Page 110 of Waste of Worth

Exactly.

“I need to make a phone call,” Dino said, refusing to repeat what he knew Tony had heard him say loud and clear. “They won’t give me the chance to at the jail, always spitting out one excuse after the other. Give me your phone so I can make a call.”

Tony pushed his cell phone down the table, seemingly unbothered by the request. Dino snatched it up, typing in a familiar number on the touch screen and then putting the phone to his ear when it started to ring through.

There were many people he could have called.

He even knew a few lawyers on hand that might be able to pull strings for him.

None of it would really help.

Dino had already come to a sad understanding of where he was going to be staying for the next little while, and his phone use would be monitored, if not limited. He couldn’t be making this kind of call and request on a jail phone.

Finally, five long rings later, the boss picked up.

“Ciao,” Terrance Trentini greeted cheerfully.

Dino swallowed back the ire that caused to boil in his stomach—the jealous swell of how easily others overlooked his situation time and time again. No doubt, Terrance was just another one of those people pretending like he didn’t know what was happening to Dino at the moment.

“Boss,” Dino replied as respectfully as he could manage. “I’d like to put that request in for my brother to get his title.”

It took a good thirty seconds before Terrance responded.

“Dino.”

“Who else?”

Terrance laughed, though the sound was false and weak. “I heard you got mixed up in some trouble. You shouldn’t be calling me.”

“Using a safe phone, boss.”

“Ah.”

“That request,” Dino prodded, “for Theo. I want to make it happen.”

“I’m not sure—”

“I need someone looking after my crew and shit for the next little while. I don’t want someone appointed to it, and certainly not someone Ben dreams up for the job. My brother can do it—he’s been doing it. You said when I gave the okay, you would do it. I’m giving my okay. Give him the title.”

“Your uncle doesn’t seem to think Theo is ready for it.”

“I do,” Dino replied.

Tony had listened to the conversation without saying a word, but Dino believed wholeheartedly that the lawyer would be making a phone call to his uncle once he was done with Dino. It didn’t even matter. This wasn’t about Ben DeLuca. This wasn’t about Dino.

It was for Theo.

It would be a good, sturdy position for Theo to have when his brother was locked behind bars, unable to lend a voice of authority for his younger brother’s sake.

Dino had habits he couldn’t break, no matter how hard he tried.

Caring for his siblings was just one of them.

Even when they didn’t know he was doing it.

“I’ll owe you,” Dino said, offering the words easily, though it wasn’t something he handed out to any man in the mafia. No one wanted to be in someone else’s debt. Especially not a boss’s debt. He would do it for his brother, though. “Whatever you need, boss.”

Terrance sighed. “The charges are that serious?”