Page 128 of Disgrace

Pink.

Siena didn’t know how he got it, and she didn’t care to learn. It just made her smile every time she used it.

“You’re the only one who can’t say my name with a straight face,” Pink said.

“Come on, it’s cute.”

“I’ve heard all the comments, Siena. They don’t surprise me or bother me anymore. Come on, the boss is waiting for you.”

“Where did John go?”

“To grab a coffee downstairs.”

“Oh.”

“He’s waiting for you—figured he would get back up here by the time you were done,” Pink explained.

Siena shrugged. “It’s okay. I don’t mind chasing after him.”

She had all the time in the world to do that, now.

Pink guided Siena through the upper level of the hospital, and then down to the main floor where John had apparently gone. They did not find him at the coffee shop, but rather, outside surrounded by several men.

Most of which, Siena recognized.

They were her brothers’ men.

Or … they used to be.

John, in his tweed coat and black Armani suit, with a hand flicking outward to showcase a diamond encrusted Rolex in a dismissive gesture, looked entirely at ease. Despite, apparently, the stiffened postures and angry expressions of the men around him.

“You seem to think you have control now,” John said, “or even that dead men have control of this family now, and I am not very sorry to inform you that you are all mistaken. Your first—and last—mistake with me will be to ever underestimate or question my authority.”

“We don’t answer to you, Marcello, not now, and not—”

“You will address me as your boss, or as the Don, or you will address me from your broken knees with my gun in your mouth. Try again.”

Pink kept Siena back a few steps by holding onto her shoulder with one beefy hand. She saw a few gazes of the men drift in her direction, but they quickly went back to John.

“So, that’s how it is, then?” another one asked. “The Marcellos are just going to come in to our organization, and clean fucking house like this?”

“I’m not cleaning anything,” John said, “this is my house. It has always been mine. Someone else was looking after it for a time. Mind you, they did a shit job about it, but you’ve got a new boss to correct that issue now.”

“This is not your famiglia!”

John pointed a single finger at the man, and then looked over at the guy who had driven him and Siena to the hospital earlier while Pink followed behind in Siena’s car. “He will be the first to learn. Tonight, don’t stall.”

“Yes, boss.”

The man in question made a move like he was going to come forward, and John didn’t wait for him to make the choice. Instead, John was the one to go forward himself until he was standing toe-to-toe with the man.

“Do you have something to say?” John asked. “Now would be the time.”

The man swallowed hard. “You’re a fucking lunatic. Crazy—a shame. No Calabrese man will ever accept you as their boss. You don’t have what it takes, and they’ll ruin you, Johnathan. Mark my fucking words.”

For a brief second, Siena’s heart clenched for John. He had been right—everything was changing for them. Starting with the Calabrese family. He and his men had slid into the organization, and within a week’s time, made it abundantly clear there was new leadership in charge.

That didn’t mean it was easy.