Page 27 of Vow

“Pardon?”

“Handling it, Andino. Are you?”

“In the way I want to.”

For now.

It was the best he could offer.

• • •

Andino held up a single finger and crooked it inward as Pink—one of his most trusted enforcers—darkened the doorway of his restaurant’s office. He continued his conversation on the phone even as the enforcer stepped into the office, and closed the door behind him.

The man on the phone continued talking about numbers, offers, and price points. What he should do, and how he should do it.

“Listen, this is what I want,” Andino said. “That’s the offer I am willing to give on the place. They will jump at it.”

“Yes,” his lawyer—one of many, although this one was the one Andino used for the legal side of his businesses—said, “but you’re offering twenty thousand above the asking price. Why? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Because I want to win the bid.”

“It’s not worth the extra—”

“Did I say I cared about what it was worth?” Andino asked. “Because I am pretty sure that wasn’t in the fucking details, Marty. Also, how much do I pay you again? Because I am starting to think it’s too fucking much when you’re this mouthy, and combative.”

“Now, Andino—”

“I’m serious.”

“You pay me enough to tell you when you’re making a bad business decision.”

Okay, that was fair. And it was also fair to say that Andino was more the type of businessman to talk someone’s offer on a business, location, or building down, and not offer more. Which was probably why Marty was quick to point out how this wasn’t the greatest idea.

Nonetheless, it needed to happen.

“Make the offer,” Andino said, “at the price I stated. Got it?”

“Why do you want this place so badly?”

“Because I just do. And remember what else I told you, too.”

Marty sighed, clearly frustrated. “Yeah, yeah—keep the deal tied up in paperwork and legalities for as long as I possibly can. Although, that seems fucking pointless too if you’re so willing to offer more than the asking price because you want the business this badly.”

He didn’t want the business he was trying to buy at all. He just needed it not to sell to someone else. So were his ways.

Andino didn’t intend to explain that to anyone. He never explained his motives before, and he wasn’t going to start now for a fucking lawyer on his payroll.

“Just do what I fucking said,” Andino snapped. “I have better things to do today than sit here and have a verbal sparring match with you. I pay you to do what I want, and not the other way around. Make sure to let me know as soon as the offer is accepted, too. Don’t fuck around with me, Marty. You won’t like what happens, I assure you.”

There, his patience was gone.

Well, fuck it. At least he tried. That counted for something, right?

Andino hung up the phone with the lawyer without a goodbye. It was only then that Pink finally looked at his boss, and smiled.

“Rough day?” the enforcer asked.

Andino scowled. “Something like that. People regularly testing my fucking patience.”