Page 164 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

For the first time all day, Siena was out of her brothers’ sights. The bathroom was at the very end of the hallway. There was a men’s and women’s, but no private bathroom for the employees.

The restaurant had closed about an hour ago, and Siena was grateful. She pushed a hand against the bathroom door as she passed it by to make it sound like she had gone in.

She didn’t go inside, though. Instead, she went further out onto the restaurant’s main floor. At first, she considered just leaving the restaurant while she had the chance. The enforcer still sitting in the car outside the place told her that wouldn’t be a very good idea.

Siena let out a hard breath. Her gaze darted over the room, and then to the kitchen.

The phone in there, maybe.

It was worth a shot.

As long as she got a call out, then the rest didn’t matter. She would deal with whatever came her way from her brothers.

She only needed to make a single goddamn call.

Siena darted for the kitchen. The landline hanging on the wall was a godsend. She picked it up, and dialed the only Marcello phone number she knew.

John’s.

It rang and rang.

Her heart grew heavy.

Seconds passed.

The call went to voicemail.

Siena cursed, and tried again.

More ringing.

More nothing.

The sickness in her stomach damn near climbed up her throat, and threatened to spill out onto the floor. She tried one last time, but again, she got no response.

Siena didn’t know if that was because John refused to take a call from her, or if he couldn’t. The very thought of that almost made her puke, too.

She hung up the phone with a little more force than she meant to.

Think. You’re not stupid, so figure this out.

Her thoughts taunted her.

The dark kitchen stared back at her. The chef made sure to clean his space thoroughly before leaving for the night. Hanging above the stainless-steel counter was a row of frying pans, skillets, and more. A deep-dish frying pan caught her eye.

Siena hesitated.

She was not violent.

She did not do this kind of thing.

But for John?

Rules did not apply.

She grabbed the deep-dish pan, and gave it a second look when she realized how substantially heavy it was in her palm. Really, she didn’t have the time to second guess which pan to use. She headed out of the kitchen, and tried to keep her footsteps light as she crossed the main floor again. She had only rounded the corner nearing the hallway when she heard her brothers talking again.

“I don’t know what this is,” Darren said.