by Bethany-Kris
Yeah, John knew.
“Andino is handling business—my other cousin and another man step in when needed, too. Everything is fine. For now, it’s all about her.”
“Right,” Leonard murmured. “Well, had you made it to your session this week, there was something I wanted to speak with you about, but it can wait until our next one. And of course, you know how to reach me should you need something. Don’t hesitate, John. I’m only a phone call away.”
“I appreciate it.”
“Say hello to Siena for me. I owe her a lunch date.”
John chuckled. “She’ll be sad she missed you.”
It wasn’t a lie.
Everyone in John’s life thought Leonard was the best thing—next to Siena, that was—to ever happen to him.
And frankly, they weren’t wrong.
FOUR
“So, how are you feeling?”
“Really good,” Siena answered her mother-in-law honestly. “The first week after I was discharged was … long seems like a good word.”
Which wasn’t at all a lie. She spent the entire first week mostly in bed. Although this time, without the coughing and inability to breathe. It was as though her body and mind decided to shut down and make her recover. Not just from the illness, but from the stress of it all. Honestly, Siena truly needed the break.
Her second week out of the hospital had been a great deal better, thankfully. She was out of bed, actually eating three meals a day that were not made up of some kind of soup or broth, and she could make it through an afternoon without needing a two or three-hour nap. Although really, who didn’t need a good nap once in a while?
Naps were life.
It didn’t matter how old she was.
“You were still tired, probably,” Jordyn said.
It brought Siena back to the conversation at hand. Other than a few visits to see if there was anything in the house that needed done, or phone calls to check up on her, most everyone had left Siena alone to recover. She didn’t mind; it’s what she needed.
“All the time.”
Jordyn laughed. “Sickness has a way of doing that to us women. And then when you become a mother, it’s even worse because guess what? You don’t get time off. It doesn’t matter if you’re on your deathbed, someone is going to need you, and you’re just going to have to suck it up. But you understand … you have your younger sisters and all.”
Siena sighed. “Yeah, I know.”
“But what matters is you’re out of the hospital and can finally get back to normal. Which means we can also figure out what we’re doing for your sister’s birthday—”
The opening of the front door had a smile growing on Siena’s face. The last thing she wanted to do was seem rude to her mother-in-law, but she didn’t think Jordyn would mind when she interrupted her to say, “We can plan that another day—John just got home, I think.”
“Ah, then yes we can. Say hello to him.”
Siena smirked. “And I will make him call.”
He didn’t do that enough. In fact, his least favorite thing to do was talk on the phone. People would get a better response out of John if they just texted him because that was easier and faster than him making time to sit down and chat. Oh, he tried—definitely. Sometimes, though, life just became too much and John disengaged from everything. And more often than not, that meant taking a step back from others.
Including family.
At least now, Siena thought the people around them were better at recognizing that’s what John was doing and not purposely trying to cut them off. Occasionally, he needed to take time for himself to recharge. Just because he did it in a different way than someone else might do it for themselves didn’t mean he shouldn’t do it.
“I have the best daughter-in-law,” Jordyn mused, the smile in her tone clear.
Siena laughed. “I am your only daughter-in-law.”
“And yet, that changes nothing.”
“I’ll get John to call.”
“Thank you, sweetheart. Have a good night. We’ll chat soon.”
“Sounds good.”
Siena had just hung up the phone and tossed it aside on the couch when footsteps approached her from behind. Tipping her head back, she smiled at John as he shrugged off his suit jacket and came closer. Without saying a word—not even a hello, although that was fine with her considering the way he did greet her—he leaned down and kissed her. Those teasing lips of his moved smoothly against her own, coaxing them open until he could get the taste he was so clearly looking for.
Then, his mouth traveled over her chin. The sweet kisses dotted over her skin, leaving sparks every single spot that they landed.
God.
She loved this man.
All too soon, though, John pulled away with a teasing grin. “Missed you today, babe.”
“Did you?”
“Mmhmm.”
Nerves climbed higher in Siena’s throat. Not that John made her nervous, but rather, something she had to talk to him about. She’d given it two entire weeks after her hospital discharge before even broaching the topic if only because her husband was who he was—and he could be overly protective of her for it, too.
“Well, you’ll be seeing me more during the day soon,” she told him.
At that, John straightened to his full height and placed his hands to the back of the couch. “Oh, why is that?”
“I was thinking … I should probably get back to work. I mean, it’s been two weeks since I got out of the hospital. I was given the all clear yesterday, and we both know those numbers don’t work themselves.”
“I had someone—”
“Doing all the numbers?” she asked.
John chuckled and tipped his head to the side. “I could find someone to do those numbers, too, Siena.”
Yeah, he probably could.
Didn’t matter.
