Page 29 of Disgrace

Lucian’s chuckles echoed once more. “Right, my boy. Chin up.”

• • •

“You couldn’t fucking let me in on the little secret, or what?”

John’s question—his tone coated with amusement—quieted the whole room of men. The one person he had directed his question to was the first person to find him and Lucian standing in the doorway waiting.

Andino grinned widely. “John.”

“Hey, cousin.”

“About fucking time you showed up. I was starting to get nervous.”

John smiled. “I might have lost the rings, so, yeah.”

“You didn’t.”

“No, I damn well didn’t.”

John flashed the box in question. Slung around his arm was the garment bag with his tux safely hidden inside. He still had to get dressed, but he had a few other things to take care of first. Like his family—Andino, mostly.

“Come here,” Andino said.

John crossed the room, and took the tight hug his cousin offered. Andino smacked John on the back twice, and then let him go with another one of those signature grins. His cousin patted his cheek, and nodded.

Quietly, Andino said, “I really didn’t want to do this day without you, man.”

“Yeah, I kind of got that. Congrats, huh?”

“Hold off on that. We still need to get Haven to the altar, and everything.”

Chuckles lit up the room, reminding John once again that they still had a bit of an audience. He didn’t mind—it was just his family, after all.

His grandfather was the first to approach them. Antony took his time looking John over, and then the older man clicked his tongue. His weathered face cracked with age when he smiled, and shook his head.

“You’re not properly dressed, Johnathan.”

John held up the garment bag. “Working on it, Grandpapa.”

“Work faster. We’re all a little late today.”

“He’s not lying,” Giovanni said as he stepped in beside his son to clap Andino on the back. He gave John the same attention. “Good to see you home, nipote.”

“Glad to be back,” John replied in kind.

“I bet.”

And then, the one man John might have been dreading speaking to just a little bit stepped closer. His uncle, Dante. The boss of their family—the patriarch who John had, without a doubt, disobeyed, disrespected, and more before he entered Clearview.

He didn’t know what to expect from Dante.

He didn’t know what to say.

Dante only smiled.

Not a cold smile, either.

“Boss,” John said.