Waste of Worth (DeLuca Duet Book 1)

by Bethany-Kris

  To Ben, it would be like the previous week and the beating had never happened.

  That’s how it always worked.

  “A bit late, aren’t you, Dino?”

  Dino gave Walter Artino a shrug as he sat down beside the Capo. Fact was, Walter was a bastard who’d married into the Outfit and got his hooks into the DeLuca side of the family through Ben’s wife’s sister. But because Walter was as greedy as the rest of the men in the Outfit, and didn’t mind playing dirty every once in a while to get what he wanted, he got along just fine with Ben.

  That meant Dino didn’t trust the fool with an inch.

  He was a fucking snake.

  Sometimes, Dino needed to work with Walter to get shit settled between their mutual crews and business, just to make sure things ran smoothly. It almost always ended with Walter running his mouth to Ben on just about anything.

  So yeah, if Dino could help it, he didn’t talk to the man.

  Thankfully, today looked to be one of those days when he wouldn’t have to offer much by way of conversation when the boss walked in followed by Ben, and then Riley Conti, the Outfit’s front boss.

  With the boss, underboss, and front boss in the room, the quiet chatter between the family Capos died down to nothing at all.

  Terrance—never the kind of boss to sit when the rest of his men were already down, too—didn’t bother to take a seat behind the large oak desk, opting to stand in front of it. Ben, as Terrance’s right-hand man, took a seat on the edge of the desk, while Riley pulled a chair off to the side, looking as though he was ready to be done with tribute before it even began.

  The three highest men in the Outfit couldn’t be more different on the outside as far as appearances and attitudes went, yet Dino knew, on the inside, they were all the same.

  One was a monster he’d been stuck under for over a decade.

  Another was a bastard with a violent streak.

  The other turned a cheek to the men he’d chosen to stand at his side.

  Dino didn’t think that, if given the chance, he could pick the lesser of evils between the three men.

  And that, he knew, would be the problem.

  That morning, when Theo thought it would be so easy to take out one man, forgot that the one man was a part of a three-legged stool that ran the operation they were expected to call family. Getting rid of one leg would only work if the other three went, too.

  Unfortunately, now that bug was in his ear.

  Dino couldn’t help but hear it buzzing around in there.

  “Any problems this last week?” Terrance asked his men.

  Dino kept his eyes on the boss, but he didn’t miss how Ben’s gaze slid to him for a split second. He kept quiet, because there was no problem.

  Not now.

  “Good,” Terrance said when no one spoke up with an issue to name. “Who has gifts for me?”

  Without question, every single man in the room dug into their pockets to pull out envelops of many different sizes, depending on the man holding them. Dino’s own envelop was significantly smaller than it would usually be, as instead of picking up racket payments the week before, he’d been in bed giving his cracked rib time to heal.

  And fucking Karen.

  That, too.

  He was left with the money Theo had been given and collected over the week. It would do, if only because it was enough to cover what the boss expected to be paid from Dino, but it wouldn’t go unnoticed that his tribute was significantly smaller than it usually was.

  Still, Dino handed the dirty cash over without a word when Ben came around to collect. His uncle took the package with a curious glint in his eyes, then moved his hand up and down as if to test the weight of the cash.

  “Low this week, Dino?” Ben asked.

  “Missing a few thousand,” Dino replied, uncaring of the eyes watching him around the room. “It’ll be in with the next one.”

  “Make sure of it.”

  With that, Ben moved onto Walter, taking the man’s offering that was even smaller than Dino’s had been. That was the problem with being a secondary Capo in a family faction like the DeLucas. Dino had the majority crew, and he brought in the most money. Walter was forced to take what was left, whether he liked it or not, on the off-chance that he might someday get the control Dino had.

  It was yet another reason why he didn’t trust or like his uncle’s little snake.

  Walter had every reason to fuck with Dino’s position in the Outfit. That was how the mob worked—men had to cut other men at the knees and then go for the throat if they wanted to move up in the family.

