Page 293 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

SIXTEEN

“Jail gray looks like shit on you,” John noted.

Andino looked away from the clock on the wall to showcase one of his usual easygoing grins. “Right? But fuck, it was this, or the suit I was wearing last week when they threw me in here.”

Yeah, fuck.

“What are you still doing in jail, huh? You should have been out by now, Andi. Arthur Lorde clearly isn’t doing what he’s supposed to be doing. You’re still fucking in here. They’ve filed charges, man.”

Andino shrugged. “But what do they have?”

“Andino—”

“No video surveillance. Darren Calabrese made sure he picked a spot where there were no cameras around to spot us going in and out. No witnesses to say I did anything except be there. No live victims—the other enforcer Darren brought along died yesterday. They couldn’t even hold you and the other guys, John. They have nothing. Arthur is likely just biding his time.”

John sometimes wished he could have the same bright optimism as the people around him, but his mind didn’t work that way. He first went to the worst place imaginable, and then worked back from that to get to a relatively decent place.

“You’re forgetting details,” John pointed out.

“Do tell.”

“The detectives are hounding everybody. My lawyer’s phone won’t stop ringing. They’re threatening charges on us still, even though they released us. The only reason they’re holding you is in hopes they’ll get someone else to roll for your sake.”

“Maybe someone will do just that,” Andino said. “It would be a win-win all the way around the board. I’ll get out of this shithole, and they’ll get someone to eviscerate on the news, so they don’t have to lose face.”

“You’re missing the point, Andino.”

His cousin sighed, and his green gaze drifted to John’s. “I’m not, man. I get this is not going the way I planned. You’re right, too. I should have been out of here by now, but at the moment, it is a waiting game. This whole life is one giant waiting game, anyway. I can wait for one more thing, surely.”

John knew that feeling.

At first, a little boy waited to grow up, so he could be the same as the men around him. Then the grown-up boy waited to be made. Being a made man only took a man to waiting for several different things—money, honor, death, or jail time.

Funny how that worked.

“Haven is …”

Andino’s gaze darted to John again. “What?”

“Your wife is very upset.”

Putting it lightly.

Haven Marcello was in one hell of a fit. Damn, the woman wasn’t even Italian, but she knew how to raise hell like any good old Italian woman at the end of the day. She was a nasty thing when she thought something or someone was fucking with her life, and her husband.

Not that John blamed her.

This shit was bad.

“You’ll figure it out,” Andino told John.

“Was that part of your plan, too?” he asked.

Andino smiled. “What, leaving you to hold the ball for me?”

“I suppose you could put it that way.”

“Man, I have held the ball for you time and time again in our life. I didn’t mind doing it, either. No, it wasn’t part of the plan, but here we are. I have all the faith that you’ll do whatever you need to do, so we can get back to controlling this fucking city like we were always meant to.”