Page 90 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

Jordyn just stared at her son. “When did you get up this morning, John?”

“What?”

“Just curious. The sunrise was nice,” she added with a little shrug. “I wondered if you might have seen it, too.”

Nothing on his mother’s face spoke to the fact she might be lying to him. Her soft smile felt like safety and his childhood. Her familiar presence was calming in some ways.

At the same time, John was wary.

He didn’t know why. He couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was.

Still, he hesitated in giving his mother the truth. Being wary was enough to add to his already growing paranoia about why his mother was even there in the first place.

The very second John felt any kind of paranoia that was it for him. He didn’t indulge any other questions or conversation from anybody.

Not even his own mother.

“Well?” Jordyn asked quietly. “Did you see the sunrise, my boy?”

“Yeah, I saw it,” John said.

Because he had been up since one after a two-hour nap that felt like ten hours of solid sleep. How in the hell else would he find the time to rearrange his whole house and clean it from floor to ceiling?

“John—”

“I’m kind of busy, Ma.”

He looked over in just enough time to see Jordyn frown, but also hide it. She took one deep breath, and then glanced out the large kitchen window that overlooked the front of the Queen’s house.

“Your father mentioned something to me, and I just wanted to check in on you.” Jordyn took a couple of steps closer to where John was working at the counter. “Do you know when was the last time you came to visit me?”

“Yeah, you worry, I know.”

“Johnathan.”

He heard her call for him, but he was just lost in other things. The erratic, spinning thoughts in his mind. The shit he had to get done. The way he felt like he had suddenly been turned on high-speed for no reason at all.

“They’re only looking out for your best interests, John,” his mother said.

She had said more, but he only caught the last part of her sentence. It was enough to send a hot burst of anger shooting through his bloodstream.

Mostly because he knew exactly what she was talking about without even asking. His father, uncles, and Andino.

Watching him like he couldn’t be trusted.

Acting like he didn’t know how to do his fucking job.

Like he couldn’t handle his shit.

“Fuck them,” John uttered.

He picked up Dante’s calls because he couldn’t ignore the boss. Their conversations consisted of Dante asking a question, and John answering with yes or no. It never went deeper than that, though his uncle tried.

Anyone else, though?

His father, Andino, or even his uncle, Gio?

John ignored all of them.