Page 20 of Contempt

It left too much unknown.

The League had taught him to work on only absolutes. Nothing more, and nothing less. Anything else was dangerous, and trouble. This time, it wouldn’t be his fucking life on the line, but something far more important.

His heart.

His soul.

Except … he didn’t have a choice, did he?

There were no absolutes here.

Not with Lucia.

Not after five years.

Flipping his arm up, he checked the watch on his wrist. The digital calendar in the background of the face told him the date, and without even thinking about it, he already knew the number of days left before his contract was up.

Until he could find her …

That wasn’t today, though.

The phone on the edge of the tub rang—the device given to him by The League. Constantly monitored and scrubbed, when needed, it was just another way for them to control him. Should he be found with any electronic device not given to him or approved by them, then it wouldn’t end well for Renzo.

He put Lucia to the back of his mind for the moment.

Work called.

• • •

Renzo hung back near the doorway to one of the many rooms inside the complex. This one in particular was setup like a personal gym, but with everything and anything one of the members of The League might want or need to stay in shape, and ready to go to battle. Including an entire wall of weapons—fake and real—to use when sparring.

And a boxing ring right in the middle.

Speaking of which …

The hard smack of tape-wrapped fists connecting to hard flesh brought Renzo back to the present, and put his attention on the three men in the room. Corrado Guzzi was going head-to-head with Cree in the ring, and getting his ass beat.

It was almost funny.

Not that Corrado wasn’t a good fighter because he was. But nobody was Cree, either. The man took the whole float like a butterfly thing to a new fucking level. Cree always seemed cool and calm—usually—but especially when he was fighting. So much so, that it could be creepy. And then he waited until he could find your weakness, the opening for him to use against you, and he struck.

If you gave him that opening—and you would; everyone did—he was going to lay you out.

Renzo had only managed to make Cree tap out once, and it was after a particularly hellish week where his mind was constantly racing. He was too unpredictable, and just needed an outlet for his craziness. Cree took him into the ring, but because he was so wild, never managed to find that opening.

Which let Renzo in on Cree’s weakness, in a way.

“Fucking hell,” Christopher—though, he preferred Chris—said, leaning over the top rope of the ring. Corrado’s back hit the mat of the ring hard enough to take his breath away, and he didn’t move. “Stay down, you stupid fuck.”

“Hate you,” Corrado snarled at his brother.

“You know Alessio and Ginevra don’t want to deal with your concussed ass again. The last time was enough.”

Renzo chuckled under his breath at that. So, maybe this wasn’t the first time Corrado had tried to go head-to-head with Cree, like he thought each time was going to make a difference. The man’s spouse—Ginevra—and his … other spouse, Alessio … yeah, Renzo didn’t understand how that whole relationship came to be with two men and one woman between them, but he knew enough to know it wasn’t his fucking business to ask.

Simple as that.

Nonetheless, the man’s spouses didn’t enjoy taking care of Corrado after he tried to take on Cree for another round. It probably didn’t help that Alessio, the third person in the whole relationship, was also a free-range member of The League, too. So, he knew what Cree was like, and that this would always be pointless to try.