Page 109 of Veiled Amor

With his arm around her waist, he held out his free hand to Texas, “Hermano.” They slapped palms, then Capone turned unsmiling dark eyes to the other man. “Hunt.”

“I was surprised you wanted to see me, Capone. I hear we can help each other out.”

Malachai Hunt wasn’t a carbon copy of Texas, but there were enough similarities for Lucia to see their blood connection.

“Hi,” he turned, smiling eyes at Lucia. “I’m Mal, and you are?”

Feeling Capone stiffen, she slipped her arm around his waist. “My name is Lucia Cole.”

“Mercado.” Capone corrected, and she turned a smile up at him before facing the FED and Texas again. “My father is Nicholas Cole, and you’re here to help us put him away.”

Any semblance of friendliness slipped off the man’s face, and he switched gazes to Capone. “You want to take down a Kingpin? Fuck.”

“You got the balls for it, Hunt?”

The silence was deafening.

“Daddy doesn’t approve of your biker boyfriend?” He posed the question. “Seems extreme to get him off your back. No offense, but what can he do?”

From the way Capone stiffened, she got there first, putting her hand on his stomach to stop him from detonating. “He’s trying to force me into a second marriage I don’t want, Mr. Hunt. I’ve been a trapped bird in a gold-plated cage. I had to sneak out in the night, leaving everything I had behind. He’s sent several men after me already. One who nearly grabbed me off the street, if it were not for Capone.”

The man didn’t react, but again switched a gaze to Capone. “Good enough for me. I need to know everything. Is she able to go through with it?”

Could she?

For love, she could do anything.

If she thought her father would change his mind and leave her alone, there would be no need for something so dire.

But he was who he was.

“Tell me what you know about him,” Capone said.

The cop started rattling off the list of her father’s known crimes. Things he paid crooked cops, judges, and attorneys to make go away.

Capone’s plan was out there, and it probably wouldn’t work, but they had to try.

“That’s only the tip of his iceberg,” Capone announced, and Lucia blinked up at him, stunned. “I’ve kept my eye on him for years. Don’t care if you peacock in the street once you get him, but you make fucking sure all charges stick.”

“This isn’t my first rodeo,” Smirked Malachai Hunt. “Now, can we grab a seat? I’ve had a long drive. I could murder a coffee. How about you, twin?”

For the first time, Texas spoke. “I’ll go to the diner. How about you come with me, Lucia?”

She looked to Capone, and he nodded briefly before he kissed her lips.

The pair were in a thick conversation when they came back holding takeout cups. Catching Capone’s eyes as she stepped through the door, she smiled. He held out his arm for her to fix herself into his side again.

“Lucia,” Malachai started, pinning her with vivid eyes. “I need to know everything you know about your father. Did you see any of his deals? Hear anything?”

It was funny, she still felt a loyalty to him and wouldn’t have divulged his business to anyone. But in the light of him trying to pull her away from the only man she could ever be happy with, she talked.

And it came quickly, with hardly a stutter of guilt to her tongue.

“Every Thursday, I used to receive a delivery for him in the early hours. I never knew names, only I had to be at the gate around the same time. My father didn’t think I looked inside the crate. It was cocaine.”

“You keep her out of this,” demanded Capone, his stare was hard as brick. “She wasn’t there, and she didn’t know shit.”

She loved this man more than she could say and she put a kiss on the side of his neck.

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