Page 93 of Captivated

Rich.

The fucking bastard.

It didn’t surprise Joe a bit that Lucian wanted to go after the man himself. Joe would give the man every dollar in every single one of his bank accounts if he let him do it instead, but he doubted Lucian would go for that.

Joe’s jaw ached from clenching so hard. “Rich sent her flowers today. She didn’t react well to it.”

Lucian’s tone came out cold and sharp when he said, “I will add someone else to her watch since I assume you’re going to take care of other things. As for Rich, he’s a suspicious little rat by nature. That’s going to work to my benefit—I want him to see me coming. I made a promise, after all. I like to keep those.”

“That’s a dangerous game to play with a dangerous man, Lucian. And it kind of seems like he’s playing his own game with Liliana right now, and I don’t like that at all.”

“What do you suggest, then? Because I will be following this through, Joe. One way or the other—I owe it to my daughter.”

Joe glanced back across the studio apartment, and found Liliana still sleeping. “Let’s remove the queen from the board altogether, and keep her out of his reach while the rest of this is finished. We’ll start with that.”

Lucian hummed.

Joe waited.

“I like it. Now, do your job, Joe.”

TWELVE

“WAKE UP,” Liliana heard murmured in the background of her dream. “Wake up, Tesoro.”

It was his kisses dotting up her naked arm that did finally wake her up, but Liliana was still pretty determined to keep her eyes firmly shut. Why risk opening her eyes, and Joe dragging her from the bed when instead, she could get him back into it?

This just seemed like a far better plan.

“You can’t stay in bed all day.”

“On the contrary, I can do exactly that, Joe.”

“Shouldn’t, then.”

“Who says? A break from life might be exactly what I need,” Liliana mumbled into the pillow. “You could even join me on this break. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

“It sounds like something. Get up.”

“Nope.”

Liliana refused to open her eyes, and even grabbed the black comforter, and pulled it up high over her head. Then, she could ignore the fact it was morning … or pretty damn close to it, anyway.

“Liliana.”

His voice was muffled, now.

She pretended she didn’t hear.

“Liliana.” A beat of silence passed, and then, “You asked for it, donna.”

Liliana didn’t know what exactly she asked for, but she hoped it was something good. Knowing Joe, it probably would be.

Nope.

No, it wasn’t.

It was him ripping the fucking blankets away.