by Bethany-Kris
“It is worth the time and effort it took me to come here today to have this meeting with you,” Dante replied calmly, “instead of blowing you to fucking bits when you walked out of your brownstone this morning, Kev. Shall we continue with a path that will end this feud between our families, or not?”
Finally, Kev looked away from Dante to glance at Darren. The two brothers shared a quiet look before Kev nodded, and went back to the conversation as though he hadn’t even left it to begin with.
“We have two issues to handle on our side of things, actually,” Kev said.
Dante waved a single hand. “By all means, tell me. I apparently have all the time in the world to listen.”
If Kev heard Dante’s low-grade insult, he didn’t behave like it.
“It is more than just our father that we have to deal with in some way,” Kev said, tipping his head to the left as if to direct attention to the quiet woman sitting there. “You see, we also have a woman who has been badly stained by the actions of a man in your family. She will never be seen as proper or respectable for a wife now—not after everything. What are we supposed to do with that?”
Andino scowled. “Let her have free will to do what she wants?”
That seemed obvious.
And normal.
Dante lifted a hand as if to silence Andino for a moment. “I can see where you might consider that to be a problem, but not how it becomes my problem, Kev.”
“I think,” Kev drawled slowly and with a cold smile, “that I could fix two of my issues by simply making peace with you, actually.”
“How?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” the man across the table asked.
“It is,” Dante returned, “but I don’t play word games, and if you’re willing to do what I think you want to do, then you can be man enough to say it, so that the woman you’re ready to trade can hear you say it, too. If you’re going to be that man, then be that man, Kev.”
Andino glanced at his uncle at the same time Siena’s head snapped up, and her eyes widened. Her mouth opened to speak, but Kev was quick to talk first.
“A marriage,” the man said, pointing a thick finger at Andino, and then down the table at his sister. “Between Andino, and Siena. It will make peace, and also, save my sister’s reputation. I think it’s a good d—”
“Absolutely not!”
The words all but exploded out of Siena’s mouth. That shocked expression she had worn just a few moments before was gone now, and in its place rested rage and disbelief. She stood fast from her seat, making the chair topple over backward behind her. All eyes at the table were now on her, but she wasn’t looking anywhere except at Kev.
“You won’t have a choice,” Kev murmured.
Siena didn’t even think before she picked up the glass up full of water on the table, and whipped it at her brother. It crashed over the side of Kev’s face, but to the man’s benefit, he didn’t even flinch.
“I will kill myself before I ever marry him, or any other man you put me in front of, Kev,” Siena hissed. “Mark my words, I will.”
Kev’s jaw tightened, but he stayed quiet. Lifting a hand, he gestured with a finger at his sister. One of his men who had been quietly sitting at another table stood fast, and crossed the floor. He took Siena by the arm, and was quick to remove her from the restaurant. Or at least, out of the main room. She didn’t even try to fight, or protest with her voice.
Andino’s attention went back to the table because his uncle was speaking, but not because he actually wanted to talk anymore.
“How do you feel about that, Andino?” Dante asked.
“Not Siena,” he returned. “It cannot be her.”
Not for himself.
Or even for her.
But for John.
Andino would never do that to John even if the last thing he intended to do was marry someone just because the fucking Calabrese wanted him to.
Dante nodded once, and looked back at Kev. “Who else is there?”
It took Kev a second to control the emotions flitting over his face, but somehow, he managed. “I have other sisters—two are too young. One is not. They are not …”
Dante chuckled lowly. “You mean, Matteo’s bastard girls.”
Kev sighed, and nodded once. “Ginevra, specifically.”
“Ginevra Calabrese,” Dante said, his gaze turning on Andino again. “She’s young, mind you … but for the most part, appropriate. It would serve you well.”
Well … that was debatable.
Andino didn’t see where he had much of a choice at the moment, and while an arranged marriage would put a bit of a kink in the rest of his plans … it was simply something he would need to deal with.
“I’ll do that one,” he agreed.
Dante went back to Kev. “There you go. Well?”
“The violence will stop,” Kev said.
Andino’s uncle was quick to stand from the table then. “I am glad to hear it. We will be in contact to set dates, and … get the details worked out for the marriage. Have a good day, Kev. You made the right choice today.”
Dante turned to leave, and Andino didn’t waste time getting up to follow. Outside the restaurant, a black car pulled up, and Dante slipped inside the back but not before giving Andino a look and parting words.
“We’ll tell the rest of the family tonight. You also made the right choice.”
Had he?
It didn’t feel like it.
Andino nodded, and his uncle closed the door. The black town car for Andino was quick to pull up then, too, but he hesitated in getting inside only because Siena came out of the restaurant like a bat out of hell. There was no man following behind her, but a car was waiting across the road with the back door open—likely for her. Apparently, she hadn’t entirely left the business earlier.
He had to figure out a way out of this.
Why not start with her?
After all, Siena had things she wanted, too.
“Siena,” Andino called.
The woman stopped on the sidewalk, and gave him a look that burned.
