LILIANA FLIPPED THROUGH the journal she had found tucked under the pillow on Joe’s bed. The house had two spare bedrooms—both decorated—and yet, she found herself compelled to sleep in the room she knew was his.
The journal didn’t seem like much on the surface with its matte black leather wrap, and a single cord wound around the cover. Joe clearly made no effort to make it safe from snoopers—like her—but she figured there was a point to that.
Like the fact she couldn’t understand what in the hell was written inside. Oh, she could read it perfectly fine, sure. Making sense of it was a whole other matter.
Initials.
Dates.
And then a checkmark, X, or line might be drawn beside the information. It was like he was logging something, and she couldn’t quite figure out what it was.
“Where did you find that?”
Liliana’s head snapped up, and she found Cory Rossi leaning in the arched entryway of the kitchen. Mostly, she liked Joe’s younger brother even though he was the complete opposite of his brother. Cory was loud, and Joe was not. Cory seemed to thrive in having the spotlight, and Liliana had watched Joe move away from attention more than once.
And yet, whenever Cory talked about his brother, it was clear the two cared a lot about each other. He always has my back, Cory had said about Joe.
It reminded Liliana of her and Cella, in some ways.
“Come to annoy me again today?” Liliana asked, going back to flipping through the pages of the journal. “Coffee’s hot, by the way.”
“First, I don’t annoy you. Jesus, you sound just like my brother.”
“Bet you annoy him, too.”
She joked, mostly.
Cory just gave her a wide grin as he passed the island by, and headed for the coffee pot. “Joe would say I absolutely annoy him, but for the record, if I didn’t, he would have nobody to get him out of this house when he isn’t doing a damn job. The man is a hermit—he would happily live alone for the rest of his life, and never need human contact. He even has his groceries delivered.”
Liliana frowned as Cory came to sit on the stool beside her with a cup of black coffee. The mug was swallowed by his large hands, and steam curled upward from the hot, bitter liquid. It kind of amused her that from the corner of someone’s eye, the Rossi brothers looked so similar that they could almost be considered twins.
She could see the difference.
It was obvious to her.
But still …
“So, what, Joe doesn’t have a life is what you’re saying?” Liliana asked.
“Joe has a life,” Cory mumbled, lifting his coffee up for a sip. “He just … prefers for that life to be quiet, we’ll say. He’s always been like that.”
“Huh.”
She wasn’t really surprised. She didn’t think that would be the right word to use. After all, she had gotten the best insights to who Joe really was when it was just them alone, and no one else around. With others, he almost always turned into a statue with a mask of nothing by way of opinion, emotions, or otherwise.
“So that’s where I come in,” Cory said, setting his cup down and smiling. “I get him the hell out of this house, whether he likes it or not, and he goes because I’m the little brother who he feels like someone has to watch out for just in case I blow myself up or some other stupid shit.”
Liliana blinked. “But would you?”
“What?”
“Blow yourself up.”
Cory made a noise in the back of his throat—considering. “I mean, I’ve done some stupid shit. As my father reminds Joe whenever he asks why he has to keep an eye on me, anything is possible when it comes to me. I just need shit at my disposal, a little bit of time on my hands, and some inspiration. Give me all or a combination of any of those things without someone to keep me in line, and people are asking for trouble. Who knows what might happen?”
She smiled a little.
At least he was honest.
“I guess that means you’re the reckless to his serious,” Liliana said.
Cory glanced over at her, and smiled. “You could say that, yeah.”
“How would you say it?”
“I would say that where I push my brother to be a little less controlled in literally every aspect of his life, he reminds me why it’s good to be responsible, too. Or, something like that. He thinks he’s keeping me busy and out of trouble with all these businesses we keep opening up together, but truth is, maybe it’s me who’s making him get out of the house a little more.”
Liliana laughed.
Cory smirked, and shrugged. “But we won’t tell him that, will we?”
“Suppose not.”
It amused her to no end how these two brothers clearly liked to mess with the other, and at the very same time, take care of one another.
She was glad Joe had Cory. And his sister, too. Monica clearly adored her big brothers. That was before Liliana even got in to Joe’s parents who also seemed to love their kids more than the sea, earth, and air combined.
“Are you going to ask about that?”
Liliana’s brow furrowed. “Huh?”
Cory pointed at the journal she had closed, and sat down on the island countertop as the two of them talked. “The journal. Are you going to ask about it? Snooping is a bad habit, you know. Should quit that before you find something scary.”
She scoffed. “Nothing scares me anymore.”
Mostly.
Or, that’s what she kept telling herself.
“Besides,” Liliana added quickly, “Joe told me to snoop when he called the other day. So, I think it’s fair game for me to … look around.”
“Oh, that’s what you’re calling it?”
“Yep.”
“I see,” Cory murmured. “So, are you?”
“What?”
“Going to ask.”
Liliana picked up the journal again, and weighed it in her palm. She opened the front cover, and flipped through a couple of the pages. Something about the fact Joe was carefully logging something made her think maybe it wasn’t any of her business, or rather … she should ask the source, not his brother.
“Not really,” Liliana said.
“What does that mean, exactly?”
She set the journal aside. “It means, I don’t want to ask about that, but I do have other questions you might be able to answer for me.”
Cory sipped from his coffee again. “Shoot.”
“I’ve been here a few days. When is he going to get here?”
“Don’t know.”
Liliana frowned. “Do you know what they’re doing right now?”
“Who is they?”
“Joe, my dad … people in New York, I guess.”
