Page 68 of Waste of Worth

Dino stared hard at his brother. “Do you really believe that?”

Theo didn’t answer.

Dino figured his brother didn’t really have to.

“This was pushed on me—on you, too—and even Lily, though I gave her a way out, at least for a little while,” Dino continued on when Theo stayed silent. “And there’s not a fucking soul in the Outfit who gives a single shit what goes on within the DeLuca family as long as we’re making money and paying dues to the boss. That’s all that ever mattered. So yeah, Theo, I’m here because I can take it. Because I’ve taken it for years. It’s easier for me to be the fuck up—the one person in the DeLuca family that toes Ben’s line of what’s okay. Then, he’s not coming for you.”

Theo opened his mouth to say something, but Dino beat him to it.

“And he’s also not going for Lily,” Dino finished quieter. “You don’t have to like it at all. Shit, Theo, you don’t even have to like me, and you can blame me for whatever you want. I’ve been dealing with that for years, anyway. It’s nothing new. But don’t ever think I’m weak because I don’t walk away. Stand in my shoes, make a different choice than the ones I’m still having to make, and then you can tell me what I am or should be doing. Got it?”

Theo wisely chose not to say anything after that.

Silently, Dino drained his coffee, wishing the caffeine had done something for him.

It hadn’t.

He was still fucking exhausted.

Not that it mattered, Dino knew, as he still had to make face with his uncle later in the day for a meeting of sorts because it was tribute. No Capo could miss tribute, not unless they wanted the boss coming after them looking for their money.

If he wasn’t completely drained of energy now, by the time he had to play nice with Ben DeLuca, he certainly would be.

Dino stood, walking over to the sink to rinse his cup out. He’d just put the cup in the sink when he heard Theo’s words behind him.

His brother still hadn’t moved from the table.

“Have you ever thought that a bullet might fix everything?”

Dino hesitated on replying, if only because he wasn’t sure of the answer Theo was probing for. “It’s not that simple, man.”

Theo made a noise under his breath. “It could be.”

“But it isn’t.” Dino turned around to find his brother was watching him. “We both know that all the Outfit needs is a reason to turn on one another—just one single reason to go for the throat. If only one family’s faction thinks they have even the slightest chance to wipeout another family’s faction to get themselves closer to the top—closer to the boss’s seat, they’re going to take that chance, no matter who it kills in the process. So I take care of one problem, but how many more is that going to leave us with then, Theo?”

“You don’t know that would be what could happen.”

Dino was positive that was exactly what would happen.

He knew the Outfit all too well.

He’d been stabbed in the back by it one too many times.

By the men who turned their cheek when a brother went after a brother, but also managed to kill the man’s wife—nothing was done. By the same men who then turned their cheeks and closed their hands to the children who were left orphaned in the mess of it all. And again, by those same fucking men who pretended like they didn’t know the pain happening behind closed doors for years.

The Outfit was not about honor and family.

It was death, blood, and power.

That’s all it ever was.

That was the only thing the men in the Outfit wanted to achieve.

“You could think about it,” his brother pressed. “I wouldn’t blame you.”

Dino didn’t even blink. “I have thought about it. Often.”

Theo looked surprised at that. “Then why not act on it?”