We’re done.
Leave me the fuck alone.
Andino was more than aware that he couldn’t afford to be lost in his thoughts in that moment, and yet, the only thing he could manage to do was stare blankly at the doorway Haven had just vacated.
He’d fucked up.
Oh, damn.
He’d fucked up badly.
The pain that had saturated Haven’s words when she spoke was still echoing in his mind. Even as the chairs scraped behind him, and bodies shifted to stand, he was still lost in the sound of Haven’s words banging around in his head.
Like knives and hammers.
Cutting and demolishing.
He hadn’t meant to do this, and certainly not to her. That had never been his intention, not to hurt her, or bring her into this mess. He wanted her, but he didn’t want to break her in the process. And yet, he thought that might be exactly what he had done.
“Nipote,” Lucian murmured from somewhere behind him. “Do you need a minute to—”
“What was that?”
Kev Calabrese’s voice grated on Andino’s nerves like nothing else. It made his back and shoulders stiffen with the rage that swelled hot and heavy in his gut. More than anything, he wanted to turn around and tell Kev to go fuck himself. That the deal was off—not that he ever intended to follow it through in the first goddamn place.
Yet, he was still stuck.
Still quiet.
“Andino,” Lucian said again.
Andino simply held up a hand for them to see over his shoulder. A silent way of asking for them to be quiet, and give him a second. Who knew what he fucking looked like right then? He didn’t want to turn around and give anyone—but especially Kev—any more ammo to use against him than what Haven had just handed over.
Fuck.
She didn’t realize what she just did.
He couldn’t even blame her.
“Andino, I don’t have time for this shit,” Kev snapped.
Fuck him.
Andino turned around with a sardonic smile plastered on his face. A forced smile, really. The most he could offer right then. “What’s the problem, Kev?”
The Calabrese man’s gaze narrowed in on Andino like he had found the target he was about to shoot at. Andino might actually welcome the fucking bullets with the way he was feeling. Right then, though, he needed to get a handle on this situation in whatever way he could.
Kev gestured at the doorway. “What is the problem?”
“That’s what I asked.”
Andino was acutely aware of the way his uncle had reverted into something akin to a statue. Lucian was blank all over—no expression, and nothing to give away. He most certainly knew who Haven was, and what her showing up there meant. And yet, his uncle stayed unreadable as to let Andino handle the situation however he wanted to.
He was grateful.
One less issue for now, anyway. No doubt, he was going to have to deal with his own family for this at a later date. That was always going to happen—it would have been unavoidable in the end. Andino simply didn’t know if he was ready for it now.
Too late to be considering that, he supposed.
“The problem—” Kev cut off with a disgusted noise. He pointed at the doorway yet again. “Who was that woman?”
This was what Andino had wanted to avoid the very most. He didn’t want Haven on the Calabrese radar for any fucking reason. They were snakes—they couldn’t be trusted with a single inch. If they thought they could use her to get to Andino, or the rest of the Marcellos, there was no doubt in his mind that they wouldn’t even think twice about doing exactly that.
These fuckers were predictable.
He’d worked so hard to keep Haven away from these people. Sure, in a way, it ended up keeping her away from his people, too. It probably made her think she was his secret—how many goddamn times had she said that exact thing to him?
She didn’t know, though.
He couldn’t explain.
This was why he needed her to stay away. This was why he kept her separate, and made sure that no one ever touched her simply because she was attached to him and his name.
Not until he could protect her.
Fuck.
“Who is she?” Kev asked again. “Because I am going to assume—and probably rightfully so—that she is someone you’re involved with considering the things she said. Tell me I’m wrong, Andino. I dare you.”
“Oh, her?” Andino shrugged. “She’s no one.”
All lies.
Lies, lies, and more lies.
A sneer worked its way over Kev’s mouth. “No one. Really?”
“That’s what I said.”
And that was all he was going to fucking offer, too. Wasn’t it bad enough that Andino had said Haven’s name out loud, and all Kev would need to do was a little bit of fucking digging to find out exactly who she was?
Because he thought it was.
Andino glanced at Ginevra who was quiet, and had turned her gaze down on her hands. She’d been uncomfortable for the majority of the dinner. He assumed something happened before she and her brother showed up because she came in looking like a damn ghost, and as silent as one, too.
He’d been trying to make her feel a bit better just before Haven walked in—he still needed this woman to at least trust him so that when the right time came, he could use her to help himself, and her, too.
Fuck my whole life.
“Andino,” Lucian said quietly, “are you sure you don’t need a minute?”
He heard his uncle’s unspoken question.
Do you want to end this?
“I’m good,” Andino lied. “We were getting dessert, weren’t we?”
