Page 36 of Resurfaced Passion

“Yeah, Luce, I’m here. Didn’t think you were answering.”

“Oh, sorry. I forgot the time and I jumped in the shower. It’s so hot today.”

Holy Mary Magdalene, don’t let me think of her in the shower.

“Things good there?”

“Oh, yeah.” She didn’t sound convincing and his brain worked tirelessly as to how he could help her without actually putting eyes on her in person. “How are you, Gi?”

Only Lucia and his brothers had ever shortened his name.

It was all the little things he remembered that sliced him like a papercut.

On his knee, the woman he almost forgot, turned her head and mouthed “Okay?” He nodded and made himself concentrate on the fingers on the back of his neck rather than wondering what Lucia was wearing after her shower and if it was so hot today in Palmetto Bay was she only in a little bikini? He must have seen her in hundreds already and yet his tongue dried up for one more glance. The way her full but little tits spilled out over the tiny cups and the butt hugging bottoms with her ass cheeks practically hanging out of the sides.

She was only small, and though it had been several years since he put eyes on her, there was no more growing for Lucia, she’d always be a shrimp.

A beautiful one at that.

“I’m good, Luce. Can’t talk long.”

He caught her sigh and guilt weighing the same as a heavy-duty vehicle punched into his sternum. Though he was embarrassed of using the same excuse, she never yelled, never complained, she’d locked herself into this guilt bubble a long time ago and now neither knew how to make it right again.

As for what Lucia thought, he’d never asked her, but Capone wouldn’t change anything about that unforgivable day, but then, that was his own sin and damnation to live with.

“You’re being safe there? I watch the news, but there’s never any mention of your gang.”

“Club, Luce, I told you before, it’s not a gang. It’s not dangerous.” He lied and Ellie snorted. He pinched her hip to stay quiet, but it must not have been quiet enough.

“Who’s there with you?”

“No one. I’m at the club. It’s noisy.” He lied again and hated himself for it. He never lied to Lucia before, now it seemed it was all he did, and he hated it. Hated how she knew it too and neither addressed it.

But some sins were worth the lie, if only to endure a weekly phone call.

“How’s things with Nicholas?”

It was a fraught question steeped in sharp anticipation since he loathed the man who’d killed all of Capone’s immediate family and only for Lucia’s safety was the man still breathing.

On his darker days, when the booze soothed all his pains, he dreamed of riding to Miami all day and through the night, breaking into the gated fortress the guy lived in with his numerous guards and stabbing Nicholas over and over in his kingly bed until the city ran red with his murderous blood.

In his darker times he didn’t even care of the trouble it would bring, or the vendettas Nicholas’ organization would swear out on Capone. It would be worth it to know he’d gotten his revenge for hispapa, mama, his sister, his brothers and their children.

He couldn’t go to his grave one day without first doing that last thing for his family.

Down the line Lucia heaved a sigh and he listened to her movements. “You know daddy.” He did, that’s why he worried for her. Nicholas treated Lucia like a possession to shuffle around on his chess board. She was a commodity, not a precious daughter. The day he met a younger Lucia was when her father was using her as a bargaining chip. “I wanted to get a job in a salon, and he told me no. I’m supposed to sit around the pool and tan until I have skin cancer.”

“Luce…” the growl bubbled up out of him. Ellie looked up from her Facebook, curiosity etched on her face, but he could only look at his scuffed boots and croak. “You better be using sun cream, Lucia. I mean it.”

“Oh, quit worrying, Gi. I’m being dramatic. Daddy will have me up the aisle again before that can happen.”

His heart kicked and spluttered and about stopped dead. He didn’t know he was squeezing Ellie’s hip until he caught her whimper, he let go with an apologetic glance, but now he was seeing through fog and his guts burned.

Married again? He hadn’t even thought of it. Not after everything went down as it did, but then Nicholas didn’t think in emotions. He was dollar signs and strategic power.

But using Lucia again for his business? Fuck that piece of shit.

His voice grated as he bowed his head and asked. “Is that on the cards?”

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