One Last Time: Andino + Haven - A Companion Read online

  ONE LAST TIME

  Andino + Haven: A Companion, Book 3

  For every reader that wanted to see these two lovers one last time …

  CONTENTS

  ONE LAST TIME

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  BIO

  OTHER BOOKS

  Copyright

  ONE

  “You’ve passed that same building four times now,” Alex said to Andino’s left in the backseat of the black Rolls-Royce.

  Here we go again, Andino thought.

  From the front of the car, where the man did his best work driving only, Nate muttered, “I was told to drive in circles, asshole.”

  “Does it have to be actual circles, though?”

  Good God.

  These men were going to have Andino on fucking nerve pills before the end of the year—he was sure of it.

  “He’s fine,” Andino said, joining the conversation to end the bickering between the enforcer and the man who now acted as his underboss. “Back to what you were doing—both of you.”

  Thankfully, the men did just that.

  Mostly.

  If he let them get started now, they wouldn’t shut up for the rest of the day. It was one of the things he missed most about having Pink—who had went over to John’s side of things as the man’s underboss a while back—work for him, if he were being honest. The man knew when to shut up and not engage. These two didn’t understand either of those things but especially not with one another.

  Andino figured the constant bumping of heads was probably a good sign the two liked each other. On another day, he might have even gotten a chuckle out of it just because. Not today, however. He was tired, annoyed, and wanted to be anywhere, doing anything other than what he currently was.

  Business was odd sometimes.

  La famiglia worked in funny ways.

  Like how right now, he was stuck in the back of a car waiting for a phone call to confirm a meeting that he hadn’t even wanted to have was good to go, and Andino’s driver could pull into the business just two blocks over where it was meant to happen. He would much rather be at home with his wife and three daughters, but after eight years of being the Marcello Don, he had come to learn bosses didn’t get days off in the mafia.

  Something had to happen.

  A boss was always needed.

  It didn’t help that the very last thing Andino liked to do on any given day was wake up earlier than he needed to just to travel into the city, and then drive around aimlessly while someone else decided whether or not to sit down with him. That wasn’t how this was supposed to work, and he especially hated it when someone wasted his motherfucking time.

  Yet, he was also slightly more forgiving than the boss that came before him, if only because he understood how life could get in the way of business at times. So, instead of immediately calling off the day and the meeting that should happen, he put his attention on his phone and texted back and forth with his wife while he waited.

  It was the best he could do.

  For now.

  The meeting at the club went fine, read his wife’s last text.

  Andino smiled to himself and replied back with a simple, Great, babe.

  He knew better than to ask or say anything more about her club. She’d taken possession of the business the year after they married. Haven essentially—with little fanfare—assured her husband that if he tried anything funny with this club like he did her first one, that she would quickly remove his testicles. He happened to like those right where they were. She was also a damn good business owner, and he understood she didn’t need him sticking his nose into her business anyway.

  So, he stayed far away.

  Happy wife, happy life.

  He had this shit on lock.

  Her next text came in just as quickly with a question: How’s your meeting going?

  He sighed, wondering how to reply to that. She never outright asked about his business, but she liked to be informed just enough to feel safe. Usually, he would indulge her because he didn’t have a reason not to. With this particular day, he didn’t think it was quite the same considering it seemed to be going to shit anyway. What did it matter if she knew that? It was just yet another thing for his wife to stress over.

  Completely unnecessary.

  Fine, he decided to reply.

  Really, his wife typed back, because your little dot on my app keeps circling the same block.

  Damn.

  Yeah, he’d forgotten about that. It was actually him who downloaded that app on his wife’s phone. He had the same one on his own, too. Their oldest daughter—Lynn—who was seven and had a cell phone with preprogrammed numbers that she could call also had one. His other two girls—Rose was six and Emily Cecelia had just turned four about two weeks prior—wore stylish watches that allowed their parents to check on their location using the same app. It wasn’t that he thought something might happen, but he would rather be prepared if it did.

  That’s all.

  Business as usual, he settled on typing back to Haven. He waited on a reply from her, but didn’t get anything right away.

  “Yeah, ciao, Alex here,” the man to Andino’s right said.

  For a moment, he lifted his attention away from his own phone. It allowed him to see the way Alex’s gaze narrowed as he listened to whatever was said on the other end of his call.

  “Really? No, that won’t be happening now. Let him know.”

  Without another word, his underboss hung up the phone and made a harsh noise before stuffing the device into his pocket.

  “What?” Andino asked.

  “Your potential associate—”

  “He’s not a potential associate.”

  Andino knew that already. Better everyone else did, too. He was simply indulging this bullshit.

  Alex cleared his throat, correcting himself with, “Right. Mr. Moshka sent someone in his place to do the meeting.”

  Yeah. No.

  Bosses didn’t meet with subordinates.

