Page 6 of Captivated

“Oh?” Joe asked.

He tried to sound unbothered.

He failed like a fucker.

Damian laughed. “The man on the left end is her father—the other two are her uncles. She’s a year younger than you. Lucian is intimidating as hell. Don’t let him know you think so, however.”

“Thanks?”

Why did that come out like a question?

“That’s a start,” Damian grunted as he gave Joe a hard pat on the back. “Best way not to fuck this up, Joe, is not to act like a cafone. That is something you’re incapable of doing. I know because I raised you this way. Do you want to know that girl?”

His head said to keep his mouth shut.

The rest of him didn’t listen.

“Maybe,” Joe said.

Because yes.

He did want to know her.

Damian nodded in the direction of the men waiting on the steps. “Start with her father.”

“Great.” Moving forward in step with his father, Joe asked, “Shit, they don’t call her Lily, do they?”

Lily, like his mother.

Oh, damn, that thought just made his dick shrivel—

“No,” Damian murmured, “and as far as I can recall, she has always asked to be called Liliana.”

Oh, good.

There was his dick again.

“Also, I might have been wrong about the age thing. I believe she’s the oldest, actually. A year older than you, not younger. How do you feel about an older woman?”

Joe gave his father a look. He was doing that annoying fucking thing again. He needed to stop.

“Got it,” Damian muttered at the look on Joe’s face, “now fix yourself.”

“Damian,” the man in the middle greeted, “and company. Good to see you, old friend.”

“Dante,” Damian replied, taking the hand the Marcello boss offered. “Gio, Lucian; nice to see the two of you. Theo says hi, Gio.”

Gio—or Giovanni—Marcello grinned. A sight that threw the man’s features back a good fifteen years in a blink. “How’s Chicago, D?”

“It’s good. You should visit more often.”

“Unlikely,” the quiet man said.

Lucian.

Liliana’s father.

Lucian’s gaze drifted over Joe momentarily as though he was studying him. Although for what, Joe had no fucking clue. He still didn’t even know what in the hell he was here for to begin with. Just as quickly as Lucian gave him that appraisal, he moved his attention back to Damian when Joe’s father spoke.