Before Read online

  Everything changed for Lev just like that. Nothing would be the same now.

  He was fine with that.

  Eight

  ONE DAY turned into two and it felt like Lev hadn’t even blinked before it happened. He quickly realized that when it came to babies, time was irrelevant. It all bled together. From one bottle to the next—the last dirty diaper to the subsequent fifteen that followed. Not that he complained; the only person his daughter could currently count on to love and take care of her the way she needed and deserved was him, after all.

  He planned to do the job well.

  Perfectly, in fact.

  Whatever she needed.

  It was also why he didn’t complain when the social worker promised—and did—to show up at his apartment twice a day until the DNA results were back in. That first check-in hadn’t gone spectacularly well. Mostly because the woman found a hundred different things wrong with his apartment, starting with the fact it was only a one-bedroom and she didn’t think it was appropriate for Arely to sleep in the same room as her father.

  A man.

  Lev wanted to rage.

  Her suggestion was gross.

  And yet, he knew that wouldn’t do him any fucking good. So he shut his mouth, forced a smile on his face, and lied his ass off. As far as she thought, he would be moving into a larger apartment in a better neighborhood, closer to his work.

  All lies.

  Sort of.

  But whatever.

  His kid was with him.

  “Babababa!”

  From his position behind the small kitchen counter, Lev had a full view into the living room where Arely currently played in the Pack ‘N Play that also acted as her bed for the moment. He watched his happy baby girl throw the handful of colorful blocks onto the brown carpet that had seen far better days. It wasn’t like moving would be a bad thing—at least then he wouldn’t feel like his kid was just rolling in irremovable dirt every time he put her on the floor.

  The past two days hadn’t been easy. She cried to communicate. He didn’t understand what any of those cries meant, but he was learning one at a time.

  Oh, and what was sleep?

  Those two teeth? They were turning into four—she had more coming on the top, and it made nighttime particularly long and hard. He had to quickly learn how to change a diaper, something he’d never done before, and make bottles out of powder and water he boiled to make sure it was clean and without contaminants.

  Like fuck was his daughter drinking from the tap. Especially not the taps in this goddamn shithole.

  All the while, Lev still had to handle the demands of the social worker—including finding a pediatrician, proof of his employment, the new apartment, and any childcare. She said he would have ample opportunity to do all of those things and that he shouldn’t worry about doing it as quickly as he could, but it didn’t feel that way to him.

  He saw her judgment at the state of his place and when he explained his job, not to mention his income. He wasn’t stupid enough to think the social worker thought he was in any way capable of taking care of a baby, but he would be.

  He had to be.

  It certainly helped that the courts favored biological parents having custody of their children if there wasn’t a reason for them not to ... and so far, Lev was proving to be capable. At the very least.

  “Brrrrrbrrrbrrr,” Arely babbled from the living room. Followed by more blocks dropping on the floor and her loud laughter. Then, “Babababa!”

  Along with the Pack ‘N Play, a handful of age-appropriate toys, and enough clothes to do the baby for a week, she didn’t have much else. The diaper bag that came with her held a single can of powder formula that was already half gone and diapers that would be used up by that evening, likely.

  He needed to buy more.

  She needed a lot more.

  Right then, however, he was trying to deal with yet another one of his problems. His work, that was.

  “Nickie here,” came the voice through the speaker pressed to Lev’s ear.

  He took a second, dragged in a breath for yet another battle he was sure to face with this phone call. Considering the way his boss acted the night before when he called in, without much of an explanation as to why to be fair, he didn’t expect this time to go much better. Although now, he was willing to at least tell Nickie why he needed one more day before he could get back to work at the bar.

  “Hey, Nickie,” Lev said. “It’s Lev. I’m calling in again tonight, but I was hoping if it was early, you would be able to get someone to cover my shift at the bar. I’ll be back in tomorrow night; I just need tonight to get some shit in order that I’m trying to handle. I know—”

  And that was all he got out.

  “That’s twice—two times too many. Don’t bother coming in at all.”

  Lev blinked, unsure he had even heard his boss correctly. “What?”

  “You heard what I said. You’re a decent guy, and I appreciate that, but I don’t have time to chase your ass about coming into work. Nor do I give a fuck when I’ve got a handful of resumes on my desk on any given day to replace you with. You don’t want to come into work? Fine. Someone else will. Don’t bother coming in at all. Not tomorrow. Or anytime. You got me?”

  “I’ve kind of got a situation going on here, man.”

  And now more than ever, he needed a fucking job. Regardless of how much said job paid, he just needed one to satisfy the damn social worker.

  “Oh, really?” Nickie asked, not sounding at all interested.

  “Yeah, just found out I have a—”

  Kid, he was about to say.

  Nickie didn’t give him the chance. “Couldn’t give a single fuck, Lev.”

  Click.

  It took him ten entire seconds to realize the asshole had hung up the phone on him. In that time, Arely had also decided to start screaming her little lungs out because she had run out of blocks to throw out of her Pack ‘N Play. He couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry himself because in the next breath, a knock sounded on his apartment door.

