Page 56 of Duty

“Yeah, sure, but—”

“No buts. You work on you—make sure you are where you need to be in this organization, Andino. I’ll handle me.”

Andino scoffed, but clapped John hard on the shoulder as the two stood from the table. “Man, even when I am looking out for me, I am still going to be looking out for you. I don’t know how to do anything different. Not after everything. Speaking of looking out for you …”

John glanced at his cousin. “Pardon?”

“I ran in to somebody—looks like she listened to me.”

“What are you talking about?”

It was like this—Andino might have gotten refused something he wanted, and his life might have been on fucking display for the men of their family to pick apart, but he wasn’t going to let them pull all that same kind of shit on John.

John wasn’t Andino.

At least one of them would get what they wanted.

Tonight, anyway.

Andino pointed over Johnathan’s shoulder, and grinned slyly when his cousin spun around fast to see Siena Calabrese being escorted across the floor by an enforcer. John stiffened, and Andino chuckled.

“I figured that was fucked—finished,” John said faintly.

Andino arched a brow. “What—her? I ran in to her when I had to handle some business with the Calabrese brothers. I hate them fuckers.”

And he did.

So damn much.

But business was business, and he had to handle whatever business he had with other families and organizations even when it was the last thing he wanted to do. It had been just shit luck that Andino ran into Siena at one of her brothers’ restaurants, and that she dared to utter John’s name in his presence.

She worked at her brother’s place—ran numbers, apparently. Andino respected that, really. He got why she might have caught John’s eye being she was smart, pretty, and everything he probably wasn’t supposed to have.

Yeah, Andino got that.

Except his do-not-touch thing was a woman covered in tattoos, and on the other side of Brooklyn. Funny how that worked.

His first reaction when the girl asked about John had been to protect his cousin—every man in their family thought this female was some kind of bad news because of her last name, after all.

Andino wasn’t every man, though.

And apparently, this woman had caught his cousin’s attention for whatever reason. Andino didn’t see the issue in helping it along if there was no harm done on either side. Who fucking cared what the rest thought?

“Yeah, but no. I meant, I kind of ducked out on her,” John said quietly. “What did you do?”

Andino clapped his cousin’s shoulder. “She asked about you when I ran in to her. Kind of figured you must have made … an impression.”

John cleared his throat. “Not really supposed to be dating.”

“Who said anything about dating? Have some fun, John. That’s all.”

His cousin deserved it after everything. Lockup wasn’t easy on a man in that way. Pussy was not accessible. Fun was nonexistent.

John grinned when Siena came closer.

Andino figured he’d done his job.

For one of them, at least.