Page 101 of Duty

“It’s a shame that he tells you wonderful things about me, but he’s never said a word to me about you.”

“Ma,” Andino snapped.

It was too late.

The words were out there.

Haven gave Kim a tight nod, and a look over her shoulder to him that burned, and then she was gone. Andino stopped working on his food, and placed his hands to the edge of the counter until he heard the front door close.

Only then did he ask, “What the hell, Ma?”

That hadn’t been like Kim at all.

Kim glanced over her shoulder to where Haven had gone as she said, “I actually meant to say it was a shame, Andino. She seems lovely. Not appropriate—as your father and uncles will tell you—for a boss, but still quite lovely. Why didn’t you tell me you were seeing someone?”

“You just answered your own fucking question.”

“Language.” Kim sighed, and brought her gaze back to him. “Because of la famiglia, then?”

“She’s not Italian. Not Catholic. She’s not … reputable, or respectable by their standards. She’s great, but she’s not—”

“What they would want,” his mother interjected. “Do they know?”

“They did before for a hot minute.”

“Not now?”

Andino shook his head. “No.”

“You have to tell them.”

“It’s none of their fucking business, Ma.”

Kim’s lips flattened into a grim line—not a frown, but most definitely not a smile, either. “It is their business. It is the family’s business. That’s how it works for the boss, Andino.”

“Yeah, I know.”

And he did.

He wouldn’t blame his mother, either, when she told his father about the woman she found at their son’s home. She, like his father, loved him. They also loved their family—that meant protecting it, no matter what.

A newcomer?

An outsider?

The unknown?

All of which, Haven most definitely was … those were dangerous things to people like them. So no, he wouldn’t blame his mother at all.

FOURTEEN

“Are you going to be busy later, or are you closing tonight?”

Haven chewed on her inner cheek to consider her answer instead of speaking right away. “Maybe, but I don’t know. You know how things come up at this damn club.”

Andino’s dark chuckles echoed over the phone. “Yeah, I know.”

“Where are you going to be?”