Page 38 of Vow

He did manage to keep his hands firmly tucked inside his pockets which was enough of a hint for Kev to not try and shake his hand. Thankfully. Dante didn’t miss Andino’s sneaky move if the look his uncle passed him from the side was any indication, but he didn’t say anything as the meeting was moving forward, and he had more important things to deal with at the moment.

Small blessings.

The last thing Andino wanted was to sit down and make nice with these fucking fools. Hate was a strong word to use—he tried not to unless it was absolutely needed, but damn him if it didn’t fit for the Calabrese.

He hated them.

“Let’s get this started, yes?” Kev asked, gesturing at the table and the waiting chairs. “The sooner we get this finished, the sooner we can get back to the things we all want to be doing.”

“I agree,” Dante murmured.

Andino allowed his uncle to choose a seat at the table first, and then Andino took the one next to his uncle. It was only once he had sat down that Siena finally lifted her head. He didn’t miss the way her gaze drifted to him, but just as quickly, dropped to stare at her hands resting on the table.

“Let’s get right to the point, shall we?” Dante asked, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms over his chest. “The violence needs to stop between our respective organizations before it goes too far, and we both lose more than we can afford to.”

Kev arched a single brow as he stared hard at Dante. “A little late for that, isn’t it, Marcello? Your nephew took our boss—our father. I like to think that he was someone we couldn’t afford to lose, and yet, here we are.”

Andino didn’t miss the scowl that drifted over Siena’s mouth, but just as quickly, she hid it by glancing away from the table altogether.

Yeah, Matteo Calabrese was really a loss.

Fucking fools.

“Did we not offer to make peace somehow after that event?” Dante asked. “Did I not apologize for the misstep?”

Darren’s gaze blazed from where he sat next to his brother. “You call killing our father a misstep?”

Dante barely glanced at the man. “Are you willing to act as though neither of you had any hand in attempting to manipulate John and his mental state into a worse place for your own gain, then? I mean, if you’re going to play the saints, you should at least make sure you’re saintly, Darren.”

Silence covered the table, and the men stiffened a little more in their seats. They were now balancing on a very delicate line, Andino thought. One that could quickly turn from calm voices and a reasonable conversation to shouts and promises of more violence. Andino wouldn’t mind that as much, but it was not what Dante had come here to do.

“It seems to me,” Dante said quietly, “that we have both found ourselves in a … difficult situation. One of us wants to be in the right while the other one simply wants all this to stop. It’s not difficult for you to come over to the other side, Kev. As a man who has sat in my seat for far longer than you have been sitting in yours, take my advice when I tell you the thing you want to do is the right thing in stopping all of this by whatever means you can. Is going up against a family like the Marcellos really how you want to mark your tenure as the boss of your family?”

Kev blinked, and opened his mouth to speak.

Dante was quick to interject before he could with, “Is a war where we tear your organization apart, even if you do land a few shots on us, how you want to be remembered when I make sure your family buries you?”

Yes, talking.

Bosses had to talk.

But it was all in using the right words.

Kev’s jaw tightened as he stared at Dante for a good minute without saying anything. Siena stayed mostly unmoving at the end of the table while Darren, on the other hand, kept throwing glances at his brother like he was waiting for the man to stare back at him. Kev never once looked away from Dante.

“Well?” Dante asked.

“What is peace worth to you?” Kev’s question came quietly, and seemingly innocent. Andino knew it was anything but those things. “Your wife’s life, Dante? Your daughter’s? How about your brothers’, or their families’ lives? What is it worth?”

Dante had a weakness.

Only one.

Them.

The Marcellos.

“It is worth the time and effort it took me to come here today to have this meeting with you,” Dante replied calmly, “instead of blowing you to fucking bits when you walked out of your brownstone this morning, Kev. Shall we continue with a path that will end this feud between our families, or not?”