gian, this isn’t about Alessio.”
“I think it is about Alessio in the way that you are looking at him the way I look at my boys. And as I understand your relationship with Cree—”
“Could we not? No one gets the right to discuss my personal business. You included, regardless of how much money you have in this company.”
Gian cleared his throat. “You know that’s not an issue for me. I meant to say, I know that with that, and the fact you both have had Alessio for so long, he feels like a son to you. I understand why. You have chosen to keep him here for as long as you can—yes?”
The sound of Dare swallowing was audible. “Well, you’re not wrong.”
A chuckle echoed.
“I didn’t think so,” Gian replied quietly. “When will he be put out on assignments?”
“Cree decided eighteen.”
Gian made a noise under his breath. “Cree decided?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“And what about the auction, then? What will happen to him with that?”
“Another fight—I settled that one. He’ll make the choice for himself after he’s done a few independent jobs. If he wants to go up on the auction for a term of four years to do jobs for a specific client, then he can.”
“Yet, the other assassins you’ve trained here don’t get that choice at all. Or did I miss something from the last time we talked about the process here? Because I am positive every prospect you and Cree begin training sign the same contract—they will go up for a term of four years in the auctions the company holds, and then it’s renegotiated after, yes?”
“How did this fucking conversation turn around on me? Because I am sure that’s not what we were discussing two minutes ago, Gian.”
“Ah, so now you understand.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Now you understand, Dare.” Gian laughed under his breath. “See, you became defensive as soon as I pointed out the emotional side of your attachment here—to a specific person, sure, but it’s still there nonetheless. Because that’s how you feel about your boy, blood or not. And you expect me to have the same reaction about mine, but you’re wrong.”
“I—”
“I’m not finished. You seem to think,” Gian said, his tone remaining level, “that I would pull rank on my sons simply because they are my sons. While I don’t actually expect their mother to be happy about this decision, if only because that means at least a year she’ll be without them, I don’t have an opinion one way or another. If this is what Chris and Corrado want to do, then this is what they’ll do. They have independent minds, I made sure of that. I wanted all my boys to be able to think for themselves. I love them, but they have to make themselves into something. I can’t do it for them.”
“Well ...”
“Hmm?”
Dare grunted under his breath. “Cree says Corrado is the best fit here. Because of his temperament, and the fact he seems willing to learn.”
“And Chris?”
A laugh answered that back.
“What?” Gian asked. “Just say it.”
“He says Chris’s reasons are clearly self—”
“Don’t call Chris selfish. He is a lot of things, but out of all of them, selfish is not one of them. He is the most selfless of all my children, although I never understood why.”
“Okay, then I will rephrase. He thinks he is only doing this because of his twin, and not because he actually wants to. Rather, because he wants to do what his twin does, if you get what I am saying.”
“So again, selfless.”
“I will let Cree know that selfish is the wrong choice of word for Christopher.”
“Merci.”
“I won’t ask again, but I want to be sure you understand what will happen after you leave tonight.”
“I understand. It’s what they want, Dare.”
“Or is it—”
“Barring Christopher, let me point out something about Corrado I am sure you and Cree don’t know—since he’s the one who feeds you information, and you get in your feelings about it. Corrado has never fit in anywhere with the rest of us. He’s been under my feet, and men like me, for his entire life, and yet ... he’s not found the space where he belongs. He’s not a normal boy, and he won’t live a normal life. He can’t when he has just a little too much of me and my blood in him, if you understand.”
“So, what does that mean?”
“He might find where he belongs here, and if he has to sacrifice to do it, then so be it.”
“And the other one—Chris?”
Gian made a dismissive sound. “Selfless. It’s his path to choose, Dare.”
“I see.”
“Have we said all we need to say, then?”
A chair squeaked before Dare replied, “It
seems so. They’ve already signed the contracts, but I haven’t yet. I will now. It’ll begin tonight once you’re gone.”
“I expect the same for them that you have given to Alessio,” Gian added. “Put in as an addendum to their contracts for me—I will look for it.”
“Which is what?”
“Independent contractors for The League—they only choose the auction route if they want when training is finished. If they decline the auctions when it is all said and done, I will pay the training fees to recoup the costs.”
“Cree does want to make a team that he can use for his contacts.”
“So, that’s a yes, then?”
“That’s a yes, Gian. I will add it in.”
Gian hummed before adding lower, “He’s scared of water.”
“Which one?”
“Christopher. He almost drowned when he was two—slipped off the side of the dock at the small lake at his uncle’s vacation home. A relative jumped in after him, but it was touch and go. The tank and the dark room are phase one for training, correct?”
“You expect him to react badly.”
“I’m explaining why he might, yes.”
“And yet you’re still willing to allow him—”
“It’s what he wants.”
“But without knowing what will happen, Gian.”
“He’s not stupid, like Corrado isn’t, as well. He has to know anything is a possibility here. I think ... it might help him to control that fear of his because I know it’s overwhelming to him at times.”
“All right. I’ll be in touch, Gian.”
“I expect it—regular updates, oui?”
“Absolutely.”
Alessio didn’t have time to move away from the doorway so that the men inside wouldn’t find him eavesdropping on their conversation in the hallway. Gian’s footsteps came toward the door far too fast for Alessio to figure out something, or somewhere, to hide.
So, he just stayed there leaning against the wall.
Like an idiot.
Gian looked him over as he stepped out of the office, the lack of surprise in his features telling Alessio that the man expected someone to be out here. And he wasn’t all that shocked about who it was, either.
Silence accompanied Gian’s presence. Alessio didn’t have anything to say to the man when he was still digesting parts of the conversation he’d just overheard. He hadn’t realized how much the romantic aspect of Dare and Cree’s relationship affected their business together. Not that anyone knew a whole hell of a lot about the two men, and what went on between them behind closed doors.
