Page 52 of Pink

He sighed. “Yes, but what? It seems like it’s always changing lately. I never do the same thing twice anymore.”

“Are you complaining?”

“Not until it gets me thrown behind bars.”

Andino chuckled and reached for the wooden box at the corner of his desk where he liked to keep his cigars. “Come in, close the door, and take a seat. This is going to be a good one.”

“Oh?”

A pointed look at the still-open door had Lev rolling his eyes. Shouldering his large presence into the small office, he slammed the door behind him. He took a seat at one of the two high-back chairs sitting across from Andino’s desk. While he settled in to get the details of his next job—because clearly he wouldn’t be handling Andino directly this week—his boss worked on clipping, then lighting, his cigar.

“Don’t tell Haven I’m smoking these, she’ll … make a whole scene,” Andino muttered.

“Should quit. Bad for your health.”

“So are mouthy men and phone calls that send my blood pressure up but here we are. I’ve had to deal with both today. Might as well add some fucking tar to my lungs while I’m at it.”

“You know she can smell it on you, right?”

Andino grumbled under his breath, eyeing the cigar in his hand. “Yeah, I just blame it on you, so …”

“Fuck you.”

“Is what it is, Pink. We all gotta do what we gotta do to make shit work.”

“Speaking of work,” he hinted.

“Right.” Andino nodded and reclined back in his chair in a way that spoke of comfort. Truth was, Lev knew that only meant his boss was restless and considering things. He glanced down at the empty space beside his desk where a dog would usually be sitting looking like the meanest thing to have ever graced his presence. “He likes being with her in the daytime, you know? I kind of miss his growling ass.”

Snaps, he meant.

His pit bull rescue.

Another one of Lev’s duties whenever the dog accompanied his boss.

“Anyway,” Andino said, waving a hand and making cigar smoke scatter in the air. “Your face isn’t recognizable to certain individuals whom the Marcellos have connections to outside the city, and I need that benefit of anonymity for something. It’ll be happening in the coming weeks, I don’t have an exact date yet. I will, though. Soon.”

“Which is what?”

“A meeting. Specifically, a meeting between a businessman—you’ll get all the info you need in time to know who he is—from California and a guy I know of here who has ties to … things I don’t want my name, business, or family attached to in any way. Yes, I’m being vague. For good reason.”

Sucking air through his teeth, Lev considered his boss’s words. “What do you want me to find out? That’s why you’re going to send me in, right? You want a fly on the wall.”

It wouldn’t be the first time.

Andino’s smirk only confirmed it.

He pointed a finger at Lev, nodding as he replied, “Good catch. I want to know if the man from Cali plans on doing business with the people he’s supposed to be meeting here. Some shit I can turn cheek to, others … not so much. I’ve let them do their business if it doesn’t touch mine, and they keep it out of the city, for the most part, but a partner of mine getting involved? I’ll have to cut ties. And if that is what they’re meeting to do, then I’ll have to flex a bit.”

Lev thought about that. “Meaning what, exactly?”

“Get them out of my fucking city entirely. They won’t be doing business here at all. Not even a meeting.”

That was a big move. A lot of the time, it was easier on the mafia to let people move and do their business as they saw fit so long as it didn’t cause a problem. Because problems that came from anything illegal almost always ended in a lot of bloodshed. Yet, that never bothered Andino, Lev knew. The man would, and did, do what he had to do to make sure his city was exactly as he wanted it to be.

This wouldn’t be an exception.

Whatever it was.

“What kind of business are they doing that you don’t want to touch, even if it only means through a third-party involvement?”

Andino’s dark eyes drifted to Lev, and his grin faded away. “Don’t worry—you’ll know it when you hear it … if you hear it. That’s what I need to find out, Pink. If it’s even happening at all. I try not to get ahead of myself in business. Facts first. Action second.”

Right.

Lev would remember it.