Page 24 of Corrado

He knew better.

Not that anything at The League’s complex made sense to him—something he thought was intentional on their part—but for whatever reason, the sleeping quarters that had been designated to Corrado were an entire wing away from the one that had been given to Chris. The two had broken off as they realized the hallway lights were starting to shut off or dim significantly, and headed to their own rooms.

Trailing his finger over a simple three-drawer dresser that looked like he could probably put his fist through the thin, pressed wood if he wanted to, Corrado eyed the rest of the space. It wasn’t much—fifteen feet by fifteen feet or so. A double bed rested along one wall with a stand beside it, and a very small window overtop.

Given his room was on the third floor of a certain area deep within the large complex, no one would even be able to see inside because they couldn’t possibly reach the window. There were no pieces of artwork on the bare, tan-colored walls to give it a comfortable feeling, and other than a small desk with nothing on top … the room was basically empty. Clean, gleaming hardwood floors, white sheets on the bed, and very little else.

Welcome home for the next year, Corrado.

His mind was a special breed of hell when it wanted to be. This might have been made easier for him had he understood what was going to come next, but no. He had to be left in fucking suspense, which only made everything far worse.

The building itself, he’d realized as he walked through its hallways and sections earlier, was a fucking maze. It looked huge from the outside, but that didn’t begin to touch how large and confusing it truly was once you were inside the damn place.

“Bored?”

Corrado spun fast to find a familiar—and annoying—man leaning in his doorway. “What do you want, Alessio?”

“I still prefer Les.”

“Yeah, and how’s that mood of yours, anyway?”

Alessio grinned. “How’s that mouth of yours, huh?”

“Fair.”

He nodded, and then inched a bit into the room. Corrado thought to tell him to get the fuck out, but he didn’t bother. Besides, Alessio might be able to answer some of his questions, and he couldn’t pry information from the guy when he chased him off, right?

“How big is this complex?”

“In total?”

“Yeah.”

Alessio rocked back on his heels. “Around a hundred thousand square feet, give or take a few thousand. The main floorplan, back when they first planned to build it, covered a full acre of land. Some things changed as they moved forward, third floors were added, like here. What about it?”

“Curious.”

“You know, the less questions you ask here, the better it’ll be for you.”

Corrado passed him a look. “You know, humans are curious by nature, don’t you? It’s how we learn new things.”

Throwing those words back at Alessio didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest. If anything, that grin he sported simply grew a little deeper. Corrado might think it was sexy, even, if it didn’t fucking infuriate him so much. A part of him hated how Alessio could treat everything so flippantly—like it was a damn joke to him, and nothing more.

Even him.

Corrado didn’t want to be a joke to anybody.

“Don’t worry,” Alessio said quietly, “they’ll beat the curiosity, and almost everything else, right out of you by the time they’re done.”

He stilled on the spot, tension tightening his shoulders. “Is that what happens next?”

“Partly. You have to break before they can make you into something better. Some parts of you take longer to break than others, you know? That’s the hard part, though. Once you get through that, it’s mostly smooth sailing. It’s what they have to take from you first that just about kills you. Oh, and how they do it, I guess.”

“How do they do it?”

Alessio didn’t reply.

Corrado wasn’t one to accept a non-answer, so he moved a little closer to Alessio until the two of them were only a few inches apart. He fully intended to get an answer out of him, but it slipped his mind when he noticed the way Alessio’s gaze darted down to his lips, and then quickly back up to his eyes.