He sat back down at the table beside Ginevra. Kev, on the other hand, looked ready to blow his fucking top. Well, that seemed like a Kev problem and not an Andino problem at the moment.
He had other things to deal with.
“Are you going to sit?” Andino asked Kev.
Kev glared. “Are we going to have a problem, Andino?”
“I don’t know—are we?”
The man didn’t respond.
Andino figured … that was self-explanatory.
He glanced over at Ginevra. “Cheesecake, then?”
The young woman stared at him for a while, saying nothing. He could see the questions in her eyes. He wondered if she knew just by looking at him that he was in pain, and that the love of his life had just walked away from him.
Maybe forever.
Who knew?
Ginevra swallowed hard, and then nodded subtly. “Cheesecake sounds great.”
Smart woman.
Andino might be able to still help her yet. But how in the hell was he going to help himself? And Haven?
That was the better question.
• • •
“Damage control,” Dante said, shooting Andino a look that burned.
Andino didn’t need that fucking look from his uncle. He’d been hearing Dante rage at him all week about Haven showing up at the restaurant. The first thing Kev had done was call Dante and ask about the blonde, tattooed whore—Kev’s words, and ones he would probably die for—that Andino was involved with.
Dante had made his feelings more than clear to Andino. He was disappointing his uncle at every turn. Big fucking deal.
“Damage control is what we need to focus on right now,” Dante continued.
“How do you suggest we do that?” Lucian asked, dropping into the chair beside Andino’s father. “Give them something else they want, brother?”
Dante didn’t miss Lucian’s cutting tone if the way his gaze sliced to his brother was any indication. The older men stared at one another for a long time without saying anything. That whole cut the tension with a knife came to mind.
So was their life lately.
The Calabrese were good for that—fucking shit up. The Marcellos weren’t immune to that nonsense, either. For as strong as their family unit could be on a good day, it only took one single issue that could bring up a differing of opinions on all sides to make them put a bit of distance between each other.
“I do not have the patience for this tonight, son,” Antony said, pushing out of the chair behind the large oak desk. “This is for you and your brothers—” Andino’s grandfather stopped talking as he shot him a look. “And Andino, I suppose, to figure out now. You don’t need me here to do it, and I don’t care to listen to you all bicker back and forth for hours on end.”
“We’re not—”
Antony held up a hand to quiet Dante. “I don’t care.”
Apparently, they were back to using Antony and Cecelia’s mansion as a meeting hub. Really, it was supposed to be their usual Sunday family dinner. No business on Sundays was the rule, but exceptions could always be made. Andino was a reason for a lot of exceptions lately.
Or that’s what Dante had pointed out time and time again this week. Andino was starting to become numb to this shit.
Once Antony was gone from the office, Dante turned his attention on Giovanni instead of Lucian. “And what about you?”
Gio quirked an eyebrow high. “What about me?”
“Do you have anything you want to say about all of this?”
“Why should I say something when you’ve been shouting at my son enough for all of us lately, Dante?”
Dante stiffened, and straightened on the spot. “Excuse me?”
“You heard what I said.”
Gio held his ground, and Andino was surprised. It wasn’t often that his father and the boss went head to head on something. Gio was happy in his place as Dante’s consigliere, and the two rarely argued.
That was changing, it seemed.
Andino didn’t need to wonder why, either. His father’s position was always clear where he was concerned: what Andino wanted, Gio also wanted. His loyalty to the family was never in question, but he, like Andino, knew that the family wasn’t just the wants of one man, but all the men. It couldn’t be just about Dante when there were other people in the equation, too.
“Do you expect me to be pleased with the fact Andino is still running around with that woman even after this agreement was made—”
“I think you can’t expect my son to be like you,” Gio returned, stopping his brother from saying anything more. “And you’re still expecting exactly that in a lot of ways. You expect him to be fine and faithful to a woman he didn’t choose and doesn’t love. You expect him to do what you were willing to do for Catrina—except he isn’t you, and I won’t be someone else who puts those expectations on him.”
“So, you’re fine with him having—”
Enough of this.
Andino could and would fight his own battles, but he really just wanted to move the hell on at the moment. “It’s over.”
Dante turned on him again, quiet for a passing second before he asked, “What is over?”
“Haven and I.”
Andino didn’t offer more because frankly, he didn’t think he needed to. What more needed to be said other than that? Oh, he sure as fuck didn’t actually mean it. He wasn’t anywhere near done with Haven. He loved her to the ends of the earth and back, even if that meant killing himself to finally have her.
But for now?
Well … for now, he needed to keep her as safe as he could. He needed to keep attention away from her.
That meant he needed to stay away.
Dante folded his arms over his chest, and replied, “I think you can understand my disbelief when you say that, Andi.”
“Sure, but the fact remains the same.”