He smiled, and winked. “You should take up a new hobby—yoga, even. Get yourself out of the house. You never know who you might find away from your brothers.”
Her brow furrowed, and she said nothing as she kept staring at him. Andino only nodded, and then got into the back of the car.
There, he’d planted a seed.
She just had to let it grow.
“Well, how did it go?”
The first question came from Lucian damn near the second Andino and Dante arrived at the mansion, and entered the dining room. Food was already spread out on the table, and everyone was waiting. His father, and mother. Aunts, and grandparents.
They had all been waiting, it seemed. They hadn’t even started to eat despite the fact it was well after the time their normal supper would happen.
“It went well,” Dante replied.
Lucian passed a look down the table at Andino’s father. “How well?”
“Yeah, what’s happening from here on out?” Gio added.
Dante said nothing as he took his seat between his wife, and greeted her with a kiss to the top of her red-head. His aunt, Catrina, simply smiled over at Dante, but kept quiet. It was only once Dante was settled into a chair, and Andino into his own as well that the conversation started again.
“We’ve come to an agreement,” Dante said. “Something that works for both of our families, and will end the violence in the city. No more fighting, everyone gets what they want. I would consider that a win, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, but how did that come about, son?” Antony asked from the head of the table.
Dante looked at his father, and shrugged. “A marriage.”
Antony’s old face didn’t even crack with a single emotion to give away how he felt about that particular news. “Between who, exactly?”
Despite the fact his grandfather asked the question like he didn’t already know the answer—there wa
s really only one person in their family who was currently single and able to enter into an arranged marriage—all eyes at the table drifted to Andino.
He stayed quiet.
“Andino and a Calabrese daughter,” Dante said.
“Which daughter?” Lucian asked calmly.
Despite his tone, Andino didn’t miss the sharp edge to his uncle’s tone. Always looking out for his son, even when John didn’t know it. There was no way in hell Lucian would be okay with Andino marrying Siena … not after everything.
“Ginevra, wasn’t it?” Dante asked Andino.
Andino nodded. “It was.”
“Isn’t that …” At the other end of the table, his grandmother, Cecelia, frowned as she looked at her own husband. “Antony, isn’t that the mistress’s oldest girl? Matteo’s mistress?”
Antony cleared his throat, and nodded once. “As far as I know, yes.”
Before anyone else could say something, Dante was quick to hold up a hand. It didn’t matter that he was in another man’s house or that their family often let everyone have a voice when it came to things like this. When he decided to speak, everyone else was quick to be quiet, and listen.
Boss’s right.
“It’s been done, and decided,” Dante said. “This was the best course of action. Andino had his choice, before someone asks, and he agreed. It is done.”
“So, they got what they wanted, then,” Lucian murmured.
“I beg your pardon?”
“The Calabrese. The snakes.” Lucian shook his head, and smiled bitterly. “They got what they wanted brother—they got in.”
“It’s a marriage, not a business agreement, Lucian.”
Lucian nodded. “Right now. What comes later?”
That was a damn good question.
“Andi.”
The soft murmur of his father’s voice beside him took Andino’s attention away from the men glaring at each other across the table. No one noticed Gio talking, it seemed.
“Yeah, Dad?”
Gio frowned, but his face returned to a passive state when he asked, “Is this what you want?”
“It’s what has to be done.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“I have to protect our family.”
And himself.
He had to protect himself, too.
The voices of Andino’s family filtered out from behind him even as he left the mansion’s dining room. They’d been debating and going over the Calabrese deal for longer than he figured was necessary.
It was done.
It would happen.
Or so they think.
Andino had his own plans to work on. He didn’t think anyone even noticed him leaving the dining room, which was just fine with him. He had other things to deal with at the moment, and he no longer wanted to sit around and discuss the fucking Calabrese, or his newly arranged marriage to Ginevra.
Who he didn’t even know.
It wasn’t long before Andino stepped outside the mansion onto the large marble steps. He glanced up at the inky sky, and ignored the cold biting at his skin beneath the silk dress shirt he wore. He hadn’t even bothered to throw on his coat.
He wouldn’t need it.
“Pink!”
Like the good enforcer he was, Pink materialized out of practically thin air. Despite his size, the enforcer was good at blending in and keeping out of sight unless he needed to be seen. He followed Andino around—or whoever he was directed to watch by Andino—daily, and he rarely even saw the man.
A lit cigarette dangled from the man’s mouth as he asked, “What can I do for you, boss?”
Andino eyed the cigarette. “Didn’t Antony make rules about you all smoking on the property?”
Pink shrugged. “It’s been a long day.”
Wasn’t that the fucking truth?
Andino let the cigarette thing go.
For now.
“Where’s Snaps?”
“Sleeping in the back of the Lexus,” the enforcer replied. “I turned it on.”
“Good, good.”
Pink took one last drag from his smoke, and then stubbed it against the heel of his boot. Wordlessly, he dropped the butt into his pocket. “So, what’s up?”
