Caio’s wing was clean, not a thing out of place in the dark-coloured space. He took his shoes off, holding the single shoe that Alessio gave him. My suitcase was sitting just inside the door, and Caio moved it after setting down my shoe. My other sock was toast, thanks to Alessio cutting it off my foot. He ruined my pants the same way, cutting up the side of the pant leg. 

I looked down at my foot, the one with the shoe on it, and wondered how I was going to go about slipping it off. 

“Hold on, I’ll help you.” Caio said, walking with my suitcase to another room. 

“No, thank you. I’ve got it.” 

“Matteo let me—--”

“Caio, we both know what happened that night. Don’t play that you don’t. I don’t want to be in this space with you longer than I need to be.” I said. Not mincing my words for him.

“Matteo, don’t be that way.”

“I’ll be any way I want Caio.”

“You were just a kid then. You can’t seriously still be holding on to the anger from that night.” He hissed. 

“I was sixteen Caio. It was only three years ago. Don’t act like you haven’t held onto something longer.”

“Your mother and I are not together, and you don’t have to worry about that happening, Matteo. She doesn’t see me that way. Let go of your anger. It’s not well placed anymore, if it ever was.”

“Are you still in love with my mother?”

“Yes, I still carry feelings for your mother.” He said, not even ashamed of it. 

“Then I still carry my anger.” I said flatly. His words were like nails on a chalkboard. 

“Whatever, Matteo, I’m not interested in turning this into an argument with you. Your things are in the spare bedroom, you're welcome to it, until Alessio says you're welcome to your freedom again.”

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my family ring and slipped it back on my pointer finger. My wallet and phone were next. I set them on the table when I reached it. Sitting down, I yanked my shoe off. Caio took it from me, setting it beside the other one. I didn’t feel the need to bitch at him again. He knew how I felt. 

Peeling off my other sock, I stood up and took it to the garbage, tossing it away. I grabbed the two sides of my pant leg and ripped it all the way up until it was just the waistband left. Despite my yanking and pulling on it, it didn’t break or tear. 

“Where are your scissors?”

“Here, let me.” Caio said, pulling out a foldable knife. He sliced through the band like a hot knife through butter before closing it and putting it back in his pocket. Yanking down the other pant leg to my knee, I sat down again and pulled it completely off. 

Caio spotted the tattoo on my foot and spoke. “Your mother isn’t going to be thrilled about that.”

“I’m sure she can overlook that one.” I hissed, yanking off my sweater and exposing my sleeves of tattoos. “These, not so much.”

“Christ. She’s going to have a meltdown about those.”

Without even thinking about it, I lifted the hem of my shirt to show him the rest. Dropping it a moment later. “Let’s just say that’s not all of them, OK?”

Caio shook his head, muttering in Italian as he walked away. I didn’t get it. Caio had tattoos too, hell he was the first person I had seen with them. I hobbled to the spare bedroom, and someone nicely placed my suitcase on the bed. Grabbing the zipper, I opened it and dug through the case. The folder of papers inside were done and for Alessio, it was things that I finished in Italy, but I had no intention of letting the right hand there take credit for them.

Fuck him. He could figure that shit out on his own. 

“Caio!”

“Yes?”

“Do you have a paper shredder?”

“Yes.”

“Good, shred this.”

I passed him the folder, and he opened it. 

“I don’t think so. These are papers that your brother needs.”

“I told you to shred them, Caio.”

“I am not loyal to you, Matteo. My loyalties lie with your brother.”

“Of fucking course they do.” I snapped, angrily tossing things out of my suitcase. 

“Matteo—”

“Run to your fucking owner, Caio.”

He slammed the bedroom door when he left, and I knew he was pissed about the comment. I didn’t feel even a touch bad about it, though. If making people angry with me was my goal, I was getting to be a pro at it. 

Sitting on the bed, I yanked the velcro on the boot; I took it off and pulled on sweatpants half way. I carefully tucked the boot back on and tightened the straps again, before standing up to fully pull the pants on. 

I shoved everything back into the suitcase and zipped it back up, before shoving it off the end of the bed, onto the floor. Leaving the bedroom, Caio returned, and Vito was with him, the file in his hands. 

“Matteo, how much do you know about this shit?”

“All of it. I did the fucking paperwork. I tried to fucking tell Alessio that, but whatever.”

I grabbed my wallet and keys off the table and tucked them into my pocket. 