Siena was the only one who really knew all the illegal facets of John’s business when it came to money. She could hide it, wash it, and more. The idea of someone else having access to those files and numbers made her sick to her stomach. It would only take one mistake. One misstep—a single error—for the IRS to be up their ass seven ways to Sunday. Which would only leave her husband arrested, likely.
And her.
Siena wouldn’t have that.
“I want to get back to work,” she said simply.
John smiled softly. “I figured.”
“Did you?”
“Yeah. You get stir-crazy.”
She scoffed, but really … he wasn’t wrong.
“And I planned for it,” John added, his right hand leaving the couch to skim over her throat and down her chest. His wandering hands came to a stop at the neckline of her over-sized sleep shirt. He fingered the fabric of her shirt, every graze a tease to her senses. Did he even know how much just his touch could affect her? “A driver and shorter workdays to start back—how’s that?”
“And no argument otherwise?” she replied.
With less air. His fingers had just danced over her throat again, after all.
“Did you think I would argue about you wanting to go back to work?”
Siena swallowed hard. “Well, you do worry.”
“Not right now,” he murmured, a glint in his eye as his gaze traveled over the shirt she’d pulled on after a shower.
She grinned back. “Not now. So, does the way you look right now mean you’re done treating me like a china doll?”
“First of all, I have not treated you like a china doll.”
“Actually, for the entire time I was sick. Like you thought I would break if you looked at me the wrong way, John.”
His tongue peeked out to wet his lower lip before he smirked sinfully. The sight alone made Siena a little more breathless. God. He was beyond sexy when he grinned like that—did he even know what it did to her; how wet it made her?
“Secondly,” he added, as though she hadn’t said anything at all, “how do I look right now?”<
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“As though you’re going to fuck me all night.”
That time, he flashed his teeth with his smile.
She couldn’t breathe at all.
“Do I get to start with having you on this couch?” he asked. “Because you know I love the way my name echoes in this room when you scream it.”
“I certainly hope so.”
With his next laugh—one that rang dark and pleased and wicked—he dropped his blazer to the floor. Siena still hadn’t managed to catch her breath before he was rolling over the back of the sofa to fall on top of her. She didn’t think it was possible to get one’s clothes off in mere seconds, but somehow, she and John managed it.
Yeah.
It had definitely been too long.
John gave her what she wanted, too. Fucked her until she was screaming his name and it bounced off all the walls. He worked her body like a fine instrument that he’d spent his entire life learning to play with the best kind of love.
And then he took her upstairs to their bed to do it again.
FIVE
“Listen to the two of you—bickering like babies.”
Pink scoffed hard and loud. “Babies don’t bicker, man.”
“Nah, they whine and cry,” Andino returned just as fast, “and your whining and crying is getting on my damn nerves.”
“Everything gets on your fucking nerves.”
“Starting with you.”
“Yeah, but it keeps you at your best, Andi,” Pink returned.
“That’s debatable.”
“Or true,” Michel added, joining the conversation. “Otherwise, why would you have kept Lev around for this long, anyway? Someone else with his mouth and bullshit, and you would have put them in a shallow grave before anyone knew what happened. That’s facts.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying for years.”
John had to agree with Pink and Michel, but unlike them, he knew better than to point it out to Andino. That would likely lead to a whole other discussion that would only make his cousin feel defensive. Andi didn’t like to admit when he cared for people, never mind when he needed somebody around. He much preferred for everyone to believe he was the cold asshole with a heart of stone.
Frankly, John understood why.
Mostly.
“You know what,” Andino muttered, “you’re both working my nerves now. Lucky I fucking like the two of you.”
Laughter filled the restaurant’s rear office between three distinct men as John approached. The chef behind the prep station lifted his head and nodded at the passing man; he returned the gesture to Andino’s employee. One of the few that he actually liked but that was mostly because the man could cook like nobody’s business. He had an attitude, but most people who were successful at something were a little too cocky for their own good.
Even John.
“Who’s bickering about what now?”
John’s question at the three men in the office turning to find him standing in the doorway. When one couldn’t find Andino doing business outside of his favorite restaurant, and the man also wasn’t eating at one of the tables or the private section, then he could always be found in his rear office. It was probably supposed to be for the manager of the business but seeing as how this was where Andino did the majority of all his work—well, the manager likely made it work elsewhere. John never cared to ask.
“And that’s my sign to get going,” Michel said, standing from his chair with a chuckle where he had been sitting beside Pink. “I have to drop Antony off to Ma because Gabbie won’t have time today.”
John stepped aside in the doorway to let his cousin pass. “You’re handling that issue today for me, aren’t you?”
“The Capo with the racket trouble—it’s on my list.”
“Thanks, man.”
