Page 78 of Duty

“Yes, do exactly that.”

He gave her a wink, and then he was gone. Haven rolled over to her back in the bed, and stared up at the ceiling as she listened to Andino’s quick footsteps pad down the stairs. With the house being as quiet as it was, she could hear practically everything.

Including the way he opened the front door with a nasty, “What the fuck, you can’t call or something?”

Haven stiffened when a female voice replied, “You … you fucking asshole.”

Yikes.

They had a deal—her and Andino. He wasn’t to be fucking anyone else, but she didn’t like the sound of a woman rushing into his home at night, and calling him names. That didn’t bode well at all for their agreement.

“Hey, don’t come here to my home calling me names, Catty,” Andino snapped. And then, a second later, Andino asked, “You told her, then?”

A new, male voice answered this time. “Guess so.”

“Don’t even pay him any attention. It’s me you need to be talking to, Andino,” the female said, her tone thick with anger. “How dare you?”

Yeah, okay …

Haven had been fine to wait in bed for Andino, but now not so much. She didn’t like the way the conversation was going downstairs, and if this was another woman who he was involved with, Haven wasn’t going to be quiet about it. Getting out the bed, she wrapped a sheet around her body to make herself less naked—nothing else, though. She headed into the hallway as the voices continued downstairs.

“I beg your pardon?” Andino asked.

“You know why I’m here. You know what you did … what you’ve been doing!”

“Catherine, it’s not even a big deal. So your parents know you’ve been hustling for me, whatever.”

Wait.

Haven’s footsteps hesitated at the top of the stairs.

Hustling?

Like … drugs?

Dealing drugs?

Andino continued on, and his voice brought her out of her thoughts again. “Who gives a shit? They clearly don’t. They just kept quiet because they wanted you to tell them. I went along with it, all right. That’s it.”

“No, that’s not it,” the woman hissed. “That’s not even close to being it, you prick.”

Yeah, she sounded pissed.

Haven was just … concerned.

About what she heard.

What it might mean.

What it did mean.

It was sadly amusing to her—and incredibly ironic, as she wasn’t so stupid that she couldn’t see that, too—how she had been entirely willing to overlook the fact that she knew Andino was probably involved with some sort of shady business. So much so, that she actively refused to seek out any information about him lest she stumble on something that would make her drop him like a hot rock.

Instead, it found her.

She wasn’t ready.

She didn’t want to know.