Page 98 of Alessio

“What?”

“Your family … they’re Cosa Nostra, right?”

Alessio cleared his throat and gave Corrado a look from the side. One he did his best to ignore because Alessio was quite aware this was a goddamn touchy topic for him.

“The majority are,” Corrado replied tightly. “I expect there’ll be a handful of important made men there considering Marcus is my father’s current right-hand, and while it’s never been explicitly said, the next Guzzi to take over the famiglia.”

Ginevra turned to face him. “What was that about?”

“What? Nothing.”

Her gaze darted to Alessio and then back to Corrado. “No, there was something. In your tone, like it annoyed you.”

“It was—”

“Something,” Alessio put in.

“Don’t,” Corrado warned the man beside him.

Ginevra nodded. “Okay, now I really want to know.”

God.

Why couldn’t people leave him to stew about his issues alone? Not every piece of baggage he carried around needed unpacked.

“Some people in the Guzzi organization,” Alessio said.

“Could you not?”

“No,” the man murmured to Ginevra, “some of them take issue with the fact Corrado didn’t join the family business and went outside of the organization instead. And this is before we deal with the fact that Cosa Nostra isn’t kind to boys who like boys.”

Ginevra blinked.

Corrado sucked on his teeth, annoyed again.

“Thank you,” he told Alessio.

The man shrugged. “Better to just handle it, I guess.”

Right, that’s what it was.

“And they understand you two are …?” Ginevra asked, leaving the rest of her question unsaid as she raised her brow.

“For the most part, no,” Corrado said. “We’re always very careful about how we present ourselves outside of our private space, and not just because of the opinions of people who might not like we’re together, but also because emotional attachments in this business can sometimes be a target for those who would think to use it. I never wanted someone to use Alessio against me, or vice versa.”

Alessio cleared his throat. “You never explained this to me like that.”

“Yeah, well …”

Shit left unsaid, again.

“But yes,” Corrado added, shrugging one shoulder, “I didn’t care what people from my father’s famiglia thought about the fact I sleep in bed with a man, either. They’re not the ones living my life, so their voice counts for very little.”

“Oh.”

Corrado smiled at Ginevra’s soft reply. “It doesn’t matter, anyway. If most of them aren’t already aware, they suspect, anyway. I am at a point where I don’t say, and they don’t ask. I no longer care what they think though.”

“Was that another rule?”