Page 70 of Captivated

“Fucking stay down there like the dog you are,” Joe spat at the man.

“Joe?”

He was still considering hitting the man again. All it took was looking at the idiot on the ground, and Joe’s rage swelled all over again.

“Joe,” Liliana said, forcefully the second time.

Joe’s attention went back to her, and everyone else.

Shit.

He’d drawn attention. Gazes were on them. Large men in three-piece black suits with comms in their ears were coming his way.

So, maybe he didn’t think this through.

“Why are you here?” Liliana asked.

Joe gave her a look, and then scanned the crowd.

He didn’t have an answer.

Not a good one.

“Are you following me?” she demanded.

Joe’s gaze darted back to hers. “You won’t like the answer to that one, Liliana.”

Disbelief, and disgust colored up her pretty features. He hated seeing that expression on her face, and hated even more that it was directed at him.

“What do you want, Joe?”

He pointed down at the man still on the floor. “What does he want, Liliana?”

Joe didn’t get the chance to pull an answer out of her. Lucian slipped through the semi-circle of the gathering crowd, and his gaze met Joe’s.

“Get out the back, and don’t be photographed,” Lucian demanded. “Be at the mansion—this will be handled.”

Joe knew better than to argue.

Liliana still looked like she hated him.

Great.

Liliana didn’t even see Joe standing beside the window when she was directed into the sitting room of the Marcello mansion. He kept his back to the wall, and his gaze on her as she moved to one of the plush leather couches, and fell into it.

“Are you still pissed at me?” he asked.

Liliana jumped, and her eyes widened when she found where he was standing. “Do you just … always do that?”

Joe’s brow furrowed. “Do what?”

“Hide like that. Sneak up on people. Scare the hell out of them, Joe.”

Joe didn’t get the chance to answer, as Lucian strolled into the room and spoke for him. No one followed behind the man.

“That’s kind of the point of Joe,” Lucian said to his daughter. “He’s called the Shadow for a reason—people aren’t typically meant to see him.”

Confusion lit up Liliana’s features as she glanced between her father, and Joe. And then, as though it all came onto her at once, and understanding dawned in her eyes. She settled on looking at Joe when she spoke, and not her father.