Page 61 of Loyalty

Andino smirked, and flipped John the middle finger.

Dante continued talking like the interaction hadn’t even happened. “I told you that the babysitting was only temporary, too. It’s time to get back to being a proper Capo, Johnathan. It’s what you’re best at, nipote.”

“It is,” he agreed, chuckling.

Dante jerked a thumb in Andino’s direction. “So, he’s got a few dealings between crews of other families. Some schemes that get run on other territories, and things like that.”

“A warehouse is shared on schemes that run between families to make it easier and keep the peace,” Andino added. “You’ll need to handle meeting up with the Capo of that crew. It’s like a once a month thing or something.”

“Who?”

“Darren Calabrese,” Andino said.

John stiffened, but hid it.

Andino passed him a subtle look. “You okay with that?”

The question was loaded.

John shrugged. “Sure, don’t see why not.”

“Our history with the Calabrese family makes certain things tricky,” Dante added.

“History—like their grandfather killing my great-grandfather, you mean?” John asked.

Giovanni coughed.

Dante cleared his throat. “Yeah, exactly that history.”

“To be fair, Carl Calabrese is dead now,” Andino said.

“That kind of shit doesn’t wash out, Andi,” John murmured. “They killed my family—even if Lucian was already adopted into the Marcello family—to take over, and nothing else. They wanted the seat, so they did what they had to do. My biological great-grandfather doesn’t even have a proper grave. We don’t know what they did with him.

“Bad blood like that doesn’t wash out,” John finished sharply.

“No, but we do put the stains aside for the sake of business,” Dante said. “But we never fucking forget they’re a bunch of snakes, John. There’s a difference.”

John didn’t entirely like that, but it was what it was.

Siena Calabrese was a whole other issue.

She certainly wasn’t like her brothers, and that made all the difference to him. However, he hadn’t seen her in months. He meant to check in on her once he returned from finding his sister, but one thing after another thing kept coming up.

A new crew.

More business.

Family.

A cousin nearly getting killed in Cancun.

John wasn’t even overstating it. He bet none of that shit would make a difference to Siena because like a prick, he had bailed on her.

Women took offense to that.

“Well?” Dante asked.

John looked to his boss. “I can handle the fucking Calabrese.”