by Bethany-Kris
“It’s fine,” he whispered, “we’re just going to move you until we can get eyes on him again, and finish this nonsense out.”
“Why did you have eyes on him in the first place? And finish what, Joe?”
Joe stiffened that time.
Liliana didn’t miss it.
“I really need to know what’s going on,” she said.
“I know you do, but—”
“No buts. No excuses. Just tell me.”
“You know I was hired by your father … or your uncles … what does that matter, anyway.”
Liliana frowned up at him. “Yeah, to watch me.”
Joe’s lips pressed together into a thin, grim line before he shook his head subtly. “Not at first, no. That came after when the man who had been watching you for quite a while was found dead in his place—your dad didn’t tell you because he didn’t want you to worry. You had the show coming up, and he just wanted you to focus—”
“Stop rambling, Joe.”
“I don’t want to scare you.”
Ice slipped through Liliana’s veins.
Fear walked with it.
She suppressed as much as she could. Right now, she had something else she needed to handle. She needed to know everything before she let it consume her.
“Scare me with what?”
“With me,” he said quietly.
That had not been the answer she was expecting.
Not at all.
“Keep going,” she said hoarsely.
“I wasn’t given details about why I was hired to take out George Earl and Martin Abraham; I was given the file for their marks, and I took them on.”
“Take them out.”
Joe just kept staring at her.
Liliana barely even blinked.
“Take them out,” she repeated thickly.
“It’s what I do. I remove people, and problems. It’s what I’m good at, so that’s what they brought me in to do.”
“Why those two men, though?”
Joe’s gaze flashed with something Liliana found difficult to recognize. “Because your father made a promise after what they did, and what Rich did—Lucian doesn’t really seem like the type to break his promises, does he? Because they knew, Liliana. Because they covered up what he did to you. Because they needed to go.”
“And you did it,” she said. “You killed them.”
She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about that.
Concerned.
Frightened.
Amazed.
Comforted.
She didn’t know how to deal with it.
“I did it,” Joe said, “and I would take care of Rich, too, but right now, I have to worry about you. So, please make this easy on me, and let me get you the hell out of here. We have no reason to believe he knows you’re here, so we can safely assume moving you again will just take you even further out of his path.”
Liliana’s throat tightened at what Joe wasn’t saying.
But she wasn’t dumb.
“You think he’s coming for me,” she whispered.
Was that why Rich had started approaching her again? Making himself known again in her life? Terrorizing her like he had?
Because he was coming back for more?
“I don’t know anything except how to keep you safe,” Joe said, “and so that’s what I’m going to do, if you’ll let me.”
It didn’t seem like she had a choice. Not that she would have made a different one if given the chance.
“All set,” Cory said as he came to stand beside the two, and dropped the bags next to Joe. “You need me to come along?”
Joe didn’t look away from Liliana.
She was still in his arms.
Still safe, despite knowing what he was.
Who he was.
“No, not for this,” Joe said, never taking his eyes off her while he spoke. “Just keep an eye out here for anything off, Cory. You know how to get in contact with me, should you have to.”
“Whatever you need, Joe.”
“You okay?”
For the first time in the two hours since they had hit the road, Liliana dragged her gaze away from the passenger side mirror. “Yeah, Joe.”
“You sure?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because you haven’t said one word since we left.”
It was just easier to stare at the passing scenery than at Joe right now. She was still trying to connect the man who had touched her with the sweetest hands, and treated her like something precious to the man who she now knew killed people for money.
It didn’t change who he was, sure.
He could be both.
It just … quieted her, for a moment. It took her through a series of revelations about her life, and the people in it. Of course, she knew her family was full of criminals. Of course, she knew her father—a man she loved and adored—could be someone else entirely when he left his home, and family behind.
There was still a strange, small part of her that kept thinking … I never expected to fall in love with one, though.
Because she did.
Love Joe.
Entirely.
“Why did you send me to Chicago?” Liliana asked. “And not just Chicago, Joe, but to your home and your family?”
His gaze drifted away from the long stretch of highway in front of them. “You need an answer for that, love?”
“Maybe I would like to hear you say it.”
“I wanted them to meet you.”
“Your family,” she pressed.
Joe nodded, and put his attention back on the windshield. “And for you to meet them, I guess. You also needed to get the hell out of New York for a while. It felt like a win-win, you could say.”
Huh.
“Where are we going?”
He shrugged. “Just far enough to stop for the night before we move again.”
“And what are we going to do when we get there?”
“Guess we’re going to find out.”
Liliana glanced away from him to see a sign for an upcoming exit ramp, and then a larger sign for a hotel not far beyond it. “I want to call my dad.”
“As soon as we settle in, you can do just that.”
“Okay.”
What else could she say?
Liliana didn’t even know how to feel.
It didn’t take long for Joe to get them off the highway, and settled into an Illinois hotel for the evening. Although frankly, motel would have been a better term.
She wasn’t going to be a snob.
Or picky.
She just … needed to think.
