Page 151 of Loyalty

Siena nodded. “Yeah, but it made me stop, and pay attention. Things I was overlooking before, or whatever else. Maybe this is partly my fault, and I don’t want them—they already don’t like me—to blame me for this, and take him from me. Would they do that? I don’t know, and I don’t want to risk it.”

“And so you came to me.”

“Yes.”

“You said he left?”

“In a fit,” she confirmed. “He was really upset, and he wouldn’t even talk. I don’t know where he went, and he won’t answer my calls.”

Andino let out a harsh sigh. “Well, the most important thing to do is find him, get him calm, and then get him settled enough to actually talk.”

“I don’t know how to do that,” Siena said.

“It’s not an easy thing to do with John, and you kind of learn how to do it over time. You came to me, Siena, and that’s the best you can do. That was the right thing to do.”

“Is it?”

“Sure. Why would you think differently?”

“Because it feels like I betrayed him.”

“Trust me,” Andino said, “when this all blows over, the last thing John will ever think you did is betray him. It’s quite clear where your loyalty is, woman.”

What did that even mean?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“JOHN!”

John heard his cousin’s shout from behind him, but continued walking. His mind was entirely focused on one thing, and one thing only. He was just a few steps away from getting some answers. Or at least, something that would get him closer to finding out who exactly in his family had sent him that file.

Days later, and he was still looking for answers.

He’d been on the move for hours. Too many—he lost count. His phone wouldn’t stop ringing in his pocket. Buzzing and buzzing, and only irritating him more. He ignored it every time it rang.

He only knew it was the next day because the sun was out, and nightfall had already left him behind. Not that he spent it sleeping because he didn’t. He hadn’t even gone back home after he left.

Not once.

“John,” Andino called again, “wait up.”

Once again, John ignored his cousin. He grabbed the handle on the pool hall’s front door, and swung it wide open. The smell of liquor, and walls that spent years being coated in smoke from cigarettes and cigars smacked him in the face. Nobody could smoke in the place now, of course, but that smell just didn’t wash out. Sometimes, it couldn’t even be painted out.

“Jesus, John,” Andino growled, “what the hell is wrong with you?”

His cousin was right behind him, but John’s eyes were scanning the crowd. Men playing pool at the tables, and gathered patrons at the bar paying for drinks. It was only a little past noon, and already, it looked like quite a few of them were drunk.

Good, this would make things a lot easier for John.

Andino’s hand clapped John on the shoulder, but he brushed the touch off. He heard his cousin saying his name, and trying to talk to him, but he just had other things on his mind. Other shit to do.

Other fuckers to take care of.

Quickly, John found the fucker he was looking for. A short, chubby twenty something year old at the farthest pool table across the hall. Drake was his name. Or something like that. A foot soldier in a crew belonging to the same Capo of the enforcer who had delivered the file to John the day before.

“John, will you talk to me for a goddamn second?”

“In a minute, Andino,” John said.