Page 37 of Vow

The men of the hour—Andino was sure they felt they were the men of the hour, anyway—waited at the table in the middle of the main floor. Both were standing, and chatting quietly with one another although they silenced the moment Dante and Andino came inside the place.

Kev and Darren Calabrese.

They weren’t the only ones there, of course. Dante had several men posted outside, and one inside who had entered before them. Muscle, and nothing more. Or that’s how his uncle put it. Someone to watch their backs because one couldn’t trust the fucking Calabrese brothers with an inch when they were sure to take a mile when a man wasn’t looking.

For the Calabrese side, it looked as though Kev and Darren had followed the same line of thought by only having a few of their men there to keep an eye on things. Enforcers that Andino recognized from their organization.

Neither Dante and Andino, nor the Calabrese brothers had invited anyone with any real pull to the meeting between their families—no one who could speak up and use their voice to cause trouble. Just the bosses, their underbosses, and that was it.

Andino wished he could say that he was surprised the Calabrese finally agreed to a meeting and were entirely willing to allow Dante almost all the say in how the meeting went down, but he couldn’t. Again, the Calabrese were fucking predictable. They’d been working for a long time—long before John killed their boss—to get something from the Marcello family be it power, or standing through their name.

It was who they were.

It was what they did.

Kev had taken over the Calabrese faction after his father was killed. It was almost amusing how the man was quick to slither into his father’s seat like the man had never been sitting there to begin with. But what could one really expect with this bunch?

Closed mouths didn’t get fed.

Wasted time was gone forever.

It wasn’t as much the men that surprised Andino but the quiet woman sitting at the table next to where her brothers stood.

Siena.

It had been a long while since Andino had seen the woman. Ever since her brothers came to John’s house that night, and demanded she be returned. Andino had to take Siena in a second time just to make sure he was seeing the same woman because … here, like this … she didn’t seem like the same woman at all.

Downcast eyes.

Quiet.

Hunched shoulders.

Perfectly made up in her dress, hair, and makeup.

Oh, sure, the woman was beautiful. He was sure that was the very thing that his cousin had first noticed about Siena. But quiet, meek, and submissive? Andino didn’t think those sorts of things would interest John at all.

Since he knew Siena had been quiet since that night she was returned to her family, he was starting to wonder if that wasn’t by her choice.

Andino didn’t get the chance to think on it for long. Dante moved forward, and Andino went with his uncle silently. Kev was the first one to stick his hand out to reach for Dante’s, and shake. The boss always went first. Andino couldn’t help but pass the two bosses a look when they shook hands—he couldn’t hide the disgust that slammed through him at the simple action of two men shaking hands.

Why?

Simple.

Kev Calabrese was nowhere near the man Dante Marcello was, and he would never be. That was just fucking fact. There was no way a Calabrese man could have even a fraction of the honor in his pinky that a Marcello man radiated constantly. They were two entirely different breeds of men.

There was a long-standing, unspoken rule in Cosa Nostra that when two or more bosses were in the room, they became equals in a sense. That way, the rest of the men who were watching didn’t feel like they had a reason to cause trouble.

The problem with that for Andino was the fact no, he didn’t think a boss who was clearly above another and had been for years should lower his fucking standards for someone else. And he did not plan on being one of those bosses when his time did come.

“Andino,” Kev greeted him, letting go of Dante’s hand and looking like he might try to shake Andino’s. “The underboss position suits you, old friend.”

Friend.

Right.

Andino almost fucking scoffed.