Page 99 of Waste of Worth

It certainly didn’t help that Karen had also put her hands in Dino’s books for one of his businesses. She’d falsified numbers for him when he added extra cash to the books in one of his many ways to hide dirty cash in a simple way. He didn’t want her taking the hit for his shit; she wouldn’t because he would do whatever he needed to make sure none of this fell back on her.

But he also needed to take care of her.

Her and his child.

Somehow.

He just didn’t know where to start or how to go about doing anything in his current situation. As the small fire in the garbage can began to grow, a thick black plume of smoke and ash rising from the burning papers, Dino turned away from the sight and lifted his shirt to cover his mouth.

God knew he didn’t need to be breathing his sins in as he was trying to destroy them. All too soon, those very sins would be biting him in the ass, and very possibly, locking him away for a good few years or more.

But as he turned away from the burning papers, the money in the safe caught his eye once more.

All over again, Dino was faced with a choice.

He could spend whatever little time he had left going through and destroying what papers and documents might be in his filing cabinets, or he could spent it giving Karen a chance to start over in some small way.

It wouldn’t be a lot, but knowing her, she’d make it work.

Even if she hated him for it.

Even if she didn’t touch it for months.

It was something and it could work.

Dino flung open another drawer in his desk, digging through plastic-sealed envelopes to find one that was big enough to hold the stacks of money he had inside his safe. Soon enough, he found a yellow one that just might do the trick.

The buzzing in his pocket started up again—another phone call.

Dino opted to ignore it, knowing good and damn well that it might be a call he needed to take. It could be Theo letting him know the officials were on their way, or something else. It might even be Karen wondering where in the hell he was, as he should have been at her place a good fifteen minutes ago.

If it were her, there was no doubt in his mind that this would be her final straw.

It was one thing for him to up and leave the week before.

It would be another for him to flake on her again.

While the whole situation was a giant misunderstanding that he was sure he could fix with a long, honest explanation, Dino wasn’t sure if Karen would even be willing to hear it. Especially not if he was locked up—he couldn’t have her around then anyway.

It would be a way for Ben to find her.

The thought made him sicker and colder than ever.

So instead of picking up the call, Dino went to work on the money in the safe. He grabbed handfuls of the cash, stuffing it into the large, bubble mailer as fast as he could while making sure there was enough room to fit most of it inside. Once he had filled the mailer with as much money as he could, Dino tossed it aside on the desk, reaching for one thing he always kept close at hand.

His black book—filled with contacts—flipped open to the desk. Dino started tearing out pages as he went, tossing them into the burning garbage can. While the great majority of the contacts were just normal, law abiding citizens, some belonged to people who couldn’t afford to be tied up in a mess with a gangster who had gotten caught.

Finally, he got to the page he needed.

Karen’s address and info stared back at him.

It was only her initials written on the page.

K.M.

It was yet another way that Dino had made an effort to keep her presence in his life quiet. Even if her details in his black book could simply be explained away by saying she was an employee of his. It hadn’t mattered to him. He wanted to keep her as safe as he possibly could from his life.

Fuck.