  It would not be Dino’s knees that got cut by Walter fucking Artino.

  The very second Terrance had the money in his hands, he dismissed the men without bothering to linger. Dino didn’t mind, and he supposed as the boss, Terrance had earned the right to sit on his ass and collect money.

  After all, it wasn’t easy to be at the top.

  “DeLuca, stay where you are,” Terrance called before Dino could even stand from his damn chair.

  Dino rested back in his seat, watching as the men filed past him one by one, their conversations starting back up again. A couple nodded to him—Tommas Rossi being one, the cousin of Damian Rossi, Theo’s friend—but Dino offered nothing back.

  He didn’t make friends with anyone.

  Ben had beaten that lesson into him long ago.

  It was the easiest rule to follow simply because Dino trusted fucking no one.

  “What is it, boss?” Dino asked once the men were all gone.

  Ben and Riley were busy counting money on the desk, separating the bills into three piles, their attention fully on their work.

  “Your brother,” Terrance said, crossing his arms.

  That stopped Ben’s work instantly.

  “What about Theo?” Ben asked.

  Terrance didn’t give his underboss a response, instead, keeping his gaze on Dino. “Have you taken to mentoring him, Dino?”

  Dino understood what his boss was asking him, and it was both important and significant. Especially for Theo. “Not in an official capacity.”

  “But you have.”

  “He’s the only one willing to learn, and he’s good at what he does. He’s taken on just about everything I’ve thrown at him, and while he mouths about it, he likes it. He’s on the up.”

  “Good,” Terrance murmured. “Should you decide to take his mentoring into a more official capacity, I’d be willing to give him the title to go along with his button, as soon as you said he was ready for it.”

  A Capo, he meant.

  Terrance was basically saying he was willing to give Theo his title of Capo to go along with his spot in the Outfit, as long as Dino thought his brother was capable of handling the responsibility that went along with it.

  Theo was ready.

  Of that, Dino was absolutely sure.

  He’d go through the ropes and the rules, though, to make sure his brother got his fucking title the right way so that nobody could take him from him.

  Ben also seemed to pick up on the hidden message in the conversation, and he didn’t look particularly pleased about it. “Theo is still young—he’s not ready for that sort of title, Terrance.”

  “And how would you know that?”

  “Pardon?”

  Terrance gave Ben a look. “How would you know that Theo isn’t ready? You don’t have him under your guidance, not in the same way Dino does.”

  Ben’s sharp gaze turned on Dino, and for a split second, he was sure he saw a warning flashing in his uncle’s eyes. For what reason, he couldn’t say.

  Why would Ben want to keep Theo from getting his status in the family?

  It would do him no good, and certainly not if he wanted the brothers to move higher in the Outfit as he always claimed he did.

  “He’s only—”

  “Let Dino decide if Theo’s age is a problem to his capabilities or lack thereof,” Terrance interrupted Ben without as muc
h as a blink of an eye. Then, to Dino, he said, “Mentor him under an official capacity, make it known, and see how he does with that sort of pressure. You could use a secondary Capo to run your side of the DeLuca family—your brother is a good pick.”

  “He is,” Dino agreed.

  Clearly, Ben did not like that idea, but he was wisely choosing to stay quiet for the moment. Dino was thankful, if only because it allowed him to agree with his boss without disagreeing with his uncle.

  He was not up for another fight with Ben.

  Or one of the bastard’s lessons.

  Not when he was still healing from the last one.

  “You can go,” Terrance said.

  Dino wasn’t ready to go, yet.

  Something else came to the forefront of his mind, and while he knew better than to ask while his uncle was in the room, it wasn’t often that he was given time with the boss when other Capos were not around.

  “Question,” Dino said.

  Terrance’s brow lifted. “What is it?”

  “Damian Rossi is still the man you send around looking for shit when you don’t want people to know someone was around, right?”

