ONE
“You’ve passed that same building four times now,” Alex said to Andino’s left in the backseat of the black Rolls-Royce.
Here we go again, Andino thought.
From the front of the car, where the man did his best work driving only, Nate muttered, “I was told to drive in circles, asshole.”
“Does it have to be actual circles, though?”
Good God.
These men were going to have Andino on fucking nerve pills before the end of the year—he was sure of it.
“He’s fine,” Andino said, joining the conversation to end the bickering between the enforcer and the man who now acted as his underboss. “Back to what you were doing—both of you.”
Thankfully, the men did just that.
Mostly.
If he let them get started now, they wouldn’t shut up for the rest of the day. It was one of the things he missed most about having Pink—who had went over to John’s side of things as the man’s underboss a while back—work for him, if he were being honest. The man knew when to shut up and not engage. These two didn’t understand either of those things but especially not with one another.
Andino figured the constant bumping of heads was probably a good sign the two liked each other. On another day, he might have even gotten a chuckle out of it just because. Not today, however. He was tired, annoyed, and wanted to be anywhere, doing anything other than what he currently was.
Business was odd sometimes.
La famiglia worked in funny ways.
Like how right now, he was stuck in the back of a car waiting for a phone call to confirm a meeting that he hadn’t even wanted to have was good to go, and Andino’s driver could pull into the business just two blocks over where it was meant to happen. He would much rather be at home with his wife and three daughters, but after eight years of being the Marcello Don, he had come to learn bosses didn’t get days off in the mafia.
Something had to happen.
A boss was always needed.
It didn’t help that the very last thing Andino liked to do on any given day was wake up earlier than he needed to just to travel into the city, and then drive around aimlessly while someone else decided whether or not to sit down with him. That wasn’t how this was supposed to work, and he especially hated it when someone wasted his motherfucking time.
Yet, he was also slightly more forgiving than the boss that came before him, if only because he understood how life could get in the way of business at times. So, instead of immediately calling off the day and the meeting that should happen, he put his attention on his phone and texted back and forth with his wife while he waited.
It was the best he could do.
For now.
The meeting at the club went fine, read his wife’s last text.
Andino smiled to himself and replied back with a simple, Great, babe.
He knew better than to ask or say anything more about her club. She’d taken possession of the business the year after they married. Haven essentially—with little fanfare—assured her husband that if he tried anything funny with this club like he did her first one, that she would quickly remove his testicles. He happened to like those right where they were. She was also a damn good business owner, and he understood she didn’t need him sticking his nose into her business anyway.
So, he stayed far away.
Happy wife, happy life.
He had this shit on lock.
Her next text came in just as quickly with a question: How’s your meeting going?
He sighed, wondering how to reply to that. She never outright asked about his business, but she liked to be informed just enough to feel safe. Usually, he would indulge her because he didn’t have a reason not to. With this particular day, he didn’t think it was quite the same considering it seemed to be going to shit anyway. What did it matter if she knew that? It was just yet another thing for his wife to stress over.
Completely unnecessary.
Fine, he decided to reply.
Really, his wife typed back, because your little dot on my app keeps circling the same block.
Damn.
Yeah, he’d forgotten about that. It was actually him who downloaded that app on his wife’s phone. He had the same one on his own, too. Their oldest daughter—Lynn—who was seven and had a cell phone with preprogrammed numbers that she could call also had one. His other two girls—Rose was six and Emily Cecelia had just turned four about two weeks prior—wore stylish watches that allowed their parents to check on their location using the same app. It wasn’t that he thought something might happen, but he would rather be prepared if it did.
That’s all.
Business as usual, he settled on typing back to Haven. He waited on a reply from her, but didn’t get anything right away.
“Yeah, ciao, Alex here,” the man to Andino’s right said.
For a moment, he lifted his attention away from his own phone. It allowed him to see the way Alex’s gaze narrowed as he listened to whatever was said on the other end of his call.
“Really? No, that won’t be happening now. Let him know.”
Without another word, his underboss hung up the phone and made a harsh noise before stuffing the device into his pocket.
“What?” Andino asked.
“Your potential associate—”
“He’s not a potential associate.”
Andino knew that already. Better everyone else did, too. He was simply indulging this bullshit.
Alex cleared his throat, correcting himself with, “Right. Mr. Moshka sent someone in his place to do the meeting.”
Yeah. No.
Bosses didn’t meet with subordinates.
“He’s not to get another chance at a meeting with me,” Andino said. “Make sure they all know it, Alex.”
“Will do.”
To his driver, Andino said, “Nate, take me home.”
“Sure, boss.”
TWO
Haven pulled her large SUV into the drive of her mother-in-law’s suburban home just outside the city limits, and parked the vehicle. Looking over the front of the house, a smile curved her lips as she had no doubt her daughters were having the time of their life with their Nana Kim. The house was likely loud and lively at the moment. There was nothing Kim loved more than her grandchildren, truly.
A lot of the time, Andino’s mother looked after the three girls when they were out of school, and Haven needed a sitter because of work conflicts. Not that she had much of a problem with that—being the owner of a business and the boss meant she could make whatever schedule she needed to suit her own needs, even though she tried not to take advantage of it.
Today was one of those days that just couldn’t be helped. She needed to have a meeting at the club and more people tended to show up when it happened later in the afternoon once they had all gotten in a decent sleep after a late night. Kim had been quick to take the girls—with a smile and all.
She never said no.
Haven was lucky that way.
The phone she’d tossed on the passenger seat after leaving the club flashed with an unanswered text that had come in while she was driving. Reaching over to grab her purse and the phone, she straightened in the seat and checked the phone.
I’m heading home, Andino had wrote. See you there, babe. Ti amo.
Haven smiled but didn’t bother to reply. She would see him soon enough—once she got all three of their daughters piled into the SUV and took off, that was. Despite the fact he’d sent the text almost a half an hour ago, she would still arrive home before he did, likely.