Page 2 of Vow

Andino shrugged. “That’s February for you.”

He didn’t miss the look that passed between his father, and his other uncle, Lucian. Andino had been in a mood for days, and it wasn’t about to change anytime soon. He couldn’t fucking shake it, no matter how hard he tried. He was grateful that, for the most part, the men around him who knew him well chose not to ask.

That made shit easier.

On him, at least.

“Shall we get started?” Dante asked.

Andino nodded. “Yeah, let’s start.”

“We need to figure out a way to handle the Calabrese,” his uncle said. “We all need to come to some agreement that will clean up this mess—preferably in a peaceful manner.”

“Their violence is escalating,” Giovanni added.

“They’re directly targeting Capos, or their crews,” Lucian said.

Andino sighed, and scrubbed a hand down his face. They all offered this information as though he didn’t know it to begin with. Like he’d had his fucking head shoved under sand for the last while, and pretended that he didn’t know what was happening out on the streets.

He was the underboss.

He got the calls.

He handled the Capos.

“I know what’s going on,” Andino snapped. “And I’m aware that we need to figure something out to handle the fucking Calabrese.”

Dante shifted in his chair, and said, “Other people in this restaurant are not aware.” With that statement, his uncle gave a nod in Cross Donati’s direction, adding, “Or at least, he doesn’t know the latest details. He’s the boss of another organization in this city—this growing war between our family and the Calabrese could indirectly disrupt his business and organization.”

Shit.

Yeah.

Andino needed to get back on his game, and fast. “All attempts to reach out to the Calabrese, and settle this by less violent means has been shut down at every turn.”

“Then, what do they want?” Cross Donati asked.

Wasn’t it obvious?

“A problem.”

Dante chuckled dryly. “That, and to one-up the Marcellos. They’ve always had a hard nut for that, yeah?”

A quiet agreement passed over the men sitting at various tables. There were more Marcello men in the business than Donati men. It looked like Cross had only brought a select few to the meeting.

“Do you have an opinion?” Dante asked the man. “Anything you would like to add?”

Cross folded his arms over his chest, and relaxed in the chair. “Attention in this business is always a bad thing when it comes to officials, and I can’t say that I like how many times I’ve seen the New York crime families’ names on Breaking News banners lately.”

Andino cringed.

That was accurate.

“Us either,” Dante agreed.

“Continuing this feud with the Calabrese will only bring more attention our way,” Cross said. “And I say our way because all three of the New York families know that when one organization gets attention, the other two get the same gift just by definition of association. A lot has happened over the last year—none of us, or our organizations—can afford that kind of attention right now. We need to keep the officials out. At least, that’s my take.”

Dante didn’t disagree.