Page 127 of Duty

Before he could try and respond, she turned back around, and finished making her coffee. A part of her was grateful when Andino moved away from her side, and another part of her wished he was still right there … giving her shit back to her just as much as she threw it at him.

Andino made a harsh noise in the back of his throat. “Fine, Haven. Listen, John is coming over—he’ll be here within a few minutes. Be here, or go, that’s up to you, but I’ll be upstairs in my office. He knows where to find me.”

Be here, or go.

Haven turned around just as Andino reached the entryway of the kitchen. “So, you want me here when he’s here?”

Andino glanced over his shoulder, but even his stare was cold. “I never once said I didn’t, my girl. We’ll finish this conversation later if you’re still here.”

Yes, he hadn’t said he didn’t want her there, but she was still just something. And that was one short step away from nothing.

Haven was left alone with her thoughts, which honestly, was a hell of a lonely place to be, but she wasn’t quite ready to have another verbal sparring match with Andino, either. Sometimes, one needed to recoup, and deal with their own shit first before bringing someone else’s baggage into the mix as well.

She would do well to learn that.

It was only a knock on the door that drew Haven from her thoughts. She set her—now mostly—empty cup of coffee to the counter, and headed for the front entrance of the home. She expected Andino to come down and greet his cousin, but she didn’t hear a single noise from him upstairs.

Maybe that should have been a hint for her—he was letting her open his home, and be in front of someone from his family. Didn’t that mean something? He had all the time in the world to send her the fuck out of there before this person arrived.

Beyond the front door, Haven found a man and a woman waiting. The woman was tucked in close to the man—she was a pretty thing, but docile looking, too. Haven turned to the man, already knowing his name and a little about him from Andino.

“Johnathan, right?” she asked.

John nodded, a hint of a smile at the edges of his mouth. “It is. And you’re Haven.”

“I am.” She glanced at the woman—unsure of who she was, and why she was there. “He didn’t say you were going to bring someone with you.”

Haven put out a hand to shake, and the woman offered hers as well.

“Nice to meet you,” she said, “I’m Siena. You’re Andino’s wife?”

John stiffened.

Haven didn’t miss it, and all she could do was give a bitter laugh and a wave of her hand in response. “No, see, I’m not appropriate enough to be a wife, Siena. I’m just … something.”

“Ouch,” Siena murmured.

Haven smirked a bit. “It’s a work in progress. Come in.”

Yeah, a work in progress.

That seemed like a good way to describe this whole mess.

SEVENTEEN

Andino listened to the quiet murmurings downstairs, but couldn’t quite make out what was being said. He figured John had finally shown up—if his cousin stopped to converse with Haven for even a couple of seconds, then that was a win for Andino in more ways than one. Sure, Andino needed to keep Haven’s presence in his life quiet for now, but that only applied to a select few people. John was not one of them.

It was good for John to see Haven, too, especially after his cousin had thrown the woman in his face as a reason why Andino might have sold him out to their family. Keep the attention off himself, and on John instead, so to speak. Well, if she was here, and John could see her, then what was Andino hiding?

If his cousin was actually slipping into another manic phase of his bipolar cycles, then Andino needed to tread carefully. Measure his words, and his actions when it came to John. He couldn’t even appear to be challenging John, or attempting to cause him harm—even if none of those things were the case.

John’s mind would just … see it that way.

Make it happen, even.

And once Andino got this sorted with his cousin today—or tried, depending on John’s mood—then he would deal with the very angry woman downstairs. That was, if Haven even decided to stick around long enough to chat.

One thing at a time, Andino.