Page 44 of Duty

It would have been better if she had.

Haven found Andino leaning against the side of his black Lexus that he’d parked in front of her fucking house. She was momentarily distracted by how relaxed he looked in nothing but dark slacks, a silk dress shirt rolled up to his elbows, and black leather loafers on his feet that he’d crossed one over the other.

Cool.

Calm.

Collected.

His silk shirt was tight to his chest, and showed off all the hard lines of his muscles. The definition of his body really was something else. Did he know how fucking good he looked when he didn’t even try?

In his hand, he held a pair of aviator sunglasses, and wore a smirk that could melt the panties off any woman he turned it on. Probably her, too, if she let him.

Like sex on a stick.

Sin walking.

And he was waiting for her.

Haven didn’t know what to do about that—never mind the way this man left her confused. Something about Andino screamed bad news, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on exactly what it was. She did know that the whole club incident hadn’t helped.

A man had been beaten.

Beaten.

And Andino barely blinked about it.

In fact, he told the people to take it elsewhere. As though they were being a nuisance to his evening, and not like he was surprised it was actually happening. They called him boss, because yeah, Haven had heard that little tidbit, too.

So, what did that tell her?

People worked for him—an illegal bookie who occasionally visited her club, and others who beat people up. That was just on the surface. She wasn’t sure she wanted to dig deeper because she didn’t think she would like what she found should she try.

Oh, yeah.

He had that dark, handsome, and mysterious thing going on. That was also a huge part of Haven’s problem because she didn’t know this man at all, and some of the things she did know, she wasn’t very fond of.

Haven crossed her arms over her chest as she came closer to the car. In that second, Snaps jumped up to the passenger window, and stuck his big head out. His pink tongue lolled out of his mouth, and he panted happily as he stared at her. She didn’t even think about it—just reached out to pet him because he looked so fucking happy to see her, and it was cute.

“Hey, there,” she murmured to the dog.

“At least he gets a greeting,” Andino grumbled.

Haven passed him a look. “How do you know where I live?”

“I looked you up.”

“How?”

“I have my ways,” Andino returned easily. “You have a roommate, huh?”

Haven stiffened. “Pardon?”

“I saw her come out to get the paper, and put the Barbie bicycle away.”

Oh.

Haven nodded. “I guess you could call Valeria a roommate. Her and her daughter have lived with me for a while. She also works at my club.”