Page 312 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

He was not fucking pouting.

“I will meet you at the entrance,” John grumbled.

“Good.”

Her hand patted his cheek affectionately, and then she was gone. Quickly disappearing into the crowd of people. Just as fast, one of the two enforcers that were following along, but also keeping their distance, split away from his partner without needing to be told. He followed behind Siena without her ever realizing he was even there.

That left John.

And Lucia.

Alone.

Together.

Fuck.

“Well, come on, then,” Lucia said with a cool tone and a dismissive wave. “It’s cold, and I don’t want to freeze out here for too long.”

John chuckled dryly, but followed along behind his sister. “You didn’t mind five minutes ago when Siena was here.”

He saw Lucia’s shoulders stiffen from behind.

“Yeah, well …”

Time to bite another bullet.

“What do you need me to say, Lucia?” John asked quietly, speaking to the back of her head because she still wouldn’t even look at him. “Tell me what to say so that we can move on, and I will do that. Sorry isn’t going to be good enough—I get that. So what will do it for you?”

For the briefest second, his sister’s posture softened. She stopped walking, but the people continued to blow by them in the market. No one around them seemed to feel the tension biting pain passing between the two siblings.

Slowly, Lucia turned around to face him. The coldness in her gaze had finally left, but he wasn’t all too sure that he liked what replaced it, either. A line of watery tears that were damn near ready to fall, but somehow, she held the floodgates back.

“You’re right,” Lucia said quietly, “sorry won’t be good enough, John.”

“But I am sorry.”

She nodded. “Now.”

“The day it happened. The day I found you. The day Renzo was taken away. That very second, Lucia, I was sorry. That was not what was supposed to happen.”

Her jaw hardened, and goddamn, she looked so much like their father in that moment, it was unreal. Only their dad could hold back his emotions with a hardened jaw, and clipped words.

Lucia didn’t do that, though. “Did you know he hated me?”

“Who?”

“Renzo,” Lucia said. “At first, he thought I was just some little rich bitch with an air-filled head, and a pretty face. I didn’t know what it was like to be poor, or to struggle. I didn’t know the streets, or how hard they are on people like him. I didn’t know what it was like to come where he comes from, or how to survive without a trust fund.”

“Lucia—”

“He was right, too. And maybe I should have thanked him for making that obvious to me, you know? He woke me up. It took thirty days to change my life, and seconds to make it worse all over again.”

John scrubbed a hand down his jaw, and glanced away. Silently, he dug in the inner pocket of his jacket, and pulled out a piece of information he had been keeping hidden for a while. He always planned to give it to Lucia, sure, but at the right time.

Now seemed like that time.

“Here,” John said.