Page 86 of Captivated

Liliana glanced down at her clenched hands. “And then one night, he got jealous over a friend of mine—another dancer at the company. I went to dinner with him after rehearsal. We were just friends, and it was dinner.”

Joe cleared his throat. “And what happened after that?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t even know how he knew I was out with the guy. It was the first time I learned he was having me tailed.”

Jesus.

“First red flag,” Joe said quietly.

“It was waving high and I missed it,” Liliana replied.

“That’s hindsight, babe. Everybody misses shit, and can find it a hell of a lot easier when we look at it from a different perspective.”

“Maybe.”

“No maybes about it, Liliana.”

Her sigh came out shaky, and unsure. “Things moved really fast—I dated him for almost three and a half months, but it just went fast. Intense, too. The jealousy thing got worse, and one night he ripped a dress I was wearing because I wouldn’t change before we went to a gala.”

Joe scowled, but Liliana didn’t see it. She was still too busy staring at her hands. He wished she would at least look at him when she talked, but he wasn’t going to push anything.

Not yet, anyway.

“Maybe it was because everything had gone so fast, or maybe it was the way he made sure to take up all of my time and attention, but I’d stopped coming around my family and stuff. So, I didn’t really have someone seeing these things going on. I didn’t have someone to look at me, and say it wasn’t right … it’s not their fault, either. They didn’t know.”

Joe pulled her closer to him again, and kissed the top of her head. “Not your fault, either.”

He said that because he could hear the guilt. He could hear the way she placed blame on her own shoulders, and did it without even thinking about it.

That killed him, too.

“And then one night we were, uh … going to a party for something.” Liliana barked out a bitter laugh, adding, “I can’t even remember what it was for. I don’t know if that’s from the concussion, or because I blocked out things. Anyway, we had gone to dinner before that, and the waiter was a little too nice to me, I guess.”

“So, Rich was already pissed off.”

Liliana nodded, saying, “So, when I started getting texts from my cousin, Andino, that only made it worse. I told him it was family—I was trying to calm him down, but it just spiraled out of control.”

Joe grunted.

It was the best he could do because in that moment, anything else was going to send him flying over the very sharp edge where he balanced. His control was tipping one way, and his rage was following right behind it.

How fucking easy it would be to end that man.

How simple …

And fast.

Shit, Joe could be back by morning. It would only take a couple of phone calls to get the man’s whereabouts—Joe didn’t even give a shit if the hit was clean, or not.

Really, Rich didn’t deserve easy or clean.

“He just started hitting me,” Liliana mumbled. “And not like a slap, but closed fist punches. One after the other. I didn’t even understand what was happening. I said sorry, Joe. I told him I was the one who was sorry.”

Those tears came again.

Joe just held her close again.

What else could he do?