Page 370 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

John swallowed hard. “We’d not talked specifics.”

“I did. He was my man—hand-picked. I’ll never have another one like him.”

“Are you pissed I took him from you?”

“Not really. You need him more than I do.”

“Good point,” John muttered. “Like Michel, though, he’s not a made man.”

“Doesn’t have to be. You’re a small family—and the faction works from Marcello business now, so it’s all on us to make the calls.”

Right.

“It’s good to be the boss,” John said, chuckling.

“Isn’t it?” Andino grinned. “And what about Michel?”

“It’s on my to-do list.”

“Oh, you have one of those, too, huh?”

“Apparently.”

John found Michel lounging on the back terrace with a glass of whiskey he’d nursed down to the ice in the bottom. “You got a minute?”

Michel peered up at John. “For you, always.”

“Hmm.”

He took a seat beside his cousin and for a long while, said nothing. Instead, he stared out over the back property where the darkness clung to every corner. Overhead, the black sky was painted with a yellow moon and dotted with stars. Funny how he related more to the sky and stars at night than he did anything or anyone else.

He was dark, too.

Dark thoughts.

Dark heart.

Dark soul.

Occasionally colored with bright, pretty things.

Michel broke the silence first. “I always wanted to be something more than just a made man.”

“You are.”

“I am. I’m a husband and a father. A doctor. Yet, I keep going back to my roots, huh?”

John grinned.

How could he not?

“You are a Marcello,” he replied.

Michel sighed. “I liked being on the outside of business the most.”

“But do you really?”

“I don’t know. Certainly thought I did, though.”