  “He’s not to get another chance at a meeting with me,” Andino said. “Make sure they all know it, Alex.”

  “Will do.”

  To his driver, Andino said, “Nate, take me home.”

  “Sure, boss.”

  TWO

  Haven pulled her large SUV into the drive of her mother-in-law’s suburban home just outside the city limits, and parked the vehicle. Looking over the front of the house, a smile curved her lips as she had no doubt her daughters were having the time of their life with their Nana Kim. The house was likely loud and lively at the moment. There was nothing Kim loved more than her grandchildren, truly.

  A lot of the time, Andino’s mother looked after the three girls when they were out of school, and Haven needed a sitter because of work conflicts. Not that she had much of a problem with that—being the owner of a business and the boss meant she could make whatever schedule she needed to suit her own needs, even though she tried not to take advantage of it.

  Today was one of those days that just couldn’t be helped. She needed to have a meeting at the club and more people tended to show up when it happened later in the afternoon once they had all gotten in a decent sleep after a late night. Kim had been quick to take the girls—with a smile and all.

  She never said no.

  Haven was lucky that way.

  The p
hone she’d tossed on the passenger seat after leaving the club flashed with an unanswered text that had come in while she was driving. Reaching over to grab her purse and the phone, she straightened in the seat and checked the phone.

  I’m heading home, Andino had wrote. See you there, babe. Ti amo.

  Haven smiled but didn’t bother to reply. She would see him soon enough—once she got all three of their daughters piled into the SUV and took off, that was. Despite the fact he’d sent the text almost a half an hour ago, she would still arrive home before he did, likely.

  City driving sucked.

  Bad.

  Shoving the phone into her purse, Haven exited the SUV and headed for the front stoop of the house. She didn’t bother to knock on her in-law’s door. The last time she did that—years ago—Kim made sure she understood just fine that they were welcome anytime, and the door was always unlocked. Haven still thought she should probably knock, but hey, it wasn’t her house.

  She hadn’t been wrong, either.

  The house was loud and lively. She barely caught sight of her youngest darting between the doorways in the entry hallway before the girl was out of sight completely. Following behind her was Kim, who laughed just as loud as the girls.

  Nothing unusual to see here.

  Then, when her oldest daughter came out of the living room with a tablet in hand, Lynn just happened to see her mom standing at the front door. Smiling wide, the girl—all of seven—reminded Haven so much of her younger self. Yet, the girl took a lot from her father, too. Like Andino’s dark hair, the shape of his lips, and even the color of his eyes.

  “Hey, Ma!” Lynn called excitedly.

  Haven barely managed to drop her purse before her kid had come down the hallway to greet her with arms thrown wide. She caught Lynn in a hug that she hoped voiced just how much she missed her oldest when she was away from her for a whole day. Before long, her other two girls came around the corner to say hello to their mom, too.

  Hugs and kisses galore.

  She loved all of it.

  Haven wore many hats—some days, she got to be just herself; a tattooed woman in her thirties who liked to keep crazy colors in her hair and ran a strip club in the evenings. Other times, she had to put all of that aside to be the woman that stood beside her crime boss husband. She was a friend, a daughter, and more.

  Her favorite hat to wear, however, was mom.

  “Missed you, Ma,” her youngest, Emily Cecelia, said in her little girl voice that had not entirely cleared of a childish babble. It always made her smile. “I wuv you.”

  Haven grinned. “I love you, too. Did you have fun with Nana?”

  “Well,” came a familiar voice from down the hall, “Giovanni just fell asleep upstairs about ten minutes before you came, if that tells you anything about how our day here went.”

  Laughing, Haven stood to greet her mother-in-law. She shared a hug with Kim while the girls continued to mill about around them. Rose, her middle child, didn’t let go of her legs, though.

  “They played him out, did they?” she asked.

  Kim shrugged. “Gio still thinks he can do all that he used to do—we don’t point out that he can’t, you know.”

  Ah.

  Yeah.

  “Thanks again for looking after them today—I know they’re a handful.”

  Kim shrugged and smiled fondly at her granddaughters who—without even needing to be told—were already pulling on their jackets and shoes. Or rather, Lynn was helping Emily, and Rose was putting her shoes on the wrong feet.

  Kids.

  It was a work in progress.

  Haven loved it, though.

  “Oh, I’ll never complain about getting them. Not after I spent years hounding Andino for grandbabies.”

  Yes, her greatest wish.

  Then, Kim gave Haven a look. She could tell her mother-in-law was carefully choosing her words when she asked, “Did you hear anything about your next round?”

  Just like that, Haven’s mood dipped a little. She was mindful not to show it. All of them were extra cautious not to put adult problems on her girls, but sometimes, they slipped up. Not lately, thankfully.

  “The office called today,” Haven replied. “We’ll be going in soon for it.”

  “Oh, that’s good, then. Is this the last one?”

