Page 127 of Disgrace

Done and done.

She stepped back, and found a chair in the corner of the room to make herself comfortable for the next little while. For all the machines and wires hooked up to Darren, it took only a couple of quick minutes to remove them from his body.

“Would you leave that one on?” Siena asked.

The doctor hesitated as his hand hovered over the monitor. “You want me to leave the heart rate monitor on?”

She needed to know.

She had to.

“Yes, if it’s possible.”

The nurse and doctor shared a look before the man nodded once at her. “Yes, I can leave it on. It might be upsetting, however, and—”

“I can assure you it won’t be.”

And it wasn’t.

When his heart stopped …

When it was still …

When it was silent …

Darren was dead.

Siena only felt relief.

• • •

Siena stepped out of the hospital room to find the enforcer that had been placed at the door before she went in had not moved an inch from his post. The man greeted her with a kind smile, and a nod.

“Siena,” he said.

Respectful.

Caring.

Soft-spoken.

This enforcer—a man who introduced himself by name, with a smile, and a handshake the first time they met—was not like any other guard Siena had ever had. He did not treat her like a piece of property to la famiglia that he was simply protecting.

He was not a Calabrese enforcer.

He was a Marcello enforcer.

And he was hers, now.

John had said everything would change the day the bomb blew a week before, and he had not been lying.

Everything was different.

“Pink,” she greeted.

Yep.

That was his nickname.