by Bethany-Kris
His part in it made no difference.
He didn’t want recognition.
“It’s almost over,” Andino said beside John. “We’ll get them. We’ll end them. Soon.”
CHAPTER NINE
SIENA WAS beginning to hate the passage of time. Or rather, how time no longer passed by for her the way it used to. Before all of this had happened—before John came into her life, and was then taken from her—she never paid much attention to getting through her days, or how slowly they crawled by.
None of that ever seemed important before. She got through the days by focusing on her work, and getting lost in books. By using the black and white simplicity she applied to her love of numbers, and the little joys she got in her private moments alone.
Back then, she had yet to find something that was worth counting her seconds, minutes, hours, and days for.
It was no longer that easy.
Now, time felt like a snail sliding ridiculously slow across ice. No amount of work could keep her distracted or focused enough, and she worked all the damn time. Still. Her eyes continued to travel to wherever the clock was on the wall, and she often found herself counting down.
It had become a game of sorts.
Twenty days since I last saw John.
Twelve hours to John’s next phone call.
Three days until yoga.
Whatever she had to tell herself to get through the fucking day, and into the next, that’s exactly what Siena did.
Problem for her was, that method only went so far, and her distractions were not without some kind of consequence. Mostly, her work.
Siena blinked, and rubbed the heels of her palms against her eyes. The numbers on the screen might as well have just bled together for all she understood of the mess in front of her. She wasn’t even sure where some of these goddamn numbers had come from, or how she got them to this point.
Her bottom line number in the Excel spreadsheet lit up bright red. A sure sign that the total had ended up in the negative, which meant nothing good because that wasn’t where those numbers were supposed to be. Not even close. That told her she had done something wrong at some fucking point.
But where?
How?
Which account had the mistake?
Siena sighed, and pressed her fingertips into her temples to relieve some of the pressure starting to form there. A migraine from eye-strain and stress, likely. She was getting them far more often than she liked lately.
In her head, she started going back through numbers, accounts, and their individual books. She had worked on at least fifteen different accounts for Kev’s restaurant today—a pretty average day, all things considered.
Still, she needed to find that error.
The books couldn’t ever be filed in the red.
She was paying heavily for her distractions. More hours at a computer fixing books she should have already had done a week or more ago. A sore back, and stiff fingers from working so much because this shit had to be done, and she was the only one doing it for her brothers’ businesses.
“You’re still not done yet?”
Siena quickly glanced up from the numbers on the screen to find Kev standing in the doorway. He stared back at her, seemingly unbothered or unknowing of her troubles. She couldn’t decide if that was a good thing, or not.
“No, I’m not done yet,” she finally said.
Kev looked at the watch on his wrist. “It’s almost five, Siena.”
“I’m aware, Kev.”
She had been watching the clock, after all.
“Jason had shit to do today, Siena. He’s been waiting on your slow ass all day.”
“Jason?”
Who the fuck was Jason?
“Your enforcer,” Kev said as though he were talking to a small, dumb child.
“You know,” Siena replied, “that’s the first time someone has ever told me his name. And that includes him.”
“Huh.” Kev shrugged. “Guess it wasn’t important for you to know.”
Nothing ever was.
“I won’t be much longer,” Siena said, waving a hand and going back to the computer screen. “Tell him a half hour, at most.”
Or she would make it that long.
One or the other.
“I told you—he’s got shit to do,” Kev said. “Just go. It’s not like you can’t pick up where you left off tomorrow, or something.”
Except that’s not how Siena had been taught to do things, and work. It was not the proper way to do things. What accounts she opened and started in a day, she had to finish inputting and calculating numbers.
That way, there was less chance of more mistakes should she come back to it, and forget her place. In her business of cooking and falsifying books, she could not afford very many goddamn mistakes before it became noticeable.
Numbers were unforgiving that way.
Kev didn’t understand.
Arguing wouldn’t help.
Siena decided to take this small blessing for what it was, anyway. There was no way her brother would take her request for a break seriously. He would just laugh, and refuse while telling her she didn’t need a fucking break.
She could be having a stroke, and he would still want her to show up to work the next day. So was her goddamn life.
