Page 108 of Duty

Andino sighed, and rested back on the bench to watch Snaps sniff the walkway. “Both, I guess. I have a lot to apologize for, and something happened yesterday that needs its own apology. Which do you want to start with?”

“Everything,” she said.

“All right.”

“And nothing at all,” she added.

Andino chuckled. “Yeah, I know that feeling. I have to say, though, had that been me yesterday and people cornered me, I would not have been as calm as you were when you called me afterward.”

Haven shrugged. “You didn’t know they were going to do it, so.”

“Knowing when they would do it is a no on my end. Knowing that at some eventual point, what happened was likely—yeah, I probably should have known that.”

“You didn’t think to warn me?”

“If I warned you, then I would have needed to tell you the rest, too.”

Yes, speaking of that …

Haven glanced over at him. “I changed my mind. I don’t want an apology yet—start with the other stuff.”

Andino smirked. “Should have expected that, huh?”

“What else did you expect?”

“I don’t know, Haven.”

“Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” she asked. “About … your family, and the rest, I mean. Didn’t you think I deserved to know who I was sleeping with—that you come from a long line of criminals?”

“Is that all you see me—or even them—as? Just a criminal?”

Haven glanced down at her clenched hands resting around the latte in her lap. “You know I don’t.”

How could she?

She was well aware that there was far more to Andino than his last name, and the legacy his family carried with them. She knew that part of him far better than she knew the man who was apparently a mafia capo.

Andino’s gaze drifted to Snaps again, but he didn’t stay quiet for long. “You don’t know this, but you came into my life at a point when everything around me had just been entirely upended. The future I wanted was no longer mine—a different path was chosen for me. So, maybe when I was with you, I didn’t need to worry about being a Marcello, or all the changes happening in my life. I only had to worry about you and me, and this thing we were doing. You didn’t know about the rest.”

“And you liked that.”

“You could say that, yeah.”

“You liked me being naive to—”

“You’re anything but naive, Haven.”

“To you, I was.”

Andino shook his head. “You knew something was up, regardless of what you want to say right now. You knew, but you chose to ignore it, or excuse it. That was your choice, and I don’t have anything to say about it either way.”

Fuck him.

Fuck him for being right.

“Will you tell me what you mean—about the future thing?” she asked.

She swore Andino clenched his jaw so hard that she heard his teeth crunch. And yet, he never changed from his aloof, calm demeanor, and he didn’t look away from his wandering dog. Not that Snaps was going to go anywhere. The dog never misbehaved. She figured that was probably just easier for Andino.