Page 186 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

No, Kev certainly couldn’t.

Once again, it looked like her brothers were bowing down to the Marcellos. It seemed as though not every battle was started and finished with bullets, blood, and funerals. Some battles were won with killer smiles, and a simple show of power.

Siena was starting to believe she should keep score.

Calabrese family—zero.

The Marcellos—one.

It was almost funny how one simple action could change all kinds of circumstances. Suddenly, the enforcers that rarely left Siena alone when she was outside of her brothers’ sights were now fully distracted by the show happening inside the entrance of the church.

With the funeral over, it seemed Siena’s brothers had finally decided to take action with the Marcellos.

Better late than never.

Siena hung back behind the crowd—her interest in watching men verbally spar over their growing feud was nonexistent. None of this would do her or the cause she was silently fighting for any good at the end of the day.

She kept one eye on her mother as Coraline edged along the crowd. Her mother’s eagle eye was fully pointed on Kev, Darren, and the Marcellos.

Siena never would have taken her mother for a woman who involved herself in mafia politics, or the business of men. And yet, there Coraline was on a daily basis. Doing exactly those things with her sons, and never thinking twice about it.

Who knew why.

The name she carried.

The man—now dead—she had married.

The legacy behind her.

The promise of one ahead of her.

Siena didn’t know.

It wouldn’t matter when this was over.

A form slid in beside Siena. She stiffened a bit at the man’s presence, and the scent of his familiar cologne. He wouldn’t typically be so bold, but it seemed like everyone around them at the moment was currently distracted.

Andino smiled a bit when Siena looked at him. “What do you have for me?”

This little game of theirs had started months ago. It started with nothing more than a single sentence in passing from Andino—perhaps you should take up a hobby … like yoga. Back when there had seemed like a chance of settling this feud between their families with something like a marriage was possible, he had given her that line, and she ran with it.

Yoga it was.

It was the only time—two hours twice a week—that her brothers allowed Siena any kind of privacy and peace. The enforcers stayed outside the complex. She slipped out the back. Andino was always waiting.

John’s cousin was fighting this war in a far dirtier way.

Siena respected him for it, really.

“Well?” he asked again. “What do you have for me?”

“A west end warehouse,” Siena said. “An attack in a couple of days. Retribution for Arty’s death. That’s all I know.”

Andino’s face cleared of emotion, and his gaze hardened. “All right. You don’t know what, or how many—”

“I would tell you if I did. You know that.”

Andino’s hand touched her shoulder lightly. “I know.”