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 pho
ne 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
JOE WAITED FOR the ringing of the phone to click in his ear, signaling someone had picked up the call. Taking one last drag from his cigarette, he flicked the butt to the ground, and watched sparks fly when it hit the pavement. Leaning back against the hotel door, Joe stared up at the sky when he finally heard the call connect.
“Ciao, Lucian here.”
“Wanted to give you an update,” Joe murmured.
“Moved again?”
Joe cleared his throat, and nodded. “Moved this morning—drove for twelve hours, and then I found a spot to settle in again.”
“Good.”
He appreciated how Lucian was smart enough not to question Joe about where he and Liliana now were, or anything like that. The less people knew, the better. It was far more unlikely that information would get out that way.
“How is she today?” Lucian asked.
Joe chuckled dryly. “Same.”
“Well, that’s better than nothing.”
“And not talking to me at all.”
Lucian quieted.
So did Joe.
He wasn’t even entirely sure why he had admitted that to Lucian, as it wasn’t like he wanted the man to know, or thought that he could do something to help. Shit, maybe he just needed to voice it, to handle it.
Who knew?
“I take it she knows things, then,” Lucian said.
Joe shrugged. “Some things—the important bits.”
“Things that make her reevaluate.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Kind of obvious, isn’t it, Joe?”
“Is it if I asked?” he shot back.
Lucian laughed lowly. “My apologies. I meant, men who may seem like strangers—or in some way, scary—to Liliana, she keeps a distance. Maintains a safe, respectable space between her and them.”
“I’m not a stranger.”
Or scary, he added silently.
At least, not to her.
“But perhaps the things she knows about you contradicts what she’s seen or knows,” Lucian offered quietly.
Joe scowled.
He hadn’t thought of it like that.
“Like I said,” Lucian continued thoughtfully, “it might have made her feel as though she needed time to reevaluate. Maybe she could have done that quicker had she been able to put some distance between the two of you, but here you are.”
Distance.
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.
“The point,” Lucian stressed thickly, “is that as clean as this has been working with you to get rid of the others, it’s now dirtier than sin.”
Ah.
Yeah.
Joe hadn’t considered that. His mind was focused in on other things—Liliana, most importantly, and keeping her as safe as he could for the time being.
“When Rich goes—”
“And he will go,” Joe interjected.
“Of course,” Lucian said, “but when he goes, our name is already tossed into the mix. They’ll be looking at us for a while. Attention will be hot, and heavy. We had prepared for that, anyway, sure, but maybe things are a bit more complicated now, considering you and … well, her.”
Shit.
Yeah, difficult.
“That’s one way to put it,” Joe mumbled.
“We’ll need you to go underground, or get back to business in Chicago, Joe. Stay out of sight, and have absolutely no connection to the Marcello family until this dies down, or at least until they have no reason to suspect you were the means we used to pull this off. We don’t want to purposely give them something or someone to dig into. That’s how it all comes crashing down. I know I don’t have to explain why, but—”
“Nature of the business,” Joe cut in.
“It might not be for very long that you would have to stay away.”
But it could be.
Days, certainly.
Weeks, more likely.
Months … probably.
Joe didn’t really want to talk anymore. “I should get back.”
He didn’t offer anything else.
Lucian didn’t ask. “I’ll be seeing you soon, Joe.”
One could only hope.
That meant this would be over.
Joe’s gaze drifted from the flat screen television on the
wall to Liliana’s towel-wrapped form as she slipped out of the bathroom. This much larger, and expensive, hotel was likely more up to her tastes than the first one they had used for a night, but she had never said a thing. She didn’t offer him a single complaint.
She only really talked when she wanted food.
He kept her in his peripheral vision as she moved across the room, and sat on the edge of the bed. Her hair hung in damp waves down her back like she had run a towel through it, but still left the strands a bit wet. He knew she had taken her things—an outfit change, and whatever else—into the bathroom with her, so why she came out wearing nothing but a towel was a mystery to him, and not one he wanted to prod into.
She said nothing.
Joe was used to that.
He went back to watching the basketball game playing on the television. Basketball wasn’t really his sport, but it was the first thing he found when he turned on the TV. It would do for his purpose of distracting him, and he wasn’t in the mood to channel surf until he found something more appealing.
“I’m sorry.”
Joe stiffened.
He wasn’t sure he heard her right.
Turning a bit to stare at Liliana, he asked, “Pardon?”
“I said,” she clarified louder, “I’m sorry, Joe.”
“Why?”
He wasn’t sure what she was apologizing for, or even why. He didn’t think she had anything to apologize for, really. None of this was her fault. He thought she already knew that.
“For me and you,” she muttered. “Us, and this, I guess. I’m sorry.”
Joe blinked. “I still don’t know where you’re going with this.”
And he had the distinct feeling he wasn’t going to like it, either.
She waved between them, although she never lifted her gaze to look at him. He probably hated that the most, but didn’t have time to think on it for long when she was already moving onto the next thing, and speaking again.
“This … us,” she said again, “it’s a little confusing for me. Relationships, maybe. I never really had one of those before—not a serious one, you know what I mean?”
Joe shrugged. “Sure, me either.”
Liliana did glance up at that, and her gaze met his with an intensity that had him stilling in place when she asked, “Really, never?”