Page 20 of Alessio

“Ma and Papa’s place—that’s where he was staying.”

“What?”

And his mother and father didn’t think to tell him?

That irked him, too.

Sort of …

To be fair, he hadn’t called his parents and asked them anything about Alessio, or his whereabouts, because he figured they probably didn’t know. Why would they? And, he also didn’t want to bother them with everything going on in his life, but especially the personal shit. Didn’t they have enough to deal with?

Another part of Corrado found it comforting that Alessio went to his parents’, out of all the places he might have hidden himself away. Like that’s where he thought would be safest for him. Corrado’s family.

Huh.

Chris took a drink from his coffee. Corrado figured that looked like something he should do, too. Relax for a minute and rethink this whole thing before he headed back to the penthouse to deal with the frustrating man waiting for him. Waving at a server passing with a tray of dishes she’d bussed from a table nearby, he was quick to say, “Another black coffee over here, if you wouldn’t mind.”

He’d add in his own sugar and cream from the table.

The server gave him a bright smile. “Sure, sir.”

Chris eyed him from the side. “You’re not going right home? I figured you would, knowing he’s with her.”

Corrado shook his head and dropped into the booth opposite of his brother. “He’s not going to hurt her. Not Les’s style, and all.”

“I didn’t assume that, either.” Chris cleared his throat and dropped his brother’s gaze. “I meant, more that you might be jealous the two of them are alone together.”

“Why?”

“Because if someone I was fucking was alone with someone else, and the circumstances were … like yours, I might get irritated about it.”

Corrado nodded. “And you’re not me … or him.”

Or her, but Ginevra was still a wild card here.

“I don’t understand how your relationships work at all.”

Corrado laughed. “You don’t have to. It’s not your relationship, and you’re not the one they’re fucking, Chris.”

“That’s probably a good thing.”

Right?

“Besides,” Corrado said, pulling the sugar and cream bowls closer to him as the server neared their table with a carafe of coffee ready, “the more time they spend with one another, the better it’ll be for me.”

Chris arched a brow at the statement, but waited until the server had poured Corrado’s cup of coffee, and then left them alone before he spoke. “Why would that be good for you?”

That seemed obvious.

Corrado lifted his shoulders. “Then, perhaps I can get what I want.”

“Which is …?”

“Both.”

Chris let out a sigh across the table, giving his brother the look. They both used it—identical twins and all, right? It said he was annoyed and amused all in one breath. “That’s a little selfish, yeah? You made a mess in your relationship with one, and then you dragged the other one into it without giving them the benefit of knowing what you were doing first. And now you want both like they should just … fall in line?”

“That’s fair.” Corrado stirred sugar into his coffee first, following up with the cream. “But it still feels right.”