Page 158 of Pink

“And you would have done the same.”

Andino sighed harshly, muttering, “Can’t argue with that, can I?”

“Did you come down here and bribe a guard just to tell me you’re pissed off at me? Because I’m sure you could have done that over a phone call. The lawyers would have passed the message along like they have every other time.”

“Funny,” his boss said.

“What is?”

“How even in jail you manage to catch an attitude that drives me crazy. Remember when I first offered you a job? What did I say I wanted?” Andino ticked a finger in the air, saying, “Ah, yes. A man who did his job and didn’t give me any attitude while he did it.”

Lev couldn’t help but grin. “Look how well that turned out.”

“If you could cause me less headaches when all of this is over, then I would really appreciate it, Pink.”

“Is it?”

“What?”

“Going to be over?” Lev shrugged, adding, “Because from where I sit, all I see is a fucking mess I can’t get out of, Andino. I haven’t talked to my kid in a week and the last time I did, she asked why my picture was in the newspaper. Why the police had handcuffs on me. How the fuck is she even seeing that shit?”

Andino grunted under his breath. “Have to ask your little friend—Nessa—that question. Maybe she had something sitting somewhere and didn’t think about it. I’m sure it was a mistake.”

“I want to see my kid. Get Nessa on that. Soon.”

“In jail?”

Fuck.

“Don’t be a prick,” Lev returned.

Andino frowned. “I’m not … just trying to make you see things with a bit more sense. Everyone is staying low and quiet right now. We’re not giving the media anything more to talk about than what they already have. Public opinion is going to make a major difference here when shit eventually reaches the breaking point.”

“What breaking point? I’ve already fucking broke!”

The man across the table didn’t even flinch at Lev’s outburst. And that was why, he knew, Andino sat in the position he did … and Lev had his. They were two very different men with completely opposite purposes and personalities in this life.

What seemed cold about Andino on the outside was just a means of protection. Nothing more and nothing less.

“I’m sorry … I’ll have the lawyers work out a longer phone call next time,” Andino said. “Will that help with Arely?”

“Not like having her home would be.”

“She is at home. With Ness—”

“I’m her home, man. Me.”

Her dad.

Didn’t he get that?

“I’m all she’s got,” Lev muttered.

“I’m working on it. I am.” Andino shifted in the chair a bit, reaching beneath his jacket to pull an item out of the pocket. His phone, actually. As he activated the screen and his thumbs moved over the glass, the man said, “Besides, even if she doesn’t have you, she will be getting one more person she’s been asking for tonight.”

“What?”

Turning his phone around and setting it to the table where Lev could plainly see the video playing out on the screen, Andino said nothing. No, he simply allowed the video to speak for him.