Page 145 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

Andino glanced away. “Not important, but is that what it is?”

“It is fucking important. Was it you?”

Disbelief stared John right in the face.

“Do you seriously think it was me?” Andino asked.

No.

Still …

“Somebody from our family sent me that file. They want me to know—they think I forgot what the Calabrese did to my family.”

“John, listen to yourself.”

This was all bad.

All of it.

His brain raced, and his heart thundered.

“John, where are you going?”

He didn’t answer his cousin. He was already at the mouth of the alleyway, and stepping out onto the street when Andino yelled for him again.

Behind him, he could hear Andino making a call.

“Yeah, I got a mess that needs cleaned.” Andino rattled off an address. “No, don’t let the boss know and don’t tell my father, either. This is for me. Let’s keep it on the low.”

John was already gone.

John slipped through a restaurant that shouldn’t be familiar to him because of who owned it, and yet it still was. He visited the business a couple of times a week just to spend time with Siena, but before her, he wouldn’t have stepped foot near the place.

She was already waiting for him at a table. Standing, too. He could see concern in her eyes, but he didn’t know why.

She outstretched her arms to him, and he took the embrace. Dropping one kiss to her forehead, and then a second faster one to her lips. Her sweet little smile made his grin grow.

“You didn’t answer my calls,” she said.

John shrugged. “Busy.”

“For three days?”

He didn’t like where this line of questioning was going, so his best defense was to simply ignore it. Apparently, she had been one of the people who kept blowing up his phone non-stop.

“Everything’s fine,” he told her.

“I didn’t ask,” Siena said.

John gave her a look, and then took a seat at the table. “You going to sit, or what?”

Siena did take a seat at the table, but she still had that look in her eyes. She was searching for something in him, but he didn’t know what to tell her. He didn’t know what the fuck she was looking for.

“I thought we were going to that show last night,” she said. “An early Valentine’s gift.”

Shit.

“I forgot,” John said.