Page 182 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

She was rarely able to escape them.

It was a couple of hours later before Siena saw her half-sisters off. Shuffled into the back of a black town car driven by a Calabrese enforcer, Greta and Giulia were taken away once more. They were packed up like prized beauties to be brought out and dusted off for showing on another day.

Siena knew it.

The girls knew it.

A fucking shame, really.

“You’re late, Ma,” Kev grumbled.

“I had things to do, son.”

“Things like what, exactly?”

“A friend called.”

Kev scoffed. “Sure, Ma.”

As the footsteps of her mother and older brother came closer to the kitchen, Siena tried to relax the tension in her shoulders. The anger she felt toward her mother reared its ugly head whenever the two were in a damn room together.

Today was not going to be any fucking different.

How could it?

“I really did have other things come up, Kev,” her mother said.

The two were just outside the kitchen, now. Siena didn’t care to eavesdrop, but that had kind of become a part of her job.

So to speak …

“We are trying to put on a united front,” Kev reminded Coraline. “It is the most important thing right now. I’m quite aware of how you feel about Greta and Giulia, but you need to forget about it, Ma. Put it aside for now, so we can all handle our business in this city.”

“Mmm.”

“What?”

“Handle business,” Coraline said. “I suppose we’re going to pretend that another Calabrese Capo was not killed last week, are we?”

“No one is pretending—”

“Well, we can’t forget about that united front, Kev.”

“Ma.”

“I said what I said, didn’t I?”

Kev let out a harsh sigh. “We have a plan—an attack coming up. A few days after the funeral. One of their warehouses on the west end that they think we don’t know about. An answer to the Capo’s death. Darren thought it would be appropriate that we wait until after. Respect to the man, and all that.”

“Sure,” Coraline said. “Your father never would have waited.”

“I am not my father, Ma.”

“Obviously.”

Siena didn’t even bother to look up from the dishes she was washing as her mother and brother slipped into the kitchen. Coraline moved toward the island where a plate of hot food had been left to sit out for her, and looked it over.

“Really, Siena, chicken alfredo?” her mother asked.