“I don’t think it’s his choice when he says it’s over,” Lucian murmured from his seat. “The young woman made it quite clear where she stood.”
Dante glanced over his shoulder briefly at that statement, but quickly gave his attention to Andino once more. “Would you give me your word on that, then?”
“Is that what you need?”
“Andino, I refuse to clean up another mess for you if your only intention is to go ahead and make another one when my back is turned. You think I haven’t noticed that seems to be a common thing for you? Funny—we always said you were nothing like your father, but it seems we all had that backwards, didn’t we?”
Or maybe he just finally found something—someone—that he was willing to break all the rules for. Haven was worth that. She was worth everything.
Dante would understand, but not now. He would understand why Andino lied, and then lied again when it was all said and done because he too had a wife he loved. And sure, while his wife was considered appropriate for their life, that didn’t mean Dante wouldn’t have fought tooth and nail to have her if someone told him that he couldn’t have her.
That was the thing …
That was why his father had his back—Gio was being his dad, and not a made fucking man. It was why Lucian was quick to side with Andino when needed, too; he’d married an outsider himself. That was why his uncle would understand that when push came to shove, Andino was going to get what he wanted one way or the other; Dante loved his own wife enough to do anything for her, too.
Andino loved Haven.
Nothing else mattered.
“You have my word,” Andino lied. “No more problems.”
Dante nodded once, murmuring, “I’m starting to think I should be more concerned about the problems you might cause once you finally are the boss rather than the problems you’re causing now, all things considered.”
Andino shrugged. “Well, by that time, it won’t be any of your business, will it?”
That was sort of the point.
Dante said nothing.
• • •
“You good?”
Andino nodded over the glass of whiskey he’d been nursing for a half an hour. “Fine, Dad.”
Gio frowned. “Then, why don’t you look like it?”
“Shitty week?”
A chuckle answered him back.
Andino sighed. “It’s fine, really.”
“It isn’t.”
No, it wasn’t. But that didn’t mean he wanted his father to get stuck in his head about it, either.
“Don’t step in between Dante and me, all right?” Andino asked. “Just … let me handle him on this.”
Gio tipped his head back, and folded his arms over his chest. Behind his father, the voices of their family filtered into the living room area from the dining room. Dinner was still in full swing, but Andino just wasn’t in the mood.
He had shit to consider.
Things to work through.
“You lied to him earlier,” Gio said quietly.
Andino shrugged one shoulder. “I’m telling him what he wants to hear. That’s the only way to get this shit done and over with. What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to not make this family into something it isn’t, Andi. Don’t turn the Marcellos into something they have never been. Don’t cause enough of a fracture between us all in your effort to be happy that we can’t come back together again in the end. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
He did.
“I’ll try,” he offered.
“There you two are.”
At the soft voice of his mother, Andino relaxed a bit. He took another sip of his whiskey as Kim came in through the doorway. She gave the two of them a look that said she knew their secrets. She probably did, knowing his father.
“Rough night?” she asked.
Andino laughed. “Rough life, Ma.”
Kim grinned, but it quickly faded. “You’ve been busy this week.”
“Work.”
He said that even knowing that it was far more likely his mother knew the truth. That no, he hadn’t been busy with work at all, but more his uncle, and dealing with the mess that had come after the Haven debacle. There was no way in hell that Gio kept that information from Kim. And even if his father hadn’t told her, news traveled fast in their close family circles.
She had to know.
So, she had to also know he was lying.
Gio shot him a look.
Andino didn’t return it.
“You know,” his mother drawled, “I genuinely thought you might like that woman—the Calabrese woman, I mean. Ginevra. You spoke kindly about her. Men who run around with someone else don’t tend to … well, do that. Or is that the kind of man you are, Andi?”
Ouch.
He chuckled dryly, and set his now-empty glass aside. “Ma—”
“He was talking about Haven Murphy that day,” his father said. “In the kitchen at our home. You told me about it after, Kim. He was talking about her even if it seemed like it was about Ginevra.”
Andino shook his head, and scrubbed a hand down his face. Yeah, fuck his whole life. Because this was a mess he was never going to get out of. Or so it seemed lately.
Kim’s brow rose higher. “Haven.”
“Yeah, Tesoro.”
“Oh.”
That gentle, soft-spoken word felt laced with a heavy sadness that Andino didn’t want to hear at all. This was why he hadn’t wanted to bring his parents into this mess at all.
Yes, they were Marcellos. They were loyal to the family and the name. They knew this life.
But they were also his parents—they loved him so much. Far more than anyone else in his life … except for maybe Haven. All that meant was that the pain he felt or the struggle he dealt with would be amplified for them as they had to watch, and were unable to do anything.
They’d allowed him to live exactly the way he wanted to for so long. To grow, and be whoever the fuck he needed to be. They never stopped him from doing anything, and they never stepped in to change his direction.
