Page 146 of Duty

“I beg your pardon?”

Where did this chick get off saying something like that to him? She didn’t know him, and he doubted she knew very much about him and Haven, either. Hell, he was still trying to figure out this shit with Haven.

“She headed out to see her parents for a week. She figured you would be around, and told me to let you know—”

“What?” he asked sharply.

“She wanted you know that she’s going to worry about taking care of herself for a while,” Valeria said, shrugging one shoulder and never breaking their staring contest. “So, take that however you want to.”

“I don’t want to take that at all.”

Valeria nodded. “Yeah, I bet.”

“So, she’s just gone?”

And she hadn’t let him know?

Why?

Valeria cleared her throat, and stared down at the porch beneath her shoes. “This is coming from me, and not her … but no one ever wants to be second best in someone’s life, Andino. Especially not someone they love. It hurts too much.”

He blinked.

Haven wasn’t second best to him.

You did put her there, though. You did that—you had other shit to handle. You told her that again and again.

He couldn’t ignore his thoughts screaming at him, even though he wished he could.

“So, yeah,” Valeria added, turning to open the front door again, “she’s taking care of herself for a while, and maybe in the meantime, you can get your shit figured out. Either way, she’s going to be fine. I’m sure you know that about Haven. Everybody who knows her already does.”

Valeria’s final words hung heavily around Andino long after she went inside the house, and closed the door. He could hear Snaps barking behind him—still excited, and wanting to see his favorite person.

Andino didn’t know how long he stood there dazed, confused, and feeling heavy in his fucking heart—it was only the shrill ring of his phone in his hand that brought him back to reality with a bang. He checked the caller ID before picking up just in case it was someone he could ignore.

It was the boss.

No one could ignore the boss.

Andino didn’t even get the phone to his ear before he heard Dante bark, “Where the fuck is John?”

Fucking hell.

“I’m still looking for him,” Andino snapped back. “Relax, and give me time to work.”

“Time is up.”

“What?”

“Just what I said,” his uncle said darkly. “A warehouse was burned to the ground last night—a Calabrese warehouse. They’re blaming it on John, and threatening action against him unless one of us finds him first, and keeps him out of harm’s way. I’m trying to negotiate some kind of meeting right now. I need you to find John now, Andino.”

Fuck.

Why could nothing go right?

“Listen, I know John is a little messed up right now … but burning a Calabrese warehouse? He’s stuck on Siena Calabrese, Dante,” Andino pointed out. “In a big way. He loves the woman. He’s not purposely going to cause problems with her family that will force them to take her away from him. You know what I mean?”

“I don’t think John did anything—the Calabrese are a bunch of snakes. We know that, but the problem is, does John know that when he’s not seeing things clearly right now, Andino? You know as well as the rest of us do that when John is manic, he perceives everything differently. The last time he was like this, he almost fucking killed you. His best friend. Or did you forget about that?”