Page 22 of Captivated

“Antony,” Joe greeted, “nice to see you again.”

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of each other.” Antony waved a hand, and said, “Come, my sons are waiting for you upstairs.”

Joe’s brow lifted. “All of them?”

“Two—Lucian, and Dante. I think Giovanni had a thing tonight. He doesn’t like to miss his wife’s special days.”

“Understandable.”

Joe followed behind Antony silently as the man led him through the mansion. Despite having explored a week earlier, Joe still didn’t feel familiar enough with the place not to get lost again. And wouldn’t that be just fucking grand, too.

“You’ll have to say hello to Cecelia for me,” Joe said. “I’ll probably miss her.”

“Little late for her, yes,” Antony said. “My wife likes to sleep early when she can.”

At the bottom of the stairs leading into one of the upper wings, Antony turned to Joe with a shrug.

“I assume you can find your way from here, can’t you?”

“I can,” Joe said. “Thanks.”

“Good. I don’t feel like climbing stairs tonight. Keep the noise down to a minimum. Remind my sons if you need to.”

Joe thought to scoff at the idea of him telling any made man anything, but the look on Antony’s face told him the man was damn serious. He chose to keep his sarcastic comment to himself.

“You got it,” Joe said.

Antony waved two fingers over his shoulder, and then he was gone, too. Joe took the stairs two at a time, and barely made a sound. He found the same office he had visited the last time he was at the mansion, and stepped up to the open doors. Inside, the two oldest Marcello brothers stood next to a window, and overlooked the back property as they talked quietly between one another.

Too quiet for Joe to hear.

Apparently, they didn’t hear him, either.

That wasn’t exactly unusual.

Joe cleared his throat, and tampered down his urge to smirk when the two men spun fast on their heels to face him. “Sorry, but I didn’t think you wanted me to stand here and listen to the two of you mutter on.”

Dante cocked a brow. “How long were you standing there?”

Lucian, on the other hand, stayed silent.

“Long enough to see you, and let you see me,” Joe said.

“He is just like his father,” Lucian said quietly to Dante, although never looking at Joe directly. “Same thing, I swear.”

Joe scowled. “I can hear you.”

“That was the point,” the man returned.

Dante ignored the exchange between the two, and waved a finger at Joe. “Come in, and sit down. Or don’t sit—whatever the hell you prefer. We have a problem.”

Great.

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Joe said as he moved further into the office. He didn’t take the offered seat, but that was only because he preferred to stand when bad news was delivered.

“Sit where we do, and then we’ll talk,” Lucian muttered.

“What?”