Page 22 of Corrado

Alessio glowered, but Dare couldn’t see it because he had already turned to leave the room. Clearly, this was going to get him nowhere and he didn’t want to sit here and bother with it any more than he already had.

He hated wasting time.

“Oh, and Les?”

Alessio tensed in the doorway of the office. “What now?”

“If you’re interested in Corrado Guzzi, my suggestion is instead of trying to pick a fight with him to get his attention, you might want to … oh, I don’t know, talk to him?”

“Fuck you.”

Dare’s laughter chased him out of the office.

Asshole.

“How are they running power to this place?” Chris asked.

Gian tapped a finger to his ear. “Listen for it, fils.”

Corrado heard the humming in the distance—somewhere behind them, he thought. Maybe in the middle of the complex? When they’d first come up on it, in the light, he thought it was several buildings close together. After walking around a bit, he realized it was actually one building, but in varied sizes depending on location.

“Generators,” Corrado said.

“Oh,” Chris said.

At the driver’s side of the black Mercedes they’d arrived in, Gian turned to face his sons. Corrado stayed close to Chris, their equal six-foot-two height putting them pretty close to eye-level with their father. He couldn’t remember when that happened, really. A growth spurt came along, and suddenly, he was no longer looking up at his dad.

He was staring him straight in the face.

“Corrado,” Gian murmured.

His gaze lifted to meet his father’s. “Yeah?”

“I know you’re looking for something here.”

“You think?”

Gian smiled faintly. “I hope you find it.”

A thickness tightened his throat, but he nodded and said, “Yeah, me too.”

Then, their father turned on Chris. “And you.”

Chris grinned. “What about me?”

“I hope you know what you just signed up for.”

“Not really.”

Gian released a slow breath. “This is not … easy, Christopher.”

“I’m here until he isn’t.”

“You don’t have to look out for your twin every day of your life. That’s not why you were put on this earth. You understand that, don’t you?”

Chris only shrugged.

Corrado knew there was no point in his father trying to explain to Chris that he didn’t really have to be here with his brother if he didn’t want to be. Once they made up their minds, it was done—a Guzzi trait they took from their father, whether he wanted to admit it or not.