Page 153 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

John would not be with her.

Siena had barely finished getting dressed earlier when John’s phone started to ring again. This time, it was not Andino calling him, but his uncle. I’m eating, was all he said.

He was to be there—at the meeting.

No matter what.

That was the order.

Siena didn’t even think about what it would mean if she went with him to the meeting. She only knew that she wanted to go. John agreed, and so here she was.

“He burned down my warehouse,” Matteo said, his gaze darting back to Dante. “You will answer for that, or he will. I do not care which one it is.”

“You don’t know for sure that—”

Matteo took one more step forward, the threat blazing in his eyes. “Who the fuck else would have done it, Marcello, you? One of your men, perhaps? Did you order it because you felt I was too close? You never did like it when the Calabrese get close to your men. Did you finally have enough?”

Dante’s jaw hardened, but his face gave away nothing. Not an emotion, nothing at all.

“There’s a reason why the Marcellos and the Calabrese don’t mix business,” Dante said. “And you know very well what that reason is, Matteo.”

“And yet,” Matteo said, “you had no problem with my daughter and your nephew.”

“I had every problem with it.”

Matteo sneered, and his eyes drifted to John once more. “Who’s to say he didn’t do it? Everyone in your family knows the man is unstable. Hell, anyone who spends time with him knows it.”

John’s stiffened beside Siena. She held tighter to him when she felt his muscles tense as though he was about to spring forward. His body felt like a winding coil about to come undone.

“John,” she whispered too low for anyone else to hear, “it’s okay.”

It was like he didn’t hear her at all.

“Say that again,” John uttered.

Matteo gaze stayed firmly on John when he said, “It’s no secret that you’re crazy, John. The way you go on sometimes, and the shit you do … this isn’t a surprise. What is a surprise is how long your family was able to keep it quiet.”

Siena couldn’t keep her hold on John after that statement. He ripped away from her side like a bullet shooting from a gun. He was a foot away from her father before someone was quick enough to step in and grab him.

Actually, several people.

And just like that, a meeting that had a possibility to be peaceful and calm was now chaos and violence.

“Say that again!”

John’s words echoed above the shouting men.

Only a laugh answered him back.

Held back by his cousin, father, and uncle, they were barely keeping ahold of John. Matteo gave another one of his sneers. A signature look for her father. Something he always gave to someone when he felt above them, and he wanted them to know they were beneath him.

She was not surprised to see him use it on John.

“I think this meeting is done,” Dante said.

Matteo turned away, and waved a hand to his men. “It was done before it ever began, Dante. We both know that. We’re leaving.”

Siena moved toward John, but she didn’t make it far.