Page 27 of Captivated

She didn’t take that as a sign he disliked the men of her family, either, but rather … that Joe was probably more like them than she knew.

Liliana had come to learn that all made men acted in similar ways when other made men were around to see it. She didn’t know if that was because they wanted to keep business separate from their personal life, or because the mafia demanded those kinds of things.

None of it mattered, anyway.

Liliana saw Joe.

She had seen him.

That was enough for her.

“You’re heading out, Joe?” Dante called.

Joe nodded, and then passed Liliana a quick look, too. “Until the next time, Liliana.”

“There will definitely be one.”

She would make sure of it.

Liliana turned to greet her father, but still took the chance to glance over her shoulder at the same time. She caught sight of Joe’s broad back as he took the stairs two at a time with his hands stuffed loosely in his pockets like he didn’t have a care in the world.

And then, he was gone.

“I wondered when you were going to get here,” Lucian said.

Liliana turned back to her father. Her uncle gave her a small smile before he too headed down the stairs to the main floor of the mansion’s largest wing.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

Lucian’s warm smile belied the fact that there might be something for her to be concerned about. “Not at all, mia ragazza. Why would you think that?”

Uh …

“Because you had a driver pick me up from the studio, and bring me here without as much as a phone call. You only do that when something’s up.”

Lucian shook his head, and shrugged. “No, I just haven’t seen you all week, and your mother was getting worried. I told her I would make sure you were fine.”

Liliana laughed. “By dragging me two hours away to the mansion?”

“Yes, well …”

He sounded both amused and nonchalant at the same time. She could only laugh again.

“Well, I am fine,” Liliana said, “as you can see. Pass the message along to Ma, and tell her I will be at church on Sunday for her to see for herself.”

“You better be,” her father joked.

“So, seriously, nothing’s wrong?”

Lucian reached out, and grabbed his daughter. He pulled Liliana in for a quick, tight hug that almost took her breath away. Still, she relaxed in his embrace, and a familiar comfort seeped into her bones.

“Everything is perfect,” he said, dropping a quick kiss to the top of her head, “and everything is going to stay that way—I promise.”

“Wow, I can’t believe you actually got out of the studio this week to spend more than five seconds with little old me,” Cella teased.

Liliana shot her sister a look. “Are you back on that again?”

Cella rolled her eyes upward, and smiled in that joking way of hers. It made her look like their mother when Jordyn was trying to play tricks on them—albeit, their mother had never been very good at following through because she would just start laughing her ass off.