Page 77 of Disgrace

Oh, so now his cousin wanted to play dumb?

John wasn’t up for that.

“Siena.”

“Shit, John—”

Quick as a blink, John rolled over, got to his knees, and then stood from the floor. Andino stayed right where he was on his back, and looking up at John. In a way, it gave him the feeling that his cousin was the weaker between them for the moment.

In a sense.

It didn’t matter who was the weaker one between them. Either way, John still had shit to say, and he needed it to be heard. He needed Andino to fucking hear him, and get it. Really fucking get it. He wasn’t playing these stupid games anymore, and he didn’t want Siena to be playing them, either.

“Siena showed up at my place the night before last,” John said, “you know, after Kev Calabrese croaked at his birthday party. Somebody poisoned him, huh?”

Andino lifted a single brow. “Word made rounds, yeah. What about it?”

“That’s how you want to play this?”

“John, come on, now.”

“You had her do that job, Andi.”

Andino sucked air through his teeth, but his cold gaze never wavered from John for a second. “It needed to be done, and I couldn’t trust anyone else to do it. Who the hell else is that close to those brothers, John?”

“Any one of their fucking men, Andino!”

“Couldn’t turn one. Or rather, I couldn’t trust one to turn them. That’s not my goal in this—that’s not the job I need to be concerned about at the moment. I just need those goddamn brothers out of the fucking way. That’s it.”

John didn’t have the first clue what his cousin was talking about. “You’re trying to ruin that family, but you don’t want the task of controlling them once you’ve done that?”

Andino rolled his eyes. “She got it done. What else is there to say?”

“Stop putting her in these fucking positions, that’s what. At first it was just getting information from her which was dangerous enough considering how controlled she is by that family—now this?”

“Is it because you think Siena is too innocent to kill a man, or because you don’t want her dirtying up those pretty hands of hers?”

John forced himself not to kick Andino as hard as he could in the guy’s ribs. It took a hell of a lot more effort than he thought it would. “You’re purposefully being an asshole right now, and I don’t appreciate it.”

“Because you’re acting foolish, and letting your feelings cloud up what you should already know about a war like this. We do what we need to—use who we can use—and get it done. Finish it. We finish them. That’s all that matters.”

“Not to the sacrifice of her!”

“You assume she’ll be a sacrifice because she cannot handle herself, or something like that. Maybe that’s something you should handle with yourself, John, because Siena has her shit covered. She’s gold. She knows exactly what she’s doing.”

He heard Andino.

He still didn’t like it.

“Darren Calabrese is not a stupid fuck like you might think. Is he a little screwed up or distracted right now because Kev is dead? Sure, but that means nothing. If you don’t think they weren’t already suspicious that someone inside their circles were feeding us information, then you’re delusional, Andino.”

“I—”

“Darren, or somebody else who will let him know, is going to figure out what is going on. They will figure out that it is her. The more info from her you use, or the more you get her to do, the worse it will get for her. I won’t have you putting her in that kind of danger, Andi. I just won’t.”

“Are you going to fucking let me talk, or what?”

John fixed his jacket, and gave his cousin one last look. “I said what I had to say, actually.”