Page 317 of Alessio

And still, all she could think to ask in that moment was, “You didn’t think you should tell me about him?”

A hoarse sound left Corrado, but she continued her perusal of the floor. It was still easier than looking at him when she wasn’t even sure how she felt right then.

“You should have told me,” she whispered. “Maybe then, this wouldn’t have happened.”

He laughed, then.

Hard, loud, and bitter.

God, so dark.

Like someone ripped it out of him.

Ginevra looked up to find him staring at her in that way again. So intense, and pensive.

“You think that would have changed what happened here tonight?” he asked, shaking his head as he turned to go back into the office. Over his shoulder, he added, “In case you didn’t figure it out, this was a long time coming. This was years in the making—you just happened to help it along.”

“You still could have—”

“I should have done a lot of things, Ginevra. I don’t need someone else to point it out to me, and I certainly don’t expect you to understand me, or him, or this.”

Ouch.

That hurt.

“Or is it because I’m just a job to you, Corrado?”

His next step into the office hesitated, his shoulders tensing before they visibly dropped, the same way his head dipped down, too.

Did that hurt him?

Good.

He should know how she felt, too.

She didn’t give him the chance to respond before her feet finally decided to start working again, and she slipped down the hall out of sight.

There, she could hurt.

And he wouldn’t see.

“And how long has it been since you had contact with him?”

Corrado’s molars ached from how hard he continued clenching his jaw through this entire fucking conversation. How Cree was even able to understand half of what Corrado said to him was a goddamn mystery.

Better Cree than Dare, though.

Dare would tell Corrado he was a fucking asshole, didn’t deserve Alessio—he wouldn’t be wrong—and then he’d likely refuse to help him, or try to pull information on Les’s possible whereabouts. All the while, he’d make sure Corrado understood every single bit of this was his fault, and again, he wouldn’t be wrong … but it wouldn’t solve the problem of finding Alessio.

“Corrado?” Cree asked.

“A week,” he said quietly, pacing the length of the office as he spoke, passing rows of books and the large window, and then coming back again. “It’s been a week since he showed up here, and then he left. He won’t pick up calls, doesn’t answer texts … I just want to make sure he’s good, you know? I know Dare has access to his tracker, but I didn’t think I should call him.”

Cree released a sardonic laugh. “No, I promise you, that would have been a very bad thing to do. For you, not for Les.”

Right.

He didn’t need to be told.