Page 248 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

All she could do was dead-stare Andino right in the face. She had no appropriate response because none would be good enough. Her care and concern for either one of her brothers was so low, it couldn’t even be measured.

Hate was not a good enough word.

Truly.

“Let me guess,” Andino drawled, “if you don’t have anything good to say, then say nothing at all.”

“Something like that,” she replied.

“That makes this easier. How opposed are you to murder?”

A lump formed in her throat instantly.

His suggestion was blatant, and cold.

Still, Siena barely had to think about it at all. “It’s all for him, right?”

For John.

For them.

For forever.

“I need Kev gone.” Andino passed over a small clear bag with one tablet inside. “Arsenic pressed into a pill. It’ll dissolve quickly in something like liquor, or anything with a good amount of acid.”

“Like juice, or soda.”

“Exactly.”

Siena nodded. “That’s a terrible way to die.”

Andino laughed. “Fuck, you know what, if I wanted easy right now I’d have blown up his restaurant once I knew you were gone from it. Unfortunately, that draws a lot of attention, and I’m trying to follow some kind of rules at the moment.”

Jesus.

That lump was still firm in her throat.

“Make sure there’s a lot of people around, and not only you and someone else. You don’t want suspicion being drawn to you on this, either,” Andino said.

“Definitely not.”

“You don’t have to let me know when it’s done, either. I’ll get word.”

Siena glanced down at the pill in the bag. “John won’t like me doing this.”

Hell, even she was struggling with the idea of actually being the cause of someone’s death. She wasn’t quite ready to use murder in context with everything, but she was not so naive that she didn’t realize that’s exactly what it meant.

John would understand why she dirtied her hands in this way eventually, sure, but that didn’t mean he would like it.

Not at all.

“Well,” Andino murmured, “we’re just not going to tell him until after.”

Yeah.

Shit.

“I should go before someone notices me gone.”