“Fine,” Siena said heavily as she pushed up from the chair. Quickly, she closed the books out. She didn’t even bother to save the work she had done for the day because it all needed to be redone, anyway. Then, she looked at Kev with raised hands. “I’m done. Happy?”
“I will be when you get out of my office. Jason is waiting in his car outside.”
Good for him.
Kev plopped his ass down in the chair as soon as Siena moved out of the way. He had already put the phone from the desk to his ear by the time Siena stepped out of the office. She closed the door behind her, but it wasn’t enough to hide Kev’s conversation. Like their father’s voice had once done her brother’s also carried through walls.
Siena took the second or two she had to lean against the hallway wall, and press her fingers to her temples once more. Without the unforgiving brightness of the screen in her eyes, the pounding in her head subsided just enough to make the oncoming migraine a little more bearable.
At least, for now.
Behind her, she could hear Kev talking on the phone. She only knew he was talking to Darren—wherever he was today—because Kev used her other brother’s name.
“When it comes to this, Darren, no news is bad news,” Kev snapped.
Somebody needed to give her brothers’ lessons on privacy. Neither of them understood how loud their voices could be.
It was sad, really.
“You’re telling me that not one effort we’ve made to fuck with the Marcello family’s business on the streets—or otherwise—has worked? Not one fucking thing?”
A beat of silence passed.
And then, “Then we’re going to go back to my way—yes, exactly that, Darren.”
Siena should move, as her enforcer was waiting for her, and Kev might come out of the office soon. Still, she stayed right where she was.
“Your way isn’t working either,” Kev snarled. “At least with my way, we were knocking them down. Even if it was one by fucking one. Let’s try my way one more time—something a bit more violent. It’s my choice, and I made it.”
Shit.
That didn’t sound good.
Kev’s conversation continued on with Darren, but Siena only listened for long enough to learn that he wasn’t giving anything about his plans away. Nothing that she could use to tell John, or Andino.
The vibration of the cell phone made Siena quickly step further away from the office door, and dig around inside her bag to answer the call. She put it to her ear, and asked quietly, “Hello?”
“Is Meghan there?”
Siena smirked a little. “Wrong number, sorry.”
As she pulled the phone away a little, she heard the
guy say, “Andino is in the back alley of the restaurant. Ten minutes, at most.”
Click.
Siena dropped the phone into her bag, and looked between the bustling restaurant just down the hallway, and the back exit that was just a few feet away. It wasn’t the back alley, but it would lead her to the back alley, plus give her a way back in.
Kev’s conversation was still going full force behind her. It was a risk. But frankly, everything she did lately was risky.
Siena slipped out the exit door, and tried not to roll her ankles as she ran toward the back alley behind the restaurant. Sure enough, she found an unknown red car running in the back alley parked between two other businesses.
Andino didn’t drive a red car, but he was behind the wheel of the vehicle. Siena slipped into the passenger seat without thinking about it.
“New car?” she asked.
Andino laughed. “Borrowed, actually. Your brothers’ people know my shit.”
“Oh.”
“I have a favor to ask.”
Siena looked over at the man. “Sure.”
“It’s not going to be easy.”
She scoffed.
“Nothing in this life is ever easy, Andino.”
“Fair enough,” he murmured.
“By the way, Kev is pissed that nothing they’re doing to the Marcellos is working at the moment, so he’s decided to go back to his old ways.”
Andino scowled. “Violent means.”
“You could say that. He didn’t specify what or who, though.”
“Shit.”
“Sorry.”
Andino shrugged. “No worries. I’m hoping this plan I have for you will end a lot of it. Or shit, at the very least, make your other brother stop and reconsider some of his fucking options at the moment.”
Siena’s brow furrowed. “You’re going to have to explain that to me.”
“How much do you care for your brothers?”
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.”
Andino nodded. “Yeah, go.”
• • •
Siena barely blinked, and two weeks passed her by just like that. As though she hadn’t even been a part of it at all. It was strange how when something was weighing on a person’s mind, everything else in their life became inconsequential. Nothing else mattered but that one thing they couldn’t seem to shake.
Not long ago, she had been wishing for time to speed up, and make life a little more bearable. Oh, sure, she could absolutely see the irony in it. Now, here she was wondering where in the hell those two weeks had gone, and how she managed to spend them entirely lost to her own mind.
