“Yeah, Papa?”
Gian smiled, though it was faint and barely there at all. “It’s your choice. It’s always been, fils.”
Cree clapped his hands loudly. “Great. And what do you say, Corrado?”
It was only his twin speaking up from behind Corrado that broke his stretch of silence after the question
“If he does this, I do it,” Chris said.
“Chris,” Corrado muttered, not bothering to turn around to face his twin, “you don’t have—”
“I said what I said.”
He sighed.
Stubborn.
That’s what Chris was.
Yes, they were different.
They were still the same, too.
Chris would never let his twin go into something without being there to do it, too. Even if the idea of that thing wasn’t something that interested him at all.
Cree leaned to the side, just enough to get Chris in his sights before he straightened again to stare up at Corrado in the ring. The man nodded once. “All right, I’ve never trained twins before. This could be ... interesting.”
“Cree,” Dare said again.
“Yeah, yeah.” Cree didn’t move, still waiting. “Corrado?”
“All right,” Corrado said quietly.
Cree smiled widely and wagged a finger at him. “Remember this was what you wanted, okay?”
What did that mean?
5.
Alessio
“Gian, I don’t think you understand—”
“I understand very well what it means for them, Dare.”
Silence echoed from within the office. Alessio, standing where the two men inside couldn’t see him, used the wall as a prop for his shoulder to rest against as he waited for the conversation to continue on.
Dare sighed heavily, and hands smacked on something solid. “The training is intensive, and—”
“We’ve gone over the training. I know what happens.”
“If you would stop interrupting me, that would be great.”
“By all means ...”
Dare grumbled under his breath. “The training—it’s going to break them at every level, Gian. Mentally, physically ... that’s the purpose of it, for us to find their limits, shatter them, and then teach them there is no limit. They’re seventeen.”
“Nearly eighteen, but all right. And how old is the one Corrado followed around today?”
“That is not the point.”
“How old?”
“Alessio will be eighteen soon, but—”
“Mmm, I know you’re going to say he’s been with you and Cree from the time he was ten, but you’re not going to lie right to my face and say you’ve been training him since then, will you? I didn’t take you to be an ignorant man, Dare.”
“He started the intensive training at fifteen, but he watched others and participated in different things from the time he was about twelve, yes.”
“And is he out on assignments yet?”
“No,” Dare replied.
“Why?”
“My choice. Cree thinks he’s ready either way.”
“But again, why?” Gian asked again, his tone sharpening the word. “Because I am sure the fifty percent that I fronted on this venture of yours allows me the right to ask a question and promises you will give me a truthful answer. Unless I missed something in that paperwork, and if so, by all means ... correct me, Dare.”
“Gian, this isn’t about Alessio.”
“I think it is about Alessio in the way that you are looking at him the way I look at my boys. And as I understand your relationship with Cree—”
“Could we not? No one gets the right to discuss my personal business. You included, regardless of how much money you have in this company.”
Gian cleared his throat. “You know that’s not an issue for me. I meant to say, I know that with that, and the fact you both have had Alessio for so long, he feels like a son to you. I understand why. You have chosen to keep him here for as long as you can—yes?”
The sound of Dare swallowing was audible. “Well, you’re not wrong.”
A chuckle echoed.
“I didn’t think so,” Gian replied quietly. “When will he be put out on assignments?”
“Cree decided eighteen.”
Gian made a noise under his breath. “Cree decided?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“And what about the auction, then? What will happen to him with that?”
“Another fight—I settled that one. He’ll make the choice for himself after he’s done a few independent jobs. If he wants to go up on the auction for a term of four years to do jobs for a specific client, then he can.”
“Yet, the other assassins you’ve trained here don’t get that choice at all. Or did I miss something from the last time we talked about the process here? Because I am positive every prospect you and Cree begin training sign the same contract—they will go up for a term of four years in the auctions the company holds, and then it’s renegotiated after, yes?”
“How did this fucking conversation turn around on me? Because I am sure that’s not what we were discussing two minutes ago, Gian.”
“Ah, so now you understand.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Now you understand, Dare.” Gian laughed under his breath. “See, you became defensive as soon as I pointed out the emotional side of your attachment here—to a specific person, sure, but it’s still there nonetheless. Because that’s how you feel about your boy, blood or not. And you expect me to have the same reaction about mine, but you’re wrong.”
“I—”
“I’m not finished. You seem to think,” Gian said, his tone remaining level, “that I would pull rank on my sons simply because they are my sons. While I don’t actually expect their mother to be happy about this decision, if only because that means at least a year she’ll be without them, I don’t have an opinion one way or another. If this is what Chris and Corrado want to do, then this is what they’ll do. They have independent minds, I made sure of that. I wanted all my boys to be able to think for themselves. I love them, but they have to make themselves into something. I can’t do it for them.”
“Well ...”
“Hmm?”
Dare grunted under his breath. “Cree says Corrado is the best fit here. Because of his temperament, and the fact he seems willing to learn.”
“And Chris?”
A laugh answered that back.
“What?” Gian asked. “Just say it.”
“He says Chris’s reasons are clearly self—”
“Don’t call Chris selfish. He is a lot of things, but out of all of them, selfish is not one of them. He is the most selfless of all my children, although I never understood why.”
“Okay, then I will rephrase. He thinks he is only doing this because of his twin, and not because he actually wants to. Rather, because he wants to do what his twin does, if you get what I am saying.”
“So again, selfless.”
“I will let Cree know that selfish is the wrong choice of word for Christopher.”