Loyalty (John + Siena Book 1)

by Bethany-Kris

  Because he didn’t think they cared.

  His whole life had been this nonsense.

  “John—”

  The cell phone on the island rang out with a familiar tune. John had gotten to the point where he added specific ringtones to certain people. That way, he knew who was calling without even having to look at the phone.

  Jordyn made a move to grab the call, but John spoke up first.

  “Leave it, Ma,” he said. “It’s just Andino.”

  Still, his mother glanced at the phone, but she didn’t actually touch it. “Looks like he’s called you ten times this morning.”

  “Came over last night, too,” John said, “and I showed him how he could leave just as fast as he came.”

  Andino’s visit damn near ended in the two of them going to blows—again. Like Andino promised a couple of days earlier, he came to check in on John. He should have just stayed away a while longer, and gave John some damn space.

  John was still pissed at his cousin for spilling his personal business like it was public fucking consumption. Andino kept trying to say that hadn’t been the case. The fucking proof was right there in black and white.

  What more needed to be said?

  He needed one thing from his cousin—something he gave to Andino without question.

  Loyalty.

  Nothing more, nothing less.

  Being like John was, with the way his life sometimes spiraled out of control, he needed just one fucking person on his side no matter what. Andino was supposed to be that person, but it turned out, he was just like everybody else.

  Loyalty was not promised.

  John didn’t have time for that, either.

  “Come on, now,” Jordyn said, “Andino is your best friend, and you won’t even listen to him?”

  “There’s nothing to listen to, Ma. Now if you don’t mind—”

  The phone chimed again, but this time, with a new ringtone. Instantly, John pushed away from the counter, spun around, and grabbed the device before his mother could even look at the screen. He picked up the call, and put his back to Jordyn.

  “Hey,” John said.

  “Hey, you,” Siena replied on the other end.

  Just like that, his day was better.

  Just like that, he had something else to focus on.

  “So, I am getting off early today because I finished up the details for this file, and it is getting sent off in like … five minutes,” Siena said.

  “That so, babe?”

  “Mmhmm.”

  “What’s that mean for me?”

  She worked too goddamn much.

  He sometimes wanted to hide her away.

  Life was a bitch like that.

  “It means,” Siena drawled, “that if you come pick me up, we could go see that action movie you mentioned was showing this afternoon. I mean, if you want to.”

  Hell yeah, he wanted to.

  John didn’t even think about it. He knew he had work, and places to be, but whatever. Siena and her time was already scant, and he could get back to business another day.

  All that shit would still be there.

  “Where you at?” he asked.

  Siena rattled off an address.

  “I’ll be there in forty, love.”

  “See you.”

  John hung up the phone, and spun around to see his mother was watching him with curious, but guarded eyes.

  “Got a date?” she asked.

  John smirked, and pointed at the entryway. “I’m headed out, Ma. So, you can look around or whatever, but I won’t be here. I’m sure Dad and the rest of them might like an update on the Calabrese situation—or, the Calabrese woman, because fuck them, they can’t even use her name. Let them know I’m still good with what I’m doing, including her.”

  Jordyn cleared her throat, and glanced away. John simply headed out of the kitchen, and didn’t bother looking over his shoulder to say goodbye.

  He had fuck all left to say.

  • • •

  John brushed stray snowflakes from his leather jacket, and glanced up just in time to see Siena strolling out of the restaurant. Her grin bloomed into a full-blown smile at the sight of him waiting for her. He couldn’t stop his gaze from wandering over her—it was strange how every time he looked at her was like the first time.

  He kept finding new things to admire.

  The way her eyes darkened when she peeked at him. How her lips curved just before she kissed him. How her hips swayed when she walked.

  The wool dress she wore did little to hide the curves of her body. The knee-high leather boots she had on covered her legs up to where the wool dress ended just above her knees. Today, she’d left her hair loose in soft waves, and she wore just enough makeup to color her cheeks and lips, but not much more.

  John liked her anyway he could have her.

  It didn’t matter to him.

  The girl was damn gorgeous.

  “Don’t you look nice,” she said, coming closer.

  He pushed off the car with a grin, and reached for her. Catching her hand with his, he pulled her in close enough to rest his hand at her lower back, and drop a kiss to her smiling, pink lips.

  “Shouldn’t I tell you how good you look?” he murmured against her mouth.

  Siena winked. “Sure, but you do look good.”

  “I’m not even in a suit today.”

  “Maybe that’s why I think you look … different.”

  John cocked a brow, and pulled back a little from Siena. “Different?”

  “I don’t know …” She looked him over, and brushed her hand along the cut line of his jaw. “Something about you is different lately. You’re … laughing more, and whatever else.”

  “That sounds normal to me.”

  Siena hummed. “I didn’t say it was a bad thing. Just different.”

  “You think?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And you’re sure that’s not a bad thing?”

  “Never,” she promised him. “Did you end up getting some sleep last night?”

  “Very little. I’m fine—wide awake, bella.”