She felt like she was in a bubble, of sorts. All the time, and never ending. Floating high above everyone else, and looking down on them while they continued living their lives. The world kept moving, but she was frozen—suspended.
She could hear their conversations, and see their expressions and gestures. Yet, everything still felt a little cloudy and muffled to her. She was sure this was what people called an out-of-body experience.
Was it supposed to last this long?
Was it supposed to be this confusing?
Siena didn’t know.
If anyone noticed her disengaged attitude, or distracted behaviors, no one mentioned anything to her about it. Not even John when he caught her zoning out during their early morning phone calls.
For that, she felt most guilty. She couldn’t explain to him, though.
Andino was clear.
Siena just needed to get this done.
And by this, she meant killing her own brother.
Strolling through her mother’s brownstone, Siena saw far more faces than she cared to count. Many, she recognized, but there were a few whom she couldn’t place. Her brothers’ men, their families, and friends.
All the people who should gather for a party when there was something worthy to celebrate. Today, they were celebrating Kev’s birthday. Apparently, a new boss should always have his momentous events celebrated by his men.
Siena didn’t know if that was actually true or not, and she really didn’t care at the moment. Kev was simply celebrating something only to never see it through. He wouldn’t see the end of his birthday—he wouldn’t wake up the morning after being a day older than he was right now.
She had to make sure of it.
She was going to make sure of it.
The filled-to-the brim brownstone was exactly the kind of circumstance Siena needed to get this done. Andino’s warning about making sure many people were around when she did the deed had not been simple. She always figured out ways in her mind about how the murder would be linked back to her.
Not tonight, though.
Balloons, streamers, and banners hung from the ceilings, and decorated the stairwell. A bit juvenile for a grown man, really, but their mother didn’t know how to tone it down when it came to her sons.
A gold and black theme, it seemed. Even the cake had black frosting piped with gold trim. God knew Siena didn’t want any of that overly sweet shit—she would probably throw it back up.
She already felt like puking. Her nerves worked overtime. She wasn’t sure if it was because her anxiety was acting up, or due to the action she was about to take against her family.
Once again, betraying them. Once again, proving she was exactly what they all said.
The shame.
The disgraced one.
It was just too damn bad that none of those thoughts really stopped Siena’s resolve to get this whole thing done and over with.
“Siena!”
Coraline’s sharp bark made Siena hesitate as she tried to pass b
y a group of gathered men. Turning, she faced her scowling mother standing in the entryway between the hallway, and the living room.
“Yeah?”
“Your brother is going to blow out the candles on his cake, and cut it for everyone to have a piece.”
And that meant what exactly to Siena?
“So?” she asked.
Coraline cocked a brow. “Please have the catering people come in and bring the food into the dining room. They can set it out on the table, and everyone can pick what they want like a buffet.”
Siena wondered if this was her chance …
She didn’t have time to think on it.
“Sure, Ma.”
“Well, hurry up!”
Jesus.
Siena made her way into the kitchen where a catering team had taken over the space. It looked as though they were mostly done with their preparations for the dinner, and wouldn’t need much help moving things into the dining room.
Behind her, Siena heard her mother calling out, “Everyone to the dining room to wish Kev a happy birthday, grab some food, and have a piece of cake!”
People moved through the kitchen to the dining room. More simply used the hallway. Either way, Siena was acutely aware that people were leaving her alone, and she didn’t have anyone looking over her shoulder at the moment.
Winning.
“Excuse me,” Siena said to the lead caterer.
The woman wore the only white hat amongst the rest. She smiled at Siena, asking, “Yes, what can I do for you, Miss Calabrese?”
“We would like the food moved into the dining room as a spread—buffet-style, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“No problem at all.”
One sharp whistle, and the catering crew was moving fast. Soon enough, they had almost everything moved from the kitchen in one go.
On the second round the servers made to the kitchen, Siena slipped out, and headed for the wet bar in the dining room. At her back, people sang Kev happy birthday. She kept her back turned to the people, and her brothers.
No one approached.
No one saw a thing.
She pulled the sleeves of her dress down over her fingers, and worked to open up liquor bottles, and set up the glass. The little pill she dropped into the screwdriver drink dissolved with three quick twirls of the spoon inside the glass.