  The boss didn’t respond. Dino didn’t really need him to. He knew what the answer would be.

  “Someone’s been in my offices,” Dino said, “and they were quiet about it.”

  His financial documents had been just one thing he noticed was missing. Since he noticed that, other things had also turned up missing as well.

  One thing could be dismissed.

  More was not a coincidence.

  Those didn’t exist in the mafia.

  Terrance stared hard at Dino, an unflinching coldness gleaming in his eyes. “Are you suggesting I had Damian Rossi snooping through your business, Dino?”

  “A while back, you sent him into my warehouse where I hold the fights, wanting to know if I was paying dues on the place. It’s not a stretch if you think I’m trying to hide money from you.”

  “I don’t think that.”

  Terrance had offered the statement so frankly that Dino didn’t have a reason not to believe his boss. However, it did leave him feeling more uneasy about the whole situation. At least Terrance would have a valid reason, though that didn’t mean Dino would like it any better if it was his boss taking his documents.

  It seemed that it wasn’t his boss, though.

  That left him with very few options as to who it could be.

  One of those people happened to be staring him right in the face, unbothered and calm as he always was, even when he was the one holding a gun to a man’s head. Yet, Dino couldn’t ask Ben if he was the one snooping and taking things because he didn’t have any proof to be throwing out accusations like that.

  Those documents could very well be the proverbial gun to Dino’s head.

  ‘Why’ was the better question.

  Why would Ben want them?

  What good would it do for him to have them?

  Dino was going to have to figure that out, and soon.

  “I can’t just take time off whenever I feel like it,” Karen argued.

  Dino chuckled, amused at how she tried to sound serious, but the excitement was still ringing through her tone as clear as a bright, sunny day. “Do you want me to pull the boss card, then?”

  “The what card?”

  “The boss card. I’m the boss. It’s my business. I can give whoever I want as much time off as I want, whenever the fuck I want. And why can I do that?”

  Karen grumbled under her breath on the other end of the call.

  “I couldn’t hear that very well,” Dino said.

  “Because you’re the boss,” Karen muttered.

  Knowing her, he could practically see her rolling her eyes at his teasing.

  It felt good to do that, as simple of an action as it seemed. Most people had no problem lightening up with people and making jokes. It was safe to say that Dino was not most people and things like teasing didn’t come easy to him.

  Unless it was with Karen.

  Things with her always seemed almost easy.

  Dino chose not to look too far into it.

  “The boss card has been pulled,” Dino said gruffly, wanting to get out of his thoughts before they became a bottomless pit he couldn’t crawl out of. “I will be there after supper to pick you up, make sure your shit is waiting by the door that you want to bring, and no arguments. Think of it as a vacation.”

  “Can I take pictures on this vacation?” Karen asked slyly.

  Always the photographer.

  Dino smiled to himself. “I hoped you would, actually.”

  “Okay.”

  His laughter echoed in the office long after Karen had hung up the call with a rushed ‘gotta go pack.’ He should have just told her that her love of photography was on the table from the beginning, where the weekend away was concerned. He doubted that she would have argued with him at all about it then.

  Still, his chuckles continued as he leaned back in his chair and scrubbed a hand over his face. It was only when a throat cleared at the door did Dino’s amusement fade and he was brought back to the present with a bang.

  Standing with his arms crossed and a curious expression was Theo.

  Not far behind his younger brother, Dino could see another guy. He was younger than Theo, and unfortunately, not someone Dino particularly liked or trusted.

  Dean Artino—Walter Artino’s son.

  They were all a bunch of snakes slithering in the same pit together.

  Ben had always liked to press upon Dino how he shouldn’t play with the snakes in other peoples’ families as he’d grown up, but Ben never stopped to look at the snakes within his own grass.

  “What?” Dino asked sharply.

  Theo shrugged like nothing was amiss. “You seem happy.”