Michel clapped John on the shoulder as he passed and then waved two fingers over his shoulder to say goodbye to the other two men he left behind in the office. With a nod from Andino, John closed the door behind Michel and shut out the rest of the restaurant. Not that any of the employees would have anything to say about the business and discussions they likely overheard day in and day out, but one couldn’t be too careful in this life. Andino had great employees that he vetted like nobody’s business, not to mention paid very well to turn their cheeks to his activities, but still …
No chances.
“How’s Siena?” Pink asked, standing from his chair before removing the coat he’d set along the back. “Feeling any better?”
John grinned at the thought of his wife. “Much better.”
“Good to hear. I’ll be out in the dining room when you’re ready to get a start on the day, John.”
“Sounds good. Leonard is coming—let me know when he gets here. I promised him breakfast and a chat before I do anything. You don’t mind waiting for that, do you?”
Pink shrugged. “Not at all.”
“Multitasking?” Andino asked after Pink exited the office.
John sighed, and took a seat opposite to his cousin sitting behind the large desk. Beside the furniture slept a dog who hadn’t even perked his head up at John’s arrival or the exit of the other men. Then again, Snaps was so accustomed to the three of them coming and going from his master’s office that he no longer cared.
That was, unless Andino wasn’t in the office. Then, Snaps became something else entirely, and he behaved as though he didn’t recognize them at all. Nonetheless, the ruddy-colored Pitbull slept happily, snoring away.
“Getting things crossed off my to-do list,” John replied. “And you know, getting everything back the way I like it after my break.”
Andino nodded. “I had everything handled.”
“Not like I handle it, though.”
That had his cousin chuckling.
“No, I suppose not, John.”
“No offense,” John added quickly.
Andino shrugged his broad shoulders and leaned back in his chair to fold his arms over his chest. He’d rolled his dress shirt up to his elbows; a sure sign that the man planned on doing very little for the rest of the day and was ready to relax. That’s always what it meant when he removed his blazer and rolled up his sleeves.
“No offense taken,” Andino replied. “It’s better we understand now that you and I aren’t the same men, and we’re not going to handle our business the same. Although, it seems you might have finally figured out what to do about the whole underboss and consigliere thing, no?”
“I’m not following, and Leonard’s going to be here soon for a session, so—”
“Michel and Pink.”
Ah.
“Listen, it’s not been explicitly said or anything,” John explained, “but they do what they do, and it works for me. I know they’re not made men—”
“They don’t have to be. They just have to be your men. There’s been many bosses who had right-hand men that weren’t in with the family in one way or another. Associates, or whatever the case may be. No one is going to think less of you or them because they’re not made men.”
“Might it cause trouble, though?”
Andino smirked. “Well, we’d handle that, yeah? Easy. Same way we handled it when you took over the Calabrese faction. It’s really that simple.”
But was it?
John didn’t know.
“It’s not just everyone else,” John told his cousin. “It’s also them. Lev and Michel, I mean.”
“What do you—”
“I haven’t asked them, Andi.”
“Michel is spending his afternoon picking up his son before making a trip to see your Capo, and Pink is waiting for your therapist so that you can take your breakfast in peace without interruption while you have a session. What more needs to be said?”
John stared hard at his cousin. Andino looked right back, unbothered.
Nothing new to see here.
“I don’t know,” John murmured.
Andino nodded. “Yeah, me either.”
“John?”
“Hmm?”
Across the table, Leonard smiled at him. “You seem distracted.”
“Work.”
“Oh—bad things?”
“No, just things to think about,” John returned.
“That happens. That thing I’d mentioned—I was hoping you might make time to meet with someone for me.”
That had John’s full attention.
“Who?” he asked.
“A friend,” Leonard replied. “I think he could help you with things that perhaps, I cannot.”
“You help.”
“I might not always be able to, though.”
John took more than a few seconds to reply to that. “Why?”
The silence grew longer.
Heavy.
It wasn’t like Leonard.
John didn’t like it at all.
Eventually, his therapist said, “I’m sick, John. Bladder cancer. My first treatment was two weeks ago, but I wanted to wait until everything was settled with you before I brought it up. I hope you understand.”
Why—when everything in his life seemed to be going so well—did the world have to come crashing down around him?
SIX
Apparently, Siena’s first day back at work—which just happened to land on a Friday—was also welcome Siena back day with a constant stream of visitors. Everyone from John’s mother to his sister came to say hello and drop her off a little something.
Candy.
Coffee.
Flowers.
She loved it all.
But she also wanted to work.
After the third visitor who knocked on her office door, however, Siena simply settled herself on the fact that she would not be getting anything done. At least, not today. So, she shut down her laptop, ordered a round of drinks and sides from the kitchen, and made her way out to the dining room to sit down and enjoy her friends and family.