Page 43 of Vow

Pink’s brow furrowed, and he glanced away. “You want me to watch Siena Calabrese.”

“That’s what I said.”

“Not your wife-to-be?”

Andino kept his face passive, and unreadable. “No, only Siena.”

“All right.”

Pink still sounded confused, but like the good made man he was, the enforcer didn’t ask questions. He knew better than to demand details when Andino gave him a job. He was simply to do it, do it well, and nothing more.

“Start tomorrow,” Andino said.

Pink nodded. “You got it. Reports daily?”

“Until I say otherwise, yes.”

With that conversation done, and his plans moving forward, Andino was satisfied. He dismissed Pink before heading back inside the mansion. By the time he slipped back into the dining room where his family was still debating the Calabrese and the deal like it mattered, no one seemed to notice he had even left.

Or so he thought.

“Where did you go?” his father asked next to him.

Why was Gio so fucking observant?

“Stepped out for a breather,” Andino said.

It wasn’t a complete lie.

His father didn’t question it or push, but then again, the conversation at the table took a lot of their attention, anyway.

“This is just another way for them to get inside our family in some way,” Lucian said.

At the head of the table, Dante gave his brother a pensive look. “It’s a woman, Lucian. We’re not inviting the men to dinner, or doing business with them.”

“Yet, Dante. We’re not doing that yet.”

“He has a point,” Antony murmured from the other end of the table. “There is a reason why I kept our family so guarded and closed off from the Calabrese faction. They have always—always—wanted a piece of our business. They have never once stopped trying to get into our ranks in someway. I don’t like that … essentially … you’ve given them an opening.”

Dante opened his mouth to say something, but Antony was quick to raise his hand. It never failed to amuse Andino how even at his grandfather’s age, and the fact he had stepped down from being the boss decades ago, when Antony spoke, he still headed the room. People gave him the chance to speak, and allowed him to take the floor without issue.

“I know you don’t see it as an opening, son,” Antony said, his gravelly voice dipping in tone. “But you don’t have to see it as one. They do. And that emboldens them, and gives them the permission they think they need to … well, behave like the snakes we all know them to be.”

“What is more important?” Dante was quick to ask. “Keeping the Calabrese far away from the Marcellos, or continuing to maintain peace in this city between all of the organizations? Go on and tell me. I’ll wait. We have time.”

Antony sighed.

Lucian scowled.

Dante only nodded. “Exactly. I am not giving them an opening. I am offering to make peace with them in this way. I know that it seems like an opening to them, but that doesn’t mean it actually is. Nothing will change.”

“Except Andino will marry one of them,” his mother spoke up.

That wasn’t like Kim.

She didn’t even try to hide the contempt in her voice.

Dante passed Kim a look. “And your son agreed this was the best course of action. It also helps his standing considering he does need a wife when he finally takes my seat as the boss.”