  “That’s a problem? I can’t be happy?”

  He knew damn well that he sounded harsh, and probably a little deflective. Dino didn’t really have a choice but to do what he had to in order to keep people the hell out of his business at whatever cost.

  Even Theo.

  Especially Theo.

  Dino didn’t want his brother more mixed up in his mess than he had to be.

  Theo was already moving on to another topic at hand, waving at the young man behind him. “Artino sent his kid over for you to look after for the day.”

  Dino passed Dean a look, and then went right back to his brother. “You can’t do it?”

  “Other shit—Ben, you know,” Theo offered, saying nothing more.

  Well, Dino supposed he wouldn’t be getting out of the club as soon as he wanted, but he could still make it to Karen’s place in lots of time like he promised. That didn’t mean he was particularly happy about having to watch the Artino kid.

  Besides, watch was only a euphemism for teach.

  Apparently, Walter wanted his son in the Outfit, but he wasn’t all that interested in making sure the kid understood exactly what that meant.

  No, that job had suddenly fallen to Dino.

  Too close, he thought, taking in Dean’s disinterested expression.

  He hated how it felt like Ben was getting too close to him in certain ways again, like planting someone at his side, perhaps because Theo was not good enough anymore for Ben’s plans.

  Especially considering Theo was Dino’s understudy.

  All that work Ben had put into separating the brother’s was torn to shreds by one simple demand from the boss shoving them back together.

  Of course, that didn’t mean Dino and Theo had to like it.

  “We done, or what?” Theo asked.

  Sometimes, his attitude burned like acid.

  Dino didn’t really have to ask why, though. “Yeah—get out.”

  Theo left, but unfortunately, the snake stayed behind.

  “Stop rushing me,” Karen said, giving Dino a half-hearted glare over her shoulder. “It takes a while to get all of this packed up properly.”

  “I
should have made rules about this.”

  “Do tell, Dino. What kind of rules exactly?”

  Dino prided himself on the fact he wasn’t a particularly stupid man. Sometimes his actions didn’t always reflect that, but this time, he knew better. He was not about to take the bait Karen just offered and jump into an argument with her.

  Not today.

  It was supposed to be a good day.

  “Do you need all of that equipment?” Dino carefully asked, waving at the bags Karen had set out for him to take to her car.

  Karen’s gaze flicked between Dino and the bags. “You said I was going to take pictures. I need my stuff, Dino.”

  “Yes, but all of it?”

  Because it looked like she was bringing her whole damn studio setup.

  “Well, probably not all of it,” Karen admitted. “But you didn’t say where we were going to, or what we would be doing there, so I have to be prepared.”

  “Because I’m trying to make it a surprise, sweetheart.”

  Karen smiled, her brown eyes twinkling with amusement.

  That was really all Dino hoped to achieve by doing this for her—a smile, her happiness, and time away from the bustle of a city that seemed to be swallowing him whole every other day. Karen wanted to do normal things, like go out to dinner or take a weekend trip away. Dino had woken up that Saturday with a sudden need pressing down on his shoulders like it was the weight of the world; he wanted to do normal for her.

  Even if it was only a weekend outside of the city in a small cabin on a lake.

  It was still something.

  “I don’t think you’ll need all of it,” Dino said, “but maybe half of it won’t hurt.”

  Karen seemed to accept that answer easily enough, and quickly went about picking through her pile of photography equipment to decide what was going, and what stayed behind. She did it carefully, weighing the pros and cons of leaving certain lenses behind, never mind picking between three cameras. Eventually, she narrowed it down to one camera, and two bags.

  Dino was grateful.

  She had been so involved in her work at his restaurant that she hadn’t had time to indulge her love of photography as often as she used to. Dino knew that she was thankful for the job and money, because now bills and food were the last thing she had to worry about at the end of the month. He still didn’t have any doubt that if offered the chance to do what she loved, Karen would take it in a heartbeat.