Page 55 of Disgrace

“You’re going to send her back to her place?” Darren asked, incredulity coloring his tone. “After everything she did with Johnathan, and even after Ginevra?”

“We don’t know that she helped Ginevra—”

“Suspecting is more than enough in this case, Kev! You’re fucking crazy to let her out of your sight, and you know it.”

“I have to,” Kev grumbled, “for now, anyway.”

Siena smiled wider.

That time, she hid it by looking up at the bright sky.

Good things had come for her.

• • •

Siena’s fingers ached from typing all day, and her neck and shoulders felt like rocks from sitting in an uncomfortable computer chair for hours upon hours. The last thing she wanted to do was climb stairs, but freedom was just a few steps away.

Her apartment, that was.

She had been back at her old place for a couple of days. Nothing was better than closing the front door to her apartment, and knowing that her brothers wouldn’t be hanging around a corner or something.

Sure, it left her out of the loop.

She didn’t have information to pass on.

You win some, you lose some.

Siena still kind of considered this winning. At least for her.

She ignored the ache in her feet as she climbed the stairwell, and opened the hallway door leading down the row of apartments on her floor. Behind her, the enforcer still tasked with looking after her followed close behind.

He didn’t speak.

He rarely did.

At her door, Siena pulled out her key, and stuck it in the lock. Like always, the enforcer opted to wait behind her until she had opened up the door, and slipped inside the apartment. She caught sight of his nod before he headed further down the hall.

The guy had gotten that extra apartment, after all.

Siena never left her place without the enforcer waiting outside her door. He drove her to and from work, and to wherever else she needed to go.

Now, with her brothers back, the guy didn’t let her have an inch. Likely because he knew Siena would turn around and take a mile back from him.

Smart.

Siena locked the front door behind her, kicked off her heels, and reveled in the cold floors pressing against her aching soles. She dropped her bag in the corner, and picked up the contemporary romance paperback she had left sitting on the stand on her way out that morning

Thumbing through the pages of the book, she went back to the spot she had left her bookmark. The heroine was getting ready for a date with a guy she despised, but felt she had no other choice given her circumstances.

Siena was so focused on her book, that she damn near rammed head-first into the tall form standing in the middle of her living room.

She knew it was him before she looked up.

Before he even spoke, she knew.

“John,” Siena whispered.

Her eyes found his, and John smiled sinfully.