  “Give Daddy one second,” he called to the crying baby. Then, to himself, he muttered, “Swear to God if it’s that bitch upstairs again ...”

  She spent the entire evening before beating her broom on the floor because Arely wasn’t quiet enough for her liking. The cunt.

  He didn’t use that word lightly.

  It’s what she was, though.

  “Bababababa!”

  Arely’s angry babbling mixed in with her cries which did nothing to help Lev’s already frayed nerves when he yanked open the apartment door with a sharp, “What?”

  The teenager waiting on the other side with a scowl was not who he expected to be standing there. Nessa, the troubled granddaughter of the building manager, pursed her lips and folded her arms over her chest as she stared up at him. Bigger men than this teenage girl had cowered at the sight of Lev looming over them.

  She just glared.

  “That’s not how you greet somebody,” she told him. “Could at least be polite.”

  Lev drew in a deep breath, his patience already long fucking gone. “And what would you know about being polite, huh? You spend your days skipping school and calling your grandmother a bitch. Hypocrisy isn’t a good look on anybody, kid.”

  Nessa sniffed and then glanced away down the hall. “Yeah, well ...”

  The screeching from the baby inside the apartment picked up a notch, making Lev straighten a bit in the doorway and Nessa flinch.

  “Jesus—she’s got good lungs, doesn’t she?”

  “It only gets louder from here. Welcome to birth control. Best kind there is. Wanna babysit?”

  He was joking.

  Mostly.

  Lev didn’t think this teenager was in any way capable of taking care of a baby when she barely managed to make it day to day in her own circumstance. And yet, when that joke of an offer slipped past his lips, a spark of joy came to Nessa’s eyes when she met his star
e again.

  “Could I? I will, if you need somebody. I like kids. I looked after my little brother, Mikey—well, until they took him away from Mom.”

  Wait ...

  “You have a brother?”

  Her grandmother never mentioned another grandchild.

  She shrugged. “Yeah, he’ll be three next month. If I don’t get anymore write-ups, I can go to his birthday party to visit. Or that’s what the social worker told Nan. Oh, yeah ... that’s why I’m here.”

  Lev blinked.

  It felt like he was doing that a lot lately.

  Nessa continued like he wasn’t standing there staring at her stupidly. “Nan wanted me to let you know the apartment in Brooklyn came through—the landlord told her you could move in like Friday as long as you’ve got the deposit and first month’s rent.”

  Shit, that soon?

  He could do that in the physical sense. It wasn’t like he had that much shit in his one-bedroom apartment. If he could borrow a friend’s vehicle, he could have it all moved in a trip or two.

  It was the financial side of things that made him pause. In his head, he did the math. It added up to a lot more money than he had now considering how much he needed to pull out of his paltry savings to get what Arely needed over the coming days.

  The baby continued crying.

  Nessa tilted her body to the side and looked past him in the doorway. “You sure she’s okay?”

  “She’s mad. She threw out all her blocks. It’s a thing she does.”

  “Huh.”

  An idea had started to form in Lev’s head. He needed money, and fast. He also needed to pull everything together before the social worker decided his time had run out to do so. It wasn’t like he had very many people he could go to for help, but there was one man who had given him an offer he’d been willing to refuse, even if he did say he would think about it.

  Well, now he was really thinking about it.

  Andino Marcello, that was.

  If the guy could afford to pay Lev ten-k a month to be a bodyguard, then what else might he be able to help him with? Especially if he did want him as an employee.

  Time to find out.

  “Hey,” Lev said, gaining the teenager’s attention again, “is your grandmother busy? You wanna earn twenty bucks?”

  Nessa snapped the gum in her mouth. “Why?”

  “I do need someone to keep an eye on her tonight. If you’re capable, then cool. With supervision.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m not gonna hurt her or something.”

  “But you hurt yourself sometimes.”

  That quieted the girl.

  “I’m doing better.”

  “Are you?”

  With dark, honest eyes, she peered up at him still unafraid. “Trying to.”

  Good to know.

  And yet ... “Let’s go chat with your grandmother.”

  • • •

  “Let him in, Petey.”

  Andino hadn’t lied when he said finding his restaurant in Manhattan would be rather easy. All Lev did was make a call to a friend who knew somebody else that had the name of the business in question where the mafia Capo spent many of his days. Mind, it was made very clear to Lev that asking about the availability or current whereabouts of a man like Andino Marcello was a dangerous thing to do.

  Well, what choice did he have?

  Lev took the risk.

  The girl at the entrance podium gave him a look but pointed in the direction of a private dining room when he asked where he might find Andino, if the guy was around. She didn’t even say a word to him while she did it, either. He didn’t bother to appreciate the fine dining or the rich decor of the place as he headed for the section where he would find Andino. Tiled floors squeaked under the heels of his boots and the noise of the busy restaurant surrounded him but none of that really mattered.

  He was here for one thing.

  That was it.

  A six-foot wall of muscle met him at the doorway of the private dining section. He had to tip his head up to meet Lev’s gaze as he was taller than the man standing guard, but he had to give the guy credit. He didn’t look frightened of the larger man asking about his boss.

