Page 169 of Alessio

“They have the auctions coming up, from what Dad explained. And Cree’s team is heading to Syria for a job I wasn’t allowed to get the details for.”

“Government involved,” Corrado replied.

The League had their hand in everything.

“Anyway, they would have pulled someone from somewhere else to do the extraction job for Andino down in Mexico, but I happened to be there with Dad when Dare called, and when your name got brought up, I offered.”

Corrado smiled.

His twin, still looking out for him.

“Thanks, man.”

Chris made a dismissive noise under his breath. “Yeah, well … gives you some time to figure things out over there in New York, huh?”

Right.

The shadowy figures approaching the frosted glass of the front door drew Corrado’s attention there instead of his phone call. As the door opened, and he said goodbye to his brother to give his time to the people who needed it, the only thing to drift through his mind was, I don’t need time to figure this out, I know what I want.

Alessio and Ginevra.

Until the day he died.

“Why is this stoop twice the size of a normal brownstone?” Ginevra asked.

Alessio opened the door without knocking—as per Corrado’s earlier instructions. Although, he hadn’t known until they pulled up to the place that it would be a brownstone, so he still wasn’t sure why they were here. “I’m not sure, you’ll need to ask Corrado that.”

“Ask me what?”

Corrado stood just beyond the doorway, leaning against the wall like he had watched the two of them walk up the stoop together. He probably had. Smiling at the two, he winked.

“The stoop,” Ginevra said, leaving Alessio’s side to greet Corrado with a quick kiss, and a soft pat to his cheek with the tips of her fingers. “It’s double the size.”

“Because this brownstone is also double the size.”

Ginevra looked around the empty hallway, the hardwood floors gleaming under their feet. Then, she peeked back at Alessio with an arched brow. “And very … lonely without furniture, or anything on the walls.”

Corrado chuckled. “Well, that’s because you’ll have to decorate it, or hire someone to do that for you.”

Ginevra stilled.

Alessio looked to Corrado. “What?”

“It’s double the size because double the people need space here what with the girls, and all of us. It’s empty because I closed on it yesterday, and the only thing we can keep is the big oak desk in the office upstairs because the movers weren’t able to take it apart to get it out of the door without compromising the structural integrity.”

“You bought this?” Ginevra asked.

Corrado lifted a shoulder. “Well, I had to use private accounts separate from Les’s, so he wouldn’t have a clue what I did either—it’s not often I get to surprise him, too.”

He wasn’t wrong.

Ginevra’s apartment happened to be a good size for a New York place, but it still wasn’t that big. And when you had two teenage girls, two grown men, and Ginevra trying to share the same spaces, it became … crowded.

“Three bathrooms,” Corrado murmured, “five bedrooms, a little backyard, and an underground garage that can fit three vehicles.”

“How much?” Ginevra asked.

“A lot,” he returned, “but worth every single penny.”