Page 70 of Waste of Worth

That’s how it always worked.

“A bit late, aren’t you, Dino?”

Dino gave Walter Artino a shrug as he sat down beside the Capo. Fact was, Walter was a bastard who’d married into the Outfit and got his hooks into the DeLuca side of the family through Ben’s wife’s sister. But because Walter was as greedy as the rest of the men in the Outfit, and didn’t mind playing dirty every once in a while to get what he wanted, he got along just fine with Ben.

That meant Dino didn’t trust the fool with an inch.

He was a fucking snake.

Sometimes, Dino needed to work with Walter to get shit settled between their mutual crews and business, just to make sure things ran smoothly. It almost always ended with Walter running his mouth to Ben on just about anything.

So yeah, if Dino could help it, he didn’t talk to the man.

Thankfully, today looked to be one of those days when he wouldn’t have to offer much by way of conversation when the boss walked in followed by Ben, and then Riley Conti, the Outfit’s front boss.

With the boss, underboss, and front boss in the room, the quiet chatter between the family Capos died down to nothing at all.

Terrance—never the kind of boss to sit when the rest of his men were already down, too—didn’t bother to take a seat behind the large oak desk, opting to stand in front of it. Ben, as Terrance’s right-hand man, took a seat on the edge of the desk, while Riley pulled a chair off to the side, looking as though he was ready to be done with tribute before it even began.

The three highest men in the Outfit couldn’t be more different on the outside as far as appearances and attitudes went, yet Dino knew, on the inside, they were all the same.

One was a monster he’d been stuck under for over a decade.

Another was a bastard with a violent streak.

The other turned a cheek to the men he’d chosen to stand at his side.

Dino didn’t think that, if given the chance, he could pick the lesser of evils between the three men.

And that, he knew, would be the problem.

That morning, when Theo thought it would be so easy to take out one man, forgot that the one man was a part of a three-legged stool that ran the operation they were expected to call family. Getting rid of one leg would only work if the other three went, too.

Unfortunately, now that bug was in his ear.

Dino couldn’t help but hear it buzzing around in there.

“Any problems this last week?” Terrance asked his men.

Dino kept his eyes on the boss, but he didn’t miss how Ben’s gaze slid to him for a split second. He kept quiet, because there was no problem.

Not now.

“Good,” Terrance said when no one spoke up with an issue to name. “Who has gifts for me?”

Without question, every single man in the room dug into their pockets to pull out envelops of many different sizes, depending on the man holding them. Dino’s own envelop was significantly smaller than it would usually be, as instead of picking up racket payments the week before, he’d been in bed giving his cracked rib time to heal.

And fucking Karen.

That, too.

He was left with the money Theo had been given and collected over the week. It would do, if only because it was enough to cover what the boss expected to be paid from Dino, but it wouldn’t go unnoticed that his tribute was significantly smaller than it usually was.

Still, Dino handed the dirty cash over without a word when Ben came around to collect. His uncle took the package with a curious glint in his eyes, then moved his hand up and down as if to test the weight of the cash.

“Low this week, Dino?” Ben asked.

“Missing a few thousand,” Dino replied, uncaring of the eyes watching him around the room. “It’ll be in with the next one.”