Page 16 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

Without numbers … without her talent of scrubbing books for her father’s Cosa Nostra, that’s all Siena would be. Entirely useless to the men in her family.

It gave her a little bit of control. She had no problems running with it every chance she could. It wasn’t her fault if Matteo and her brothers couldn’t see that she was manipulating them sometimes to get what she wanted.

“Mr. Calabrese,” the waiter said with a smile. “Good afternoon, sir.”

“Yes, yes, I’m ready to order now.”

“Pen’s ready, sir.”

Like always, Matteo ordered for himself, his wife, and Siena. Had her brothers been there, he would have ordered for them, too.

Anything her father could control, he did. Even if it was something as simple as what they wanted to eat for lunch.

“Shoo,” Matteo told the waiter with a flick of his wrist. “I’m hungry.”

“Yes, sir.”

The young man—who didn’t look old enough to be serving liquor, likely—darted off, and headed right for the kitchen. He didn’t even go back to the table where the couple was still waiting with their still-empty coffee cups.

“New boy,” Matteo told Coraline. “I like him so far.”

“He seems quiet,” her mother agreed.

“For now.”

Then, Matteo turned his dark eyes on the phone he had pulled from his inner jacket pocket. Just like that, Coraline and Siena were dismissed from the man’s attention. Coraline didn’t really seem all that bothered, as she simply stared out the window at the passersby on the street.

Siena was never more aware of how much she took after her mother in appearance and behavior than in that moment. Sure, her slyness and attitude came from her father, not to mention her determination to get shit done.

The rest?

All her mom.

From the blues of her wide eyes, to the caramel of her long, wavy hair. Standing side by side, the two only reached five-foot-seven in four-inch heels. Their full lips curved the same way when they smiled, or smirked, and even the button nose was compliments of her mother’s delicate features.

The physical appearance was about as far as it went, though.

Coraline was quiet, and quick to bend to the whims of the men around her. Siena was far more likely to find a way out of it, or speak loudly enough for someone to listen.

Her mother was happy in her place, spoiled and content. She never batted an eye at the three daughters her husband fathered with a mistress over the period of twenty years, or the fact that mistress lived in a bigger house than she did.

Siena was not the kind of woman to stick her head in the sand.

She just couldn’t.

She certainly wasn’t going to turn her cheek, and pretend like the men in her life were some kind of good, godly creatures who gave back to society, and attended church every Sunday. Sure, they did those things—they also sold drugs, laundered money, blackmailed anyone they could, and murder was always at the top of someone’s to-do list.

Coraline could pretend all she wanted about her family, and live in her gilded cage of clouds where the bad stuff didn’t touch her.

Siena’s feet were still firmly planted on the ground.

She liked it here better.

“Don’t pull this tardiness nonsense on your brother later,” Matteo said.

Siena’s attention was back on her father in a blink. “Pardon?”

“Later—you’re heading over to Kev’s club, aren’t you? You’ve got books to scrub for him.”