  He tickled a hand up her side, making her giggle.

  “I can see that.” Siena gave him a look, and said, “And playful, too. Where’s that coming from?”

  “I can’t be playful with you?”

  “You can. You usually aren’t, though. Serious to a fault. A bit intense.”

  “Give it a little bit, and I’ll go that direction, too.”

  Siena laughed. “No doubt. But, you’re sure that everything is good with you?”

  “Yeah. So, my mood is little up.”

  Siena lifted a brow. “Just your mood?”

  John’s throat tightened with her suggestion. “Give me some time today, and we’ll see what else gets popping up.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” she said, her cheeks reddening.

  “I bet you did.”

  “Mmhmm. What were you doing when I called, anyway? Work again?”

  “No, cleaning.”

  Siena’s smile faded a bit. “Your house is spotless, John.”

  He shrugged. “Gotta do something to keep my attention focused.”

  “You could focus on me.”

  John laughed, dark and husky. His hand skimmed up her back, and tangled in the ends of Siena’s hair. He tugged gently, and leaned in to capture her mouth with another one of his kisses. A hotter, and harder kiss. One that left his lungs aching with the need to breathe, and made her pupils blow wide while she stared back at him.

  He pulled away.

  But not because he wanted to.

  “Trust me,” he said, “the only thing I plan on doing for the rest of today is focusing entirely on you, Siena. Whatever you want to do, and wherever you want to go. That’s what we’re going to do, love.”

  Her smile softened and sweetened. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You are a little different today. Something, anyway.”


  John chuckled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, donna.”

  She winked, but gestured between her eyes, and his. “Just know, I’ve got my eyes on you. Don’t you try anything cute on me.”

  “Hey, as long as somebody’s watching out for me. That’s all that matters.”

  Lately, he trusted her way more than anybody else in his life. The funny thing was that he knew her for a fraction of the time he knew all of them.

  Still, something told him …

  Something inside said she was gold.

  Precious.

  Pure.

  Priceless.

  That couldn’t be ignored.

  John didn’t know what exactly to make of it, or what it would mean for him. He would figure out all of that later.

  Now wasn’t the time.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  SIENA GRINNED when John dragged her closer, and engulfed her in his embrace. He rested his chin on the top of her head, while she buried her face against his chest. The busy theater ceased to exist for the moment. The long line they had been waiting in for thirty minutes just to grab snacks for a movie that had started ten minutes ago no longer mattered.

  John’s lips skimmed the top of her head when he said, “We could always pick a different movie, love.”

  “You wanted to see this one, though.”

  “What’s the damn point if you miss the first twenty minutes of it?”

  “We’ve only missed the first ten,” she pointed out.

  John’s grip tightened on her, and his fingertips tickled up her sides. “Yeah, but by the time we actually get in there, it’ll be twenty.”

  Probably.

  Siena didn’t care.

  “The first bit of a movie is always an info dump and backstory, anyway,” she said, tilting her head back to peer up at him. “It’s like we’ll go in and know nothing, and have zero preconceived notions.”

  John chuckled under his breath. “That’s quite a way to sell a movie. Buy expensive tickets for something we’re just going to drop you in the middle of, but trust me, it’ll be good.”

  Siena poked him gently in the chest with the tip of her finger. She felt his muscles tighten and jump under the touch. “Maybe you just don’t have a big enough imagination, John.”

  “Maybe not.”

  He was only half in their conversation at that point. She knew it by the way his eyes drifted over to something behind her, as though he had to keep a close watch on it for whatever reason. He had been doing that a lot lately.

  John never outright ignored her when it happened, but she could tell he wasn’t entirely present, either. Siena didn’t know what to make of it.

  Or a few other things …

  There was something different about his eyes lately—the hazel was darker, and his gaze seemed sharper. Like the way he didn’t let anything that moved around them go unnoticed. He was always looking from one thing, to another. Watching one person, and then the next that passed them by.

  “Hey,” Siena whispered.

  John’s gaze was back on her in a blink. “Hey.”

  “I’m here, you know.”

  She said the words quietly, and offered them softly. She didn’t want him to take it as anything other than a quest to bring him back to her for a second or two.

  “I know where you are,” John murmured. His words made her heart pick up speed by a few beats. “I always know where you are, Siena.”

  “Oh?”

  “If I don’t know where you are, it’s like some kind of itch under my skin that I can’t scratch.”

  Siena’s brow furrowed. “That sounds unpleasant.”

  John shrugged. “So be it.”

  She heard what he didn’t say.

  He didn’t mind it. Maybe a part of him preferred it.

  “Because it’s me?” she asked.

  John’s slow smile curved those lips of his in the sexiest way. “Yeah, donna, because it’s you.”

  “So, even when I tell you I’m here …”

  “I’m already there,” he said, winking.

  “Hard to tell sometimes with the way your attention flips all over the place.”

  John lifted a hand and tapped a single finger to his temple. “No matter what, there’s one part of this that will be—” He twirled that same finger over her head. “—always focused on that. Even if it seems like I’m not.”

