Page 113 of Chris

Valeria thought she knew what exhaustion was, but she had no idea until she was in the backseat of a town car, driving through dark streets, and feeling like if she closed her eyes, she would instantly fall asleep. She didn’t know where Alessio was driving to, and he didn’t answer many questions once he had guided their boat to a port where he paid a waiting man a bribe to look the other way.

Still, Valeria forced her eyes to stay peeled open even as her daughter had fallen asleep with her head in her mother’s lap. The kitten—she still wasn’t sure how Maria snuck the cat into her bag—slept happily on the floor of the car near her feet, unbothered by the occasional swaying of the vehicle.

“Not long now,” she heard Alessio say from the front.

“Oh?”

“We’ll be staying at a hotel for just long enough to get the jet in the air.”

Valeria glanced up, confused. “The jet?”

“Compliments of your friend. They also brought papers along—forged, mind you—that will get the two of you through customs without problems when the time comes. We need to keep moving. The others will follow, but through their own plans.”

She still didn’t understand.

Her tired brain again.

“They will be okay, right?” she asked.

Alessio’s gaze darted to the rear-view mirror, meeting hers for a moment before he put his attention back on the road ahead of them where it needed to be. “They better be.”

His underlying threat couldn’t be missed.

It reminded Valeria of what she had heard Chris say about Alessio to her daughter. Spouse was the word he used, but to her, he had also told her that married was not the right way to describe his twin’s relationship.

“How long have you been with Corrado?”

Alessio’s stare darted back to the mirror. “Straight to the point, aren’t you?”

“I need to talk or I will fall over.”

“It’s okay to sleep.”

“It’s okay to talk, too.”

The man chuckled. “Many years—we have been together many years. However, we have only been with Ginevra for a little over a half a year.”

Valeria blinked.

He laughed.

“Wait, it’s three of you? Together? All of you?”

A part of her had thought Chris’s twin was gay. This man suggested something else, with an extra twist, and she had to process that to respond appropriately.

Alessio nodded. “Poly. New concept?”

She thought about that for a moment.

“Well, if it works for you.”

“It does,” he murmured. “For us, it is perfect.”

“That’s what counts.”

Silence drifted through the car for the rest of the drive. She was grateful that Alessio had been telling the truth, and the hotel wasn’t far away. Another ten minutes of driving, and he pulled the vehicle into the underground garage.

She would have carried Maria inside, but Alessio stepped forward to take the girl before she could even try to get her out of the car.