Page 246 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

Who the fuck was Jason?

“Your enforcer,” Kev said as though he were talking to a small, dumb child.

“You know,” Siena replied, “that’s the first time someone has ever told me his name. And that includes him.”

“Huh.” Kev shrugged. “Guess it wasn’t important for you to know.”

Nothing ever was.

“I won’t be much longer,” Siena said, waving a hand and going back to the computer screen. “Tell him a half hour, at most.”

Or she would make it that long.

One or the other.

“I told you—he’s got shit to do,” Kev said. “Just go. It’s not like you can’t pick up where you left off tomorrow, or something.”

Except that’s not how Siena had been taught to do things, and work. It was not the proper way to do things. What accounts she opened and started in a day, she had to finish inputting and calculating numbers.

That way, there was less chance of more mistakes should she come back to it, and forget her place. In her business of cooking and falsifying books, she could not afford very many goddamn mistakes before it became noticeable.

Numbers were unforgiving that way.

Kev didn’t understand.

Arguing wouldn’t help.

Siena decided to take this small blessing for what it was, anyway. There was no way her brother would take her request for a break seriously. He would just laugh, and refuse while telling her she didn’t need a fucking break.

She could be having a stroke, and he would still want her to show up to work the next day. So was her goddamn life.

“Fine,” Siena said heavily as she pushed up from the chair. Quickly, she closed the books out. She didn’t even bother to save the work she had done for the day because it all needed to be redone, anyway. Then, she looked at Kev with raised hands. “I’m done. Happy?”

“I will be when you get out of my office. Jason is waiting in his car outside.”

Good for him.

Kev plopped his ass down in the chair as soon as Siena moved out of the way. He had already put the phone from the desk to his ear by the time Siena stepped out of the office. She closed the door behind her, but it wasn’t enough to hide Kev’s conversation. Like their father’s voice had once done her brother’s also carried through walls.

Siena took the second or two she had to lean against the hallway wall, and press her fingers to her temples once more. Without the unforgiving brightness of the screen in her eyes, the pounding in her head subsided just enough to make the oncoming migraine a little more bearable.

At least, for now.

Behind her, she could hear Kev talking on the phone. She only knew he was talking to Darren—wherever he was today—because Kev used her other brother’s name.

“When it comes to this, Darren, no news is bad news,” Kev snapped.

Somebody needed to give her brothers’ lessons on privacy. Neither of them understood how loud their voices could be.

It was sad, really.

“You’re telling me that not one effort we’ve made to fuck with the Marcello family’s business on the streets—or otherwise—has worked? Not one fucking thing?”

A beat of silence passed.

And then, “Then we’re going to go back to my way—yes, exactly that, Darren.”

Siena should move, as her enforcer was waiting for her, and Kev might come out of the office soon. Still, she stayed right where she was.