  The heavy warmth that spread through Siena’s veins at John’s words was both comforting, and terrifying. A lot of things were like that with him—he barely had to try, and it felt like he was drawing her in, and warning her at the same time.

  Maybe that should have been a sign.

  She still didn’t care.

  Wordlessly, John dropped a kiss to the very tip of her nose, and then another one to her mouth. She felt his hands splay wide to her sides, and squeeze gently. All over again, the busy movie theater ceased to exist.

  He was looking at her.

  He was touching her.

  Nothing else mattered.

  Of course, as the saying went, nothing gold could stay.

  John’s phone rang not a second later, making his attention on Siena break as he pulled the device out of his pocket. He checked the screen, and then offered her a shrug.

  “Have to take it, bella,” he said. “You good for a minute?”

  “Sure. What do you want me to get you?”

  John scoffed as he looked over the long line. “You’ll still be waiting by the time I get back.”

  Probably.

  He gave her a quick kiss, and then put the phone to his ear as he stepped out of the line. She kept an eye on him until his back disappeared around corner a few steps away.

  Mostly, Siena tried not to worry about John as much as she could. It was made difficult by the fact she noticed the changes he refused to acknowledge when she asked about them.

  Like his attention.

  His lack of sleep.

  His ups, and his downs—moments that came, literally, in a moment. Then, gone in the next.

  Yet, those things were offset by the fact he was also highly productive. Upbeat, and constantly on some kind of move. He never stopped doing something.

  Siena didn’t know what to think. She worried that asking the wrong questions—ones that zeroed in on the medications she had found, and the disorder she suspected he lived with—might push him away.

  No part of her wanted to allow that.

  Except she knew … the longer she kept what she had stumbled upon hidden from John, the more likely it was that he would feel betrayed or something worse.

  She didn’t want that, either.

  “The line is moving.”

  Siena came out of her thoughts with a shake of her head to see that, yes, the line was moving. She gave the blond-haired, green-eyed guy a smile, and thanks. He winked back, which made his group of friends grin.

  They all looked like they had walked out of a frat house.

  No thanks.

  Siena turned her back to them, and looked up at the signs overhead advertising junk food, and drinks. The guy’s voice in her ear made her realize how close he had come when she turned around. Just a little bit too late.

  “They make this crazy mix of popcorn, chocolate chips, and small marshmallows. They drizzle salted caramel and milk chocolate all over it. It’s awesome. You want to try it?”

  Siena turned slightly to give the guy a look, and make him back off. Thankfully, he did take a step back. He was probably harmless, but she also wasn’t interested in finding out.

  “No, thanks.”

  The guy shrugged. “Shame. You looked kind of lonely standing there all by yourself.”

  Siena didn’t know if the guy and his group of friends had been standing behind her and John minutes ago, so she took him at his word. “I’m fine, really.”

  “If you’re sure …?”

  “She’s sure.”

  Johnathan’s rough reply coming from her right made S
iena stiffen. She couldn’t remember a time when she had ever heard him sound like that.

  Angry and cold.

  Seemed he had come back from his phone call without her even noticing. She turned to face him, and slipped a hand in with his. Instantly, he pulled her in close, and rested one of his arms around the back of her neck.

  The comfort came back.

  Just like that.

  “Sorry,” the guy said.

  John didn’t even reply. He only grunted unintelligibly back.

  “You good?” he asked her quietly.

  His words murmured into her hair.

  “I am now.”

  “Good, love.”

  John moved them subtly so that her back was facing the group of guys, while at the same time, he could watch them. Never once did his arm release her from the tight hold around the back of her neck and shoulders. Siena didn’t even mind. She tipped her head back to stare up at him. The sharp line of his jaw showed a tic, and his gaze wasn’t on her.

  “Everything good—with the call, I mean?”

  John didn’t look down. “Yeah, babe. It’s good.”

  “Fucking shame, man. Lucked out on that ass. Almost had it.”

  The ruckus of laughter from the group of frat boys, not to mention the one guy’s words, had John stiffening.

  “I hope you’re not fucking talking about this girl,” he said over her head.

  Siena’s heart leaped into her throat. She pressed her hands into his hard stomach to try and get his attention on her, and not on those fools. “Hey, it’s fine, John.”

  Nope.

  He didn’t even look away from them at all.

  “And what if I was?” the guy from earlier asked. “Chill, man, she’s with you.”

  “Say something about her again, and see what I’ll do.”

  “John,” Siena murmured.

  He wasn’t hearing her at all. His blazing gaze was locked on a group of idiots, and yet, his hold on her hadn’t loosened a bit.

  “She isn’t worth it, anyway,” the guy said with a laugh.

  It kind of sounded like he meant it to be dismissive. A way to back away from John’s threats, and yet still keep some kind of pride with his friends.

  Siena knew it was a mistake before he even finished talking.

  She felt it in John’s body.

  Saw it in his eyes.