  “He did say let me in, right?” Lev asked when the guy didn’t move.

  “Did he?”

  “Could move you,” he returned, smirking a bit. “If that’s what you want. Let me know.”

  His amusement wasn’t shared.

  Clearly.

  Meathead—Petey, that was—grunted under his breath. “And who the fuck are you?”

  Lev didn’t mind educating him. It was a good lesson for everyone to learn.

  From within the dining section, a sigh echoed. “As fun as this pissing contest is, I have a busy day ahead of me, so ...”

  “You have dinner with your mother,” meathead muttered under his breath.

  “Heard that, Petey.”

  “Sorry, boss.”

  Just like that, Petey stepped to the side to let Lev pass. The second he was inside the private dining section, Andino had already stood from the table in the middle where he had what looked to be his lunch and work spread across the top. Between the steak, potatoes, and a half-eaten cheesecake rested open folders and scattered papers. He didn’t bother to clean up the mess as Lev approached.

  Nor did he offer his hand to shake.

  Or even a smile.

  “Lev,” Andino greeted. “I didn’t think I would be seeing you again so soon. Have you thought about my offer, then?”

  “I have.”

  “And?”

  He gestured to the seat at the table. “Can I?”

  “More power to you. The comfort of others isn’t usually my concern, but you’re welcome to it all the same.”

  Lev sat and so did Andino.

  “I have conditions,” he said after a beat of silence.

  Across the table, the man in a suit that seemed tailored to fit his form perfectly in every way arched a brow and chuckled. He didn’t look away from the watch on his wrist—a Rolex, Lev knew. The rather large face and emblem on the item gave the brand away easily enough. He bet that watch cost an easy few grand, not to mention the suit the man wore.

  “It’s not a ... democracy ... when you work for me,” Andino said, finally glancing up with a devilish grin. “You don’t get a vote or a say on very much. You get an order, and you follow it. That’s how it works.”

  “How often do you approach people to work with you—like you did for me, I mean? “

  Andino drew in a careful breath before replying calmly, “For me, not with. No one works with me. It’s not that kind of employment, Lev.”

  Right.

  He wouldn’t soon forget it.

  “My main question remains the same.”

  And unanswered, he added silently.

  Andino shook his head and lifted one shoulder to shrug. “Rarely. Associates usually come from the inside of my business, you understand? Someone vouched for by someone else. It’s what’s acceptable in this life of ours. The standard for made men. Not that I expect you to understand much about that. I’m not looking for someone like me, however. I’m not fond of that—I like to pick my men. Makes a difference.”

  “Does it?”

  “Yes, I tend to want to kill them less when I choose someone to be on my books.”

  Well, then ...

  Lev appreciated his honesty. At the same time, he still had conditions. He had to now. Things had changed since Andino approached him.

  “What does that mean?” Lev asked. “To be ... on the books.”

  “Paid,” Andino replied simply.

  “Legally?”

  A dark laugh answered him back.

  Lev figured that said everything.

  It was also problem number one. He figured before this conversation went any further with Andino, he needed to just lay his entire situation out on the table. That way, the man across from him knew where Lev stood, and they could either move for
ward or not.

  Pulling out his phone, Lev unlocked the device and turned the screen around for Andino to see the new picture that took up the entire background.

  Arely.

  And her big smile.

  “My daughter,” Lev said.

  It still wasn’t official.

  It didn’t matter to him.

  He knew.

  “I just got custody of her two days ago—cops showed up at my door. Guess her mom figured I couldn’t be a dad and didn’t think to tell me. Not sure what good it did. She didn’t want to be a mom either, apparently. So, to keep her, I need a few things. Like a stable job that pays the fucking bills but also isn’t going to get me thrown in jail.”

  Andino cleared his throat, his gaze never moving from the screen. “Can’t promise that. Nature of the business, you know?”

  “Not particularly.”

  “Yeah, well ... I can make it look legal. Cash can come from legal sources, if that’s what you’re asking from me. On paper, it’ll be legit.”

  “But—”

  Andino’s gaze slammed into his with a weight he wasn’t sure that he could carry. It silenced Lev instantly. “But it isn’t what’s on paper that counts. And a lot of good it’ll do for you to keep her if you end up in a grave somewhere because you’re working with me. Have you considered that? The only reason I offered you the job was because a guy got his brains blown out for being my enforcer.”

  Lev sucked in a deep breath.

  It didn’t steady him.

  “Maybe he didn’t do his job right, then.”

  “Perhaps,” Andino returned. “Matter of semantics and I don’t speak ill of the dead, you know?”

  Neither did Lev.

  Still ... “Keeping you alive keeps me alive here, right?”

  “And paid,” Andino murmured. “It’s a win-win, really. You can start next week if you want.” His stare drifted back to the phone that Lev had yet to lower from view. “Cute kid—are you gonna want weekends off?”

  “Just some heads up about hours, maybe. So I can work out—”

  “Childcare, yeah. Figured. You better be worth the effort here, Lev. I don’t usually bend to help someone else. Not my style. Never gets me very far.”

  Lev laughed under his breath. “Then why are you?”