Page 68 of Duty

It also made another problem for Andino.

One he didn’t need.

“Something wrong?”

“No, just … get out of my face before Cross gets in here,” Andinio said, gesturing for the man to scram. The enforcer did what he was told without Andino needing to tell him again, thankfully. Small miracles. “And you be good, too.”

He’d offered that order to the dog resting beside his desk—Snaps peered up at his master with his big, dark eyes as to ask, Who, me?

“You heard what I said,” Andino muttered.

Snaps huffed, and rested his big head back down on his paws. Andino went back to the papers in front of him. He heard the rumbling, low growl that promised someone was going to get hurt echoing from Snaps long before Cross even came within five feet of Andino’s office. He reached down to trail his fingers through the dog’s fur to calm him, but went back to his work.

There wasn’t much else he could do.

“You couldn’t let me know they were planning something, asshole?”

Cross moves fast, I guess.

Andino found Cross standing in the doorway of his office looking—as the enforcer had stated—fit to kill someone. He didn’t come further, though, and Andino suspected that was because Snaps was still lying next to Andino’s desk but now he had his teeth bared in a silent snarl, and his dark eyes were pinned right on Cross.

“I beg your pardon?” Andino asked.

“Marcello enforcers. Following me. Cornering me in my territory. Ring any damn bells for you?”

“Not really,” Andino lied.

He hadn’t known that up until a few minutes ago, but hey. Cross should have known better than to mess with Dante Marcello, or the man’s daughter. Cross came from a neighboring New York mafia family—one similar to the Marcellos, but not as big.

Nonetheless, Cross was spoiled because he’d been the principe of his family, and never had very many rules keeping him in line when it came to his own father, another boss. He knew what the rules of this life were when it came to other families, and how to be-fucking-have. Andino couldn’t help the man if he didn’t want to follow the rules.

“But hey, Marcello men are vicious, Cross. You made a scene with Dante, and nobody wants to take that shit lying down. I’m surprised even one man in the family let you walk around this long without some kind of action, to be honest.”

“Fuck you all,” Cross muttered.

Andino shrugged, but yeah, that right there was about half of the reason Dante took issue with this man. “I’m just saying.”

“Listen, you make sure that shit never happens again.”

How is this my problem?

“I don’t even know what happened in the first place.”

“I told you,” Cross said. “A group of Marcello enforcers cornered me in my territory coming out of a meet with some of my guys. Mind you, this was after they tailed me for days. Add in the fact Calisto got a personal warning from Dante for me to stay the hell away from Catherine, and I don’t think those fools came up with this idea on their own. They weren’t the brightest fucking bunch.”

Andino let the man’s words sink in before he finally replied with, “I mean, I can’t really help you, Cross. None of us are supposed to be working with you, or any Donati man, for that matter. I’m not going to go around sending out warnings, and raising somebody’s alarm bells. I need my guns run.”

“Holy shit, your fucking guns.” Cross groaned, and shot Andino a glare that could have killed him on the spot had his eyes been made of fire. “I am going to get those guns down the Gulf regardless, you piece of shit. But I won’t be able to if one of those assholes puts me in a grave.”

Snaps growled.

Cross stiffened, and shot the dog a look.

“Hush, Snaps,” Andino said quietly, passing the pup a look to make sure he was going to stay in his spot for the time being. Sometimes, it was hard to say with Snaps. He was well-trained, but he also didn’t like a threat against Andino. Right now, he was absolutely taking Cross to be a threat. “Maybe you should heed the warnings, and stay away from my cousin.”

“Maybe you all should mind your business.”

“You have a death wish.”