Page 88 of The Mafia Heir's Obsession

“Lucie Joy,” Callahan says, pulling me close to him. “Seamus is concerned because it seems her man’s FBI and yeah, John was a cop. Bent, bad rep, but he’d been extorting some small-time criminals with mafia ties. If he’d sold info to Stymes, and the FBI are interested in your father, it does concern us. We’re connected.”

He looks at his brother and holds out his hand. Seamus gives him my phone.

“None of our law enforcement contacts have pinged us. But there are a few of your father’s associates on their radar. And one was Mitchum.” Callahan sighs. “We’d love a long chat with this boyfriend, if we can find him, but he’sdropped off the radar, too. Official word is he’s on leave, but that could mean anything.”

“I can keep trying Viviana.”

Callahan shoots his brother a look and Seamus disappears. He cups the sides of my face. “Lucie, we’re just crossing all the T’s and dotting all the I’s. It might be nothing. And sometimes leave is just leave. Now, let’s go. I promised you dinner.”

I nod and follow him out of the house. Panic flutters inside me with every step toward the sidewalk. But even as Clive opens the door of a sleek black Audi and we get in, I immediately know it’s too small in here. There’s not enough air.

FBI?

Headley?

Admittedly, we weren’t close. He spent his time with my sister and dragged her off whenever he could, but he didn’t seem like FBI. But how would I know what is and isn’t FBI-like behavior? I’m trying to remember what he did, his mannerisms, but he seemed to come from money and claimed to have toyed with various careers. I don’t know, he didn’t seem that interesting to me and I didn’t pay much attention.

Maybe that was part of his whole ruse.

“Are you sure about this FBI thing? My sister wouldn’t?—”

“Lucie.” He picks up my hand and kisses it. “Calm down.”

I can’t. I blurt out all the things I know about Headley, how my sister’s flighty but wouldn’t climb into bed with law enforcement, with someone out to use her to get to Dad. Besides, how could that work if they were long gone?

“Lucie,” he says again, like he can see the thoughts racing through my mind.

“What?” I stop talking.

He sighs. “We had to know. This is what Torin found out. Little Mr. Money was entry level for a while but quit aroundthe time he met your sister. I needed to know what you did. That’s all, Lucie Joy. When did you meet John?”

“Not long after Headley met Viv.”

“A cop using a young FBI agent to try and maybe hit the jackpot with extortion of the mafia.” He looks at me. “And he targeted you, Lucie. Why did he pull the gun?”

“He hit me. I hit him back. He…” I frown. “People think I’m the good girl and I am. But I’m not a pushover, and I don’t want to be the mafia wife, the mafia daughter, the princess. He told me to come with him to get the surprise, and I said no.”

“Listen to me, Lucie. John was working for someone. Someone not on the right side of the straight line. So even if your fucking sister calls, you don’t step outside without one of us with you. Understand?”

I nod.

And he pulls me to him and kisses me long and slow and dirty.

It’s almost as good as sex.

Dinner is good, and he makes me laugh with stories of his life back in Ireland, of near scrapes and the time his mother threatened to sic Sister Michael, the eighty-nine-year-old nun, on them when they disobeyed her.

His mother sounds like everything mine isn’t. A fierce woman with an even fiercer love for her sons. But the kind of love that won’t take any shit.

Cal looks devastating in his blue shirt, the non-bloodstained one he changed into, and it makes his eyes bluer, darker, and with his wavy dark hair and scruff, he draws the eye of every woman in the place. I clamp my hand on his thigh.

He lifts a brow as he feeds me a bite of the dark chocolate mousse he ordered. A mousse he hasn’t touched. “And what’s that for, Lucie Joy?”

“Just staking my claim.”

“Ah, it’s like that, is it?” He feeds me another bite and leans in to lick the corner of my mouth where I swear he deliberately smeared the creamy chocolate dessert.

“All the women are staring at you. Basically drooling.”

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