Page 66 of Duty

Dante sighed heavily. “Cross Donati is a problem.”

Great.

His uncle was back on that fucking shit again. Andino knew there was a whole bunch of things happening in his family that didn’t involve him—he tended to keep his nose in his own business, and for good reason. He found less trouble that way.

If only his cousin hadn’t gotten mixed up with Cross again …

“Lucian thinks you should back off on Catherine and Cross,” Giovanni said.

“Lucian thinks a lot of things.”

“I think he’s ri—”

“Say it,” Dante urged, “I dare you.”

“Listen, I know you’ve got issues with Cross,” Andino’s father said, “but you need to work through it, Dante. Figure something out. Your daughter is going to do whatever the fuck she wants to do—you and her mother raised her that way. Hell, she’s still dealing drugs for Andino on a regular basis and doesn’t even tell you that, either. You think she cares what you think about whether or not she’s dating Cross Donati again? Catherine doesn’t. She’s just really fucking sneaky, and she’ll simply get sneakier about it the louder you become in your anger. Trust that.”

“I still want him handled. I’ll send a goddamn message—it’s not like the men of the family aren’t already in an uproar about him attacking me at the restaurant a couple of weeks back. A little word from the boss could send them—”

“Don’t play with that kind of fire.”

“I am not playing with anything. Cross started this.”

“You sound foolish.”

“So says—”

Andino decided he had enough of eavesdropping—for one, the conversation was boring, and for another, this was something else that often got men like him in trouble—and headed into the private dining area. His uncle and father didn’t notice him at all at first, but the enforcer manning the door gave him a respectful nod as he entered.

His mother, on the other hand, smiled widely at the sight of her son coming to have dinner as he’d been told to do. Despite the conversation that had been going on around her at the table, his mother hadn’t joined in at all.

So was Kim Marcello’s way.

It wasn’t that his mother was a wilting flower—she was far from it. Kim just didn’t like to involve herself in other people’s drama, and figured it was for others to figure out before she ever needed to put her two cents in.

Smart, really.

“Mio ragazzo.”

Andino smiled at his mother’s greeting, and ignored the fact that his father and uncle were only now starting to figure out he was in the room. Apparently, this Cross Donati problem his boss was having with his daughter was quite a fucking distraction.

He didn’t even want to think about how pissed Dante would be if he found out Andino had Cross running their guns. He doubted it would be a situation that ended in his favor, at the moment. Damn.

“Hey, Ma.”

He bent down, and kissed his mother on the top of her head. Kim beamed up at him with the kind of smile a mother reserved only for her child. He loved her for, that—loved that she loved him unconditionally.

Kim reached up, and cupped Andino’s cheek with a warm, soft palm. “You’re so busy lately. I never get to see you.”

Not a lie.

It wasn’t even a fucking exaggeration.

“I know, Ma,” he said. “I’ll try to come around more.”

“Good, you do that. Breakfast with me this morning is a good start, though.”

“Not too busy, I hope,” Dante grumbled.