  That made Haven sigh.

  “It is.”

  Their last round of IVF.

  Their last chance at one more baby.

  Before this, it had seemed like all Haven needed to do was jump in bed with Andino and somehow, they’d end up pregnant again. And then a couple of years passed after Emily Cecelia’s birth where nothing happened. They tried for a while on their own before going for a specialist consultation. On the surface, everything seemed normal, but for whatever reason, Haven’s ovaries simply decided they no longer wanted to drop eggs even though they produced them just fine. More than one option was offered—they tried every single one to no avail and with no baby yet.

  Here they were now.

  IVF.

  One last time.

  “Saying good luck doesn’t seem appropriate,” Kim murmured.

  Haven ran her palm over the dark curls atop her middle child’s head, and laughed under her breath. “You know what, it’s as good as anything, Kim.”

  “Well, good luck, then.”

  Yeah.

  They needed it.

  THREE

  Haven’s SUV was already parked in the driveway by the time Andino arrived home, but that wasn’t anything unusual. They could both be in the city at the same time, and somehow, his wife would always arrive home before him—and she normally grabbed the girls on the way by his parents’ place, too.

  “Want me to leave the Rolls in the driveway tonight?” Nate asked from the front.

  Andino sighed, considering it. Sometimes he had the enforcer keep the car parked at his home, and other times, he asked for it to go somewhere else. That way, less people knew he was at home and the hours he liked to keep.

  One couldn’t be too cautious.

  “Where’s your car?”

  “Well—”

  Andino chuckled. “Drive the Rolls home, but if you get it back here tomorrow with a fucking scratch, Nate, I swear to God …”

  “It’ll be in the driveway waiting for you tomorrow morning in perfect condition, boss.”

  Yeah, it better.

  He didn’t have to say it out loud.

  Just as Andino was about to exit the car, a call rang through to the Bluetooth.

  “It’s John,” Nate said, glancing in the rearview.

  “Put it through to my phone—don’t leave until I’m in the house.”

  “Got it.”

  Despite the fact that Andino frequently and severely missed Pink working for him—he thought he would never get an enforcer as good as that man—Nate wasn’t so bad. When it was just him and the guy, he was a lot more tolerable, too. That said good things for him even if Andino wasn’t willing to admit those things to the man.

  It was what it was.

  Andino didn’t plan to change.

  And … well, he never really told Pink he missed him although they crossed paths regularly given that the man acted as John’s underboss now. He didn’t think it needed to be explicitly said considering the fact that Pink had worked for Andino for well over a goddamn decade.

  Times changed.

  It always did.

  “John,” Andino greeted into his phone as he stepped out of the Rolls. The first thing that caught his attention was all of his girls’ toys scattered over the front lawn. Haven liked to let their daughters play out some of the excess energy from long drives before they went into the house, and he suspected that was the culprit for the mess. “What are you up to, cousin?”

  Home is where my heart is.

  That was the only thought running through Andino’s mind as he took his time to pick up a few toys and carrying them over to the cedar chest on the front porch whe
re they kept them stored. He had a lot of roles to play in his life, but his favorite ones revolved around this home and the people within it. Haven gave him everything, and he didn’t think he told her that nearly enough. He made a mental note to do it more often.

  “How’d that meeting go?” John asked.

  Andino laughed under his breath, replying, “It didn’t. Mr. Moshka sent some lower fuck in his place, and instead of calling me to say he didn’t want to attend personally, had the fuck call to say it would be him I was meeting with. I’m not playing those games.”

  “Someone calls in to speak with the boss—”

  “I better be speaking with a goddamn boss,” Andino grunted. “Exactly. Why is this so hard for people to understand?”

  “They’re not Cosa Nostra?”

  Well …

  “You have a point but that changes nothing for me.”

  “If we don’t have standards,” John murmured, “then we’ll have none, won’t we?”

  Basically.

  It was the only rule Andino cared to follow a lot of the time because as his uncle, Dante, liked to point out pretty regularly … he broke every single other one that was put in his path just because he could. Or he bent them far enough that they were no longer recognizable. Andino liked to think he made their famiglia better for it, too.

  Andino went back to the yard for another round of toys, noting that Nate had yet to back out and leave the driveway—as he had been told; the boss wasn’t inside the house yet. “I passed along the message that there wouldn’t be another chance at a meeting. I’m fine with that decision. I hate people who waste my time.”

  His greatest pet peeve.

  “Or you could pass the name and business venture along to Dante—get his opinion on the situation and if he thinks it might be worth making an exception,” John suggested. “It’s not a bad thing to get someone else’s opinion on these things sometimes.”

  “John—”

  “I’m just saying.”

  Andino sighed. “How about you handle your side of the city, and I will handle mine?”

  His cousin chuckled. “Fine.”

  He offered John that respect.