Page 7 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

John found the guard in question the moment the front entrance to the Marcello home was in full view. Dressed in all black, the man rested beside a dark sedan with a cigarette in one hand and a gun at his waist. John knew the man had to be the guard because no one else was permitted to smoke in front of the Marcello home. They had areas designated for that sort of thing.

“He’s keeping him closer,” John noted.

“Yeah.”

“Any particular reason why?”

Gio shrugged. “You can never be too safe.”

Why didn’t John believe that?

“Hey,” Gio said quietly.

John gave his uncle a look. “Hmm?”

“You good?”

“Yeah.”

His tension was still there, dancing hand in hand with his anxiety. Three years in lock-up was a long time to be gone. How many things had changed since he’d went to prison? How much more distance had he forced between him and his family in that time?

Gio turned the car off and put his hand on the door handle. “For the record, John …”

“What about it?”

“I thought you made the right choice three years ago.”

John’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“When your father bribed the judge with the option of an institution or jail time. I thought you made the right choice.”

Well, that was not what John expected to hear.

“Why is that?”

“Because despite how irrational everything you were doing seemed to be, I don’t believe for a second that any hospital in the country would have sorted you out like prison did. Thirty days in an institution with a couple of therapists, new meds, and little else wasn’t what you needed. Time was what you needed, John. You still got the doctors, you got the meds, but you also got the break. You made the right choice.”

John let out a slow breath. “Who else feels that way?”

Gio laughed. “I know what you’re asking without outright asking it.”

“So?”

“Your mother is probably at the front door about ready to blow it down and come out here.”

John nodded, knowing his uncle wasn’t going to answer his question. “I better get my ass in the house before she comes out.”

“Yeah, probably. I bet your father is waiting, too.”

“We haven’t talked a lot since I went in.”

“All you had to do was pick up the phone, John.”

John glanced at the mansion. “I know.”

“Lucian thinks you made the right choice for you. In case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t.”