Page 78 of Alessio

Corrado tossed his paper aside before Ginevra had even finished her sentence and was already getting up from the table to do her bidding. Alessio met her gaze across the way, and winked.

See?

Fine.

Everything would be fine.

“Cree,” Alessio greeted, standing from the couch and giving the other two a wave of his hand as he left them alone while he answered his phone. “What can I do for you?”

Alessio was on the other side of the large sitting room from Ginevra and Corrado when Cree finally responded. “You’re not picking up Dare’s calls.”

“I have nothing to say to him, he doesn’t need me for a current job, and I don’t like listening to him bitch at me because he’s in his feelings.”

Behind him, Alessio heard Corrado clear his throat. Okay, so he hadn’t been quiet about saying what he had to say, even if he was twenty feet away. Not that anything he said was a goddamn lie, either.

“He doesn’t want to talk about the auctions, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Cree said.

“I have no doubt it’ll lead into that, and I made my decision. It was mine to make.”

“I agree, and so does he.”

Alessio stuffed a hand in his pocket, turning to watch Ginevra sitting in Corrado’s lap on the couch while the two of them battled one another on their war game. She whooped his ass all over the screen which amused Alessio to no fucking end. Even Corrado seemed to enjoy it, and usually, he was a sore loser.

He wanted to be back there.

Not here, doing this phone call.

“What do you want?” Alessio asked.

Better to get straight to the point.

“To make sure you are okay,” Cree said. “Because otherwise, you don’t fill us in.”

“Because I’m handling shit I need to handle. And since at least one of you are of the opinion you get a say on how I handle my personal business, I no longer want either of you in on it.”

Cree cleared his throat. “He didn’t want you to do the auctions. Dare, I mean. He wanted to let you do what you wanted. He’s only in his mood now about it because he believes you backing out had to do with—”

“Corrado,” Alessio interjected. “And he’s not wrong, but that doesn’t change it’s still my choice to make. I don’t want to do it, and regardless of what happens here, I still won’t be doing it.”

“Les—”

“The only reason Dare is in his feelings about Corrado and I is because you took the information I shared with you back to him.”

“I don’t hide things from him.”

“Oh, I get that,” Alessio said, “and I don’t blame you, but you also can’t fault me for keeping my private business private from here on out, yeah?”

“We worry.”

“Don’t bother.”

“Alessio.”

“Any news on that Albania hit yet?” Alessio asked.

Cree made a noise under his breath. “That’s what you want to ask me?”

“I’m not talking about anything else with you, or him. Not until you both learn that taking me in when I was ten doesn’t mean you’re owed everything I do now, Cree.”