Page 35 of The Mobster's Mate

Quinten frowned. “There’s no—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Robbie said, flying past him. “Save it for dinner. Mrs. Burns!”

He disappeared, presumably to harangue Quinten’s housekeeper into feeding him immediately.

“We’re all screwed,” Dare muttered as he passed him.

Caden still looked shocked, like he had a million questions, but Quinten just sighed and gestured for him to go ahead of him. “There’s no point in keeping the boy waiting. He always gets what he wants.”

“Um, yeah. Okay.”

By the time dinner ended, Robbie and Caden appeared to be best friends. They were chatting nonstop about shows, books, and famous people on the internet that Quinten had never heard of.

He also realized that Caden was only a year older than his son, which made him feel gross until he reminded himself there was nothing between him and Caden. The jaguar turning to him for comfort was natural after what had happened. It didn’t mean anything more. The jealousy from before… He was sure that was just some misguided instincts.

Besides, a lot of the shifters in his life drew comfort from his touch. He might not be an alpha, but he was still an authority figure for their tight-knit group. They were all bonded in a way, even if it wasn’t quite like a pack.

After dinner, the two younger men had darted off together. It hadn’t taken Quinten long to find them though.

He was leaned against the doorway of his library, watching Robbie race around and pull out all of his favorite books, shoving them at Caden every time he passed him until Caden was holding a stack at least ten deep. Robbie was still going, cracking jokes and pulling Caden into his web. His son was a hundred times more personable than him, always smiling and laughing and making friends wherever he went.

He was glad they got along. It soothed something inside him that he hadn’t realized had been anxious. He was about to step in and join them, maybe give Caden a couple of his own favorites, when Dare stepped up next to him.

“Dominic’s on the phone.”

Quinten nodded and took a step back, giving one last look at the pair and meeting Caden’s eyes for a second before the jaguar smiled at him and turned back to Robbie.

As he made his way to his office, Quinten tried to decide what was in that smile. Maybe affection? No, it had been more than that. Caden had looked… happy but in a deeper way. Almost satisfied. That seemed strange. Why would he be satisfied by having dinner and getting books from Quinten’s son? As he entered his office, he shoved the silly thoughts away.

He took Dare’s phone from him, put it on speaker, and then set it on the desk between them. “What have you found out, Dom?”

The wolf sighed over the line. “Well, I know who he is, sort of.”

“What does that mean?” Quinten asked, exchanging a frustrated look with Dare.

“It means that Ash had to use some of his contacts, but we finally found him.”

“Okay, and who is he?”

“He’s just some soldier in the Borko family.”

“A soldier?” Quinten asked, brows furrowed.

He’d known it had to have been someone either not affiliated with the crime family or someone so low in the organization he’d never heard of them, but that still didn’t explain why someone with real responsibility in the organization would target him.

Or why they’d use Caden to do it.

It didn’t make any sense.

“What else have you found?”

“Well, word is he’s Miloš’s bastard from some mistress he had thirty years ago.”

“He’s Miloš’s son?” Dare asked, leaning closer to the phone.

“Apparently, and there’s also some whispers that he might be the one who killed the old man.” Dominic chuckled. “Well, people not saying you did it are saying he might have.”

Quinten rolled his eyes. “We already know I didn’t do it.”

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