Page 158 of Loyalty

Picking up the phone John put it to his ear and said, “Yeah, John here.”

“What did you do?”

John rubbed at his eyes. “Andino?”

“The warehouse, John. Did you do it?”

John didn’t know what in the hell his cousin was talking about. “What warehouse?”

“The Calabrese warehouse. The one your crew uses with them. It burned to the ground last night, John. Guess who is blaming you for it?”

John hung up the phone, and stared up at the ceiling. The deadweight settled in his stomach, and a burning dread drove into his heart.

Yet, his mind raced.

Up and down.

Unstoppable.

He shouldn’t have hung up the phone. He should have said he didn’t do it.

Problem was, John didn’t know if that was the truth.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

JOHN SHOVED his legs into his pants. “You’re sure I got here around twelve last night?”

Siena crawled out of the bed. “Yeah, around then.”

She kept the sheet clutched to her chest. It wasn’t like she was trying to hide her body from him, or anything. Most of the night before had been spent with them in bed together. He arrived at her place looking like he was out of his mind, and without a thing to say.

He didn’t want to talk. He only wanted to fuck.

Siena hadn’t been able to turn him away. As much as it killed her to see John like that, and to let him use her like that, she let him in. She had already let him into her heart, her bed, and into her life.

What difference would last night make?

None at all.

Fact was, Siena was selfish. She wanted John. She didn’t care about the rest—those were details that they could handle at another time. She needed him close, and she wanted him with her. No matter his frame of mind, she just wanted him.

So, when he showed up at her door, she didn’t ask questions. She didn’t press him for information, or ask him where he had been. She didn’t demand to know why he hadn’t answered her phone calls or reply to any of her texts. He was there, and that was all that mattered.

“Did I smell like smoke?” he asked.

Siena frowned. “Smoke?”

“That’s what I said!”

Siena straighten on the spot, and clutched the sheet tighter in her fist. “You don’t need to yell at me, John.”

“I didn’t yell.”

“You don’t even hear yourself right now, do you?”

John hesitated when he grabbed his shirt. Instead of putting it on, he stared over at her. The two of them stood like that, staring at each other for a long while before one of them finally spoke and broke the silence.

“Have you seen your therapist?” Siena asked.