Page 118 of Captivated

Sleep, too.

While he had booked them a room, Liliana was made to stay in the SUV, and out of sight. She didn’t mind.

“Here,” Joe murmured, passing over his phone. “Press two and hold it—your father’s number is already on the speed dial. It’s the phone they gave me to contact them during the job. He’ll answer it.”

Liliana took the phone with a small smile. “Thanks.”

“We’ll only be here for the night, and then we’re moving again.”

“All right.”

Joe nodded, and then he slipped into the small bathroom connected to the equally tiny bedroom. That’s really all there was to see inside the room. Old furniture—things that needed updated, for sure—and a rug that really needed to be ripped up and replaced. Even the old blinds on the windows had seen better days.

But it worked.

She supposed …

Liliana pressed two, and held the phone to her ear when it started ringing. Her father picked up just as Joe came back out of the bathroom, but he barely even looked at her. In fact, he put as much distance in between them as he could, and let her have space.

She didn’t know whether to be sad, or grateful.

What did she even want?

“Hello?”

“Daddy, hey,” Liliana said.

She kept her focus on the phone call, but her eyes on Joe. He fiddled with some maps on the bedside table, and then turned the lamp on.

“Liliana.” The relief in her father’s voice was palpable. It made her heart clench. “I take it Joe got to you if you’re using his phone.”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“Good. I didn’t want to scare you.”

Liliana laughed weakly. “Seems like you’ve done a lot of things with the intention of not scaring me, Daddy.”

“And what does that mean?”

“I just … you know I love you, right?”

She swore she could see her father’s smile when he said, “I have always known that, mia principessa.”

And she knew he loved her.

That’s why he had done what he did.

Why he was doing what he was doing now.

Her gaze drifted to Joe.

She wondered if it was the same thing for him, too.

She wasn’t ready to ask.

Liliana was still trying to process, think, and feel.

FIFTEEN