Page 94 of Loyalty

“Maybe you should have taken that as a goddamn hint.”

And left him the hell alone.

John wasn’t asking for a whole lot.

A little over a week after the men of his family cornered him—or that’s how it felt—and John was still not over it. In fact, he felt worse about it than he had that morning.

They didn’t trust him.

Not to get shit done.

Not to make the right choices.

Nothing.

To put the icing on that cake, they had to try and dictate his fucking romantic life like it was any of their goddamn business. It wasn’t. He wouldn’t allow them to think it was, either. That shit was never going to be on the table for them to meddle in.

Ever.

“Are you going to slow down and talk to me?” Andino asked.

“My legs are still moving. A lot like your dumbass mouth. Take the hint.”

“Come on, let me explain, John.”

The warehouse where he had to meet up with the Calabrese brothers was all but twenty feet away. If he picked up his pace, he could be inside and working in a few minutes. Andino’s little show would be over and done with.

John couldn’t do that.

Andino’s words hit a damn nerve.

Spinning on his heel, John took one huge step forward, and came toe-to-toe with Andino. His cousin had a good thirty pounds of muscle on him, but they stood damn near eye level with one another. It wouldn’t be the first time the two of them went to blows over something.

He wasn’t scared of Andino.

Andino wasn’t frightened of him.

It was a bad combination.

“Say that again,” John urged, his tone dipping low.

“What, that you should let me fucking explain what happened?”

“Yeah, man. Go on, tell me how you sold out my personal business to our fathers and Dante like you had any business doing so in the first place. Tell me how you not only put Siena in my path by inviting her to a club, but then went behind my back and told them I was involved with her, too. That’s fucking shady, Andino.”

John hit his cousin in the chest with a closed fist. Not hard, but firm enough that it made his point loud and clear. “Fucking. Shady.”

“Get your hand off my body before I break it.”

“You could try.”

Andino’s jaw clenched, and his green eyes darkened with anger.

Good.

He should be angry. Just like John was.

“It doesn’t feel really fucking great when your family does shitty things to you, huh?” John asked.