Page 52 of Captivated

“I like her,” Joe admitted. “Liliana, I mean.”

John drummed his fingers again. “Oh?”

“Complicated, at the moment.”

“I guess it would be considering you’re hired to do a job for our family, and they added her into the mix. Although, that’s not really complicated.”

“It is when I haven’t told her she’s part of the job. And for that matter, explaining that bit would mean also telling her what my work is. I don’t like to talk about that with anybody, if you get my drift.”

John made a sound in the back of his throat. “Yeah, edging toward issues there a little bit.”

“Don’t need the reminder.”

“What can you do?”

Without saying another word, John pulled the Mercedes to the side of the road. He put the car in park in front of what looked like a restaurant that was currently undergoing serious renovations given the blacked out windows, and building permits.

“He’s here?” Joe asked.

John shrugged. “He had some unpleasant meetings today, I think.”

“Won’t the workers coming in to work on the place be pissed to find a mess?”

“Oh, they just keep this place for this sort of shit. It’s never actually undergoing anything but a mop of the floor to clean up the blood.”

Huh.

Good to know.

“Thanks, John,” Joe said, climbing out of the car.

John’s voice stopped Joe from closing the door when he replied, “No problem, man. And like I said … be kind to her.”

Joe nodded, but didn’t reply.

He figured he didn’t have to.

“Leave him,” came the order from the far end of the restaurant.

Joe had barely managed to walk in through the front door before he was faced with two surly looking enforcers that often trailed close behind wherever Lucian Marcello went. One was the enforcer from the restaurant, but it didn’t seem like the man cared if he recognized Joe or not at the moment.

However, at their boss’s order, the two men took a few steps back from Joe. They quickly went back to their posts at the wall.

Joe didn’t miss how one of the enforcer’s knuckles were a reddened, swollen mess. Like he had the time of his life punching the daylights out of someone that day.

It was possible.

Now that he had a bit of breathing room, Joe took the chance to look around while he could. There wasn’t very fucking much to see inside the place, actually.

It certainly looked like the business was undergoing some kind of renovations, but that was probably all to keep the act up, and the building permits still legal. Wires hung from the exposed ceiling, the floor was torn up to showcase stained cement beneath it, and old tables and chairs were scattered in every direction. Some were covered by dusty, old sheets, and others were overturned or cleaned off to sit.

Lucian pushed off the corner of a table at the far end of the rundown restaurant. “Aren’t you supposed to be watching someone today?”

“Do you think I left her unprotected?”

“I think I asked a question, actually.”

Joe sighed. “She’s with her mother and sister, as you probably already know. Dinner, and a movie. I suspect it’s a girls’ day out, but who knows? The other two have enforcers, and they’re in well-known, public areas. I chatted with their enforcers for a minute to let them know I had to step away.”