Page 120 of Captivated

Joe hated that word.

Distance wasn’t possible right now.

Or ever.

Joe figured it was time to get off this conversation, and move onto something else entirely. “What good news do you have for me?”

“Very little, actually.”

“Stab that knife deeper, huh?”

Lucian chuckled darkly. “Trust me, you have no idea how much I wish I had good news on my end.”

“Rich is still MIA, then?”

“Entirely, but it’s worse, too.”

Joe didn’t like the sound of that at all. “How so?”

“The Marcello name has now been dragged into this,” Lucian muttered, his distaste and hatred coating each and every word.

Stiffening against the door, Joe scrubbed a hand down his face. Fuck, he needed a shave like nothing else. And a good night’s sleep, too. Half decent food, a good fuck, and a change of clothes. He needed a lot of things right then.

This was not one of them.

“How?” he asked again.

“Rich’s mother—the senator’s wife—made a public plea that her son has gone missing, which brought the fucking police in on it over the last day or so. There’s talk the FBI might move in, too.”

“I don’t see how that brings the Marcello—”

“She suggested that she didn’t believe her husband’s drowning was accidental, despite the reports to the contrary. Said she had it on good faith that it was intentional, and even dared to add he didn’t drink.”

Joe barked out a laugh at that statement. “He was already drunk when I got there that night. So was she—so much so, that she didn’t hear a thing when I dragged him out of their house, and to the pool in the backyard.”

“We all know what the senator was like, Joe.”

“Then, get to the point.”

“She purposely brought up my family’s name, and that leads me to believe she knows exactly what is going on, or has a good suspicion about it. Probably because of Rich.”

Joe frowned, and his gaze narrowed into the darkness in front of him. “You did want him to know you were coming for him, Lucian.”

The man on the other end of the phone sighed. “Point is—this felt like a last-ditch effort on the wife’s part.”

“What, like maybe if she invoked your family’s name in a public forum, it might save Rich’s life? Keep you all from going after him?”

“Exactly that.”

“See how well that works out for her, I suppose,” Joe mused.

“You’re missing the point, Joe.”

“Sometimes, I do that.”

He had jokes tonight.

Well done to him.