Page 35 of Captivated

“A bar opening with my brother, actually.”

Lucian gave Joe an amused look. “Isn’t Cory a little young to be owning a bar?”

“That’s why I have to be there for the … details,” Joe said. “It’s a joint effort—his idea. I placate him.”

A half-smile edged at the corners of Lucian’s mouth. “I have one of those, too.”

“Hmm?”

“A brother you have to constantly indulge to keep him out of trouble.”

“That’s …”

“Sì?”

“Very appropriate for my brother,” Joe said dryly.

Lucian nodded once, saying, “It gets easier as they get older. The younger ones are always a little wild—being the baby gives them more legroom to run. They’re always trying to catch up, you know.”

Well, as fun as this conversation is …

“It’ll help your cause, too, for me to go,” Joe added.

Lucian cocked a brow. “How so?”

“I may not be well-known here, or have someone following me around to take pictures, and plaster them on some agent’s corkboard, but I do in Chicago. His name is Gary, by the way, but he likes it when I call him Agent Gary.”

“Do you—use the agent title, I mean?”

Joe barked out a laugh. “Never.”

“They get so pissy—poor little feds.”

“Truth.” Joe shifted on his feet, and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Gary is used to me dropping off the radar for a bit of time, but he probably knows I have this thing coming up. Anyway, my face will be seen, it’ll be said I am still in Chicago. And when all of the shit does finally go down here, nobody will even be thinking about attaching my name to it all.”

“Smart,” Lucian murmured.

“I try to keep business clean.”

“Your father was like that, too.”

Joe cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, we all learn from somewhere.”

“Take your trip—just give us time to settle something out for Liliana. And speaking of her, she has a show this weekend. I won’t be able to attend, but it’s a small thing, anyway. She likes us there for the bigger ones. Do make sure you are close enough during that show to keep eyes on her.”

Like he even needed to be told.

“Already have tickets, actually,” Joe said.

“Oh?”

The curiosity lacing the man’s tone couldn’t be missed, but Joe simply opted to pretend like he hadn’t heard it at all.

“And on the Liliana topic,” Joe added.

Now or never.

“What about her?”