“Matteo, I am being serious. This paperwork is very important and we—--”

“I am well aware of the importance of that paperwork, Vito, and for the last time. I did the bloody paperwork. I know all about that project of Alessio’s. I’ve been doing all the work in Italy for the last three years.”

“The captain that lives there, in your grandfather’s home, is the one whose name is all over the paperwork that entire time, Matteo.”

“I am bloody well aware of that, Vito. I did the work and handed it off for Emilio to sign. You don’t think I was going to fucking do it? I didn’t want that cocky prick to know where I was.”

“What a fucking mess this is going to be.” Vito hissed. “Does Emilio even know where we are on the project or what he needs to be doing?”

“Probably not. But I don’t see how it’s my problem.” I shrugged. 

Vito took a step closer to me and spoke lowly. “Matteo, I urge you to retain some level of respect for me. I won’t allow you to speak to me the way you do with your brother or Caio.”

“Emilio hasn’t done his own paperwork in years, Vito. You will probably have to catch him up to speed before he can do anything on his own.” I said flatly. “Also, if you’re going to attempt to threaten me, please do follow up on it. I lack excitement in my life.” 

“You Concetta children.” Vito sighed, looking back at the papers in the file. “I hope you intend to see this project through to the end, Matteo.”

“Unfortunately, since you missed it, I told your boss that I wasn’t doing another thing for him. So no, I’m not.”

“Matteo.” Caio said.

“Vito, Alessio, and Emilio can figure it out on their own. Sorry, Vito.” I said, before heading towards the door. 

“Where are you going?” Vito said. 

“I am going to find the closest place to get alcohol, so I can drink myself stupid and regret my life choices.” I said, far too pleased with myself. 

“Do you think that is wise?” Vito said, crossing his arms. 

“Nope, probably not. But I don’t have a master to please like you two. I can do what I want.”

“Matteo, Alessio is not our owner, or master, or whatever else you think. He is our don.” Caio said, the comment clearly getting under his skin. 

“You do what he tells you too, you jump when he says so, and bark when he tells you too, Caio. You’re his fucking dog. You too, Vito.” 

Caio snapped and came at me, his calm demeanour snapping, and Vito was the only thing keeping Caio from getting his hands on me. 

“Caio, Relax. Matteo is only running his mouth because he knows he can get a reaction from you.” Vito said. 

I chuckled as I left Caio’s wing. Without him. Alessio was coming up the hall as I was leaving. He spoke. 

“Where is Caio?”

“Losing his cool over my comment about him being your bitch.”

“Matteo.”

“Not in the mood to play with you right now, older brother. I only want to get drunk and wake up in a ditch or regret my life choices. Either works for me.”

Alessio sighed and spoke. “Let’s go.”

“I don’t want to play with you—--”

“Wasn’t giving you a choice.”

“That’s a common thing with you.” I groaned. 

Alessio pulled me to his wing. The one he shared with Lev, his husband. Lev shook his head when he saw me.

“Sit.” Alessio demanded. When I didn’t move, he spoke again. “Sit please.”

Sitting at the table, Alessio poured me a drink, himself one too. Lev leaned down to say something in his ear and glanced at my foot. 

“One drink, that’s it.”

He set it on the table and pushed it towards me, before he sat down across from me and watched me. 

“See something interesting?” I said, after taking a sip of the drink. 

“I see my kid brother struggling.”

“Struggling. That’s not the word I would use.” I said. 

“You left because—-” He paused to look at Lev and back at me before he spoke. “You’re in love with Caio, and you know he is in love with mom. What happened that night?”

“I went to find Mom. I was going to tell her I was ready to go to the party you planned, and I found Caio and mom. I heard Caio confess to mom. I couldn’t handle it, Alessio. I lost my shit, ok. I heard mom tell him that she loved him too. Even though she told him like a brother, I lost it. Caio witnessed everything, my entire meltdown. Caio is well aware of the feelings I harbour for him. Mom is aware, too. I screamed out all my feelings that night.”

“Matteo, Neither one of them told me any of that.” Alessio said. 

“Mom dismissed my feelings and told me to grow up, that I was being childish. I didn’t care if I was Alessio. I’ve been hopelessly in love with a man that is in love with our mother for the last six years.”

“Matteo, I’m sorry.”

“For?”

“Invalidating your feelings in the medical wing.”

“You mean telling me to get over my childish crush on Caio?”

“Yes.”

“If I could, I would Alessio.” I said, before tipping the rest of the drink down my throat in one go.