Page 69 of Duty

“They’ve said that about me for my whole life,” Cross barked, throwing his arms wide. “I am still here. Somebody better make sure what happened yesterday doesn’t ever happen again, or none of you will like what I do.”

Andino frowned. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Good.”

Cross turned to leave.

Andino figured he owed the man some kind of warning. “Next time, don’t rush my office without knocking first. I was kind enough to stop Snaps today from reacting how he’s been trained—I will not be kind again.”

The man in the doorway nodded, but he was quick to leave after that. Andino didn’t really blame him.

It didn’t matter.

He had bigger problems.

“Pink!”

The enforcer from earlier popped his head in the office doorway thirty seconds after Cross had vacated, and gave Andino a cocked brow. “Yeah, boss?”

“Find out who the fuck was involved with confronting Cross Donati today, and let me know if even one of them was a man of mine.”

Pink cleared his throat. “I can do that.”

“Hurry it up—I’ve got business to handle.”

The enforcer disappeared, and Andino glared at the wall as he tried to relax in his chair. It didn’t work; he ended up folding his arms over his chest, and trying to ignore the building headache starting to throb in the base of his skull. He needed to keep Marcello men away from Cross Donati, at least until those guns got down to the Gulf, and also, keep Cross far away from the boss …

There was no way in hell Andino was going to let any of his guys go off half-cocked just because someone else was in a bad mood, and ruin the shit he was doing—they were not going to cause him those kinds of issues.

Not now.

Not ever.

Fuck what Dante thought.

• • •

“Nick,” Andino said, letting the bat in his hand swing back and forth like a pendulum. The enforcer’s gaze didn’t want to move away from the bat for even a second—smart man, really. “Let’s go over this again. What did you do, and why was it wrong?”

The enforcer swallowed hard, saying, “I d-don’t know.”

Andino sighed. “Wrong answer. Try again.”

“Cross. Cross Donati.”

“Getting warmer.”

Nick glanced away from the bat for a split second. “I just thought—he went after the boss, Andino. We were supposed to let that go unanswered?”

Andino tipped his head to the side, and pretended like he was actually considering the man’s words. “No, but you do come to me before you do something fucking stupid.”

The man blinked.

Andino smiled.

“See, you’re setting a dangerous precedent for me,” Andino murmured, crouching down so he was eye-level with the man tied to the chair in a warehouse where no one was going to hear the guy screaming once this really got started. “People already think I’m the fucking easy one, Nick. I won’t push back—I follow the rules. See the problem? You didn’t even think to come to me first, and ask if you could go after Cross.”

“But … but—”