“Merci.”
“I won’t ask again, but I want to be sure you understand what will happen after you leave tonight.”
“I understand. It’s what they want, Dare.”
“Or is it—”
“Barring Christopher, let me point out something about Corrado I am sure you and Cree don’t know—since he’s the one who feeds you information, and you get in your feelings about it. Corrado has never fit in anywhere with the rest of us. He’s been under my feet, and men like me, for his entire life, and yet ... he’s not found the space where he belongs. He’s not a normal boy, and he won’t live a normal life. He can’t when he has just a little too much of me and my blood in him, if you understand.”
“So, what does that mean?”
“He might find where he belongs here, and if he has to sacrifice to do it, then so be it.”
“And the other one—Chris?”
Gian made a dismissive sound. “Selfless. It’s his path to choose, Dare.”
“I see.”
“Have we said all we need to say, then?”
A chair squeaked before Dare replied, “It seems so. They’ve already signed the contracts, but I haven’t yet. I will now. It’ll begin tonight once you’re gone.”
“I expect the same for them that you have given to Alessio,” Gian added. “Put in as an addendum to their contracts for me—I will look for it.”
“Which is what?”
“Independent contractors for The League—they only choose the auction route if they want when training is finished. If they decline the auctions when it is all said and done, I will pay the training fees to recoup the costs.”
“Cree does want to make a team that he can use for his contacts.”
“So, that’s a yes, then?”
“That’s a yes, Gian. I will add it in.”
Gian hummed before adding lower, “He’s scared of water.”
“Which one?”
“Christopher. He almost drowned when he was two—slipped off the side of the dock at the small lake at his uncle’s vacation home. A relative jumped in after him, but it was touch and go. The tank and the dark room are phase one for training, correct?”
“You expect him to react badly.”
“I’m explaining why he might, yes.”
“And yet you’re still willing to allow him—”
“It’s what he wants.”
“But without knowing what will happen, Gian.”
“He’s not stupid, like Corrado isn’t, as well. He has to know anything is a possibility here. I think ... it might help him to control that fear of his because I know it’s overwhelming to him at times.”
“All right. I’ll be in touch, Gian.”
“I expect it—regular updates, oui?”
“Absolutely.”
Alessio didn’t have time to move away from the doorway so that the men inside wouldn’t find him eavesdropping on their conversation in the hallway. Gian’s footsteps came toward the door far too fast for Alessio to figure out something, or somewhere, to hide.
So, he just stayed there leaning against the wall.
Like an idiot.
Gian looked him over as he stepped out of the office, the lack of surprise in his features telling Alessio that the man expected someone to be out here. And he wasn’t all that shocked about who it was, either.
Silence accompanied Gian’s presence. Alessio didn’t have anything to say to the man when he was still digesting parts of the conversation he’d just overheard. He hadn’t realized how much the romantic aspect of Dare and Cree’s relationship affected their business together. Not that anyone knew a whole hell of a lot about the two men, and what went on between them behind closed doors.
Alessio had never been privy to that, despite living with them for the last seven, almost eight, years. For all purposes, Cree and Dare kept the private parts of their life private. Even to Alessio. He only knew about it because someone made a comment once. He put two and two together about their relationship because of things he’d seen but overlooked, and at the time, he’d also been too young to really understand the complexities of a relationship like the one Dare and Cree shared. Eventually, he did outright ask Dare who confirmed that Cree was his partner in more than just the business.
That was the extent of the conversation.
Nothing else was on the table.
It had taught him that love was coveted here.
It was protected.
In their life, love was weakness. Love was a fucking target. It was something people could use to hurt you, and when you loved someone that much ... you did everything you could to keep it and safeguard it from whoever might try to take it from you. Even if that meant hurting the person you loved in the process, too. Because sometimes, one had to do what one had to do.
“I am sure I’ll be seeing you again, Alessio,” Gian said, dragging him from his thoughts.
Alessio frowned. “I doubt it.”
Gian grinned, and something shined in his gaze that Alessio didn’t recognize as the man looked him over again—a fondness, maybe? “I’m not so sure.”
“What does that mean?”
Did he know what happened between Alessio and his son in the gym? Had Cree run his fucking mouth about it? It wouldn’t be like Cree to do something like that, but Alessio couldn’t be sure, either.
Gian didn’t say one way or another, simply murmuring, “I guess we’ll see.”
And then the man was gone, heading down the hallway with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his three-piece Armani suit like he didn’t have a care in the world. Or, that’s what one might think by watching him, but Alessio saw something different. The way Gian kept his head tilted down, how his hands had been clenched a bit before he hid them away, and now, the fact that his shoulders seemed tense beneath his suit.
He was worried.
He should be.
This place broke men.
Repeatedly.
“Alessio!” Dare’s bark had Alessio jumping in place before he glared at the doorway. “Get in here, I know you’re out there spying like a little shit.”
“I was—”
“Don’t lie.”
Alessio scowled and turned to enter the office. He didn’t move further than inside the doorway, but he didn’t have to, either. Across the office, Dare sat behind his large desk. With his fingers steepled in front of him, he leaned back in the leather office chair, and watched Alessio with a pensive eye.
Like he was considering him.
God, he hated when Cree and Dare did that.
It meant they thought they knew something that he was hiding. And usually, they weren’t wrong.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing. Do you have anything you want to ask me?”
Alessio’s cheek twitched, because yes. Between Cree and Dare ... he didn’t get away with shit. Cree was the person who knew when Alessio was up to something, and constantly kept him on his toes because it felt like the man had insight to his mind that even he didn’t know. Dare, though?
Well, he was something else.
For all purposes, they were both family to Alessio. One might consider them his adoptive fathers, but he never called them that, and they never asked, either. Still ... in a way, Dare felt more like a father figure to him than anyone else ever had.