“I need you to do something for me. I don’t want word going beyond you and me about it. Like usual, you report back to only me about what’s happening, and what I want to know. Got it?”
“Sure. What do you need me to do?”
It was time to put Andino’s plans in motion. Or rather, some of them. Sometimes, shit just worked out for him. His father liked to say he was a lucky fuck like that, but Andino didn’t know if that was actually the case or not.
Either way, it was time to get started.
“I need you to follow Siena Calabrese for me. Report back on where she goes on a daily basis, who she talks to, and what she’s doing.” Andino shoved his hands in his pockets in an effort to keep out the cold. His fingertips had already turned numb. Maybe he should have grabbed his coat. “I will be specifically interested in knowing if she starts to do anything different—say, joins a gym … or something.”
Yes, or something.
That worked.
Pink’s brow furrowed, and he glanced away. “You want me to watch Siena Calabrese.”
“That’s what I said.”
“Not your wife-to-be?”
Andino kept his face passive, and unreadable. “No, only Siena.”
“All right.”
Pink still sounded confused, but like the good made man he was, the enforcer didn’t ask questions. He knew better than to demand details when Andino gave him a job. He was simply to do it, do it well, and nothing more.
“Start tomorrow,” Andino said.
Pink nodded. “You got it. Reports daily?”
“Until I say otherwise, yes.”
With that conversation done, and his plans moving forward, Andino was satisfied. He dismissed Pink before heading back inside the mansion. By the time he slipped back into the dining room where his family was still debating the Calabrese and the deal like it mattered, no one seemed to notice he had even left.
Or so he thought.
“Where did you go?” his father asked next to him.
Why was Gio so fucking observant?
“Stepped out for a breather,” Andino said.
It wasn’t a complete lie.
His father didn’t question it or push, but then again, the conversation at the table took a lot of their attention, anyway.
“This is just another way for them to get inside our family in some way,” Lucian said.
At the head of the table, Dante gave his brother a pensive look. “It’s a woman, Lucian. We’re not inviting the men to dinner, or doing business with them.”
“Yet, Dante. We’re not doing that yet.”
“He has a point,” Antony murmured from the other end of the table. “There is a reason why I kept our family so guarded and closed off from the Calabrese faction. They have always—always—wanted a piece of our business. They have never once stopped trying to get into our ranks in someway. I don’t like that … essentially … you’ve given them an opening.”
Dante opened his mouth to say something, but Antony was quick to raise his hand. It never failed to amuse Andino how even at his grandfather’s age, and the fact he had stepped down from being the boss decades ago, when Antony spoke, he still headed the room. People gave him the chance to speak, and allowed him to take the floor without issue.
“I know you don’t see it as an opening, son,” Antony said, his gravelly voice dipping in tone. “But you don’t have to see it as one. They do. And that emboldens them, and gives them the permission they think they need to … well, behave like the snakes we all know them to be.”
“What is more important?” Dante was quick to ask. “Keeping the Calabrese far away from the Marcellos, or continuing to maintain peace in this city between all of the organizations? Go on and tell me. I�
�ll wait. We have time.”
Antony sighed.
Lucian scowled.
Dante only nodded. “Exactly. I am not giving them an opening. I am offering to make peace with them in this way. I know that it seems like an opening to them, but that doesn’t mean it actually is. Nothing will change.”
“Except Andino will marry one of them,” his mother spoke up.
That wasn’t like Kim.
She didn’t even try to hide the contempt in her voice.
Dante passed Kim a look. “And your son agreed this was the best course of action. It also helps his standing considering he does need a wife when he finally takes my seat as the boss.”
Kim looked to Andino. He saw her silent question even though she didn’t voice it out loud.
“I have to protect the family,” Andino told her. “I’ll always protect my family, Ma.”
It was how he chose to protect them that might differ from his uncle’s plans. It simply wasn’t time for Andino to explain that little detail, though.
They had other problems.
EIGHT
Haven sat on the park bench, and slapped the card she held against the palm of her hand. She didn’t need to read the words on the card again to know what it said. As it was, she had probably read it one too many times already.
March 10th, noon. Be at the place where I first found you. —A.M.
She didn’t need clarification about where that was. And as much as she wanted to rip that note off her front door when she first found it, Haven hadn’t been able to do that, either. She took the note as a fucking sign, maybe. This was her last chance to say goodbye, and make it count. To really get Andino to understand whatever game he was trying to play with her was over now.
Maybe.
Nothing was ever that simple, though.
She heard footsteps approaching on the trail, but didn’t need to look up to know it was him. She had always been able to feel his eyes on her long before he ever spoke to her. Despite everything, that was one thing that hadn’t changed. Even if she wished it would.
“Right on time,” Haven said, glancing up from her hands in her lap.
Snaps stood close to Andino’s side with a stick in his mouth the size of a human arm. His dark eyes stared at Haven, waiting for her to greet him. She couldn’t help but put her hand out to the dog who then dropped his stick, and came forward all at once to get his love from her.