Page 319 of Alessio

Corrado thought so because Alessio wasn’t the type to play games. If he was done, and he wanted this to be finished between them, then he would have made that clear. He wouldn’t have disappeared for an entire week like this, he simply would have said.

He just hadn’t come back yet.

Eventually, he would.

Corrado still didn’t like it, though, because it put him on edge. He didn’t know if Alessio was okay—probably not, in some ways—and he couldn’t stand this heavy feeling pressing down on his chest that only seemed to grow day after day.

Cree cleared his throat. “I pulled the aliases I could and did a quick check. Nothing came up on any of the ones he uses, so he must be using one I don’t know about. I know you only want to be assured he’s okay, but I won’t check his tracker. For one, because of Dare, and it’s best he stays out of this until the two of you figure out this … problem for yourselves. And for two, because Alessio is allowed his privacy, even if I was willing to deal with Dare when I checked the tracker. Which I’m not,” he added in a grunt about Dare, continuing on with, “But allow Alessio his privacy, Corrado.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“You don’t sound like it is.”

Because it wasn’t.

He was fucking breaking apart at the seams.

Corrado wasn’t good at this. He didn’t do this. And if this shit was what heartache was, well, fuck that, he didn’t like it at all. It felt like his entire world had come to a stop, and yet, all he needed to do was look outside the office window to see … no, in fact, everyone else’s world was still turning.

But his?

His was at a standstill, gone somewhere out there, away from him, and it was all his fault. He had no one to blame for this but himself.

“And,” Cree added, bringing Corrado back to the conversation at hand, “if I understand the situation properly … the young woman is also still with you, yes?”

“It’s … not like I have a choice.”

For one, because Ginevra still couldn’t go back to New York. And for two, because if Corrado were being honest, he had unfinished business with her at the end of the day. The feelings he had for Ginevra did not negateor change the way he felt for Alessio. But that worked both ways, too. The thing he had with Les, and the last five years they spent together, didn’t change or negate the situation he found himself in with Ginevra, either.

“Don’t be defensive,” Cree said, “what happens behind your closed doors is not my business, which has always been our stance.”

Our, he said.

Meaning Dare, too.

That was about as much as Cree gave regarding his relationship with Dare.

“I meant,” the man continued, “that at the same time, did you consider Alessio might be also giving you what you want by staying away?”

“Excuse me?”

“The woman, Corrado.”

“What—”

“While protecting you from him, he may also be giving you the chance to figure that out where he isn’t imposing or making it more complicated. You were clearly in a situation with her before he came into the picture, and by stepping back, he’s allowing you to continue it whichever way you want.”

“I’m not sure that fucking her after all of this is going to make him come back, if that’s—”

Cree made a harsh noise under his breath. “Never understood the appeal of vaginas myself, really.”

Yep.

Great.

This conversation was just perfect, now.

“Could you not?” Corrado asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Make your point, or just hang up the phone.”