Page 185 of Alessio

His hair, a sleek black and braided, fell over broad shoulders. He’d hooked one leg over the other lazily as he used the machine to keep him upright, arms folded over his chest. Corrado couldn’t see the man’s eye color until he moved closer—a dark russet brown. It complimented the golden brown of his skin, too.

“Fuck, Cree,” Alessio said, giving the man a look as he neared the ring. “You could have let me know you were in here when I first came in.”

Cree didn’t bother to give Alessio his attention. “But why, so I could miss the show?”

That time, it was Alessio’s turn to flush with a reddish color. Corrado would have laughed except he realized while he had also been on the mat, in a very compromising position. So, that show included him.

He chose to shut his mouth.

Cree pointed at Corrado. “You.”

He stiffened. “What about me?”

“You have a lot of anger, no?”

“What?”

The man used a closed fist to hit the middle of his chest, coming to a stop right outside the ropes of the ring. “Here, you have a lot of anger. And no place to do anything with it.”

Corrado quieted.

Cree wasn’t wrong.

Chris cleared his throat on the other side of the ring, but Corrado wasn’t paying any attention to his brother because now, something else had his attention.

“How do you know that just by watching me?” Corrado asked.

Cree grinned a bit. “A talent.”

“That’s a non-answer.”

“Smart, too,” he said, finally directing a comment at Alessio. “And someone willing to put up with your shit. Congratulations on finding that, Les. I never thought you would.”

Alessio opened his mouth, but Cree was quick to put up a hand to shut the other man up before he could start. He snapped his jaw shut with an audible click, which made Cree smirk before he turned back to Corrado.

What just happened?

He felt like he missed something.

“Do you know, Corrado,” he said, tipping his head in Alessio’s direction, “that this one has a tendency to … pick fights when he wants attention? Oh, he won’t say that. He doesn’t admit that’s what he does.” Cree pointed at his temple and narrowed his eyes with a suspicious smile as he added, “But I know because I watch him a lot. I watch everyone a lot. It’s how I know what someone needs to break and make them.”

“Would you fuck off some—”

“Quite enough from you,” Cree told Alessio without even looking away from Corrado. “And you, Corrado, you have a lot of anger and nowhere to do something with it. I think you would learn a lot here.”

Corrado blinked. “What?”

“I thought what I said was quite clear.”

“Cree, you can’t be fucking serious.”

“I am,” he returned to Alessio, “but it’s not about you, so shut up.”

“Cree.”

The native man didn’t turn away from Corrado even as Alessio fumed at the other side of the ring. Corrado felt stupid—shocked, really.

“You mean here, at The League?”