Page 2 of Contempt

She had so few of those.

It sucked.

“I think he’s lonely back there,” Siena said to Lucia. “John never does well as the third wheel, does he?”

She gave a little laugh. “He’s going to be fine.”

Siena bumped Lucia gently with her hip. “He loves you so much. Talks about you all the time, Lucia. He’s had a rough time this last year. I think you have, too. It might help you both if you just tried—”

“Probably not,” Lucia muttered under her breath.

Instead of trying to argue with her further, Siena gave her a look and then shrugged her shoulder when Lucia refused to break her cold, calm mask. “All right, don’t say I didn’t give you the chance to make the first step without help, you know.”

What in the hell did that mean?

Lucia would soon find out.

It seemed it wasn’t only her mother—her father had all but given up on trying to close the distance between the two of them—who was willing to play the Devil’s advocate for Lucia and her brother. Siena seemed ready to jump into the fray, too.

Great.

“John, you’re out of that jam you like, right?” Siena asked, looking over her shoulder.

Lucia’s gaze drifted to John, too, but the second he looked back at her, the coldness slipped into her heart once more to freeze it all over. Just like that, she went from feeling fire and fury to nothing. Nothing at all. Sometimes, she hated that emotion played tricks with her now. Like she was feeling entirely too much one second, and then the next, she couldn’t feel anything at all. She wished it would just pick one goddamn thing or the other and stop giving her whiplash.

She quickly tore her stare away from her brother, refusing to give him more of her attention right then. She didn’t like the way it left her empty, and feeling more alone than ever.

John sighed behind her.

Siena looked Lucia’s way like she wanted to grab her attention. Lucia even refused to look at her.

“We can grab some of the jam on the way out,” John said. “Don’t worry about it, bella.”

Siena was quick to reply, “No, I can make a trip around. I need to grab something else that way, too. You and Lucia keep going. She wants to grab—what is that, again?”

Lucia didn’t look back at her brother as she muttered, “Some loose tea.”

Kind of wishing I didn’t want it at all, now. I wouldn’t have to be here to begin with. Hell, even her thoughts were a particular brand of nasty today.

“Yeah, so take her,” Siena said, dropping Lucia’s arm and giving John a pointed look. “And I will meet you at the entrance on the way out of the market.”

It further proved what she believed—the woman was going to attempt to force Lucia to make nice with her brother by not giving her a choice when she left her alone with him. That was laughable. Lucia could sit in a room with anyone and say absolutely nothing. They could be looking her right in the eye, and she could keep her expression blank, and her mouth firmly fucking shut.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lucia watched Siena drop a quick kiss to John’s lips and murmured something she couldn’t hear. Whatever it was, it made her brother pout. Like a fucking little boy. It was almost amusing.

“I will meet you at the entrance,” John grumbled when Siena stepped away from him.

“Good,” she replied.

Siena patted his cheek with a soft hand, and then just as fast, headed into the crowd, back the way they first came. Lucia didn’t miss how one of two enforcers that were following them for the day headed after her without a word. She didn’t think to ask her brother why he had enforcers trailing this close to them, but she didn’t need to, either.

They were mafia kids.

Well, even if they weren’t kids anymore.

Something dangerous was always following close behind. The next attempt on someone’s life was always right around the corner. Not to mention, Lucia didn’t know all the details about the past year as she hadn’t thought to ask, but she did hear whispers. Her brother had taken over a rival family—people were unhappy.

That meant bad things.