Ginevra smiled as she tipped her head up, her gaze landing on him across the room. “It always is anyway. Like I didn’t listen to the two of you in the shower for—”
“Should have joined,” Alessio returned as he came out of the closet, having pulled on a pair of boxer-briefs, and nothing else. “You get more that way, kitten.”
Corrado chuckled. “I mean, yeah.”
Ginevra shifted from foot to foot. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
He gestured at the bed, feeling the tips of Alessio’s fingers drift over his lower back as the man passed him by. “Sleep?”
“If you want me in here.”
Corrado smirked. “When do we not?”
16.
Alessio
Why, when things were going good in Alessio’s life, something had to come around to fuck it up?
He didn’t need to answer the ringing phone in his pocket to know whatever that call was about, it would fuck up the balance he had found with Corrado and Ginevra. Sure, it was touch and go after the whole Clubhouse incident, but after a couple of weeks, they found a comfortable routine he liked.
He didn’t want to fuck it up.
“Are you going to answer that, or ...?”
Alessio grunted under his breath. “I’d rather not.”
“That’s the ringtone you use for Cree.”
“And?”
His sharp question drew in the gaze of several people inside the café, and even Ginevra who now waited closer to the cashier in line. Alessio and Corrado had opted to stand back to let the line weed itself out—she didn’t need them standing beside her twenty-four seven even if that’s what they both wanted to do more than anything.
The phone rang again.
Corrado sighed. “Stop ignoring him, Les.”
“It’s not about ignoring him.”
And it wasn’t. It would have little to do with Dare, or the fact Alessio still wasn’t calling them to keep him and Cree updated like he did.
No, it wasn’t for that.
The fucking Albania job.
Which meant as soon as Alessio picked up the call, there would be a timer ticking down. The job had been years in the making, and he would have a tiny window of time after being given the okay to begin before he would have to get on a plane, and travel to a different country.
Away from here.
Away from them.
After his last conversation with Cree, well, Alessio doubted the man would call just because. Cree wasn’t the type to push Alessio’s lines, and he’d certainly done that during their chat.
So, it could only be for one thing.
“If you don’t pick up the damn call,” Corrado warned when Alessio’s phone continued ringing in his pocket, “I will call Cree back myself.”
Jesus.
“Fine,” Alessio grumbled.
He pulled the phone from his pocket, giving Corrado a look before turning his back to him and the rest of the café as he answered the call. He stepped over to the window, putting some distance between himself and Corrado, not to mention the others lingering in the café.
“Les here,” he said into the speaker.
“Nice of you to finally pick up my call,” Cree muttered.
Alessio sighed. “I was busy.”
“But were you?”
“Listen, I picked up the call, Cree.”
It was the best he could do right now.
Anything else, and they asked too much.
Alessio kept his eye on Ginevra who was now giving her order at the front of the line to the cashier. Her bright smile had his own growing, not to mention the way she kept glancing back to check on Corrado and Alessio.
The woman ... was something else.
And Corrado had been right.
She fit them.
“What did you need?” Alessio asked.
Although, he had a good idea.
It was just a matter of saying it, now.
“The Albania job is a go,” Cree said.
Alessio figured it would be pointless to ask, but he still had to try. “And we’re sure there’s no possibility of them allowing another member to do the hit?”
“I’ve told you no.”
Right, right.
Alessio’s gaze drifted to Corrado who looked his way with a sly grin, pleased he’d gotten his lover to answer the call from Cree. It was too bad Corrado didn’t understand yet what Alessio picking up the call meant.
He needed to be here.
More than anything. He wanted to be here. They were still figuring this out, between them, and Ginevra. Yeah, shit was better ... but they were all still walking a very thin line with one another. He wanted to believe it wouldn’t take much for them to get to a better place, but right now ...
Anything could happen.
It was all in the air.
“I just think it’s ridiculous they wouldn’t allow someone else to take it, if there’s no reason why not,” Alessio said under his breath.
“You want to tell me what that mood is about, or no?”
Alessio scrubbed a hand down his face and turned to stare out the window. Then, Corrado wouldn’t be able to see the displeasure on his face if he was still watching Alessio on the phone. “It’s nothing—me voicing my thoughts out loud.”
“Right,” Cree murmured, “but I think it’s more.”
“And we’re still not discussing my personal business. That hasn’t changed.”
“Les, I get I crossed a line.”
“So?”
“Cut the shit.”
Alessio pulled in a lungful of air, wishing it helped to settle his nerves, but it didn’t. Nothing helped with it anymore, it seemed. Not unless he was in bed with Corrado or Ginevra, because then, he only had to think about one thing, and none of this shit factored into that at all.
Another reason to be here.
“I want to take fewer jobs,” Alessio said.
Cree made a soft noise. “Oh?”
“I used work and keeping busy as a way to run from my issues, and I don’t want to do it anymore. So, I understand what I need to do to fix that.”
“Take fewer jobs, stay home more.”
“Exactly.”
Something shuffled on the other end of the call before Cree replied, “There’s no reason you can’t do that, Les. And you always did well training the new prospects with the occasional job thrown in with the team. If you want to go back to that, you can.”
“But not right now.”
“No,” Cree agreed, “you have to do the Albania job. Within seven days, you need to be on a plane to contact the client within the proper time frame we previously agreed upon. I will send his details over, and you’ll have everything you need once you land in the country.”
“Great.”
Except it wasn’t great.
Not at all.
“Within seven days,” Cree repeated, “call me to confirm you’re on the way, all right?”
“Yeah, sure. A week, I got it.”
Without a goodbye, Alessio hung up the phone. Cree wouldn’t give a damn, really. He’d only slid the phone back into his pocket when Corrado saddled up to his side, arms folded over his broad chest. He spoke to Alessio as he continued watching Ginevra.
“A week for what?”