Page 109 of Waste of Worth

“Don’t tell her,” Dino repeated, “just keep her where she is, Theo.”

Theo nodded. “All right.”

“And get out of here. You don’t need to be here for this.”

“But—”

Dino waved a hand at his brother, knowing damn well he probably looked cold as hell doing so. It didn’t matter, he would do what he needed to do to keep his siblings safe, especially from Ben’s ire. He had no doubt Ben had told Theo to stay away from Dino during any legal proceedings or what was yet to come.

Between the two brothers, Theo didn’t like to follow the rules.

Dino was always covering in one way or another for his brother.

This time would be no exception.

“Go,” Dino muttered, glancing away from his brother. “I’ve got this shit handled.”

“Do you?”

“I will.”

His assurance didn’t come out as strongly as he wanted it to, but what could Dino do?

Nothing.

Wait it out, he told himself.

Soon, Theo was gone, and Damian followed close behind his friend. Dino didn’t even get the chance to settle back and relax before his lawyer finally decided to make his appearance known. Flashing a courthouse badge at the guard, Dino was allowed to leave the other people waiting, and he followed behind the well-dressed, stoutly lawyer who hadn’t even bothered to bring his briefcase along with him.

He wouldn’t need it.

Dino might have been paying him, but he knew now that Tony was on someone else’s payroll—Ben.

Tony would do what Ben wanted, not what was best for Dino.

Hard choices sometimes needed to be made when someone couldn’t afford to cash the check they would be left with after it was all said and done. This was going to be one of those times for Dino. He would handle it as he needed to, but he had a few things he had to do first.

“Well,” Tony said, his voice a droning yawn, as he pulled out a chair to sit in the private room they’d been directed to, “what of it, Dino?”

Dino stared hard at the lawyer. “You’re the professional, you tell me.”

“Few charges, nothing serious. You can do the time.”

A scoff worked its way up Dino’s throat, but somehow, he managed to hold it back.

“That’s it?” Dino asked. “I can do the time. You’re not even going to suggest we work on some kind of deal with the prosecution to ease this a bit?”

“You’re not the kind of man who works deals.”

That much was true.

But Tony was the kind of lawyer who could do it on the low.

In fact, he’d done it for Dino before on other minor charges, and for Ben on bigger charges. This shouldn’t have been a huge thing to ask for.

“Or Ben told you not to bother,” Dino said.

Tony looked up from the table. “Hmm, what?”