Cory cleared his throat. “I know just enough to tell you I can’t say anything because it’s not my place, or my business. I’m reckless, not stupid.”
Fair.
“Your dad—”
“Damian, yeah,” Cory interjected.
“He’s pretty high up in the Chicago mob, right?”
“Outfit, Liliana. We call it the Chicago Outfit.”
“I know what it’s called.”
Cory passed her a look. “Then, use the right name.”
“Touchy.” She stuck her tongue out at him, and he did the same thing right back to her. Then, she asked before she lost her nerve, “So, I guess that means you and Joe are probably connected, too, right?”
She understood vaguely that Joe had a job in the mafia, and what little bit of information she had been given was enough for her to draw her own conclusions. But really, she didn’t like doing that. She would much rather just be told, and then she knew for sure.
“You could say we’re connected,” Cory said. “More me directly than him, or I’m working on it.”
“Oh. And people keep saying he’s the Shadow, right? So, what does that mean exactly?”
Cory chuckled. “A part of me thinks it’s better for you not to know all the details about what Joe does in this business, girl. And another part of me thinks … you probably wouldn’t give a fuck if you did know.”
“Probably not,” Liliana agreed.
“Still ain’t going to tell you, though.”
Asshole.
Annoying as hell.
“You’re lucky Joe loves you,” Liliana mumbled her empty half-threat.
Cory grinned. “I could say the same for you.”
Except … Joe hadn’t told her that yet.
“I was thinking pizza for dinner—Chicago-style,” Cory called from the living room. “How does that sound for you?”
“Sounds—”
It was the banging thrash of the front door being thrown open that stopped Liliana from saying more. She jumped up from the table where she had been flipping through a magazine at the same time she heard Cory curse.
“What the fuck?”
“Liliana!”
Her fear instantly bled away.
Joe.
He met her in the hallway at the same time Cory came out from the living room.
“Hey, man,” Cory said.
Joe’s gaze was only on her, and Liliana wasn’t entirely sure that she liked what she saw staring back at her. Cold and distant Joe was back, it seemed. She could see it in the darkness of his features, and the stiffness in his posture.
He tossed his brother a look. “Pack me a bag, and grab her shit, would you?”
Cory didn’t even bother to ask questions.
He wasn’t like Liliana.
“You got it, Joe,” Cory said.
The younger man headed for the stairs, and Liliana turned back to Joe.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
Joe shook his head, and grabbed her jacket hanging on the hook by the door. “Here, put this on. We need to move you again.”
No, Liliana wasn’t going anywhere. At least, not right now. She didn’t like that all of the sudden he showed up at his home with nothing more than a demand for her to leave. Likely to leave with him, sure, but still.
Something felt wrong.
Off.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Joe held out her coat.
Liliana refused to take it.
Letting out a harsh sigh, Joe said, “Just … I need you to listen to me right now, Liliana. Not question me, or anything else. Just listen.”
“And I’m not moving until you tell me what in the hell is going on, Joe.”
She wasn’t entirely sure how much time passed with the two of them staring at each other, and daring the other one to move or say something. A few seconds, but maybe more. Long enough for her to hear Cory moving around upstairs.
Definitely not like his brother.
She would never know Joe was anywhere around if he didn’t want her to know it. Cory didn’t seem to give two fucks who heard him.
“Where’s your phone?” he asked instead.
Liliana pulled the device Theo had picked up for her out of her pocket, and instantly, Joe snatched it from her. He didn’t even look away from her when he swung the device, and smashed it into a useless bunch of pieces against the wall.
Her gaze widened, and flew back to Joe. “What the fuck, Joe?”
“Someone might be tracking it. It needs to go.”
“It’s a burner phone, Joe. It’s not even my real phone!”
Joe only shrugged.
“Okay, now you really need to tell me what in the hell is going on.”
“Liliana—”
“Please just tell me, Joe,” Liliana said. “I’ve been sitting in this house for days wondering why I’m even here, and what’s going on. No one will tell me anything. I don’t like feeling alone and afraid, okay? And I think, so far, I have done really well about not being a bitch regarding all of this. I haven’t really demanded anything, or whatever. So, please, just tell me. It’s about me, right. It has to be, so I think, at the very least, I deserve to know something.”
His fist clenched.
His throat bobbed.
Finally, he spoke, saying, “Rich Earl has gone off the grid.”
Liliana stiffened.
The cold spike of fear driving into her spine was only matched in force by the heavy weight of dread sinking low in her stomach. A feeling so thick and harsh that it made the bile in her stomach rise to the back of her throat. She could practically taste it on her tongue, and it made her want to be sick.
It tasted like hell and fear.
Like old blood in her mouth.
Felt like a broken eye socket, and a busted mouth. Like black eyes, and bruises on her body. Like a sting in her scalp from her hair being ripped out, and a ringing in her ears that lasted almost two weeks before it started to fade away. Like an ache in her thighs from where they had been forced open, and scratches on her back from when she had practically fallen out of the car onto the pavement to get away.
Just like that, with seven words from Joe, Liliana was thrust into a chamber of memories, and fear. Neither of which she wished for, or needed.
And yet, here she was.
“Hey, it’s all right,” Joe murmured.
He’d come forward, and wrapped her in his embrace. Tight, secure, and snug. Warm, and safe. His coldness bled away, and he took those few seconds to stroke her face with his thumbs, and skim the top of her head with his lips. He tipped her head back, and his fingers wove into her hair to.
“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 phone 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.