Why would this be any different?
“What are you going to do, then?” his mother asked, her soft gaze turning on him. “What can we do?”
He wished he knew.
This was something he was going to have to do alone.
They wouldn’t understand.
• • •
There was no missing the smug smiles that Kev and Darren Calabrese wore as Dante and Andino met the two men at the bar. He couldn’t wait to wipe those fucking smirks from their faces, but now was not the time.
No, now was the time to play nice.
God knew how long that would last.
“June twenty-fifth,” Kev said.
Dante quirked a brow as he and Andino came to a stop in front of the two men. “For what, Kev?”
“The wedding. A month from today. We decided on the date, and thought you would appreciate knowing. Maybe have a drink with us to celebrate. Invitations were printed this morning by that place your wife suggested, Dante. Thank her for us. And some were already hand delivered. We will, of course, make sure your family has invitations for your side of things.”
What?
Did he just walk into the Twilight Zone?
Andino could feel his uncle’s gaze shift to him, but he didn’t respond in any way. They’d called them in for a drink? And to give a wedding date? What kind of fucking garbage was that? Andino wished he could be surprised, but he really wasn’t. This would be just like the Calabrese to make a show out of something like this.
They’d been in a fit for a good week or more about the Haven issue. Kev had gone as far as threatening to end the deal between their families. And even earlier, when he’d called to ask for this meeting, Andino was right there listening in when Kev told Dante he wanted to discuss the issues at hand, for Christ’s sake.
Lucian had been right.
When it came to the Calabrese, they were all about their own standing and appearance. They thought they had gotten something from the Marcellos—some kind of upper hand with this marriage arrangement—and they were going to use it to the very maximum that they could.
Jesus.
“I thought this meeting was for something different,” Dante said. “That was the impression you gave when you called and asked for it, Kev. Are you usually this unstable? I’d like a fair warning next time.”
Kev’s jaw ticked, but he was quick to hide it with another one of those smiles. “There’s nothing to handle, Dante. We made a deal—the marriage between Andino and Ginevra. It will go forward. We’ve decided that.”
“You were quite adamant about the issue—”
The issue being Haven, Dante meant.
Kev waved a hand to stop Dante from saying anything more. “Oh, that? We’ve handled that, I assure you. And besides, we are aware that what a man might do in his private life is his business as long as it’s … kept quiet.”
The man looked to Andino, asking, “Isn’t that right, Andi?”
“Andino,” he corrected Kev. “For you, it is always Andino.”
Andino could tell that this was not what Dante had expected to happen for this meeting. He’d forewarned Andino to stand at his side, and keep fucking quiet as much as possible. They were still working towards peace with the Calabrese, after all. That was supposed to be the most important goal.
Kev got in his feelings about Haven’s little show at the restaurant for a while, but now it seemed like he was over it. Andino knew it couldn’t be that simple. Nothing with these snakes was that simple or easy.
And Kev had said …
“What does that mean?” Andino asked the man.
Darren smirked. “Oh, us handling the issue?”
Andino hadn’t asked the youngest of the two asshole brothers, but he also didn’t give a shit who answered his question as long as somebody did.
He didn’t like what it implied.
His rage was rising again.
“It means we handled it,” Darren said slowly as though he were talking to a small child and not a man who could easily beat his skull into the bar behind him. “And we have no doubt that the problem will correct itself now.”
“Interesting woman you chose to be fucking, though,” Kev added. “Former stripper. Current business owner. Pretty thing—if it weren’t for all the tattoos. A bit much, really. I can see why your family wouldn’t want you running around with that all over town, even if she is quite nice to look at.”
Dante tensed beside his nephew. “That’s out of line, Kev.”
He didn’t need his uncle stepping in for him.
At all.
Andino’s jaw ticked when he said, “First, if you insult Haven again, it will be the last thing you do. She has nothing to do with this, or us. Second, if you think to touch her in some way, I will make it my first and last mission every day to make sure anyone with your name is in a grave.”
“Andino,” Dante warned.
He never took his gaze off the Calabrese men.
“It’s not a promise,” Andino said, “it’s a fucking guarantee. Test me.”
Kev only smiled in that fucking way of his again. “Oh, I don’t think we need to worry about that now, Andino. As Darren said, we believe the issue will correct itself from here on out. We handled that.”
Yes, but what did that mean?
Andino didn’t think he would like it, but he was going to have to find out.
Not right now, though.
Kev gestured at the bar. “A drink?”
Andino wanted to say no.
Dante answered for him, instead. “Sure, a drink sounds fine.”
They were still playing nice, it seemed. Andino was really getting sick and tired of this bullshit. His time for playing nice was just about over.