Page 163 of Loyalty

Unfortunately, Siena didn’t doubt it.

She headed into the business, and was thankful that today, the restaurant wasn’t as busy as it usually was. Instead of heading right for the back to an office to work, she went to the bar first. The blonde acting as the bartender for the day gave her a smile.

“Want a drink?”

Siena laughed. “A whole bottle would be great.”

“Not sure I can do that.”

“How about something to make this day worth it?”

“One of those, huh?”

Siena scoffed—the girl had no idea. “One of those.”

The girl nodded. “Yeah, I got something for that.”

Less than a minute later, the bartender slid three fingers worth of whiskey across the bar in a lowball glass. Siena eyed the drink, but didn’t pick it up. She really wasn’t a big drinker, but she also really needed something to get through the damn day.

“You don’t like whiskey?”

“Not particularly.”

“Throw it back fast, and hold your breath.”

Siena did just that, but the whiskey still burned, and her chest felt like it was on fire when she sucked in a hard breath. At the same time, a deep warmth spread through her blood and body. It was enough to feel like she might make it a couple more hours today without a breakdown.

Anything to get through the damn day.

Siena pushed the glass back to the bartender. “Did you see my brothers come in yet?”

The woman nodded once. “Yeah, both of them. They’re in the back.”

Great.

Not wanting to waste any more time lest Darren or Kev get on the phone to her father, Siena headed for the back of the restaurant. She still walked a bit slower than normal to get that extra minute or two, so she didn’t have to be in the presence of one of her brothers. What a sad mess her life had become.

She heard the voices of her brothers filtering down the hall the closer she came to the office. Kev first, and then Darren.

“The Marcellos are in a fit,” Kev said.

“It worked, though,” Darren replied. “Shame we couldn’t get John to turn on them like Dad first wanted.”

“Can only do so much. Move onto Plan B, when Plan A doesn’t work out the way you want it to. Dad couldn’t get John in close enough, so he pushed him on a little bit with the file. Still didn’t get enough out of that, so we made it worse by burning the warehouse. See what all that did for us?”

“We’re going to have to be careful for a little while,” Darren said. “On the streets, I mean. I got word it’s going to be all out war once we finish this off.”

“Who would have thought the Marcello family gave that much of a shit about a fuck up like Johnathan Marcello?” Kev laughed. “As if being fucking crazy isn’t enough of a disgrace for his family with the bipolar, now they’re going to back him in this mess, too.”

“You don’t know that. You’re assuming they’ll back him here, but maybe this could be a last straw type of deal for them,” Darren said. “How long has he been like this—how many messes have they cleaned up for him over the years? John’s crazy. It didn’t take very much for us to make it worse for him. I don’t think he can count on his family as much this time around.”

Kev’s laughter came out louder the second time around. “Let’s hope that’s the motherfucking truth. Either way, they’re all going down.”

Siena couldn’t stop her footsteps if she tried. Her heart filled with rage and hate as she stepped in the office doorway. Both brothers looked her way, but neither of them seemed very surprised to see her standing there.

“You’re late,” Kev said.

Story of her fucking life.