Page 3 of Waste of Worth

Dino didn’t pick up the call, still driving toward the church.

He would see Ben soon enough.

Without even being told, Dino was already aware he would suffer for not picking up the call.

Years had passed since he’d suffered some form of physical harm from his uncle’s hard hand.

Years.

Dino’s chest tightened at the thought.

Truth was, he still wasn’t exempt from the manipulation.

Not when he was constantly haunted with it all.

He still wasn’t free.

Dino slid quietly into the church pew less than five minutes after Mass had started for the parishioners. He avoided meeting the gazes of those he recognized, uninterested in a whispered conversation while the priest was preaching respect from behind his pulpit at the altar.

Of course, his hope didn’t last long before Ben DeLuca made his way over, sitting just a seat behind Dino.

Church was supposed to be Dino’s safe place.

It was meant for God—not men.

Ben had never been very good at following those rules.

“You’re late,” Ben said.

The priest continued on from the front, his sermon about respect likely being lost on the majority listening.

Dino was not one of those people.

He understood respect far better than most.

So, even though he hated his uncle—while he despised the man and the hell he’d caused in Dino’s life from the murder of his parents to the abuse of himself and his siblings—he didn’t shun Ben when he spoke.

He answered back.

He followed the rules.

Always.

“Traffic,” Dino lied.

Knowing Ben wouldn’t see it, Dino glanced up at the vaulted ceiling, sending off a silent apology to God. It had to be double the sin to lie in church, surely.

It wasn’t the first time.

“You didn’t answer my call earlier,” Ben said.

Dino stiffened slightly, but managed to hide the action by shifting a bit in the pew to make it seem as though he were searching for a better position. “I was on another call—Theo, actually. By the time I was done, I was practically here.”

Ben seemed to let it pass.

Seemed being the keyword.

“Yes, your brother is in a fit, though he didn’t want to talk about why,” Ben muttered more to himself than Dino.