Page 234 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

“Ma won’t have Dad’s bastards going in and out of her house all the time. She puts on a good show, sure, but—”

“She’ll only take so much.”

“You could just say fuck the girls for now,” Darren offered. “Focus on everything else.”

“I need them compliant, just in case.”

“Sure, sure.”

“Siena’s enforcer said she did well while we were gone—never acted out of line.”

Siena smiled at that—faintly so it couldn’t be seen. All the while, she never looked away from the men cleaning up the mess that was once her brother’s home.

Good things were coming her way.

She could tell.

“She’s still got her apartment, too,” Kev added quietly. “A couple of months there with an enforcer looking after her won’t be a big deal. I even got the guy to check on the building—there’s an apartment available two doors down from hers.”

“You’re going to send her back to her place?” Darren asked, incredulity coloring his tone. “After everything she did with Johnathan, and even after Ginevra?”

“We don’t know that she helped Ginevra—”

“Suspecting is more than enough in this case, Kev! You’re fucking crazy to let her out of your sight, and you know it.”

“I have to,” Kev grumbled, “for now, anyway.”

Siena smiled wider.

That time, she hid it by looking up at the bright sky.

Good things had come for her.

Siena’s fingers ached from typing all day, and her neck and shoulders felt like rocks from sitting in an uncomfortable computer chair for hours upon hours. The last thing she wanted to do was climb stairs, but freedom was just a few steps away.

Her apartment, that was.

She had been back at her old place for a couple of days. Nothing was better than closing the front door to her apartment, and knowing that her brothers wouldn’t be hanging around a corner or something.

Sure, it left her out of the loop.

She didn’t have information to pass on.

You win some, you lose some.

Siena still kind of considered this winning. At least for her.

She ignored the ache in her feet as she climbed the stairwell, and opened the hallway door leading down the row of apartments on her floor. Behind her, the enforcer still tasked with looking after her followed close behind.

He didn’t speak.

He rarely did.

At her door, Siena pulled out her key, and stuck it in the lock. Like always, the enforcer opted to wait behind her until she had opened up the door, and slipped inside the apartment. She caught sight of his nod before he headed further down the hall.

The guy had gotten that extra apartment, after all.

Siena never left her place without the enforcer waiting outside her door. He drove her to and from work, and to wherever else she needed to go.