And that, in a nutshell, was his mother.
Ginevra gave him a wink. “That’s me.”
He could plainly see that twinkle in his mother’s eye—that curiosity. “I think you and I should spend some time together tonight, and—”
“Oh, Cara, there’s the director for the hospital,” Gian said, coming up to slip his arm around his wife’s waist, directing her in an entirely different direction as he did so. At the same time, his father passed Corrado a look that said, we will have words later. He didn’t doubt it. “We need to discuss that donation with him, yes?”
Cara made a face. “Fine.” Then, turning back to Ginevra, his mother grinned. “I will find you later, okay?”
“You got it, Cara.”
And to Corrado, his mother added, “Make sure you dance with her—I taught you well, use it.”
Well ...
Gian gave Ginevra a warm smile over his shoulder. “It was very nice to meet you, Ginny. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of you.”
Corrado blinked, but his mother and father were already gone. Next to him, Ginevra’s brow furrowed. Clearly, she hadn’t missed his father’s slip, either. Ginny, he called her. Like he knew exactly who she was, because she had not told them her nickname yet.
He passed a glance to his twin, wondering ... he’d given Chris a few details, about the same he gave to Alessio, about what he was doing in Toronto at the moment. The only added thing his brother knew was the fact that Ginevra was a woman, and that was simply because he had brought Corrado clothes for her to wear those first couple of days.
Chris tipped his glass of whiskey up to take a drink, seeing the question in his brother’s gaze. A simple nod gave Corrado all the answer he needed. Yes, his brother had shared what he knew with his father. No doubt, Gian had then made some calls to connect the rest of the dots with the information he had.
Great.
“Where the fuck is Les—”
“Ginny, do you want to dance?” Corrado asked, turning his back to his twin, and his other brothers before Bene could finish that question.
She smirked up at him. “What, don’t want to introduce me to the rest of the Guzzi bunch?”
“We’re a hoard, really. And no, I am sure you’ll get more than your fill of my brothers before the end of the night. I had to live with them for eighteen years, trust me when I say it won’t kill you to lose two extra minutes with them.”
She hit his chest, but he was already walking them away. A quick glance over his shoulder let him know Chris was taking care of that situation. A sharp shake of his head to the rest of their brothers quieted them all, and yet, every one of them turned to watch Corrado and Ginevra walk away.
Like they just knew, too.
Corrado had secrets.
One too many to name.
It kind of felt like his family probably knew some.
• • •
“What is this?”
Ginevra walked further into the hall of paintings, and spread her arms wide as she did a little circle. Corrado stuffed his hands in his slacks pockets as he watched her joyful moment. That, and he liked the way that dress draped over her body, and glimmered when she moved.
“This,” he said, “is the hall of Guzzis.”
Stopping under one particular piece of art in the hallway, she leaned a bit over the red rope to get a closer look at the name under the piece. The man in the painting, surrounded by his wife, and children when they were just toddlers, stared straight ahead like he owned the world.
At the time, it probably felt like he had.
“Frederic Guzzi and family.”
“My grandfather.”
Not that Corrado had ever seen much of the man growing up. He didn’t approve of some of the things that brought Gian and Cara together, and so, the rest of them suffered for it. A part of him always thought that was quite selfish, but he didn’t think Ginevra needed to know that family dirt just yet.
“Do you have one?”
Corrado let out a laugh. “Not quite—we have a portrait, or two, as a whole.” He pointed at the end of the hallway where a painting featuring his mother, surrounded by all her boys in a forest as she sat on what looked like a throne, was on prominent display. “There’s one.”
“Oh, wow.”
“But no, I don’t have one of just me.”
“Why not?”
“Our family’s tradition has always been family portraits, or those featuring the head of the house, usually the male. My father made my mother an exception to that rule, though.”
Like everything else between his mother and father.
“Ah,” Ginevra said, grinning back at him, “so you aren’t the head of your household yet since you don’t have one, right?”
“Exactly, and I’m unmarried, without children ... so no portrait, either.”
“Corrado, there you are.”
He spun to the side fast, finding his father watching him from a separate entry into the large hall of portraits. Next to Gian, stood Chris, Marcus, and two other men who rarely left his father’s side. His consigliere, and underboss for the Guzzi Cosa Nostra.
“I wanted a word, if you had a minute,” Gian said, gesturing at the hallway.
Corrado opened his mouth to refuse—Ginevra, after all—and he didn’t feel like getting the twenty-one questions from his father that were sure to come once Gian had him alone. Not that it mattered, apparently, because his father wasn’t going to give him a choice.
Perfect.
“Chris will entertain Ginevra, I understand they’ve met before,” Gian said quickly.
Corrado kept his face passive. “Met is stretching it. They’ve seen each other from afar.”
“What, you don’t trust your twin with the woman?”
He gave his father a scowl. “That’s unfair.”
“The low shots usually get me what I want, you know.”
Of course.
“Corrado?”
Behind him, he found Ginevra smiling. “I’ll be okay for a while. Go with your dad.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. Besides, Chris can probably tell me more about these paintings, right?”
Chris laughed next to their father. “I certainly can.”
“Good. See? Everything’s great.”
So it seemed.
Ginevra gave him a wink over her shoulder when Chris stepped into the hallway, and took her arm in his before they both turned to look at another painting. Dismissed from their conversation, he was left with his waiting father, oldest brother Marcus, and the other two men.
“My office, then?” Gian asked.
“I guess so,” Corrado replied.
• • •
Corrado’s father stopped pretending to be polite the very second the office door closed, leaving him, his dad, and Marcus within. Standing just outside were Gian’s other two men who had not been invited in.
Something Corrado was sure they were unaccustomed to, considering what he knew.
“I will give you two minutes,” Gian said, rounding his desk and pulling out the large leather chair to sit in, “to give me every pertinent detail about that woman, and your business with her, Corrado.”
He smirked. “Or, you could just save me the time, and tell me what you know.”