Page 128 of Duty

Even though he’d heard his cousin approaching, Andino didn’t look up from the paperwork on his desk when John knocked on the door. “You finally came around to see me, huh?”

“You finally decided to pull the underboss card and make me come see you,” John countered easily.

Fair enough.

That was true.

Andino did that.

No shame.

Andino looked up to meet his cousin’s stare from the doorway, but made sure to keep his posture and expression as least combative as he could manage. If he could get through this meeting with John without it spiraling into a verbal sparring match, then maybe he could judge just how bad his cousin’s current state actually was.

“Had you given me a choice, I still would have come over eventually,” John said.

“When would that have been?” Andino asked.

“Eventually.”

“I sped it up, John. One of the perks of being the family underboss.” Andino grinned. “Nobody gets to ignore my ass.”

John laughed under his breath. “Yeah, lucky you.”

His smile was quick to fade, then—was that was this was, luck? He wasn’t sure he wanted to keep this kind of luck. “Well, the luck is debatable. Sit, John.”

“I would rather stand.”

“Why, are you going to fuck off if I say something you don’t like?”

People in his life that he cared about—which weren’t very fucking many—seemed to be doing that a lot lately. It drove him crazy.

John shot Andino a look—a warning if there ever was one. Careful, Andino. “I see Haven is downstairs. Siena is chatting with her.”

Andino’s gaze narrowed. “You brought her here?”

“I was with her when you called. I promised to spend the day with her since all I do is work my fucking ass off. I owe her time every once and a while, don’t I?”

“Sure, John, but you know how they feel about—”

“I imagine, the same way they feel about Haven, no?”

Andino stiffened in the chair. It wasn’t like his cousin to take easy shots like that—he made a checkmark on his mental list for John’s irritability level. It was definitely a sign pointing in a bad direction. Sure, everyone had their bad days, but irritability for John was never a good thing.

“Point taken,” Andino said.

“Yet, she’s here, I noticed.”

Good, that was the point, man.

“You sound like a broken record.”

“Give me something to give a shit about, cousin,” John snapped back just as fast, his hazel eyes burning with anger. “It’s been weeks, and all I’ve wanted to do is break your face. So yeah, give me something right now.”

Andino cleared his throat, trying to readjust his tone before he spoke again. “Maybe I’m taking a page out of your playbook.”

“Which is what?”

“Doing what I want.”