Page 63 of Pink

Which was Gigi … and the fact he would be seeing her again.

Soon.

“Pink—did you check the fuck out on me or what?”

The grumbly growl of a dog—his response to the anger in his master’s tone—had Lev coming out of the haze that was his mind in a flash. It didn’t take him very long to realize he’d checked out for too damn long.

“Sorry,” he muttered, straightening up a bit in the chair. “Got some shit on my mind, that’s all. Your Cali partner is doing exactly what you thought he was doing. Exactly, and then some. This isn’t his first rodeo into it, even. And as for the other side of the equation—that fuck’s been doing it seasonally. Someone else is providing the meat of the operation.”

All his words were carefully chosen. A lesson Andino had taught him long ago. The code only men in their life could truly appreciate, and it was almost an art. To explain a situation without ever using words that named criminals or their acts. The paranoia about wires was still a very real thing for some people.

Lev was one of those.

Andino nodded, clearly understanding what he said. “Good to know—I’ll be dealing with that, then. Back to you, though. It’s not your kid, right?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Whatever had you checked out there. Arely’s good, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, man. The best.”

“Good. I know you try to keep … all of this away from her, Pink. I respect your right to do that, but I wonder if you realize that the longer you’re in this life, the harder it is to get out.”

He hadn’t, actually.

And it wasn’t something he wanted to consider at that very moment, either. Didn’t he already have enough to handle that weighed down his shoulders?

“I’m not talking about getting out,” Lev said, chuckling. “Never even crossed my mind.”

It wasn’t a lie. Because even if he had his issues, moral or otherwise, with Andino’s business and even his own for the man, at the end of the day it was all pretty simple for Lev. These men took care of him because he took care of them.

“Right, well … back to business, then.” Andino leaned back in his chair, hooking his ankles over the edge of his desk again. This time, Snaps licked at the side of his master’s hand where it sat along the armrest. “I’ll handle things. You, however, keep your head down and your phone on. I’ll call. Or John will. Stay out of trouble and let me work. Got it?”

“Always do, boss.”

“And shave that fucking beard you’ve got going on. I hate when I have to listen to made men bitch about how the boss’s “personal” enforcer,” Andino grumbled, even going as far as to make air quotes, “won’t follow the fucking rules of us Italians.”

Lev tipped his head back, and then took a moment to run his fingers through the beard he’d spent a good couple of months growing out. He kept it neat—trimmed short—by a barber downtown. The only man he trusted to put a blade to his throat. He rather liked the look.

Humming under his breath, Lev shook his head and then said, “Nah.”

“Ah, for fuck’s sake, Pink.”

“I’m not Italian, Andino, I don’t follow those rules,” Lev said, standing from the seat and giving his boss a grin. He was still going to be him even in their world and yeah, he’d shave his face. When he was good and fucking ready to. Not because he was told. “And you knew that when you asked me to be here doing this, right? Wasn’t an issue then; you get to be the big shot boss that tells them all to fuck off when it is now.”

Andino sighed. “The only good part about being the boss.”

“Is it?”

“What?”

“The only good part.”

That made the other man pause but only for a second. For whatever private reason Andino came up with in his head, he smirked when he finally replied, “No, it’s not.”